"The archaeological site we are supporting this time is located in Lajia Village, Guanting Town, Minhe County, Qinghai Province."

"So it is tentatively named Lajia Ruins."

“According to the carbon 14 detection conducted by the preliminary work team, the formation age of this site should be between 4100 and 4000 years ago!”

"The era is very close to the legendary Xia Dynasty!"

"The emergence of the Lajia ruins this time is of great importance to the project of exploring the origin of Chinese civilization. It is self-evident!"

On the high-speed train bound for Haining City, Qinghai Province, in a car enclosed by the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Social Sciences, Kong Wenjian was passionately encouraging his disciples and archaeological scholars.

The senior student sitting next to Chen Han lamented in a low voice: "The Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasty project, but it's a pity that only the chronology has been completed."

Chen Han also nodded solemnly.

China has always been a country that pays attention to recording history and has systematic and rich historical materials.

According to legend, during the Huangdi era, there were historians responsible for recording history.

Among all the civilizations in the world, only China has basically recorded its history over the past 5,000 years.

However, historical records alone are sometimes not enough to prove that these historical records are true.

Western scholars, according to their standards, have always believed that China only has a civilization history of more than 3,300 years.

Even if Chinese scholars do not agree with it, they have not been able to completely prove the error of this view.

Because Western historical records are very short.

It was around the Middle Ages that credible historical records began to appear.

The historical records of the West before the Middle Ages are full of myths and legends that are simply unbelievable.

Therefore, the West pays special attention to using archaeological methods to discover ancient history, rather than directly opening history books to understand ancient history like the Chinese do.

As the "swan song of historians" in China, historical records are supreme among Chinese historians, but are not worth mentioning in the eyes of many Western scholars.

Simply because there are some rather "metaphysical" things recorded in historical records.

For example, the founder of the Shang Dynasty said: "Three people were taking a bath and saw a black bird dropping its eggs. Jian Di took them and swallowed them, and a contract was born due to pregnancy."

The founder of the Zhou Dynasty was one who "saw the sign of a giant, and said with annoyance that he wanted to trample on it, but his body moved as if he were pregnant".

One of the two was conceived by a human after eating the eggs of a "black bird", and the other was conceived after seeing the footprints of a giant.

Such a record full of myths and legends reminds Western scholars of their own outrageous historical legends, and naturally they deny that "Historical Records" is reliable history.

However, the "Historical Records" contains some metaphysics about the emperors, which is not enough to completely overturn the more than 500,000 words of historical records!

Unfortunately, this argument even influenced Chinese scholars in the Republic of China, an era when Western thinking became mainstream.

Hu Shi, a great scholar during the Republic of China, once put forward the conclusion that "there is no history of faith since the Eastern Zhou Dynasty."

Hu Shi believed that the Western Zhou Dynasty, Shang Dynasty, Xia Dynasty, Five Emperors era, etc. in history books were unreliable.

Even some well-known historical figures, historical events, etc. may be fabricated.

After Hu Shi, the ancient history school represented by Gu Jiegang proposed "layers of theory", ranging from doubting ancient classics, to doubting ancient figures, to doubting the entire ancient history system.

At one time, Chinese history was in danger since before the Spring and Autumn Period, and was not considered true.

It was not until the emergence of the Yin Ruins and the oracle bone inscriptions that the Shang Dynasty was proven to truly exist.

Subsequently, a large number of unearthed ruins from the Eastern and Western Zhou Dynasties severely slapped Western scholars in the face with facts.

However, even if the emergence of the Yin Ruins proves that the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties recorded in the Historical Records, at least the Shang and Zhou dynasties, do exist, it does not allow Western scholars to agree with the five thousand years of Chinese history.

To this day, many history books in Western countries still believe that China only has a history of 3,300 years. Before the Shang Dynasty, China had no country and no civilization.

Moreover, this "Shang Dynasty" only recognized the history recorded after the emergence of oracle bone inscriptions after Pan Geng moved to Yin.

Pan Geng's move to Yin was already in the middle and late Shang Dynasty.

In other words, Western scholars only recognized half of the Shang Dynasty!

For nearly a century, China's 5,000-year history has been questioned and is not accepted by most Western countries.

As we all know, confirmation is always more difficult than falsification. After all, confirmation requires all kinds of ironclad evidence that is so conclusive that it cannot be questioned, while falsification only requires questioning.

This also makes the Chinese people very frustrated.

Why do we need outsiders to question our own history, and there is no evidence to refute it!

After entering the new century, China has gradually become richer and stronger. For the sake of national honor and pride, as well as for tracing the origin of Chinese civilization, the high-level officials have successively launched two large-scale and long-term archaeological projects.

[Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasty Archaeological Project]

[Chinese Civilization Traceability Project]

The Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasty archaeological project started in 2001, and it has been 17 years now.

The [Xia, Shang, and Zhou Dynasties] was jointly conquered by 170 scientists, and the exact dates of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties were determined.

It was determined that the beginning of the Xia Dynasty was 2070 BC, the beginning of the Shang Dynasty was 1600 BC, the year Pan Geng moved to Yin was 1300 BC, and the beginning of the Zhou Dynasty was 1046 BC.

However, the ruins and historical relics before Pan Geng moved to Yin are basically blank.

In addition to the Yin Ruins, which were excavated in the 1920s, there is enough evidence to prove the existence of the Shang Dynasty.

In the past 17 years, Chinese archaeologists have yet to find any evidence of the existence of the Xia Dynasty.

This is something that every Chinese archaeologist regrets.

Historical records include Yao, Yu and Shun of the Tang Dynasty, Dayu's flood control, Xia Qi's founding of the country, Taikang's loss, Shaokang's resurgence, Kongjia's chaos, violent Jie's fall, Wang Hai's taming of cattle, King Yun's diligence in business, Yi Yin's liberation of Taijia,

No archaeological evidence has been unearthed for the stories of the Xia and Shang dynasties such as the Nine Generations Rebellion.

Whether they are archeology students who are still studying in school or professional archaeologists who have been involved in archeology for many years, no one does not want these Chinese history passed down from generation to generation to become irreproachable and ironclad evidence!

Any archaeologist hopes that he can straighten his back and proudly declare to the world with evidence buried deep in the ground for thousands of years that China has a history of five thousand years!

In history, there are indeed several holy kings such as Yao, Shun, and Yutang who ignited the light of Chinese civilization, led the ancient ancestors out of ignorance, established a country, and spread civilization!

Every archaeologist who joins the field of archaeology and enters field archaeology hopes to find evidence of the existence of the Xia Dynasty!

And now the [Lajia Ruins] was suddenly discovered.

According to the carbon 14 detection done by the early exploration team, the Lajia site was formed around 2,000 BC, which is exactly the period when the Xia Dynasty was born as historians inferred!

There is a high probability that this site is the site of a city-state from the same era as the Xia Dynasty!

Qinghai is located in the upper reaches of the Yellow River. Although it is a little far away from the Central Plains, a site in the same era as the Xia Dynasty may contain some precious unearthed objects related to the Xia Dynasty!

Although the hope is slim, archeology is like looking for a needle in a haystack, and we are constantly working hard for a small probability of one in ten thousand!

"I hope we can find some important archaeological discoveries this time." Chen Han tilted his head slightly and leaned on the high-speed rail seat, excitement mixed with a bit of anticipation.

"Ding dong..."

A sudden voice appeared in his mind again.

"New mission released!"

"Assist in participating in the archaeological excavation of the Lajia site!"

"Task rewards will be assessed and distributed based on the host's participation and contribution!"

The corners of Chen Han's mouth curled up slightly, and he felt better.

One more reason to dig hard in the soil!

.............
Chapter completed!