"Tomb" refers to a stone pier, which, as the name implies, is to pile stones on the grave. This form of grave is widespread in Liaoning Province. But most of these discoveries belong to the late Neolithic or Bronze Age, which is about 4000 years ago. The Jishi Tomb in Hongshan Culture, with its earliest age, extraordinary scale, complex structure and extremely standardized structure, is a must.
The location of the mound is generally selected at the top of the mound with moderate height, which is generally a mound and sometimes a mound. Generally, there are many tombs in a stone pier, and the tombs are made of stone slabs and sarcophagus. The big sarcophagus is built in the pit, and the small one has no pit. These sarcophagus tombs are generally arranged in rows.
Jade is the largest number of funerary objects with complete types and excellent materials. Pile soil on the tomb first, and then pile stones. There seems to be no regularity in the stones at the top of the tomb, while the surrounding parts of the tomb are mainly laid.
The mound is generally square, rectangular or round in shape. In particular, only jade articles are buried in these tombs, and there are no other funerary objects. Most of the pottery is placed on the mound. It is a kind of red tubular pottery, very thick, with black paint on one side of the abdomen. In particular, these pottery have no bottom, and then they stand in rows on a circle of steps around the tomb.
Because this phenomenon is very strange, some people think it is a pottery drum related to tomb sacrifice; The more authoritative understanding is drawn from the mechanical point of view, and it is considered that they play a protective role.
"Altar" is an altar, and there is a very close relationship between altar and burial:
The first is to use graves as altars, because these stone graves are large in scale, and the tops of graves are generally spacious and flat, square and round, so they have the function of altars. In the prehistoric times of China, it was not uncommon for this kind of altar and cemetery to be integrated, and there was a similar situation in the well-known Liangzhu culture.
The second type is around the stone pier, especially in the south of the stone pier, possibly in front of the stone pier. It is often found that a large area of braised soil should be a sacrificial relic attached to the mound.
The third is an altar that has been independent and has a certain scale. Generally, white limestone is used as the raw material of stone burial, while red granite is used for this kind of relics independent of burial. Different from the practice of laying stones in the tomb, these stones are placed vertically, similar to a "stone fence" with three layers of circles stacked together. This altar is also located in the center of the mausoleum, which shows its special status.
In prehistoric tombs, the burial scale of a cemetery is generally used to distinguish rank and social differentiation. However, this method is no longer applicable in Hongshan Culture, because the burials in Hongshan Culture are completely based on burials, which are very independent, and each burial or each group of burials occupies the hill.
The central tomb in the tomb obviously has the status of "tomb owner", which highlights the characteristics of "one person is the only one". Book of rites? Tan Gong talks about "replacing graves with tombs" in ancient times, but the buildings on the stone piers developed in Hongshan Culture highlight the status of tombs and the supremacy of their owners. The towering and majestic mound with the tomb as the center, just like the later tomb, is not an exaggeration to call it "Mountain Mausoleum".
The trinity of temple, altar and tomb has formed the unique world view of Hongshan people. If the altar and the tomb are concerned with the theme of life, then the temple is concerned with the world of God.
Many pottery figurines were found in Dongshanzui site in Kazuo county, Liaoning province. Along with the little pregnant woman, there is also a medium-sized pottery sculpture sitting cross-legged with arms crossed. It is generally believed that this kind of statue will not be placed on the altar in the open air, but should have a "place where the gods live."
This speculation was confirmed in the site of Niuheliang Goddess Temple in Hongshan Culture, Jianping, Liaohe. However, the well-preserved and colorful contents of the goddess temple are still unexpected, especially the lifelike and enormous statue of Goddess, which far exceeds people's imagination.
The Goddess Temple is a well-preserved main building in the whole building complex. The temple is a civil structure, and there is no stone at all, which is in sharp contrast to the stone mound composed of a large number of limestone, and also shows two different sides of the spiritual world of Hongshan people.
Seen from the plane, the temple is long and narrow, with a circular main room at one end in the south, circular side rooms at both sides and a rectangular room at the north. According to the analysis of carbonized wood marks, there are wooden pillars on the ground, and grass stems are stuck on the inside of the wooden pillars, and then grass and soil are mixed to form a wall.
The wall is multi-layered, glued layer by layer, with murals and red and white geometric patterns on it.
There are relics everywhere in the temple, except for the broken walls and roofs, which are a large number of figures, animal statues and ceramic sacrificial utensils.
Clay sculpture animals are mostly damaged, and there are two kinds that can be identified: dragons and birds. In fact, only a pair of bird claws can distinguish the shape of a bird. The knuckles are clear, the claws are sharp and the shape is very vivid. Looks like a large raptor.
Statues of figures are the main relics in the temple. Most of them are made of coarse mud, coated with fine mud, polished and smooth, and some surfaces are painted red or painted. It can be seen that the shape of the residual parts is about eyeball, hand, upper arm, shoulder, leg, etc., showing obvious female characteristics.
The most important thing in the goddess temple is a basically complete goddess head, lying flat on one side of the circular main room. Except for the slight deformity of the lower lip and left ear, the whole face is complete.
The raw material of the clay sculpture of the goddess head is yellow mud, mixed with grass stalks, and has not been fired. The texture of the mud tire is rough, and all parts of the molded mud are fine mud. After polishing, the surface is slightly bright red and the lips are painted with ink.
The reverse side of the head is relatively flat, presumably it was attached to the wall at that time. Traces of upright wooden columns can be seen from the broken part behind the head, which may be left over from the "skeleton" part of the statue.
The head image seems to have the characteristics of a typical Mongolian race, with a low nose, a round nose, no nose hook, Fiona Fang's flat face, prominent cheekbones and squints. A pointed chin, a round face and slender small ears are the characteristics of women.
The shape of the head is vivid, and the corners of the mouth are slightly upturned, as if to say something; The processing of eyeballs is more subtle. There are two round jade pieces embedded in the sunken eye socket, which really has the effect of "painting people to make the finishing point", and the eyes suddenly appear bright and bright. Although there is only a head, we can imagine an energetic goddess image.
It can be seen from the remains of the goddess temple that Hongshan people have the idea of goddess worship. In ancient times, the goddess symbolized the multiplication of life and the harvest of the earth. As a symbol of the continuation of national vitality, it is widely worshipped by primitive tribes all over the world. But in the early culture of our country, there is little evidence of this worship.
The discovery of the Goddess Temple in Hongshan Culture proves the importance of goddess worship in China's primitive beliefs.
The structure of a deity corresponds to the exclusive level of a stone tomb, which reflects both the belief system and the social structure at that time. "Two ya? The definition of "Shigong" says that "the room has two rooms, east and west, which can correspond to the actual plane layout of the goddess temple. Therefore, the Goddess Temple can be regarded as the embryonic form of the ancestral temple building in China.
On the other hand, Hongshan Culture is famous for its developed jade carving technology. Hongshan culture jade mainly includes animal-shaped jade, gouyun-shaped Yu Pei and other decorative jade.
Animal-shaped jade, represented by Yuzhulong, also includes turtles, birds, etc., which is rich in content and high in production technology. Many objects have holes in the back. From the distribution point of view, they have special functions and are definitely not ordinary decorative items. Jade turtles, for example, are often unearthed in pairs and held in the hands of tomb owners, which may have some kind of magical charm.
Hook-cloud Yu Pei is also one of the most common and culturally distinctive jades in Hongshan Culture. Its shape and ornamentation are rich and varied, but consistent, like birds and animals.
Interestingly, this Yu Pei has holes on the back, but it is placed upright, and the side with holes is flush. Therefore, it may not be simply attached to clothes, but exists alone, with another purpose, which may be the end of the tomb owner holding a scepter when he is buried.
Hongshan Culture's jade processing technology is relatively advanced, and the production is quite labor-intensive. Generally, the jade material is cut into a rough shape, and then the edge part is rounded, blunt and smooth by reprocessing, and the plane is also processed into a moderate cambered surface, and the edge part of the hole after drilling is also processed.
In terms of decorative arts, Hongshan people have mastered the essentials of overcoming complexity with simplicity. They are very careful when describing the surface of jade articles. When they want to express animal images, they always portray their heads and feathers in the necessary places, and then polish them thoroughly without extra efforts.
The most distinctive decorative technique of Hongshan culture jade is to grind shallow grooves on the surface of jade, but the width and depth are uniform and change with the shape of the objects. This technology is much more difficult than ordinary cutting, carving, drilling and polishing, but it gives full play to the moisturizing characteristics of jade.
Because of the characteristics of Hongshan culture jade from modeling to production technology, it became a leader in prehistoric culture at that time. "Hongshan jade" has also become a boutique in ancient artifacts.
Hongshan Culture has a soft spot for jade, which embodies a higher-level "jade funeral". Here, jade is not only a symbol of status, but also a moral and value concept. Taking jade as the carrier of "virtue" has a long development process in our traditional aesthetic consciousness. As early as 5,000 years ago in Hongshan Culture, this tradition has been well developed.
The mysterious jade articles, the tomb system of "jade is the only one" and the grand and true goddess worship constitute the three-dimensional image of the primitive culture with a history of 5,000 years in the North. Because of its unique location at the intersection of the North and South of the Great Wall, its brilliant achievements are even more thought-provoking. There is no doubt that Hongshan Culture will be a wonderful prelude to the origin of Chinese civilization.