Experts walk into the old dragon head site to search for salt source bronze civilization

Cover reporter Yan Wenwen Zhou Qin photography Chen Yu Xiao Yang Bo

Why is Yanyuan another bronze kingdom in Sichuan? What spiritual world does the ancestors of the old leader sitting? What are the plans for the old faucet site in the future? What else is there of salt source?

From June 18th to 19th, the "Exploring the Ancient Civilization · Casting the Chinese Nation Community Awareness The first Yanyuan Bronze Culture and the Academic Symposium on the Convergence of the Communications and the Communications of various ethnic groups", a large number of experts gathered in Yanyuan County, Liangshan Prefecture, right Subjects of Yanyuan Cultural Relics, archeology, national history and culture have conducted extensive and in -depth academic discussions. On the morning of the 19th, the experts came to the old leader site for inspection.

Walk into the site

Is the cemetery where the east -west direction is related to the spiritual world of the tomb owner?

Yanyuan is a dam between the mountains. The terrain of the old dragon head is slightly higher, and it is on the mountain beam. It looks like a blue sky and white clouds. The apple trees not far away were hung on the size of table tennis. Under the light breeze, swaying with the branches, the sorghum stalks were even more excessive.

Perhaps, thousands of years ago, the wizard of ancient salt people saw such a beautiful scenery and chose this long sleeping place for their own people.

On June 19th, experts participating in the "Exploring the Ancient Civilization of Ancient Civilization · Casting the Chinese Nation Community -the first Yanyuan Bronze Civilization and Southwest National History and Culture Symposium" experts came to the old leader site for inspection. At the old leader site, archeologists introduced some of the previous cultural relics and some achievements to the exhibition boards.

In fact, the Yanyuan Laotou site attracted the attention of archaeologists as early as 1987, and in 1999 and 2001 Liangshan Museum had conducted two rescue excavations.

The latest archaeological excavation is from April 2020 to the present. With the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Relics, the Chengdu Cultural Relics and Archeology Research Institute, the Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics and Archaeological Research Institute jointly and the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture Museum, Yanyuan County Cultural Relics Management Institute formed a joint archeological team. Three years of rescue archeological excavations were performed on the old faucet site. At present, archeological excavation is still going on, and the latest excavation results will be announced later.

At the old faucet site, the on -site archeologists said that many tombs were moving east -west, and their bones were west, and there were a small number of skulls east.

According to local villagers, there were two stones in the west of the old dragon head site, like dragon horns, so they had the name of the old leader. Most tombs are west, I do not know if it is related to the spiritual world of people at that time.

Search for salt

Is the old dragon head site associated with the Southern Silk Road?

On June 18th, Lake Berlin, Yanyuan, camel looming in the night breeze, which was crisp and pleasant.

In fact, Yanyuan has no shortage of horse ringtones in ancient times.

For thousands of years, countless horses, the way of carrying horsebacks, the salt produced by the salt source along the important branch of the Southern Silk Road "Runyan Ancient Road", was transported to Xichang, Ya'an, and Yunnan.

On June 19th, at the old dragon head site, an expert pointed at a bronze branches on the exhibition board and said, "Look, there are two horses on this branches. There are a lot of horses, not only practical horses, but also decorations on the horse. In addition, some tombs have discovered the situation of burial with horses, which shows the important position of horses in local culture. "

The location of the old leader site is in Runyan Town. Although the name Run salt was only set in the Yuan Dynasty, it was recorded in the history books. From the Qin and Han dynasties, the court attached great importance to the management of salt and iron business here, set up counties and cities, road construction and stations to strengthen management.

Some scholars believe that the "Runyan Ancient Road" is the western road of "Shu body poisonous road" and an important part of the Southern Silk Road. This also explains why the old leader site is a place of convergence of a multicultural.

On the exhibition board of the old dragon head site, there are dozens of unearthed cultural relics, including both mountain character swords affected by Yunnan culture, and the horse festival affected by the northern grassland culture. Angs Zhu decorated with the local red agate stones in Yanyuan, with distinctive features.

It happened that the day before, Li Xingxing, a researcher at the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Nationalities, also mentioned: "Salt source is an important way for the southwest of the ancient folk business. After the introduction of archeologists, he also believed this.

Snake Frog copper

Foresee the future

Only one -third of the excavation can be filled with a large amount of blank.

The dense of the cemetery of the old dragon head site, the unearthed cultural relics are amazing. Since April 2020, with the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Relics, the Chengdu Cultural Relics and Archeology Research Institute, the Sichuan Provincial Cultural Relics and Archeology Research Institute jointly and the Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture Museum, and Yanyuan County Cultural Relics Management Institute formed a joint archeological team. Rescue archeological excavation. After the exploration, the scope of the old leader's cemetery was 12211 square meters, the joint archeological team excavated the area of ​​about 3,500 square meters, and the tomb had been cleaned more than 1,100 tombs.

At the "Archaeological China: Southwest China Yiyi in the Han and Jin Dynasties" on the afternoon of June 17, the Yanyuan Last Archaeological Project was also listed as a key planning project for future Southwest Archeology. This means that the old leader cemetery will be an important archeological excavation place for studying "Southwest Yi" for a long time in the future, and with the addition of experts in various research fields, the understanding of the old leader site will become more and more and more and more. deep. Zhang Xinbin

Expert description

Do a good job of staging and establishing a cultural spectrum of the old leader site

Among the many experts and scholars who inspected the old leader sites, Zhang Xinbin, former director of the History and Archeology Institute of Henan Provincial Academy of Social Sciences, the vice chairman of the Chinese Pioneers History Society, and researcher, wearing a straw hat, and turned around on the old leader site for a while Essence This is the first time he has arrived at Yanyuan, the geographical style of Yanyuan, and the brilliant sunshine, which left a deep impression on him. This is also the first time he has come to the old leader site. Although he visited the cultural relics exhibition unearthed from the old dragon head site on June 18, the level of bronze casting technology unearthed from Yanyuan left a deep impression on him, but he really came to the field and felt more profound.

"I feel that there are some characteristics of the entire cemetery. For example, what kind of economic form is it in this place, such as we see a lot of pottery cans. These pottery cans are both ears. The jar may be related to the nomadic people. Is the nomadic life the life mode of the old leading residents? "Zhang Xinbin's question seems to make the image of the residents living in the old leader's site more detailed.

Two ears

He raised his hands and mentioned the branch of the old dragon's site. Bronze branches are the most characteristic bronze elements of the old leader site. Double horse gods are the most common themes of such bronze -branches. In recent years, a number of new animals have been found, such as pigs, deer, and crawled animals. It is an important feature of Yanyuan bronze culture separated from the surrounding bronze culture, and also reflects the unique funeral customs and belief worship of the old leaders. Zhang Xinbin said, "The branches may be associated with the wizard witchcraft, which is also very related to the spiritual world of the old leader." In addition, the identity between the large and medium -sized tombs and the small tomb with the top stone, Is there a difference between the tombs of the pottery and the bronze weapon, where is the difference between them? This is what he feels that the next archeological work needs attention.

The important breakthroughs obtained by the archeology of the old leader of Yanyuan County in the past three years indicate that the Sichuan -Yunnan regional center in the Bronze Age has been formed. How to make Yanyuan Bronze Civilization know more in the future? Zhang Xinbin mentioned three points: one is to do a good job of research and staging the construction site itself; the other is to study the gathering of these people's lives on the basis of studying the old dragon's cemetery; Gradually establish a staging and cultural spectrum, "We look forward to the Graduate of Sichuan archeology."

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