Residents of a village in central China's
Henan
Province have been silently watching over a 7,000-year-old
cultural relic for 80 years.
No
tombs, cellars, ditches, trenches, irrigation canals or wells have
ever been built at the prehistoric village of
Yangshao. Farmers plough with care so as not to damage any
ancient articles that may pop up after thousands of years
underground.
An
Zhimin, an elderly researcher of the Institute of Archaeology
affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Social Science, marveled at
Yangshao when he re-visited the site recently.
"It is exactly the same as it was 50 years ago; even the relic
site's surface and the ash pits are well protected," he said. In
the 1950s, An came to Yangshao village for archaeological
research.
Jointly discovered in 1921 by Chinese archaeologist Yuan Fuli and
his Swedish peer, J.G.Anderson, Yangshao Cultural Relic, as the
prehistoric village is called, is situated in Yangshao Village of
Mianchi County in Henan Province's Sanmenxia City.
Sprawling over 300,000 square meters, the ancient site offered
China's first convincing evidence of its own Stone Age and was a
catalyst for the country's archaeological research on the
Paleolithic Period, Bronze Age and Iron Age.
Among thousands of ancient articles unearthed during past three
excavations, archaeologists found out not only stoneware for
farming like hatchets, shovels, chisels and adzes, but also hunting
artifacts such as stone bullets and arrows.
The Yangshao Culture, known for its painted pottery with a variety
of finely designed geometrical patterns, is centered in the middle
reaches of the Yellow River, extending to south China's Hubei
Province and north China's
Inner Mongolia.
Regarding the village as a "Holy Land of Culture," Chinese experts
have been impressed not only by the soundness of the relic site but
also the willingness of local farmers to protect it.
Those few villagers who gave thought to setting up a manufacturing
plant to earn more income quickly abandoned the idea for fear that
modernized production would destroy the local environment and
damage the relic area. Villagers who felt great loyalty to their
ancient neighbor agreed to move out when archaeological teams
proposed digging in certain locations.
One family chose to temporarily settle in a cave-house dug at a
nearby mountain ridge when floods drowned their home because the
construction of another house within the relic area could
potentially damage the precious land where ancient articles were
buried as deep as four meters.
When asked about the daily inconveniences and delayed economic
progress the village has experienced in safeguarding the historical
relics, Wang Sanxing, a 67-year-old farmer, said simply: "It's
worth it."
In
1961 when the prehistoric village was listed as one of China's
first batch of cultural relics under State protection, local
villagers set their own three rules for protection and have
strictly followed them since.
No
houses can be built within the relic area; no ditches can be dug
around the site for depositing ash to make fertilizer; and no
digging can be done within the relic site zone for any use
unrelated to archaeological study.
Any tourists found scratching the paintings on ancient walls or
attempting to pocket various items were immediately stopped by the
solicitous villagers, Wang said.
There are two things experts could get from the remote and backward
village, according to An: Academic satisfaction and a profound
admiration of local villagers.
Now, with archaeologists swarming to the village to celebrate the
80th anniversary of the discovery there, villagers may face another
choice.
If
the proposal made by archaeologists to build a large theme park on
Yangshao is approved by relevant authority of the country, the
remaining 20 families in the village will have to be relocated.
Villagers said they were not especially reluctant to re-settle, as
they believe the kind of protection given by the state would be
best for the site, and at the same time their quality of life would
be improved in new housing.
(Xinhua News
Agency November 8, 2001)