Among prehistoric settlements, moats were an important form of fortification.

In those years of low productivity, it was clear that the city walls could not be built on a large scale.

But the Chinese ancestors were clever enough to create the moat, a fortification against wild beasts.

To put it simply, the moat was like a moat that was common in ancient cities.

Digging a trench several meters deep along the perimeter of the settlement is an effective way to deter the attacks of wild beasts.

However, even a trench was a huge project for the Chinese ancestors who had low productivity more than 4,000 years ago.

Therefore, not all prehistoric sites can find the remains of moats.

Not to mention the Lajia ruins, a large trench with a width of more than ten meters and a depth of 5-6 meters.

Of all the prehistoric sites that have been excavated, there are very few that can have a moat!

Su Sa, who was standing in the crowd, said in surprise: "I remember that in the ruins unearthed before the Qi family culture, no trenches were found, right?" ”

The Qijia culture is a culture that existed between 4300 and 3600 years ago in the Ganqing region during the transition from the late Neolithic to the early Bronze Age.

At present, in the Ganqing area, hundreds of sites of Qijia culture have been unearthed and discovered.

But nowhere has there ever been such a large trench!

"Yes." Kong Wenjian nodded, and said thoughtfully: "So, I'm afraid that this Lajia site has a very special status in the Qi family culture." ”

"Perhaps... Is it a cultural center? Similar to the capital of the Fang Kingdom era? ”

The staff of the Qinghai Institute of Archaeology nodded in agreement: "The guesses of several researchers in the institute are the same as Professor Kong's. ”

"The Lajia ruins discovered this time must have a special status in the Qijia culture."

After briefly looking at the traces of the trench, before everyone could take a closer look, the staff of the Qinghai Archaeological Institute continued: "In addition to the first excavation site here, we have opened up the No. 1 construction site in the northeast of Xialajia Village. ”

"The current site of the No. 1 site should be five houses arranged in a neat east and west row."

"However, due to the current shortage of manpower, only the clean-up of the No. 1 site has been completed, and the next four sites have just been deployed."

"In the next period of time, these four sites need to be handed over to the comrades of the Academy of Social Sciences."

After speaking, he hurriedly planned to take everyone to step on the point first.

The people from the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences are not here to visit or investigate, they are strong men who have been arrested!

To visit or something, just take a few general looks.

It's the work that matters!

The staff of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences couldn't help but say that they took Kong Wenjian and Chen Han and their entourage to the northeast of Xiala Village, where a protective shed had been built.

The staff of the Qinghai Archaeological Institute, together with the local residents, have prepared their respective areas of responsibility for the other archaeological teams that have come from all over the country to support.

Construction site No. 1, construction site No. 2, and construction site No. 3, there are as many as dozens of scouts on each construction site, waiting to be allocated.

Because the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences is a descendant of the army, the Qinghai Institute of Archaeology arranged for them to be on the side of the No. 1 construction site in order to get lucky.

As soon as we arrived at the No. 1 construction site, there were five relatively arranged probes in front of us, each of which was more than three meters long and wide.

Among them, the probe marked F1 seems to have been almost cleaned up, revealing a clearly visible ruins.

The remaining four explorers were muddy, apparently just asking the villagers to help dig out the pit, and waiting for the archaeologists to start work.

The explorers who did not start construction naturally couldn't attract anyone's attention, and the archaeologists of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences all set their sights on the No. 1 exploration party.

It can be seen that the No. 1 exploration square should be a house site composed of a living room, a doorway, and a site in front of the door, which is a "housing" building in the early period of Chinese civilization.

It must be very simple, after all, it is a house from 4,000 years ago.

And after being buried deep underground, you can't actually see the shape of any house.

Just by the different colors of the soil layer, it can be roughly seen that there were walls here before.

Moreover, the traces of the four walls can still be vaguely seen to be painted with white ash, indicating that the ancestors of the Lajia ruins at that time also mastered the technology of "putty" to the house.

It's not easy!

Chen Han carefully observed the No. 1 site with great interest, but it was a pity that the useful cultural relics were obviously collected and preserved, and would not be placed on the site in the open air.

Beyond a general outline of the house, Chen Han could not see more valuable items.

However, the staff of the Qinghai Archaeological Institute introduced the excavation of the No. 1 house site in a timely manner.

"No complete daily pottery was found in Room 1, only a remnant pottery pot was unearthed, and semi-finished stone tools and jade artifacts on each side were unearthed."

"Researchers at the institute speculate that the site may have been abandoned, or that it was not a living house."

The tone of the staff was slightly regretful.

The archaeologists of the Qinghai Archaeological Institute spent more than half a month cleaning up the exploration formula, but they did not obtain any particularly valuable cultural relics, which is naturally a pity.

But that's normal.

In many cases, archaeologists spend months carefully excavating the probe and may end up in an empty room.

It's not uncommon to work for nothing.

In archaeology, every shovel is a gamble of luck.

Not all effort will be rewarded.

After feeling a little sorry, everyone continued to observe Room 1 and made some preparations in advance for the next few cleaning sites.

The layout and structure of the different rooms under the same large site must be very different.

Looking at it, there was a very unusual place in Room 1, which quickly attracted Chen Han's attention.

On the edge of the northeast corner of Room 1, there are two stone slabs with an abrupt shape.

It looks as if there is an extra corner on the boxy box, which makes the whole one-bedroom look like a "convex" shape.

This made Chen Han very puzzled.

He pointed to the two protruding slabs and asked, "What is the condition of these two slabs?" ”

After a glance, the staff smiled and said, "It should be a rather peculiar stove." ”

Chen Han frowned, feeling something was not quite right.

If it is a stove, it usually protrudes into the living room, rather than towards the outside of the living room, and looks like it is embedded in the wall.

Moreover, the Chinese people have not had the habit of cooking in the living room since ancient times.

Even if you need a stove for heating or hot water, or even bury a pot to cook.

From prehistoric times to the later Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties and even the Qin and Han dynasties.

Most of them choose to dig a 20-30cm long and wide concave area in the center of the living room, hollow out the middle, and burn a stove or firewood directly.

This structure is called a "fire pit".

Many of the Paleolithic sites that have been excavated have been found in the rooms where an area was hollowed out in the center of the room to build a stove.

At present, remote villages in Yunnan, Guichuan and other places, as well as some ethnic minority gathering places, still use this primitive fire pond.

Not only in China, but throughout Asia, the use of fire pits for heating and boiling water for cooking is the mainstream.

The fire pond culture is also used in RB to this day, and the old buildings of RB still retain this heating structure, which is usually arranged in the center of tatami mats.

The word "stove" was originally from the hole, and the original meaning of the word is the stove pit where the pot is set up to cook food.

It shows that the floor stove that digs into the ground is the earliest form of the stove!

And the two stone slabs protruding from the wall in Room 1 have nothing to do with the stove no matter how you look at it.

Chen Han touched his chin, staring at this strange shape, pondering thoughtfully.

Suddenly, a flash of light flashed through his head.

"Smack!" Chen Han clapped his palms and shouted with some excitement: "This can't be a fireplace, right?!" ”

His sudden exclamation attracted the attention of all the staff and archaeologists present.

After a brief moment of stunnedness, everyone turned their heads sharply to look at the northeast corner of Room 1 as if they had been enlightened.

"Fireplace?!"

If Chen Han's flash guess is correct, then this will be a great discovery that shocks the Chinese and foreign archaeological circles!

In the houses of the Chinese people, from ancient times to the present, there is basically no tradition of building fireplaces.

But in the ruins of Lajia more than 4,000 years ago, there was actually a fireplace-like heating equipment?!

Fireplaces have long been thought to have originated in the West and Central Asia as indoor heating devices, not as part of Asian culture!

Is this a mistake that has long been recognized by scholars around the world?!

The ancestors of China also mastered and widely used fireplaces?!

This speculation is enough to shock everyone, and even the proposer Chen Han himself is a little hard to believe.

"I'm just guessing that..."Chen Han added in a somewhat unconfident whisper.