Among prehistoric settlements, trenches were a very important form of defense.

In that era of low productivity, it was obviously impossible to build city walls on a large scale.

But the Chinese ancestors were very smart and created trenches as a defense against wild beasts.

To put it simply, a trench is like a common moat in ancient cities.

As long as a trench with a depth of several meters is dug along the periphery of the settlement, it can effectively block the attacks of wild beasts.

However, even a trench was a huge project for the Chinese ancestors who had low productivity more than 4,000 years ago.

Therefore, trench remains cannot be found in all prehistoric sites.

Not to mention the large trenches like the Lajia ruins, which are more than ten meters wide and 5-6 meters deep.

Among all the prehistoric sites that have been excavated, it is very rare to have trenches!

Su Sa, who was standing in the crowd, said in surprise: "I remember that no trenches were found in the sites unearthed before the Qijia Culture, right?"

The Qijia Culture was a culture that existed in the Gansu and Qinghai regions between 4300 and 3600 years ago and transitioned from the late Neolithic Age to the early Bronze Age.

At present, hundreds of Qijia culture sites have been unearthed in the Gansu and Qinghai regions.

But nowhere has such a large trench appeared!

"Yes." Kong Wenjian nodded and said thoughtfully: "So, I'm afraid this Lajia site has a very special status in Qijia culture."

"Perhaps... it's a cultural center? Similar to the capital city in the Fang Kingdom era?"

The staff of the Qinghai Archaeological Institute nodded in agreement: "The guesses of several researchers at the institute are the same as Professor Kong's."

"The Lajia ruins discovered this time must have a special status in the Qijia culture."

After briefly looking at the traces of the trench, before everyone could take a closer look, the staff of the Qinghai Archaeological Institute continued: "In addition to the first excavation point here, we have opened up a tunnel in the northeast of Xia Lajia Village.

No. construction site.”

"What has been discovered so far at Construction Site No. 1 is that there should be five houses arranged neatly from east to west."

"However, due to the current shortage of manpower, we have only completed the cleaning work at the No. 1 site, and the four following sites have just been inspected."

"In the next period of time, these four housing addresses need to be handed over to the comrades of the Academy of Social Sciences."

After saying that, he eagerly planned to take everyone to visit the spot first.

The people from the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Social Sciences are not here to visit or conduct research. They are young men who were captured!

For a visit or something, just take a few glances.

What matters is the work!

The staff of the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Social Sciences couldn't help but lead Kong Wenjian and Chen Han to the construction site in the northeast of Xia La Village where a protective shelter had been built.

The staff of the Qinghai Archaeological Institute, together with local residents, have prepared their respective areas of responsibility for the other archaeological teams that came from all over the country to support them.

Construction site No. 1, construction site No. 2, and construction site No. 3 have dozens of exploration squares being laid on each construction site, waiting for allocation.

Because the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Social Sciences is a direct line of troops from above, the Qinghai Archaeological Institute arranged for them to be at Construction Site No. 1 for good luck.

As soon as we arrived at construction site No. 1, five exploratory squares arranged opposite each other appeared in front of everyone, each of which was more than three meters long and wide.

Among them, the exploration area marked F1 seems to have been almost cleaned, revealing clearly visible ruins.

The remaining four exploratory sites were all muddy. Apparently they just asked villagers to help dig out the pits, and they were still waiting for the archaeologists to start work.

Naturally, the exploration site that has not started construction will not attract anyone's attention. The archaeologists of the Institute of Archeology of the Academy of Social Sciences all set their sights on the No. 1 exploration site.

It can be seen that there should be a house in No. 1 Exploration Square consisting of a living room, a doorway, and a place in front of the door. It is a "housing" building in the early stage of Chinese civilization.

It must be very simple. After all, it is a house built four thousand years ago.

And after it was buried deep underground, the shape of any house could not actually be seen.

Just by looking at the different colors of the soil layer, you can roughly tell that there was a wall here before.

Moreover, traces of white plaster can still be seen vaguely on the four walls, indicating that the ancestors of the Lajia site at that time also mastered the technology of "puttying" the house.

This is not easy!

Chen Han carefully observed the site of House No. 1 with great interest. Unfortunately, the useful cultural relics had obviously been collected and preserved and would not be displayed in the open air on the site.

Apart from a rough outline of the house, Chen Han could not see any more valuable items.

However, the staff of the Qinghai Archaeological Institute timely introduced the excavation of House No. 1 to everyone.

"No complete daily pottery was found in Room 1. Only a broken pottery jar and semi-finished stone and jade artifacts were unearthed."

"Researchers at the institute speculate that this house may have been abandoned or is no longer used for living."

The tone of the staff was slightly regretful.

The archaeologists of the Qinghai Archaeological Institute spent more than half a month clearing out the excavations, but in the end they did not obtain any particularly valuable cultural relics, which is naturally a pity.

But this is also normal.

Many times, archaeologists spend months and carefully excavating a chamber, but they may end up with an empty chamber.

It is common to work in vain.

In archeology, every shovel is a gamble on luck.

Not all efforts will be rewarded.

After everyone felt a little sorry, they continued to observe Room 1 and made some preparations in advance for cleaning up the next few rooms.

The layout and structure of different rooms in the same large-scale ruins must be quite different.

As he looked at it, a very distinctive place in Room 1 quickly attracted Chen Han's attention.

On the edge of the northeast corner of Room 1, there are two stone slabs with an abrupt shape.

It looks like there is an extra corner on the square box, making the entire one-bedroom apartment look "convex".

This made Chen Han very puzzled.

He pointed to the two protruding stone slabs and asked, "What is the condition of these two stone slabs?"

The staff took a glance and said with a smile: "It must be a rather peculiar stove."

Chen Han frowned, feeling something was not right.

If it is a stove, it is usually inside the living room, rather than protruding out of the living room. It looks like it is embedded in the wall.

Moreover, Chinese people have not had the habit of starting a stove in the living room since ancient times.

Even if you need a stove for heating or hot water, or even a pot for cooking.

From prehistoric times to the later Xia, Shang, Zhou and even Qin and Han dynasties.

Most people choose to dig out a 20-30cm long and wide concave area in the center of the living room. After hollowing out the middle, they can light a stove or burn firewood directly.

This structure is called a "firepit".

In many Paleolithic sites that have been unearthed, many cases of this kind of hollowing out an area in the center of the room to set up a stove have been found in the room.

Nowadays, this primitive fire pit is still used in remote villages in Yunnan, Guizhou, Sichuan and other places, as well as in some ethnic minority gathering areas.

Not only in China, but throughout Asia, using fire pits for heating and boiling water for cooking is the mainstream practice.

The fire pit culture is still used in RB. Today, the old-fashioned buildings in RB still retain this heating structure, which is usually arranged in the center of the tatami.

The word "zao" originates from the acupoint, and its original meaning is a stove pit where pots are set up to cook food.

It shows that the earth stove dug into the ground to form a pit is the earliest form of stove!

As for the two stone slabs protruding from the wall in Room 1, they have nothing to do with the stove.

Chen Han touched his chin, stared at this strange shape, and thought about it thoughtfully.

Suddenly, a flash of light flashed through his head.

"Pah!" Chen Han clapped his hands and shouted excitedly: "Isn't this a fireplace?!"

His sudden exclamation attracted the attention of all staff and archaeologists present.

After a brief period of astonishment, everyone suddenly turned their heads and looked at the northeast corner of Room 1, as if they had been enlightened.

"fireplace?!"

If Chen Han's flash of inspiration is correct, then this will be a great discovery that shocks the archaeological community at home and abroad!

From ancient times to the present, there is basically no tradition of building fireplaces in Chinese houses.

But in the Lajia ruins dating back more than 4,000 years ago, there was actually a heating device similar to a fireplace?!

Fireplaces have always been considered to be indoor heating devices that originated in the West and Central Asia, and are not part of Asian culture!

This has long been recognized by scholars around the world. Is it wrong?

The ancestors of China once mastered and widely used fireplaces?!

This speculation was enough to shock everyone. Even the person who proposed it, Chen Han, found it hard to believe it.
Chapter completed!