Xihoudu site

Xihoudu site

Xihoudu site is located in Xihoudu village, Ruicheng County, Shanxi Province. The site is about 170 meters above the river. The Xihoudu site is one of the typical representatives of the cultural relics of the early ape man stage in China. The discovery of deer antlers with cut marks and animal bones shows that they have conquered the "God of fire" at their feet, revealing the charm of "the spirit of all souls".

Xihoudu site, the oldest Paleolithic site known in China, is the earliest evidence of human use of fire in China. In 1988, Xihoudu site was designated as a national key cultural relics protection unit.

Site excavation

Xihoudu site is one of the representative cultural relics of the early ape man stage in China. It is the oldest Paleolithic site known in China, about 1.8 million years ago. Xihoudu site is the earliest evidence of human use of fire in China. The discovery of the Xihoudu site pushes the history of human use of fire to more than 1 million years ago.

From 1961 to 1962, Shanxi Provincial Museum excavated Xihoudu site twice, and unearthed a number of human cultural relics and vertebrate fossils. A batch of bone burning materials were unearthed in Xihoudu, which pushed the history of human use of fire to more than one million years ago. No other country in the world has found such an ancient bone.

In 1988, Xihoudu site was designated as a national key cultural relics protection unit.

Main relics

At the Xihoudu site, cultural relics and animal fossils are concentrated in the interlaced sand layer with an average thickness of about 1 meter. The animal fossils are mainly 22 species of mammals, including giant beaver, Saber Toothed elephant, flat forehead elephant, walking antelope and so on. Most of mammals are grassland animals, and there are also animals suitable for grassland and forest life. A total of 32 stone artifacts were found in the cultural relics, including stone cores, stone chips and processed stone tools. Most of the stone tools are made of quartzite.

Xihoudu site is located in Xihoudu village, Ruicheng County, Shanxi Province. The animal fossils unearthed include giant beaver, carp, Shanxi axial deer, trachoma axial deer, stout Buffalo, Shanxi hairy rhinoceros, Sanmen horse, Chinese wild ox, Jinnan elk, Bu's antelope, Li's wild boar, Nama elephant, etc. The quantity of stone tools unearthed is not much, mainly using quartzite as raw material, and the types are stone core, stone chip, chopper, scraper and three edged big pointed utensils. In addition, a number of burnt bones were unearthed in the cultural layer, which is the earliest evidence of human use of fire in China. The discovery of stone tools, antlers with cutting marks and burned bones proves that human activities existed here as far as 1.8 million years ago. The site is a national cultural relic protection unit.

History and culture

Early Paleolithic culture in North China. It was found on the terrace about 170 meters above the Yellow River in Xihoudu village, Ruicheng, Shanxi Province. Excavated from 1961 to 1962.

Some early Pleistocene extinct animal fossils, such as Saber Toothed elephant, Nama elephant, bison, hippo, sanmenma and giant beaver, have been unearthed. Cultural relics include 32 pieces of stone products and deer antlers with bone burning and cutting marks. Researchers speculate that the culture is 1.8 million years old. Because stone products are washed and ground by running water, it is difficult to distinguish them from natural stones. Some people doubt whether they are artificial products.

China is the country with the largest number of Paleolithic human fossils and cultural sites in the world. The earliest primitive ancestors appeared about 1.8 million years ago.

In the primitive society, tools of production and weapons were not separated, but because of survival competition, there were often bloody and violent conflicts between clans or tribes, so the lethal tools of production were also used in human wars. Later, in order to fight for land, population, wealth, the war between tribal alliance became more and more fierce.

Tools for the purpose of production can no longer be competent for the increasingly cruel war. People began to study and manufacture professional fighting weapons and defensive weapons. Since then, weapons gradually separated from production tools, and formal weapons appeared.

This change took place in the late primitive society, about 2000 BC.

archaeological discovery

China has produced many cultural sites. The most typical is the Xihoudu site, which is about 1.8 million years ago. In the late Paleolithic age, the stone tools tended to be miniaturized and diversified, and the number of tools increased. The representative weapons of the Paleolithic age are stone scrapers, stone hammers, sharp billed stone chisels, and stone arrowheads. The ancient literature "Yijing * Xici" says: the string wood is the arc, and each wood is the arrow. Arc is the bow made of wood; arrow is the ancient name of arrow.

Although it is difficult to see the bow and arrow shaft of the stone age in archaeological excavation (the bow and arrow shaft are made of perishable materials such as bamboo, wood and rattan, which generally can not be preserved to today), the stone age arrowheads unearthed are very rich, with different materials such as stone, bone, clam shell and pottery, and most of them have been ground and have various shapes. Neolithic sites are almost all over the country. The most famous cultural sites are the Neolithic cultural sites in the Yellow River Basin (5550-4900 BC), among which the Hongshan Culture (around 3500 BC) is unique.

Main features

People have skillfully mastered the skills of grinding stone tools, which can be polished into sharp and angular stone tools. At the same time, the technology of processing wood and bone with stone tools has been improved, which has prepared the technological conditions for the manufacture of weapons. At that time, the main weapons transformed from production tools were: stone knife, stone arrow, stone spear, stone axe, stone arrow, stone Qi, stone Yue; stone hammer, stone Ge, and so on. A large number of arrowheads have been unearthed, which indicates the widespread use of bows and arrows and the widespread existence of hunting activities.

The use of bows and arrows has also changed a lot. The arrowheads that originally shot at animals began to turn to human beings and become weapons for human beings to kill each other. In the Neolithic sites in Shanxi, Yunnan and other places, archeologists have found human skeletons shot by arrows. In the dadunzi Neolithic site in Pixian County, Jiangsu Province, an adult man's femur was shot 2.7 cm deep by a bone arrowhead. So far, the broken bone arrowhead remains embedded in the remains about 5600 years ago.

As for the bone soldiers, clam soldiers and horn soldiers, they can be found at the sites where the stone soldiers are unearthed, but because they are perishable, they are rarely complete. The main types are bone arrowhead, bone, bone knife, bone axe, bone stabbing, shell arrowhead, shell scraper, clam knife, horn soldier.

The original jade weapon is a unique weapon in China, with deep characteristics, crystal clear and exquisite. It is a treasure of Chinese weapons. It is used as a ceremonial weapon or burial object, and it is rare in the world. Main varieties: Yuyue, Yudao.

Early Paleolithic culture in North China. The site is located in Kehe village, Ruicheng, Shanxi Province. It was discovered in 1957 and excavated many times from 1960 to 1980. Animal fossils and stone products were unearthed. Stone artifacts include chopper, scraper, big pointed, small pointed and spherical ones. Researchers believe that they are different in style from those of Beijingers, but belong to the same technical tradition as those of Dingcun site.

Animal fossils include some ancient species, such as the hippo and an ancient Saber Toothed elephant. Some researchers hold that the culture of Kehe may be earlier than that of Beijingers, while others hold that the culture is later from the perspective of geomorphology. It is a link between the preceding and the following in cultural development.

Research value

This is the earliest evidence of human use of fire in China. It is also one of the earliest records of human use of fire in the world. It is a national cultural relic protection unit. It has been declared as the collection place of Beijing Olympic flame by Shanxi Province. In addition, the Kehe site in Ruicheng County is a representative site of the early Paleolithic Kehe culture in North China. The geological age is about 600000 years ago in the early Pleistocene. Important cultural sites include nanhaiyu cave in Yuanqu, Yuwang City, Dongxiafeng and Xiyin in Xiaxian County, Dutou and yaowangtai in Yongji County, Xiwang village and Beili village in Hejin County, yuanyao River in Jiangxian county and qilipo in Pinglu county.

Longitude: 110.275588926

Latitude: 34.693908691406

Chinese PinYin : Xi Hou Du Yi Zhi