From December 18th to 19th, the two-week archaeological professional committee of the Chinese Archaeological Society and the Nanjing Archaeological Research Institute jointly held the "Expert Demonstration Meeting on Important Achievements of Changqian Ancient City-Nanjing West Street Site" to demonstrate the important excavation results of the West Street Site and discuss Issues such as the age, nature and protection of the Changqian ancient city discovered at the West Street site.
Li Bai's masterpiece "A Journey to the Changqian" is universally acclaimed, in which "Childhood Sweethearts" and "Liangxiaozhai" evoke people's thousands of years of love for the ancient Changqian of Nanjing. "Jiankang Records" states that "Changqian is the name of the lane, and the place between the mountains and the east of the Yangtze River is called Qian." Changqian is roughly located south of the Qinhuai River and north of Yuhuatai. It is the earliest place name in Nanjing.
Changqian Ancient City is located outside the Zhonghua Gate in Qinhuai District, Nanjing City, to the west of the Dabaoen Temple ruins. It is in the hinterland of the ancient Changqian City and belongs to the key underground cultural relics protection zone of Nanjing's "Changqianli Ancient Residential Area and Yuecheng Ruins Area". Since 2017, the Nanjing Archaeological Institute has carried out archaeological excavations at the West Street site. So far, a total area of 12,000 square meters has been excavated, more than 500 relics of various types have been discovered, and more than 10,000 archaeological specimens of various types have been unearthed. One of them is more than 3,000 years old. The ancient city of Changqian in front of us is beginning to show its true appearance.
Schematic diagram of the restoration of the ancient city of Changqian
The ancient city of Changqian consists of a central platform and peripheral moats, wall foundations and doorways, wells, pig sacrificial pits and other relics related to the city building. This ancient city dates back to the late Shang Dynasty. The ancestors of Nanjing's Hushu culture used the central platform to build the city. Outside, there are the Yangtze River, Qinhuai River, Hualugang, Yuhuatai, Chishiji and other rivers and gangfu as natural barriers. It has a strong military fortress character. . The discovery of multiple trenches of different eras on the periphery of the platform provides evidence of the construction and continuous use of the ancient city, and also advances the construction time of Nanjing's main urban area to the late Shang Dynasty.
Elements of the ancient city of Changqian
Site plan
The relics of the Shang and Zhou dynasties unearthed from the ancient city of Changqian are relatively rich, including pottery Ge, pottery jars, pottery tripods, pottery beans, pottery gui, pottery goblets, pottery pots, primitive porcelain jars, primitive Porcelain beans, jade bis, copper blocks, etc. Many unearthed specimens reflect the characteristics of cultural exchange and integration between the north and the south and the diversity and integration of Chinese civilization in terms of shape and decoration.
Late Shangshuijing
Tao Ge
Tao Dou
Clay pots
Changqian ancient city is an important achievement of Nanjing’s regional civilization exploration project. It also enriches the cultural value of ancient Changqianli. At the same time, it is of great value to the research on Hushu culture, the construction of the Yangtze River National Cultural Park, and the activation of ancient Changqian cultural resources. At present, the ancient city of Changqian has been protected and will be displayed and utilized in the form of the West Street Archaeological Site Park in the future.
This meeting was chaired by Mr. Wang Wei, chief expert of the Chinese Civilization Discovery Project, member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and director of the Department of History. Participants came from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Peking University, Wuhan University, Nanjing University, Zhejiang University, Nanjing Normal University, Jiangsu Province More than 20 nationally renowned historical archaeological scholars from the Institute of Archeology, Anhui Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology and other units participated in the discussion. Experts agree that the Changqian ancient city discovered at the West Street site is an important discovery in Nanjing's urban archeology. This archaeological discovery pushes back the prehistory of Nanjing's main urban area by more than 600 years. The archaeological discovery of the West Street site is of great value to the exploration of the origin of Nanjing's regional civilization. A series of archaeological excavations and research interpretations are drawing a long history of Nanjing's regional civilization.
Yangzi Evening News/Ziniu News reporter Zhang Ke
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