A Study On The Settlement Archaeology Of Xia And Shang Dynasties In The Southeast Foothills Of Taihang Mountain

The southeastern foot of the Taihang Mountains refers to the narrow pre-mountain plain north of the Yellow River,east of the Qin River,south of the Qi River basin,and between the southeastern Taihang Mountains and the ancient Yellow River,including most of Jiaozuo and Xinxiang and part of Hebi.The southeastern foot of the Taihang Mountains has found a large number of cultural sites with rich remains from the Xia and Shang periods.In the past,the academic community has studied more archaeological culture,city sites,tombs,and bronzes from the Xia and Shang periods in this region,but less archaeological studies involving settlements.Analyzing the area,relics and important relics of the Xia and Shang periods in the southeastern foot of Taihang Mountains,they can be divided into two levels: the central settlement and the grassroots settlement.The southeastern foothills of Taihang Mountains have two regional centers in different cultural stages,the Erlitou culture period for Huixian Mengzhuang and Jiaozuo Fucheng,the Erligang culture period for Huixian Mengzhuang-Liulige and Jiaozuo Fucheng,the Yinxu culture period for Huixian Liulige and Chuqiu.The dependence of settlement site selection on the environment during the Xia and Shang periods at the southeastern foot of Taihang Mountains has been decreasing,and human factors have increasingly influenced the site selection and distribution of settlements,especially the influence of transportation factors has been present and important,and historical and cultural traditions have also had some influence on the site selection of settlements.From the distribution of settlements,there are two traffic corridors in the area,east-west and north-south,and the two traffic corridors intersect near Mengzhuang,and it is presumed that the east-west direction may be related to Mengmen and Baifu.These two transportation corridors were also important cultural exchange channels,especially in the period of Erlitou culture,the cultural landscape of the region was extremely complex,Huiwei culture and Erlitou culture,Xiaqiguan culture,Dongxiafeng culture gathered here.The clustering characteristics of the Xia and Shang dynasty settlements at the southeastern foot of the Taihang Mountains are more obvious.There are two clusters of settlements,Fucheng and Mengzhuang,in the Erlitou culture period,which are presumed to correspond to Wei and Gu,respectively,in the light of the differences in cultural appearance and the orientation of the Xia dynasty.Although no city sites were found in Dalaidian and Fengchengfengtougang,they are very important in the region and are rich in cultural remains,which deserve further attention.There are three clusters of settlements in the Yinxu period:Dalaidian,Mengzhuang and Fucheng.The Dalaidian cluster is close to the political center of the Late Shang Dynasty and has the densest distribution of settlements;the Mengzhuang cluster is distributed with two regional centers,Liulige and Chuqiu in Huixian,but the main discoveries are tombs,and no corresponding sites have been found;the FUCHENG cluster is mainly found to be tombs,and no high-ranking settlements corresponding to its excavated bronze vessels have been found.The massive decrease of settlements in the Erlitou culture period at the southeastern foot of the Taihang Mountains may be related to the great flood in the late Longshan culture,and the continuation of use or new settlements in this period is the result of re-selection of the environment.The political and transportation factors had the greatest influence on the settlement changes in the region during the Xia and Shang Dynasties,and most of the continued-use settlements and new settlements were distributed around the transportation corridor,reflecting the important influence of transportation on the settlement changes in the region.Based on the archaeological and cultural studies of the Xia and Shang periods at the southeastern foot of the Taihang Mountains,combined with the archaeological studies of the settlements,especially the destruction of the city site at Mengzhuang in Hui County during the Erlitou culture period,this paper argues that the Huiwei culture was an ally of the Erlitou culture,and was hostile to the Xiaqiguan culture in the late Erlitou culture.On this basis,combining the settlement changes with the merchants’ route to invade Xia,this paper speculates that the merchants’ route to invade Xia had two directions,one of which may be the merchants went south along the Taihang Mountains,occupied the Mengzhuang city site and the distribution area of the Fucheng settlement group,and then crossed the Yellow River and met with the Shang-Yi allied army in Zhengzhou.The southeastern foothills of the Taihang Mountains did not undergo major changes in the regional center during the change of the Xia and Shang dynasties,but the city site of Mengzhuang in Hui County was repaired and the city site of Jiaozuo Prefecture was built,which was related to the political instability of the early Shang dynasty and the important transportation status of the region.In the process of the change of Xia and Shang dynasties,merchants needed a military defense site to pacify the remnants of Huiwei culture,so Huixian Mengzhuang was repaired and reused,and Jiaozuo Fucheng City Mall was built,which has some similarity with the functional positioning of Yanshi Mall.The southeastern foothills of the Taihang Mountains were the main route between the old and new political centers of the merchants during the Erligang culture period,and the social reorganization of the region was dominated by the elite of the Erligang culture,whose important consideration was transportation,and the changes of the settlements in the region revolved around the restoration and safety of the main transportation routes.Changes in the Shang settlement at the southeastern foot of the Taihang Mountains,especially changes in the morphology and location of the regional center of the settlement,synchronized with the political center of the Shang dynasty,reflect the direct control of the Shang dynasty over the region,which was more directly manifested than during the Xia dynasty.During the Yinxu Culture period,the increase in the number of settlements in the Qi River valley and the abandonment of Jiaozuo Fucheng and its surrounding sites are directly related to the transfer of the political center to Anyang,and the decline in the status of Mengzhuang may also have occurred in the context of the failure to build the walls of the new royal capital,Yinxu.