BEIJING, Aug. 8 -- The latest study by Chinese archaeologists on the pottery drainage system unearthed at the site of the ancient city of Pingliangtai in Huaiyang, Henan Province, shows that the drainage system is about 15,4000 years old, the earliest known pottery drainage system in China, and may be an early social and environmental adaptation strategy of the ancestors to the environmental crisis, reflecting an early case of collective water management in a prehistoric society.
From 2014 to 2019, archaeologists carried out continuous archaeological excavations and research work on the site of Pingliangtai City (photo from Cao Yanpeng). Photo courtesy of Springer Nature
This important archaeological research result paper was completed by the team led by Associate Professor Zhang Hai, Deputy Dean of the School of Archaeology and Museum of Peking University, and Associate Professor Zhuang Yijie, University College London, UK, and was published online in Springer Nature's professional academic journal "Nature-Water" on the night of August 8, Beijing time.
The ruins of the ancient city of Pingliangtai in the late Neolithic period are located in the Central Plains of China, which has a temperate monsoon climate with severe changes in temperature and precipitation; Summer rainfall can reach 500 mm per month. Located in a floodplain, Pingliang Station has easy access to water, but it also faces the threat of climate uncertainty. Past studies of sites in Asia have suggested a correlation between water infrastructure development and social hierarchy. However, the many ways in which water management evolves do not necessarily emerge under hierarchical power structures, which were previously poorly understood.
Illustration of archaeological excavations at the site of Pingliangtai City (picture from Cao Yanpeng). Photo courtesy of Springer Nature
Zhang Hai and Zhuang Yijie, co-corresponding authors of the paper, and Cao Yanpeng, co-first authors of the paper, Henan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, and others, found evidence of short-term precipitation fluctuations, including some extreme rainfall events, by analyzing 147 sediment cores in the Huaiyang area where the Pingliangtai city site is located. They also conducted extensive excavations in Pingliangtai to investigate how 4200-460 residents here coped with flooding, and found that the community at the Pingliangtai site operated and maintained a two-story drainage system, with a pottery drainage pipe dating back to 600-4100 years ago, and another drainage system parallel to the house extending to another public drainage area, both of which appear to have been repaired and rebuilt multiple times.
In addition, the ditches surrounding the houses appear to be built and maintained mainly at the household level, while the pottery drains and ditches in the public spaces should require planning and cooperation, and the Pingliangtai site is not considered to be socially stratified. The research team believes that managing this type of infrastructure shows the cooperative approach to water governance among the ancestors of Pingliangtai.
According to reports, the ruins of the ancient city of Pingliangtai during the Longshan culture period are located in Huaiyang County, Zhoukou City, Henan Province, and were announced as a national key cultural relic protection unit in February 1988, and are one of the earliest prehistoric city sites confirmed in China. From 2 to 2014, the results of systematic archaeological drilling and digital record analysis showed that its plane shape was square and had a symmetrical gate layout, and in 2019, a north-south road was excavated at the central axis of the city, and the two ends corresponded to the north and south city gates, and the layout of the city was based on the north-south road as the axis, and the planning was orderly.
Illustration of archaeological excavations and research work at the site of Pingliangtai City (photo from Cao Yanpeng). Photo courtesy of Springer Nature
Later, after large-scale excavation, the site of Pingliangtai City confirmed that there were many rows of high-platform row houses distributed east-west and built on adobe flat land, with doors facing south and neat layout, and longitudinal and horizontal drainage ditches distributed on the outer edge of the road. In 2019, a set of pottery drainage pipes preserved in the original site were found, buried outdoors in the east-west direction, connected with the north-south ditch deliberately dug at the edge of the residential area, the same pottery drainage pipe, there are also 3 places near the south city gate, these pottery drainage pipes are interlocked, ingeniously conceived, or distributed parallel along the outer edge of the row house building, or through the foundation of the city wall, pottery drainage pipes and longitudinal and horizontal ditches, together constitute the earliest and most complete urban drainage system in China. It also provides excellent material for studying water management in early cities.
Ceramic drainage pipes unearthed from archaeological excavations at the site of Pingliangtai City (picture from Cao Yanpeng). Photo courtesy of Springer Nature
Zhang Hai said that the orderly planning, construction and maintenance of houses, drainage systems and other public facilities in the Pingliangtai city site in the Central Plains clearly indicates the existence of an effective governance organization, but the houses and tombs in Pingliangtai do not show obvious hierarchical differentiation, which shows that the social governance of Pingliangtai is not based on the management of individual authority.
This study is an excellent case study to demonstrate the interaction between environmental change, building technology change and social organization to jointly promote the water management model of "social cooperative governance", and also provides a different model for understanding the origin of water society and the development of social power in the East Asian monsoon region. At the same time, the prehistoric drainage system of the Pingliangtai site also embodies a long-neglected pattern of power structures in the Central Plains, which can provide new directions for clarifying different ways of social complexity and early state rise. (End)