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[00:00:00] The method of eating is
[00:00:29] .
[00:00:43] The northern part of the Loess Plateau, Longmu Jiaocuo with the Yellow River
[00:00:47] stream ,
[00:00:50] on the river bank , a towering wall made of giant stones
[00:00:54] stood for thousands of years
[00:00:56] .
[00:01:16] When the thick layer of loess covering the Huangcheng Terrace was peeled off, a magnificent
[00:01:19] city reappeared before people's eyes
[00:01:22] . This prehistoric ancient city
[00:01:26] with Huangcheng Terrace as its ruling center was called Shimao. For thousands of years
[00:01:48] what kind of people lived in this city?
[00:01:52] How did their stories resurface more than 4,000 years later?
[00:02:03] In July 1927 , the Northern Expedition War was in full swing.
[00:02:45] Such surprise and doubt were buried deep in people's hearts
[00:02:48] .
[00:02:53] Today, in the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, a batch of exquisite cultural relics
[00:02:56] from about 4,000 years ago are on display.
[00:03:18] The appearance of these cultural relics back then seemed to tell the world that a distant history
[00:03:22] was buried on the high Huangcheng Terrace , waiting for people to
[00:03:26] explore . In 2012
[00:04:00] , because on the northeast corner
[00:04:04] of the eastern wall of Huangcheng Terrace that we named, there was
[00:04:08] actually a section of the wall still exposed. I couldn't believe it had been four thousand
[00:04:11] years, and I could still see such well-preserved stones
[00:04:14] . Archaeological excavations show that the history of Shimao
[00:04:18] dates back more than 4,000 years.
[00:04:22] The years have blurred too many traces of that time, but in the ruins
[00:04:26] of the core area, in the towering stone walls on Huangcheng Terrace
[00:04:30] , rows of horizontally interlocked side wooden beams are completely
[00:04:34] intact. They are equivalent to wooden and steel bars, providing strong support
[00:04:37] for the solid walls of Huangcheng Terrace . In the
[00:04:41] Northern Song Dynasty's "Yingzao Fashi" (Treatise on Architectural Methods) , there was a record: when building
[00:04:45] a city, each pillar is five chi high, and one
[00:04:48] horizontal wooden beam is used. Who would have thought that the city building technique recorded
[00:04:52] by the Northern Song Dynasty's master builders had already been applied in the Shimao ruins, more than three thousand years
[00:04:56] earlier than them ?
[00:06:50] 4,000 years ago, the Shimao people, located in the agro-pastoral transition zone , built their city with stone
[00:06:54] , perhaps also out of defensive needs
[00:06:57] .
[00:07:01] The city gate is a key defense line for protecting the city
[00:07:04] . Entering this gate means entering a core area
[00:07:08] of centralized rule .
[00:07:18] A majestic city gate reappeared before the eyes
[00:07:21] of the world . The east gate ruins are
[00:07:24] located in the northeast of the outer city of Shimao , in a commanding position
[00:07:28] .
[00:07:35] In front of the gate, there is a wall about 21 meters long. Together with two
[00:07:39] platforms, it formed an outer Wengcheng (barbican) . Behind it
[00:07:43] , only one city wall connects to the south platform, forming
[00:07:46] an inner Wengcheng. The two platforms, north and south, are about
[00:07:50] 6 meters high, and their areas both reach 300 square meters
[00:07:54] , capable of stationing over a hundred soldiers . The double Wengcheng
[00:07:58] and platforms provide a double insurance layer
[00:08:01] . In addition to these defensive facilities, the appearance of another
[00:08:05] structure came as a surprise to archaeologists
[00:08:07] . On both sides
[00:08:11] of ancient city gates , high platforms often protrude
[00:08:15] outwards. Because they resemble a horse's face, they are called
[00:08:18] "Ma Mian" (horse face) . The main function of "Ma Mian"
[00:08:22] is to eliminate blind spots in the defense of the city gate
[00:08:26] . Because a city gate in a straight line is limited by vertical angles, it cannot
[00:08:30] effectively attack enemies who have approached the city wall
[00:08:34] . However, with the protruding "Ma Mian" complementing each other, they can form
[00:08:37] crossfire
[00:08:38] .
[00:08:51] Inside the protective wall of the East Gate ruins, archaeologists also excavated many fragments of murals
[00:08:55] scattered around . They were once covered with dazzling
[00:08:58] colors and painted on the walls , welcoming everyone who entered
[00:09:02] the city gate . The content
[00:09:05] of the murals is difficult to reconstruct, but the traces of red and yellow
[00:09:09] and other colors can still make people feel it
[00:09:42] , "It is important that it's not made just of
[00:09:45] stone, but also made of Hangu, of
[00:09:48] Lois, and this is unusual, there is
[00:09:52] other country in the world where you have
[00:09:56] this geological environment, and
[00:09:58] also there's other country in the world that has this
[00:10:02] long history of building monuments with
[00:10:06] many tears, here you see the tears, and then you
[00:10:09] see the stone holding the terraces." back, anything you
[00:10:13] see in the west is not like this, and it's
[00:10:17] technically very
[00:10:18] complicated. 400 years
[00:10:24] .
[00:11:25] Pursuing a kind of spiritual protection, it is not ruled out that it comes
[00:11:29] from some lower-class people of Shimao
[00:11:32] , who voluntarily put their most precious
[00:11:35] things from their small groups
[00:11:39] into the city walls , to pray for peace
[00:11:55] . Different regions on the earth were all building various
[00:11:58] cities without prior arrangement . When a city-state
[00:12:02] grew strong, many smaller city-states gathered around this central
[00:12:05] settlement , forming a gravitational
[00:12:09] center. And the cultural group with Shimao as its core
[00:12:13] was undoubtedly the ruling center at the intersection of Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia
[00:12:17] . Why did they need such thick
[00:12:20] walls? Why did they need such tall walls? Why
[00:12:24] were they inside the wall?
[00:13:29] Then the large platform we see today, with concentrated
[00:13:33] buildings , appeared. We followed
[00:13:36] the south wall of the large platform
[00:13:40] . When we traced it for a few meters, another
[00:13:44] problem appeared
[00:13:46] .
[00:13:50] During the excavation of the south protective wall, mysterious and
[00:13:54] exotic stone carvings appeared again , numbering over a hundred
[00:13:57] pieces .
[00:14:00] Early in the discovery of the Shimao ruins
[00:14:04] , various stone carvings had brought much contemplation
[00:14:07] to people.
[00:14:11] Today, quietly lying in the museum , with their exaggerated
[00:14:15] facial expressions and unique forms, they always attract
[00:14:19] viewers to stop and appreciate them.
[00:14:22] What do these faces tell? What kind of existence
[00:14:26] was their concentrated location 4,000 years ago
[00:14:30] ? This time , archaeologists came up with a bold
[00:14:32] conjecture .
[00:14:36] So, would there be subsidiary facilities next to such a platform? For example
[00:14:40] , would there be corridors or other such buildings
[00:14:43] ? With this idea , they extended it to a 10-meter
[00:14:47] width. As a result, at the 9-meter wide position, on the south side
[00:14:51] of the south wall and parallel to it, another wall appeared
[00:15:25] And various natural creatures formed a solemn intimidating
[00:15:28] power, guiding people to a sacred
[00:15:32] place . What exactly did the Shimao people want to express with these stone
[00:15:36] carvings
[00:16:11] of their inner world? After thousands of years, the Huangcheng Terrace, once buried by loess
[00:16:15] , once again basked in the sunlight . However,
[00:16:19] facing the solemn stone carvings on the stone walls
[00:16:23] are no longer the owners and soldiers of this city
[00:16:27] , but archaeologists and spectators who want to understand their glorious
[00:16:31] past.
[00:16:39] Who once held power on this high platform and ruled
[00:16:43] a region? After the excavation of the Huangcheng Terrace core area
[00:16:46] came to an end, in 2022 , the archaeological team turned its attention
[00:16:50] to the burial area on the west side of Huangcheng Terrace . And in January
[00:16:54] of the following year, high-level burials were discovered . The former owners
[00:16:58] of the ancient city of Shimao were buried here
[00:17:01] . What kind of people were they, and what
[00:17:05] secrets are still hidden in them?
[00:17:08] One afternoon in October 2024 , the excavation of an important
[00:17:12] object made the Shimao archaeological team
[00:17:16] feel deeply shocked
[00:17:17] .
[00:17:20] Jade yues (axe-like objects) often indicate the noble status of the tomb owner. Countless
[00:17:24] jade yues have been unearthed from Shimao. However,
[00:17:27] the discovery of this jade yue astonished all Shimao archaeologists
[00:17:31] . This jade yue is 12.9 centimeters high
[00:17:35] and 10.7 to 1
[00:17:47] . Why is this jade yue so different? What information is hidden behind the intricate patterns
[00:17:51] ? And what kind of person brought it into the underworld
[00:17:55] ? This newly unearthed jade yue
[00:17:58] is translucent and warm , covered with patterns
[00:18:02] . Multiple
[00:18:05] corners are distributed
[00:18:17] . Shao Jin, after receiving
[00:18:28] the pictures sent by the archaeological team at the site , confidently and firmly replied
[00:18:32] with one word: "I'm not on the front line. They sent it to me immediately
[00:18:36] to see. At that time
[00:18:47] , after carefully examining the patterns of this jade yue , people clearly
[00:18:51] saw a fierce eagle with its head raised, soaring
[00:18:54] upwards, as if trying to break through the clouds
[00:18:57] .
[00:19:00] This is not the first time the image of an eagle has appeared on
[00:19:04] artifacts unearthed from Shimao. In the Shimao Museum, a jade
[00:19:07] eagle seems to be ready to fly .
[00:19:11] There is also another more complete jade eagle
[00:19:15] preserved in the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology
[00:19:16] .
[00:19:20] In ancient people's observation and understanding of nature, heaven
[00:19:24] is the source of wind, rain, and snow , and earth is the
[00:19:27] reliance for clothing, food, and shelter . While the eagle, flying between heaven
[00:19:30] and earth, was often regarded as the messenger
[00:19:34] connecting heaven and earth .
[00:20:08] There are similar patterns to those found in Shimao. Previous
[00:20:12] scholars' research often called it "eagle gripping human
[00:20:16] head," which is the feeling of an eagle's talons grabbing a human head
[00:20:20] . My interpretation is that this is the totem
[00:20:24] of the Shimao King of this generation . It is his
[00:20:27] own belief. He believes that his power comes from
[00:20:29] the eagle.
[00:20:51] These burial objects are usually in pairs, symbolizing
[00:20:55] yin and yang .
[00:20:57] And the research results on animal bones can also help us
[00:21:01] reveal a side of the Shimao people's diet and life
[00:21:05] . In the artifact pits below Huangcheng Terrace, a large number
[00:21:09] of animal bones such as sheep bones and cattle bones were unearthed
[00:21:12] . The archaeological team observed , identified, and recorded
[00:21:16] these bones, obtaining astonishing data. Through
[00:21:20] some information from animal bones to explore what
[00:21:23] the Shimao people ate , how they ate
[00:21:27] , and how they utilized it after eating. Now, the sheep
[00:21:31] from the animal wall on Huangshan Mountain, based on the calculations I am currently making, plus
[00:21:35] the remaining parts, its individual number might be around
[00:21:39] one hundred thousand . Such a huge
[00:21:42] consumption of meat makes one think of the Tang Dynasty poet Li Bai's
[00:21:46] poem. "Boiling sheep and slaughtering cattle for pleasure."
[00:22:05] Until today , cattle and sheep are still the main
[00:22:08] domesticated animals in the border area of Shaanxi and Inner Mongolia. But more
[00:22:12] than four thousand years ago, they were not native to this land
[00:22:15] , but originated thousands of kilometers away
[00:22:18] . This area is located exactly in the transitional zone
[00:22:22] between the Eurasian Steppe and our country's agricultural area. Because the Eurasian Steppe is flat
[00:22:26] and open, it is very convenient for cattle , sheep, and horses to enter. It should be a large
[00:22:30] window for this region . How could cattle
[00:22:34] and sheep, which originated from the grasslands and traveled a long way
[00:22:37] , reproduce and thrive in the crisscrossing mountains
[00:22:39] ?
[00:22:43] In this regard, the introduction of archaeobotany has given people a more vivid
[00:22:46] understanding of the environment in the northern Shaanxi region 4,000 years ago
[00:22:50] . In addition to discovering crops, we also discovered
[00:22:54] many, many kinds of weeds, such
[00:22:58] as legumes, goosefoot plants, and Asteraceae plants. These
[00:23:02] are similar to common plants today, like sweet clover
[00:23:06] and bush clover. These two types of plants are also the main
[00:23:09] grass resources consumed by cattle and sheep.
[00:23:13] The large presence of leguminous plants like sweet clover ensured that cattle
[00:23:16] and sheep obtained abundant food . Thus, here
[00:24:15] , because there were simply too many, counting them one by one was impossible. So they came up with a method: weighing
[00:24:18] the ancient needles.
[00:24:21] By weighing a single needle and a group of ancient needles, they estimated the total
[00:24:25] quantity. Finally , an astonishing number was obtained
[00:24:28] : a total of more than seventeen thousand
[00:24:30] pieces . What is even more perplexing
[00:24:34] is that, judging from the unearthed locations of these ancient needles
[00:24:38] , their manufacturing site was located on Huangcheng Terrace
[00:24:42] . Why could the craftsmen who made ancient artifacts live alongside
[00:24:46] the nobility? Were all these ancient needles made by the Shimao people ?
[00:25:10] The tips of these bone needles are extremely sharp and can directly pierce animal skins. The smallest needle eye at the tail can even pass
[00:25:14] through only a single strand of hair . How
[00:25:17] did the craftsmen back then make such fine and exquisite bone tools
[00:25:21] ? Through experimental research, we can roughly
[00:25:25] restore how they were made . Craftsmen would remove
[00:25:29] the joints and other parts of larger sheep or cattle bones
[00:25:33] , and then trim them into regular bone pieces using methods like scraping
[00:25:37] . Then they would cut the bone pieces into thin strips
[00:25:40] and polish them repeatedly . Finally, they would use sharp
[00:25:44] stone tools to drill holes at the tail of the needles , creating a bone
[00:25:46] needle . These bone needles.
[00:26:40] This also means that the ancient city of Shimao, located in the agro-pastoral transition zone , in addition to bearing the holy city status
[00:26:44] of a kingdom, was very likely also a hub for trade
[00:26:48] . Today's archaeological research allows us to see
[00:26:51] the network of foreign exchanges and interactions of the Shimao people
[00:26:55] . To the east, it extended to what is now Shandong
[00:26:59] ; to the west, as far as Gansu and Qinghai. To the south
[00:27:03] , it reached the Jianghan Plain . Cattle
[00:27:06] and sheep came in. You can say it was cultural exchange. But I prefer
[00:27:10] to believe that behind this was a kind of open-minded
[00:27:14] and innovative spirit of the Shimao people. They first willingly accepted these. Only then could these things
[00:27:18] take root and grow here . I believe that the upper class
[00:27:22] of Shimao possessed these excellent qualities. Only then
[00:27:25] could they create such an extremely brilliant
[00:27:29] civilization on the Loess Plateau.
[00:27:33] Below Huangcheng Terrace, the Wuding River flows peacefully day
[00:27:37] by day. Years have passed. The four
[00:27:41] seasons of labor and harvest continue on this land
[00:27:45] nourished by the river, never ceasing. More than four thousand
[00:27:49] years ago, the glory and splendor of the ancient city of Shimao
[00:27:52] transformed into the majestic eagle in the jade yue, overlooking
[00:27:56] the Huangcheng Terrace and the solemn stone carvings.
[00:28:00] Overlooking those who came and went.
[00:28:32] Passed down for thousands of years . What is left on Huangcheng Terrace
[00:28:36] is not only the story of the Shimao people , but also all the unremitting
[00:28:39] efforts of the Chinese ancestors on their path to find their ideal homeland
[00:28:43] . They traveled through hardships, seeking nothing more
[00:28:47] than to take root in the land , with their hearts
[00:28:50] burning brightly .
[00:28:54] The memory of glory may have sunk into history, but it is like
[00:28:58] a fleeting shadow, ever flowing and vibrant
[00:29:00] .
[00:29:32] These are the scattered sparks on the earth
[00:29:36] , eventually converging into a raging flame, illuminating
[00:29:40] the entire sky of Chinese civilization
[00:29:43] .
[00:30:02] '
[00:33:38] Hello everyone, welcome to a new day. Good morning everyone. This is CCTV Channel.
[00:33:42] Welcome to watch. Today is Sunday, August 9, 2026. It is 6:00 AM Beijing time. Let's look at the detailed report. Data released yesterday by the State Administration for Market Regulation shows:
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