Search

Henan Province is the birthplace of Chinese civilization and one of the earliest human settlements, which means that the area has an important national cultural heritage. Traditional villages are an important facet of this cultural heritage, and studying their spatiotemporal characteristics in different periods has important theoretical and practical significance for the sustainable development and protection of cultural heritage in the region. This paper takes the traditional villages of the Yellow River basin in Henan Province that were formed before 1919 as the research object. Information on the ancient river was obtained through a literature search as well as via field research, and the important tributaries of the Yellow River in different periods were mapped using ArcGIS 10.0 software. The nearest neighbor index, kernel density estimation, standard deviation ellipse and other methods were adopted to analyze the spatiotemporal characteristics of the traditional villages. The factors that influenced the evolution of traditional villages were explored in depth by combining changes in the course of the river and water conservancy projects. The results show that the formation of traditional villages along the Yellow River in Henan Province has experienced a historical track of growth, contraction, growth and prosperity and stability. The traditional villages along the Yellow River in Henan Province generally show a clustered pattern, forming a dense concentration of traditional villages in the middle reaches of the Yellow River. The center of gravity shows a migration trend from southeast to northwest. In terms of influencing factors, the spatiotemporal evolution of the relationship between villages and their distance to water is closely related to climatic fluctuations, changes in channel, water conservancy projects and social and cultural factors. This paper deepens our understanding of the relationship between traditional village evolution and watersheds by improving the consistency between village spatial distribution and historical geography and provides a useful theoretical reference for the sustainable development of China's traditional villages. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Silo-cave is a unique human habitation form on the Loess Plateau in northern China, which consists of an excavated 6–7 m deep pit as the courtyard and cave dwellings in the surrounding four walls. This architecture has had a history of more than 7000 years, and yet such "living fossils for the history of dwellings" are now facing great crises and challenges during rapid social and economic development. In this paper, remote sensing and GIS techniques are used to comprehensively and systematically investigate the spatial distributions and morphological characteristics of silo-caves at both the macro and micro scales. The research shows that silo-cave villages are mainly distributed in economically underdeveloped areas, such as West Henan (Yuxi), South Shanxi (Jinnan), Central Shaanxi (Guanzhong), and East Gansu (Longdong). The morphological evolution patterns of typical silo-cave villages are identified, including: (1) retaining the periphery and rebuilding the inner parts of the villages, (2) retaining the inner parts and expanding the periphery of the villages, and (3) rebuilding the inner parts and expanding the periphery of the villages. These patterns are demonstrated to be influenced by many factors, including landforms, traffic conditions, economic development, population growth, and administrative division adjustment. Sustainable development of these traditional silo-cave villages relies on administrative policy and planning, people's awareness of cultural heritage protection, culture inheritance, industrial transformation, and public services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Grotto temples in Henan Province, which began in the Northern Wei Dynasty and ended in the Republic of China, have been excavated and repaired to varying degrees in the Sui, Tang, Song, Yuan, Ming and Qing dynasties. In this study, 119 grotto temples sited in Henan Province were considered as the research object, and the spatial and temporal distribution of grotto temples in Henan Province is analyzed by using the method of quantitative geographic analysis and ArcGIS 10.5 software. The analysis results indicate that the grrotto temples (including cliff statues) in Henan Province tend to have a cohesive distribution, with uneven regional distribution, mainly concentrated in the western and northern regions of Henan. The distribution direction and center of the grotto temples (including cliff statues) did not change much during the Northern Dynasties, Sui and Tang dynasties, and Song and Yuan dynasties, mainly distributing in the northwest of Henan. However, the situation underwent significant changes and began to migrate to south of Henan, reflecting the changes the changes in the political and cultural center at that time. The spatiotemporal distribution of the cave temples (including cliff statues) was based on the related topography, river systems, stratigraphic lithology, road traffic, and was direct or indirect influenced by the authorities as well. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The ancient Chinese Jun Porcelain has of typical high fired calcium silicate glaze. After observation of Jun porcelain shards excavated from Juntai Kiln in Yuzhou, Henan Province, China, two pieces with light greenish blue glaze and reddish purple glaze are selected for study as special corrosion samples buried in soil environment. Taking the corrosion of each phase of the overall glaze into consideration, the chemistry compositional and morphological structural features of the earthworm-walking patterns and their surrounding white area (corroded zone) in the glazes are compared and studied with optical microscopy (OM), scanning electron microscopy with energy dispersive X-ray analysis (SEM–EDS), Raman spectroscopy (Raman) and electron microprobe (EPMA): during the firing of Jun Porcelain, the dendritic and columnar crystals coming out of the glaze and mostly in surrounding corroded areas are identified as wollastonite (CaSiO3), which provides active sites for localized corrosion. The wollastonite crystalline phases have preferential corrosion initiated by pitting corrosion relative to glassy phase, leaving dendritic or columnar pits and craters to dissolve into calcium ions and silicic acid and losing into the burial environment. Some calcium ions in the surface pits react with dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) from the soil to form calcium carbonate (CaCO3) precipitated on the surface of the glazes. The cracks formed during the cooling process and the interconnected craters caused by crystals dissolution can provide channels to facilitate the progression of the corrosion. This research is of great significance to the study of the corrosion mechanism of ancient porcelain and the conservation of its cultural relics. It has changed the traditional view that porcelain is corrosion-resistant. At the same time, the study of the corrosion process and characteristics of ancient porcelain can provide reference for modern ceramic research and corrosion protection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]