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Banpo Museum
Brief Introduction
Bnapo Museum is the first Chinese prehistoric site museum, except for
the cultural relic exhibitant room, there still displays a protected hall
covers an area of about 3000 centiares where was originally the residential
village of the dwellers. The museum located on the eastern suburd of Xi'an
City. The relics of houses, cellars, and kitchen range pits and the parted
male-female tombs etc. such living and production articles had show us
a vivid picture of the typical Neolithic matriarchal community tracing
back to 6,000 years ago. It possesses a high value in researching the
Chinese original society. The museum has received more than two million
people since it opened to public in 1958 publicly.
Matriarchal Society
Six to seven thousand years ago, a stable village was built by a late
Neolithic people. It was a matriarchal society based on farming. The houses
were constructed of thatch over wood beams while the floors were sunk
two to three feet into the ground. Heat was provided by a central fire.
Food was stored in underground caves, dug deep enough to protect the provisions
from being devoured by wildlife or contaminated by insects. Architecture,
village organization, and food storage methods appear to have been strikingly
similar to the way of life of some Native American plains tribes.
People were used to work together in that period. They dug a trench around
the entire complex both for protection and for drainage. There was a large
meeting hall in the center of the village and a place for central storage.
Most of the tools as axes, hoes, and knives were of stone, but some implements
were of bone like needles for sewing. The stone tools look remarkably
sharp, but it was still fortunate that the Banpo settled in an area where
the soil was loose and easily tilled.
Art, in the form of geometric designs and human and animal figures, is
found on many of the pots. Some of the pottery items have marks scratched
on them that may well anticipate a form of writing. The village pottery
produced specialized pots for drinking, storage, cooking, and burial.
Construction
The originally-styled gate decoration, female stone carving on the water-flowing
pool and the four words "Banpo site" written by Guo Moruo, all
of which have contributed to the regression feels of nature, history and
arts.
The museum itself has three exhibition rooms and a relic hall, where the
tourists could find both innocent belongs to children and trace left by
the ancestors.
The primary production tools and domestic tools used by the original Banpo
people, including axes, chisels, sickles, and stone which could draw a
general picture of the prodution activities thousands of years ago. It
is indeed the deep impression left to us when entering the first Exhibition
Hall. Apart from that, social life and cultural artwork and adornment
could be reflected in a degree.
The Second Hall, which contains two halls, displays auxiliary things.
Special shows are held here on ethnology, folklore and the history of
art related to the prehistoric culture.
The whole Bnapo Site Hall would be divided into three sections, a residential
hall, a pottery-made hall and tomb area, in which the residential area
is the principle part, including the huts, kilns and tombs of the primitive
residents. All these drew us an outline of the aboriginal village and
the hard conditions of the forebearrs in pursuing the civilization, reflecting
the production level and the social systems at that period of time.
The Banpo Matriarchal Clan Community Village
The Banpo Matriarchal Clan Community Village is a kind of extension if
the Bnapo Museum. Its establishment is on the precondition of protecting
the relics. According to the archaeological excavated data, the village
has took the rare patrimony from underground up to overground that has
reappeared the matrilineal clan commune period of the Neolithic period.
The village has enriched the museum connotation, flourished the long cultural
history and assembled the prehistorical art, customs and village life
in Yellow River drainage area. It takes a lot the advantage of cultural
relics, made itself to be a well combination of research, archaeology,
teaching, traveling and entertainment. Entitled the name of " the
first village of HuXia".
Today
In 1996, the Banpo Museum has been fixed as one of the Hundred National
Patriotism Education Demonstration Base. Later in the following year,
the museum confirmed to be one spot among the Ten Xi'an Tourist Scenic
Spots, also as an important relic protection site by State Department.
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