China's Top 10 New Archaeological Discoveries of 2021 Released: Huangshan Site in Nanyang Included

China's Top 10 New Archaeological Discoveries of 2021 Released: Huangshan Site in Nanyang Included

河南南阳黄山遗址获2021年度全国十大考古新发现

Huangshan Site in Nanyang city of Henan province has been selected as one of China's Top 10 New Archaeological Discoveries of 2021 unveiled on March 31.

3月31日，2021年度全国十大考古新发现公布结果，河南南阳黄山遗址入选。

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Huangshan Site, with Huangshan village of Pushan town, Nanyang's Wolong district, to its north, Baihe River to its east and Dushan mountain about 3,000-meter away from its northeast, covers a 17-meter-high hill platform and its surrounding area.

黄山遗址在南阳市东北部卧龙区蒲山镇黄山村南、白河西岸，西南距中国产玉名山独山约3000米，分布在一处五级台地组成的高17米的小土山上及周围。

Some cultural relics unearthed at Huangshan Site. [Photo/dahe.cn]

Huangshan Site was a large central settlement featured by jade production across the periods of Yangshao Culture (5,000 to 3,000 BC), Qujialing Culture (3,300 to 2,600 BC) and Shijiahe Culture (dated to more than 4,000 years ago) of the Neolithic Age. Therefore, it is the largest site ever known in Nanyang Basin with the most valuable and richest cultural remains, reflecting complicated social structure and civilization progress in cultural communication and integration between China's southern and northern regions. The Neolithic Huangshan Site is an important discovery of China, which is one of the key research objects for the study of civilization origin and cultural development in Nanyang Basin and Jianghan Plain as well as the study of the whole Chinese civilization.

黄山遗址是一处年代跨越新石器时代仰韶文化、屈家岭文化、石家河文化，涉及玉石器制作性质的中心性大遗址，是目前南阳盆地中已发现的面积最大，遗迹规格最高，内涵丰富的遗址，反映了当时南北文化交流融合发展的社会复杂化和文明进程，是探讨南阳盆地、江汉平原文明起源和文化发展的关键遗址，也是中华文明研究的关键遗址，为我国新石器时代考古的一次重大发现。

Some cultural relics unearthed at Huangshan Site. [Photo/dahe.cn]

The remains of jade production in the Neolithic Huangshan Site were supported by Dushan jade (a type of soft jade mined in Nanyang) resources and supplemented by jade materials from other places, reflecting the transformation from family workshops in the late Yangshao period to the labor-intensive production in the Qujialing period. The site was still used for large-scale jade ware processing during the Shijiahe period. Such an archaeological finding bridges the gap of jade handicraft industry development in the Central Plains and the middle reaches of the Yangtze River during the Neolithic Age. Together with the bone processing remains, it is an important research object for the study of social division of labor at that time.

此外，黄山遗址新石器时代玉石器制作遗存以独山玉和石为资源支撑、其他地方玉材为辅助，大致存在仰韶晚期家庭式作坊群向屈家岭时期工厂式集约化生产模式转变的规律，石家河时期也规模化生产玉石器，可填补中原和长江中游新石器时代玉石器手工业体系空白，和制骨遗存一起，为探索当时社会分工提供了重要研究对象。

Some cultural relics unearthed at Huangshan Site. [Photo/dahe.cn]

From May 2018 to December 2021, an archaeological excavation was launched by Henan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Nanyang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology. Covering an area of about 300 thousand square meters, Huangshan Site has been excavated for 2,400 square meters. The remains of housing, workshops and tombs of the Yangshao period, housing, workshops, tombs, ash pits and sacrificial pits of the Qujialing period, urn coffins of the Yangshao and Qujialing periods, and housing and ash pits of Shijiahe were discovered here.

2018年5月至2021年12月，河南省文物考古研究院与南阳市文物考古研究所合作，对遗址开展考古工作，考古勘探确定遗址面积30万平方米左右，发掘面积共2400平方米。遗址发掘清理仰韶房址或作坊、墓葬，屈家岭房址或作坊、墓葬、灰坑、祭祀坑，仰韶和屈家岭文化瓮棺葬，石家河房址、灰坑，取得了多项重要收获。

Since China's first selection for top 10 new archaeological discoveries in 1990, Henan, rich in cultural relics, has seen 50 items included so far.

据了解，从1990年度全国考古十大发现第一次评选至今，作为考古强省、文物大省的河南，入选全国十大考古新发现的项目已达50项，继续领跑全国。（中文来源/大河网 记者/莫韶华 编译/赵汉青 审校/李文竞）