By Rui Hu, EDITOR

What kind of life did the Daxi ancestors live in the Three Gorges area more than 5,000 years ago? How well did they acquire the knowledge of anatomy? Recently, an academic research article about Daxi culture has aroused widespread discussion. The academic article published by Chongqing Cultural Heritage Research Institutethe, announcing the Daxi Ancestor aquired skills on anatomy and gilding bronzes .

Titled “Edge Effect of the Daxi Culture in the Three Gorges Area: Corridor Effect, Reciprocal Exchange, Local Spirit, and Simple Settlement,” this article was written by Bai Jiujiang, President of the Chongqing Cultural Heritage Research Institute. It was recently published in the Journal of Chongqing Normal University (Edition of Philosophy and Social Sciences).

Studies show that although the Three Gorges area is located at the edge of the Daxi cultural circle, the ancestors here bear strong environmental adaptability, unique totemism, and preliminary understanding of human anatomy. Therefore, this article possesses a peculiar and irreplaceable research value.

Strong Adaptability to Different Environments

The historical sites of Daxi culture date back to between 5,300 to 6,500 years ago are widely distributed in the Three Gorges area, the Jianghan Plain and the Dongting Lake area. As one of the most representative archaeological cultures in the Middle Neolithic Age in south China, Daxi culture possesses extremely abundant cultural connotations, involving the earliest sites of paddy fields and ancient cities. The classical painted pottery style is on par with the Miaodigou Culture in the north, and the mysterious flexed burial.

The article states that within the Daxi cultural circle, the Jianghan Basin and the Dongting Lake Basin serve as central areas or areas where cultural subjects are distributed. Research related to these two areas are relatively in-depth due to a series of remarkable discoveries of ancient city relics and developed rice farming here. Previously, the value of Daxi culture in the Three Gorges area had long been neglected.

The article points out that the discovery of remains such as rice fields at the Chengtoushan Site in Hunan indicates that the Daxi ancestors in the Dongting-Jianghan Plain focussed on rice production. The Dongting-Jianghan Plain, with a long-standing history of rice production, is one of the earliest large-scale rice cultivation areas in the world. The finding that Daxi culture involves two production forms of rice farming and dry farming shows that Daxi ancestors had a healthy level of adaptability to different environments.

Certain Artistic Creativity

A variety of small stone sculptures in the shape of bears, monkeys, turtles, wild boars, pangolins, birds, and other animals have been unearthed from several Daxi cultural relics in the Three Gorges area. These are endowed with a relatively strong artistic tension. Moreover, fertility worship is also evident in these tombs. For example, burial fish have been discovered in many tombs here. According to the “Studies on the Burial Fish in the Daxi Site of Wushan County and Its Connotation” written by Deng Xiao, a professor at Chongqing Normal University, this custom mirrors ancestors’ admiration for the reproduction method of fish, and clearly implies their pursuit of regeneration and fertility based on their understanding of animism.

Basic Knowledge of Anatomy and Mathematics

Archaeological findings indicate that Daxi ancestors in the Three Gorges area had unique cognitive abilities. In the Daxi cemetery, the staff found an executed ancestor with six bone arrowheads stabbed from different directions in the body cavity in the No. 147 tomb, Zone II.

To the surprise of physical anthropologists, these bone arrowheads point to different internal organs of the deceased. This could indicate that the people at that time already had a rudimentary knowledge of anatomy.

The article states that Daxi ancestors might have mastered specific mathematical knowledge because many of the bone daggers are engraved with groove lines at the edge. These could have been designed as a tool for counting. Plenty of small pebbles placed inside some tombs may be concerned with ancient divination.

Gilded Bronzes Were Available in the Three Gorges Area 2,000 Years Ago

On August 5, Chongqing Cultural Heritage Research Institute (CCHRI) said its project "Study on the Development History of Gilding Technology for Bronzes in the Three Gorges Area" passed the peer review stage and came to an end. Through the three-year effort, the research team revealed that the gilding technology in the Three Gorges area of Chongqing had reached a high level in the Qin and Han Dynasties (221 B.C. - A.D. 220).

Many people may have never heard about gilded bronzes but are familiar with the national treasure Changxin Palace Lantern, a prominent object in the unearthed gilded bronzes. Despite the collection of gilded bronzes in many museums in Chongqing, archaeological experts have long been plagued by the spatial and temporal distribution and historical evolution of gilded bronzes in the Three Gorges area.

Through three years of hard work, the CCHRI research team finally made an accurate inventory of the gilded bronzes unearthed in the Three Gorges area of Chongqing. This includes the area where the Yangtze River flows from the west of Nanjinguan in Yichang City of Hubei Province to the east of downtown Chongqing and the basin area between the main tributaries of the Yangtze River. There are 55 sites, with a total of 658 pieces of various gilded bronzes, including nine types of artifacts of weapons, coffin decorations, money trees, and others. Among them, coffin decorations are the most popular objects.

The area from Fengdu County to Wushan County is said to boast the most significant number of gilded bronzes unearthed in the Three Gorges area, with the gilded bronze coffin decorations being the most popular. In this regard, a proper example is the West Queen Figure-shaped Gilded Hollowed-out Decoration in the Wushan Museum.

The achievements of Study on the Development History of Gilding Technology for Bronzes in the Three Gorges Area are helpful for a comprehensive understanding of the development level of culture and technology in the ancient Three Gorges area and provide new reference materials for carrying forward Bayu culture and essential reference data for the protection, replication and restoration of gilded bronzes.

Source: Chongqing Daily
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