Salawusu site

Salawusu site (Dagouwan) is a masterpiece of nature. It is located 18 kilometers southeast of Chengchuan Town, Etuokeqian banner, Ordos, Inner Mongolia. It is named after the Wuding River flowing into Dagouwan village, Chengchuan, which originates from the northern foot of Baiyu mountain in Shaanxi Province.

Salawusu, which means yellow water in Mongolian, shows that the river here is muddy and yellow all the year round. On both sides of the river, there are many red willows, so people also call this river "red willow river". It is along this river that once was the birthplace of the ancient and splendid Ordos civilization.

Salawusu cultural site

synonym

Salawusu site generally refers to Salawusu cultural site

Salawusu cultural site is located in the southern end of Ordos grassland. There is a winding river. It originates from Dingbian County in Northwest Shaanxi, flows through Etuoke Banner and Wushen Banner in Inner Mongolia, then turns eastward from Batuwan village and flows into northern Shaanxi. After converging with Xiangshui River, it flows southeast into Wuding River, a tributary of the Yellow River. On the loose Mu Us Desert, a wide and deep "U" shaped River Valley is scoured out. This river is called Salawusu River.

geographical position

Salawusu, which means yellow water in Mongolian, shows that the river here is muddy and yellow all the year round. On both sides of the river, there are many red willows, so people also call this river "red willow river". It is along this river that once was the birthplace of the ancient and splendid Ordos civilization.

Cultural relic certificate

In 1922, French Catholic priest, geobiologist sang Zhihua and de Rijin discovered and discovered this cultural site. One of them is the left upper lateral incisor tooth of a person with deep fossilization, which was named "Ordos tooth" after the research of Canadian burdashen.

In the 1940s, Pei Wen, an archaeologist in China, translated it as "Hetao people" and called this Paleolithic culture "Hetao culture". From 1950s to 1980s, Chinese archaeologists continued to investigate this area and found many new discoveries one after another. Finally, this cultural site was named "Salawusu culture". Since then, Chinese archaeologists have visited the site many times.

A large number of cultural relics unearthed prove that "Hetao people" lived here as early as 35000 years ago. The material culture created by "Hetao people" is now called "Salawusu culture". Based on the comprehensive analysis of geology, animal fossils and stone tools, Salawusu culture is recognized as the late Paleolithic culture.

Remains of ashes

Salawusu cultural sites are mainly located in Dagouwan village and dishao gouwan village of Wushen Banner.

In Dagouwan village, an ash relic was found. The relic was oval in shape, about 1-2 meters in length and width. The middle part of the ash subsided, forming a basin shaped pit. More than 30 pieces of broken animal bones were found near the pit. It can be seen that this is the place where human beings raise fire to eat wild animals. At the same time, one or two hundred stone tools were collected in Dagouwan village. These stone tools are small in shape, mainly including pointed tools, scrapers, carving tools and so on.

Especially round head scrapers, small carvers and wedge-shaped stone cores are typical. Although these stone tools are strictly different from the early Neolithic microliths, the columnar stone core was found in the site, indicating the existence of microliths. The stone tools of Salawusu culture have many similarities with those of Beijinger culture, Xujiayao culture in Yanggao, Shanxi, Zhiyu culture in Shuo county, Shanxi and Xiaonanhai culture in Anyang, Henan. It shows that they all belong to the Shiyu system, the first site of Zhoukoudian (site of Beijingers), and that Salawusu culture is closely related to the mainland.

Main features

A total of 23 fossils of Hetao man have been unearthed, including a remnant right parietal bone and a left femur collected in tishaogouwan village, Wushen Banner, Inner Mongolia in 1956; a parietal bone found in Dagouwan village, Wushen Banner in 1960; and 19 parietal, frontal, occipital, mandible, femur, tibia, fibula and scapula obtained from 1978 to 1980, among which 19 fossils are from late Pleistocene There are 6 pieces of proto strata in the early Pleistocene, and the juvenile incisors discovered in 1922. According to the latest thermoluminescence study on the fossils of Hetao people, they lived about 70000 to 100000 years ago. Their basic characteristics are close to those of modern people, but they still retain some primitiveness, such as thick skull wall, simple bone suture, thick jaw, thick femoral arm and small medullary cavity. These primitiveness indicate that Hetao people belong to late Homo sapiens. According to the characteristics of the incisors and head fossils of Hetao people, it is similar to the modern Mongolian race (yellow race).

animal fossil

Many mammal fossils, such as rhinoceros skulls and teeth, primitive cattle and horse ribs, elephant bone and ivory, and many animal leg bones, were unearthed along the Salawusu River.

According to the animal fossil records, the Salawusu formation fauna mainly includes:

1. Nama ancient rhombodonta is a kind of ancient elephant with huge body and slightly curved incisors. It is similar to modern elephant. The incisor fossil found in Ordos is about 2.4-3 meters long.

2. Rhinoceros lanceolata, a rhinoceros with long hair outside the body, is the most widely distributed fossil found in the strata of this period in Ordos. In 1920s, a fairly complete skeleton of rhinoceros lanceolata was found in Salawusu River.

3. Hetao bighorn deer - this kind of deer is tall and stout. The most special thing is that the eyebrow branch of the antler is extended, flat and fan-shaped, almost perpendicular to the skull, and the main branch is an open palm shaped and towering above the eyebrow branch. This is unique among deer.

4. Wang's buffalo, named in memory of the discoverer Wang Shun, a Mongolian farmer, has unique horns and triangular cross-section.

5. Norwich camel - this camel is thicker than the modern camel skull, the individual is tall, it is one of the unique ancient animals in Salawusu fauna. 6. Hyenas and tigers - among the carnivores, this kind of fossil is the most found. In the yangsiwan area of Salawusu River, the back half skeleton of a rare tiger in the Quaternary tiger fossil has been found.

historical significance

There are at least 45 species of Salawusu fauna fossils, which is worthy of the name of "hometown of fossils". These Salawusu cultural relics and coexisting fauna show that there were many freshwater lakes in the Salawusu River area, where water, grass and forest were abundant, and groups of animals were active.

The "Hetao people" living on both sides of the river and lake created their own civilization in such a lush place. It has written a brilliant page for the development of human history.

Address: Etuokeqian banner, Ordos City, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region

Longitude: 108.819985

Latitude: 38.14914

Ticket information: 23 RMB

Chinese PinYin : Sa La Wu Su Yi Zhi