Chapter 9: The Neolithic Age
readx;? The Neolithic period has 3 basic characteristics: polished stone tools, pottery, and primitive agriculture. The development path of this era www.biquge.info different parts of the world. In some places, there was no pottery for a long time after the emergence of agriculture, so it is called the pre-pottery Neolithic or non-pottery Neolithic Age, and in some places, pottery appeared more than 10,000 years ago, but there is no trace of agriculture for a long time, and even the polished stone tools are very underdeveloped. Therefore, it is not necessary to have all three characteristics to be called Neolithic.
All previous civilizations were transmitted from Africa through the Arabian Peninsula to Eurasia, with the Mediterranean Sea as the world's cultural transmission center. However, unlike the Neolithic civilization, East Asia, mainly in China (including Japan, which is still connected to Chinese mainland), has also become the birthplace of culture.
In 9000~8000 BC, the Levant (present-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria), Anatolia (present-day Turkey) and the piedmont area of the Zagros Mountains in West Asia, the so-called crescent-shaped area of agricultural origin, entered the primitive Neolithic period, with the germ of agriculture and animal husbandry.
With a typical Mediterranean climate, rainy and humid winters, hot and dry summers, wild grains suitable for cultivation and animals that are easy to domesticate, the development of culture from the Paleolithic to the Mesolithic period has been quite basic, making it the first area to have agriculture and animal husbandry.
In 8000~7000 BC, West Asia entered the pre-pottery Neolithic or non-pottery Neolithic period, and wheat, barley, lentils and peas were planted, which indicates that these four crops originated in West Asia. At the same time, sheep, goats and pigs were raised. A typical site, the Jericho site, has appeared in adobe masonry semi-crypt houses, with stone walls and ditches outside the village, and stone watchtowers inside the walls. This is the earliest of its kind in the world.
In 34000 BC, the Qilin Shanren site in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region was discovered grinding and drilling technology, and later Peak Cave People (BC30000) and Shiyu people (BC26000) also used this technology. It's just that at that time, the grinding technique was mainly used for decorations, and it was not widely produced. Therefore, the earliest polished stone tool technology found in the world appeared on the Qilin Mountain in China.
China entered the Neolithic Age with the advent of pottery in 9750 BC. Japan in Northeast Asia (at that time it was connected to Chinese mainland, and the people of Chinese mainland were the same people. ) is one of the earliest regions in the world where pottery appeared (8000 BC), while the earliest pottery in Chinese mainland is from Xianrendong in Jiangxi (9750 BC). Japanese pottery is Jomon, (the same as in the early Chinese mainland), so the Neolithic period in Japan is also known as the Jomon period. There are also individual sites in Mongolia and Siberia with pottery dating close to 8000 BC. A common feature of pottery in this region is that cylindrical jars are particularly popular, usually grayish-brown in color, decorated with carved or embossed patterns. Siberian pottery is often grate-patterned. The Nanzhuangtou culture roughly represents the development of the Yellow River Basin in the Fuxi period.
Nanzhuangtou Culture: Yellow River Basin. Time: BC8550~7750. Typical site: Nanzhuangtou site in Xushui County, Hebei Province. It is a representative of the early Neolithic culture in northern China.
The unearthed relics have stone grinding discs, stone grinding rods, stone chips, bone awls, bone needles, seeds and a small amount of sand-filled dark gray pottery, sand-filled red-brown pottery pieces, in addition to rats, chickens, dogs, wolves, pigs, deer and other animal bones, some of which have traces of barbecue and cutting. This suggests that it may have been the first humans in the world to raise chickens and dogs. Excavations of pottery show that most of the pottery in the early New Era in northern China was flat-bottomed.
Xianren Cave Culture: Yangtze River Basin. Time: BC9750~7000 years. Typical ruins: Xianren Cave and Bucket Ring Site in Wannian County, Shangrao City, Jiangxi Province.
Stone tools, bone tools, perforated mussel tools, primitive pottery shards, human bone specimens and animal bone fragments have been unearthed, making it the largest number of caves unearthed in southern China.
Stone tools include scrapers, chopping tools, etc. There are also polished stone tools such as drills, chisels, shovels, etc. It is coarsely grounded. This indicates that people had already made polished stone tools at that time.
The most important thing is the excavation of coarse sand and rope pottery (9750 BC). This is the oldest pottery found in the world.
The pottery is broken. The type of vessel is mostly a round-bottomed jar, the inner wall of the vessel is uneven, the thickness of the tire wall is uneven, the tire quality is poor, and some are mixed with mussel powder and quartz grains. The color of the pottery is unstable, and the same pottery shard sometimes shows red, gray and black, and the inner and outer walls are decorated with thick rope patterns. This shows that the pottery technology is still in its primitive stage. The firing pottery is made on the flat ground.
Bone tools include fish darts, chisels, needles, flutes, etc. The fish dart is engraved with barbs, and the function of poking the fish is stronger. Chisels are used to process wood. Needles are used to sew clothes. Stripes are engraved on the hair to make it difficult for the hair to slip off. Most mussels are perforated; Holes are generally drilled or chiseled; The drilled hole is very irregular around it.
The world's earliest specimen of wild rice phytosilica (9750 BC) and cultivated rice silica specimen (8000 BC) were discovered. This is evidence of the world's earliest cultivation of rice.
In the early Neolithic Age, this primitive culture of beating and polishing stone tools and coarse sand rope pottery coexisted collectively called the Wannian Xianren Cave Culture. It is mainly distributed in South China, Southeast China and even some places in Indochina.
Shangshan culture: the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Time: BC9000~7000 years. Typical site: Shangshan site in Pujiang County, Zhejiang.
Neolithic artifacts such as stone axes, stone axes, and terracotta tripods have been discovered. It was found that there were remains of rice husks in the pottery tire, which belonged to the category of cultivated rice, indicating that the lower reaches of the Yangtze River, where the Shangshan site is located, is one of the earliest origins of rice agriculture in the world. A large number of stone tools have been found.
The site has obvious characteristics of the transition from Paleolithic to Neolithic.
Among the pottery (pieces) and stone tools unearthed at the site, the pottery is mostly charcoal red-clothed pottery, the quantity is small, the pottery is loose, the fire temperature is low, the vessel type is very simple, and 85% of it is open-mouthed basin-shaped ware. Stone tools are mainly made of stone tools, and a small number of stone adzes and stone axes have been found with polished stones. A large number of stone balls, stone grinding rods and stone grinding discs were found at the site, and the archaeological community called this combination of tools with special functions as tool sets, and this tool set at the Shangshan site corresponded to the composite economic model of primitive hunting, gathering and primitive agriculture, the stone balls should be hunting throws, stone grinding rods and stone grinding discs can be used to remove rice husks, and can also be used to grind tuber food to obtain juice-like starch.
The ruins of the upper mountain of the Pujiang River are located in the central basin of Zhejiang, and the surrounding area is flat and open. This is a completely new option for the early settled life of human beings. The site found a relatively complete wooden building foundation, which reflects the dominant position of agricultural settlement in the early Neolithic period in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River.
Yuchanyan site: the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. Time: 8000 BC. Typical site: Shouyan Town, Dao County, Hunan Province. It is basically classified as the Xianren Cave culture.
The relics mainly include stone tools and bone, horn, tooth and mussel products. Pottery shards and cultivated rice have been discovered, as well as the world's oldest specimens of kiwifruit, plum and other fruits.
The excavation of the jade toad rock pottery shows that there is a phenomenon of intensive utilization of resources in the jade toad rock site, which is a precursor to human beings moving from settlement to agricultural production.
With the change of climate and the increase of population, the animal and plant resources that can be eaten by Yuchanyan are becoming increasingly insufficient, and the Yuchanyan people have strengthened the effective use of existing resources and given birth to primitive agriculture.