The Jia people live in a very special environment.
In the valley near the foot of the mountain, there is a narrow vertical natural stone crevice, which forms two stone hall-like structures, one large and one small. There are also stalactites and mountain spring dripping water on the cave wall. The total number of men, women, old and children in the tribe is seventy or eighty.
Human scale, a very standard small tribe, divided into two families, each occupying a grotto, living together in a semi-group.
Relatively speaking, this is the safest cave in which Xu Chen has visited so many tribes. It is almost a fully enclosed cave. It is not afraid of wind and rain, and it is even warm in winter and cool in summer.
However, compared to the size of the family's population, this cave seems a bit small. The two families, men, women and children, live in a very crowded place. In addition to the fire pond, there are densely packed stone and grass nests, and there is almost no place to stay, because
There is no ventilation and the smell is even worse.
In order to improve the living environment, this year they built a circular stilted building on the edge of the woods at the foot of the mountain.
This stilted building is very primitive in its construction. Wooden branches and sticks are scattered horizontally and vertically, and it is full of prehistoric atmosphere. It feels like a huge bird's nest has been moved to the ground.
After walking in, the space and structure inside were also very rough and barbaric. The wood was built crookedly and the bundles were crooked. There were nests made of withered grass, branches and animal skins everywhere. The scene was so spectacular that only Xu Chen could see it.
Breathtaking.
This is a building full of natural and abstract styles.
It is completely different from the stilt house style that Xu Chen helped build and taught in the Lei Clan.
But for these people, who had never had the concept of artificial architecture and had never studied it. They were able to build such a house after only seeing it once. Xu Chen was curious and amazed but also felt very relieved.
Although they are ugly, it must be said that these savages are full of enthusiasm and desire for learning and innovation.
This weird stilted building with a mixed structure of a honeycomb and a bird's nest is very in line with the atmosphere of this era. It looks like it was built by savages. This style is even impossible for civilized people to learn.
At least Xu Chen had to admit after visiting the house surrounded by the Jia clan chief, men, women, and children, that he would never be able to build such a house. The brain-burning structure alone would cause his super CPU to smoke and shut down.
But this time Xu Chen came to the Jia clan, not to see their dark building with a prehistoric style, but to inquire about the whereabouts of the lead ore.
The chief of the Jia tribe also knew the purpose of Xu Chen's visit. After visiting their neo-primitive style mixed house, he had several large baskets of stones carried out.
There are cerusite and galena in it, which are similar to those brought to the Ba tribe last time, but with more.
As for other ores and various colorful agates, ambers, and jade collected as gemstones, Xu Chen didn't pay too much attention. After a cursory look through them, he even found a few large pieces of soapstone.
Strictly speaking, chicken bloodstone is not a gemstone, because it is a mixed aggregate rock with complex composition, including quartz, chalcedony, magnetite, kaolinite and other different minerals. The red part is mainly cinnabar, also
It is mercury sulfide. Because the cinnabar is distributed in stripes or sheets, these stones appear as red patches like chicken blood, hence the name.
The reason why chicken blood stone later became a precious stone was mainly because of the rise of seal culture, which gradually attracted the favor of the cultural class.
But at the moment, in Xu Chen's eyes, it is inferior to flint. At least flint can be used to make stone tools and even tools for drilling wood to make fire, but these stones are useless.
Seeing that Xu Chen didn't seem to be interested in these gems, the Jia clan leader quickly asked someone to bring out another item.
Xu Chen was stunned when he saw this thing.
This is a huge tooth with a yellowish surface. It is at least two meters long and curved in a large arc. The root of the tooth is at least as thick as a thigh.
Looking at this huge tooth, the shadow of an animal popped up in Xu Chen's mind almost at the same time: an elephant.
But soon this image was overturned, and two more ancient and huge creatures emerged: mammoths.
Although elephants and mammoths are of the same species, just like Westerners and Easterners, they are absolutely closely related species, but there are still big differences between mammoths and elephants, that is, mammoths are larger in size and have teeth that are larger than elephants.
Thick, long and curved.
Xu Chen's geology major overlaps with archeology in many aspects, and paleontological fossils are also a very important category in geological and mineral exploration.
In fact, mammoths are a very large genus of the elephant family. They were once widely distributed on the earth, and there were many different populations. The mammoths we usually call are woolly mammoths. They are huge and have long hair, and are also called woolly mammoths.
Mainly lives in cold areas.
But mammoths are not just woolly mammoths, there are also steppe mammoths and southern mammoths.
The last mammoth became extinct around 1,700 BC, throughout the Paleolithic Age, Neolithic Age and Early Bronze Age of human civilization. In other words, the last era of mammoth extinction was around the early Shang Dynasty.
At that time, there were not only elephants but also mammoths in China.
The extinction of mammoths, like a large number of other animals, is inseparable from human activities.
From ancient times to the Shang and Zhou dynasties, humans have been hunting herbivorous giants such as wild elephants and mammoths on a large scale.
And right now, humans, who are still in the matrilineal clan stage of the Stone Age, happen to be in an alternating period of rise and extinction with the mammoths.
This huge mammoth tusk is extremely huge. It must be an adult giant beast. I just don’t know where this thing came from. Are there mammoths near the Jia tribe?
Xu Chen was surprised and happy.
After two lifetimes as a human being, he felt that he finally had the opportunity to see this legendary prehistoric beast.
"Where did this tooth come from?"
Xu Chen squatted in front of this huge animal tooth, touching the cold and smooth tip with his hand and asked excitedly.
"Cool dog quack!"
The hunter leader of the Jia tribe quickly pointed to the east and answered.
Xu Chen suddenly became interested.
The main reason he came here this time was to go to the Kugou tribe to look for lead mines. Mammoth tusks happened to be obtained from them, so he could go and find out about the whereabouts of the mammoths.
The extinction of mammoths has a lot to do with humans' access to food.
If humans could directly enter large-scale farming and animal husbandry civilization from the Paleolithic Age, and there would be no strong demand for wild meat, this prehistoric giant beast might not have become extinct so early.
Of course, he now knows nothing about the living areas of mammoths or even elephants. Maybe this ivory came from a more distant place.
More likely, the ivory was picked up.
But in any case, the activity range of primitive people in this era was very limited. Since this mammoth tusk appeared in the Jia tribe, the mammoths were not too far away from the Jia tribe. Even the mammoths that passed by or migrated to death also meant that this area belonged to the Jia tribe.
Mammoth's range of activities, maybe you will have a chance to see it soon.
With great excitement and joy, Xu Chen inquired in detail about the distribution of some tribes near the Jia Clan. He learned that the Kugou Clan was just a day's journey east, about fifty miles away, so Xu Chen decided to go and see them.
We will inquire more about this Kugou Alliance later.
For most of the next day, Xu Chen and a large number of people were stationed at the Jia tribe, giving them some constructive guidance on building houses and burning wasteland for farming. Under the leadership of the Jia tribe's hunter guides, he also visited the nearby Jia tribe.
He made a simple survey of the geography of some mountains and rivers, and added the landforms of the Jia tribe on the map, making his kingdom territory map even more complete.
Of course, the harvest didn't stop there. He actually discovered the tung tree in the local area, which made him very happy.
Although it was winter, it was not easy to recognize the tung trees after they had fallen. However, when a large group of people were wandering around the hillside, a Ba hunter found a tree full of fruits. He picked it up and was curious to taste it, but was
A group of frightened Jia hunters stopped him and said with frightened faces that the fruit was poisonous and would kill him if he ate it.
Xu Chen scolded this guy with a shameless face. Birds and beasts wouldn't eat the fruits all over the ground. They obviously couldn't eat them. Otherwise, the birds and beasts would have caused trouble long ago. He could still wait until winter for people to pick them up.
Therefore, the safety awareness of survival in the wild needs to be strengthened.
However, after scolding him, he picked up a few fruits and took a look at them. He immediately lost his composure. After peeling them open, his judgment was further confirmed. They were tung trees.
All tung trees are poisonous, and tung seeds are the most poisonous. However, this stuff is rich in oil and is a very high-quality industrial oil that can be used to make paints that are waterproof, rust-proof and anti-corrosive.
Before the invention of chemical paints, tung oil and raw lacquer had always been the main protective coatings for various wood products and even armor and weapons, and they were still widely used in the industrial era.
Although it is not very useful at the moment, if you can really find a way to squeeze out tung oil, it will still be of great value. At least the fishing nets soaked in tung oil will be stronger and more durable. In addition, the armor and leather boots will be more durable after being treated with tung oil.
Long.
But according to the current industrial level, it is not ordinary difficulty to squeeze out tung oil.
However, wealth is accumulated. At least the discovery of tung trees near Gonghuo Basin is definitely good news and will definitely be of great use in the future.
Therefore, he asked the Jia tribe hunters in detail and learned that there were many such poisonous trees in some low hillside areas nearby. Therefore, Xu Chen asked the Jia tribe to help collect more next fall, so that they could be exchanged with the Gonghuo tribe and the Lei tribe.
For items such as pottery and linen, of course, the prerequisite is to dig out the tung seeds inside.
The Jia people were overjoyed at Xu Chen's request.
They never thought that this poisonous fruit, which even wild animals would not eat, could be exchanged for something.
Compared with several tribes in the Ba Alliance, these tribes belonging to the Gonghuo Alliance have been developing slowly, and because they are far away from the Gonghuo Basin and the place is remote, it is more difficult to obtain urgently needed pottery and linen, so they usually
I am still racking my brains to collect some gems or cross the mountains to exchange lead ore with the Kugou tribe, and prepare to take it to the Ba tribe in the spring to exchange for pottery.
At last month's shaman leader conference, they learned that the Hu tribe used some strange-tasting plant seeds collected from the mountains to exchange a large amount of pottery, linen and other items from the Ba tribe, and brought other tribes, especially all tribes in the Gonghuo Tribe Alliance,
Very envious.
At that time, Xu Chen also claimed that no matter which tribe, as long as they could collect pepper, they could exchange it with the Ba tribe, and it would be of high value.
It's a pity that pepper rarely appears in other places except the Hu tribe. Anyway, after returning, the Jia tribe leader led a large group of people to search the hillsides near the valley, but no pepper was found.
In an era when human activities were relatively independent and isolated, this kind of plant that relied on human power was very regional and not easy to spread. Unlike fruit plants, which could be spread by birds and animals through consumption and excretion, pepper basically excluded humans.
Neither birds nor animals eat it.
Pepper cannot be found, and there are no other products to replace it. The animal skins are not enough on their own, and the lead ore is not in their territory. In addition to consuming a lot of time and manpower to go back and forth, the Kugou tribe is not easy to deal with, so they
The family has also been very depressed.
There is an urgent need to find a pepper-like spice crop that can be exchanged with the Ba people.
And just when they were disappointed, they didn't expect that Xu Chen's visit brought them a huge surprise.
However, as a group of very honest savages, the Jia tribe hunters can still seriously remind you that this fruit is highly poisonous and will kill people if you eat it. I hope Xu Chen will be careful and never let children steal it.
Xu Chen was still very concerned about the kind reminder from the Jia people, saying that this kind of seed called tung tree would be of great use in the future, and hoped that they could search for it and even cultivate it on a large scale, just like opening up wasteland for farming, which can be done on more open hillsides.
If planted in large quantities, the Jia people will harvest as many tung seeds as the Ba people want in the future.
The entire Jia clan cheered loudly for this great gift that Xu Chen suddenly sent. The clan leader and several leaders were even more excited, saying that they would plant and harvest the tung trees according to Xu Chen's instructions.
With this prerequisite for business cooperation, Xu Chen's visit made this remote small tribe even more lively.