Lesson 2: Primitive farming life （688words）

In ancient times, the Yellow River basin had a warm climate suitable for human activities. In the eastern part of Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, around the village of Hanpo, archaeologists have discovered a large primitive settlement site, which is about 6,000 years old and is named the Hanpo site.

The settlement area of the Hanpo site has houses, cellars, trenches, a public cemetery outside the settlement area and a kiln for firing pottery. The houses of the Hanpo people were mainly prototype semi-cave houses with cooking pits inside and mostly used wood for posts.

The Hanpo people made fine ground stone tools. The era of using ground stone tools is called the Neolithic Age. They also made bone tools, horn tools and other production tools to reclaim land and engage in agricultural production, mainly growing corn; raising livestock such as pigs and dogs; hunting spotted deer, roe deer and rabbits with bows and arrows, spears and stone balls; catching fish with fishing forks, fish hooks and nets; and sometimes collecting wild fruits as a supplement to their food.

The living utensils of the semi-po people are mainly pottery, and the most characteristic one is colored pottery. The most distinctive pottery is colored pottery, which is mainly decorated with black patterns on a red background, mostly geometric patterns and animal and plant patterns, including fish and deer patterns.

There are also many decorations and a few musical instruments, such as ocarinas. There are also bone needles, ancient cones, pottery and stone spinning wheels excavated from the site, which shows that the Hanpo people could already engage in simple weaving and clothing making.

The Life of the Hemudu People

Seven to eight thousand years ago, the Yangtze River basin had a warm and humid climate with abundant rainfall. Archaeologists have found some sites of ancient human activities in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. Among them, the Hemudu site in Yuyao, Zhejiang Province, which is about 7,000 years old, is the most representative.

The houses of the Hemudu people were mainly dry-rail buildings, with wooden piles inserted into the ground, and wooden planks and other pieces were used on top to form houses. This was the earliest wooden structure in China, and had an important influence on Chinese classical architecture. At the Hemudu site, a wooden structured well was also found, which is the earliest wooden structured well ever found.

Rice was the main crop in this area at that time, and a large number of remains of artificial rice cultivation have been found at the site.

This shows that the lower reaches of the Yangtze River was one of the origins of rice in Asia. The most typical agricultural tools were bone plows, and domestic animals were mainly pigs, dogs and buffaloes. The Hemudu people made pottery and jade, as well as simple musical instruments, such as bone whistles.

The Hemudu people also used carving and other techniques to make antique artworks from ivory and animal bones. The earliest ivory carvings in China were unearthed here. The Hemudu people also knew how to use natural lacquer.

Development of primitive agriculture

China is a large agricultural country, and agricultural production has a long history. During their long life of gathering and hunting, humans became familiar with the habits of plants and animals and gradually learned to cultivate crops and raise animals. The world's earliest artificially cultivated rice has been found in some early sites in China. The Yellow River Basin was the earliest origin of cultivated millet, and the earliest cultivated millet remains have been found to be about 9,000-7,000 years old. Around the same time, primitive agriculture emerged in the Yellow River, Yangtze River and Huai River basins of China. Primitive agriculture developed from the initial "slash-and-burn'' to plowing with Lei plows and other earth-turning tools, raising the level of agricultural production. The emergence of crop cultivation, livestock breeding and the development of settlements and grinding tools are important signs of the rise and development of primitive agriculture. Primitive agriculture laid an important material foundation for the formation of ancient civilized society. （688words）