Maomaodong site

Maomaodong site is located in Maomaoshan, north of Xingyi County, Guizhou Province. It is a site of the late Paleolithic age, about 12000 years ago.

In 1975, more than 4000 stone artifacts and a large number of mammal fossils were unearthed, as well as a considerable number of bones, horned utensils and rich traces of fire. Among the 7 human fossils, the shape of mandible is similar to that of mandible 101. The femur is stout, with thick bone wall and small medullary cavity, similar to the late "Homo sapiens" fossil.

Maomaodong site

Maomaodong site is located in Maomaoshan, north of Xingyi City, Guizhou Province. It is a late Paleolithic site.

Maomaodong cave is located in the east of Maomaoshan. The Paleolithic site of maomaodong cave contains ancient human beings - "Xingyi people". Maomaodong cave was "Xingyi people" 12000 years ago

”A cave house. The cave is composed of two arc-shaped hills connected at the bottom. One is low and slightly round, like a cat's head drooping; the other is high and flat, like a cat's body arched up. From a distance, it looks like a bobcat crawling here, so it gets its name. On the "cat's head" of Maomaoshan, a 3-meter-high and 4-meter-wide cave is exposed. The cave entrance looks like the wide open eyes of a mountain cat, which is called Maomao cave by local people

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Archaeologists have named the human ossification stone unearthed from Maomao cave as "Xingyi human" fossil

According to the characteristics of the relics, it was named "maomaodong culture"

. Maomaodong ancient cultural site is a key cultural relic protection unit in Guizhou Province

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The cultural relic of "maomaodong" comes from the 2.5-meter-thick complete accumulation layer, belonging to the late Paleolithic age, about 12000 years ago. Archaeologists have named the human ossification stone unearthed from "maomaodong" as "xingyiren" according to the characteristics of the relics. It is named "the cultural relic of cat cave".

The color collection of Chinese ancient human paintings published by China Science Press in 1980 made a high evaluation of the discovery of the "maomaodong" site: "its cultural features are rare in China", "the number of ancient human fossils unearthed in a site, the rich stone material, the large number of bone vessels and the exquisite production are second to none in the late Paleolithic period of South China, and are the most popular in the whole world China is also very prominent

。” The discovery of the "maomaodong" site is of great value to the study of the origin, development and distribution of the regional culture of late human beings

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brief introduction

One kilometer to the southwest of Dingxiao town in Xingyi City, on the left bank of Dingxiao River, there is a steep hill. There is a wonderful cave on the east side. From a distance, it looks like a delicate Bobcat crawling on the top of the hill, with a pair of bright eyes and vivid appearance. People call the mountain Maomao mountain and the cave Maomao cave.

geographical position

Maomaodong is located 13 kilometers northeast of Xingyi City, 45 meters above the water surface of Dingxiao river.

features

The cave is 3 meters high and more than 4 meters wide. The entrance of the cave faces the northeast, with hills in front, paddy fields on both sides, Mulong Dazhai with beautiful mountains and rivers in the back, and Dingxiao River in front of the cave. Maomaodong is a place where ancient human beings lived, multiplied and worked for a long time.

The formation period of maomaodong belongs to the late Paleolithic period. The geological age belongs to the later stage of late Pleistocene, about 12000 years ago.

Archaeological events

In the winter of 1974, archaeologists of Guizhou Provincial Museum discovered Maomao cave, and collected stone pieces with traces of ancient man-made strike, which attracted the attention of archaeologists. In October of the next year, the Provincial Museum carried out a trial excavation, which proved to be a valuable late Paleolithic cultural site. In November of the same year, seven precious human fossils, more than 4000 stone artifacts and a large number of mammal fossils, as well as a considerable number of bones, horned utensils and rich traces of fire were unearthed

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Among the 7 human fossils, the shape of mandible is similar to that of mandible 101. The femur is stout, with thick bone wall and small medullary cavity, which is similar to the late "Homo sapiens" fossil

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Among more than 4000 stone artifacts, 1211 stone artifacts can be studied, including choppers, scrapers, sharps, and carvers. The main production method is sharp edge smashing, followed by hammering. Among them, a blunt straight blade chopper unearthed from the second layer of deposit is natural hard fine sand gray gravel. The edges of both sides of the gravel have been flattened, leaving traces of the stone hammer used before. The artifacts directly processed from natural gravels are extremely rare among the similar artifacts unearthed from Paleolithic sites. In addition, there are stone core, stone chip, stone hammer and stone anvil. The stone tools unearthed from maomaodong are of stable types, various shapes and fine processing

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Six pieces of bone ware and eight pieces of horn ware were unearthed, some of which were discovered for the first time in China. The bone knife is polished smooth as a whole, and the blade is finely ground. The shape of the blade is exquisite, smooth and sharp. The horn shovel is made of deer antlers, and the blade surface is 45 degrees, which is also the first discovery in China. The unique manufacture of bone cones is one of the best unearthed relics in the Paleolithic age in China

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At the same time, a large number of mammal fossils such as Chinese rhinoceros, narrow toothed bear, ox, deer, elephant, muntjac, bamboo mouse, wild boar, badger, etc. were unearthed, and fire relics such as bone burning, stone burning and charcoal scraps were found

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The remains of maomaodong culture come from the 2.5-meter-thick complete accumulation layer, belonging to the late Paleolithic period. The geological age belongs to the later stage of late Pleistocene, about 12000 years ago

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Factual basis

The cultural relics and scientific research value of Maomao cave are unexpected. The unearthed bone and horn vessels are of unique manufacture, and some of them are first discovered in China. Today's National Museum of China has "ancient China Exhibition". In the first chapter of "ancient times", there are two cases of exhibits from the cat cave in Xingyi, one is "antler shovel" and the other is "pointed utensils". The instruction board indicates that in the late Paleolithic period (50000-10000 years ago), maomaodong cave was excavated in Xingyi, Guizhou Province in 1975

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According to the popular science materials of Paleontology and related archaeological materials, Xingyi was once a vast ocean 240 million years ago, and it was a country of great prosperity. The fossils of Guizhou dragon, sea lily and fish tell us that Xingyi has had the origin of life since then. But when was the origin of mankind? What can be proved in kind?

"Mountains are not high, but immortals are famous. The water is not deep, the dragon is the soul. " This famous sentence of Liu Yuxi, a great scholar in Tang Dynasty, seems to be written for Xingyi. In particular, among the famous Wanfeng forest and the karst landforms on both sides of Malinghe gorge, isolated karst peaks rise from pingbazi, with a relative height of only tens of meters to 200 meters. After millions of years of wind and rain erosion, the dense or scattered mountain peaks meet and send countless earth elves, and even record the faltering steps of ancient human beings

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Back in time, the clock points to 1974. In October of this year, Mr. Cao Zetian, an expert from the archaeological group of Guizhou Provincial Museum, came to Xingyi. After investigation and field visit, he focused on Maomao mountain, about 1km southwest of Dingxiao Town, Xingyi City

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Human life is inseparable from food, human need to resist external damage, human have been looking for shelter, light, dry and ventilated comfortable residence. Thousands of years ago, when there were forests and water, there was inexhaustible food; when there were slopes and holes, they were places to defend against beasts and shelter from the wind and rain. For the ancient human beings who relied heavily on natural conditions and took cave dwelling as their main way of life, nature was an ideal place for settlement.

According to Li Zhien, a retired veteran who has been engaged in the excavation and protection of cultural relics for a long time, in October 1975, he accompanied the experts of the provincial archaeological working group to carry out the trial excavation of Maomao cave. After making a major discovery, the official excavation was carried out in November. During that excavation, 7 human fossils were unearthed and more than 4000 stone tools were made, of which 1211 are available for study. At the same time, more than 10 kinds of animal fossils have been unearthed. In particular, the unearthed human fossils, including mandible and femur, are valuable fossils of human beings in the late Paleolithic age. Especially in the late Paleolithic period, there are very few places where human fossils were found, and the cat cave is second to none in the whole country. Therefore, scientists from the Institute of Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences named the human fossil "Xingyi man". In 1982, maomaodong was approved by Guizhou Provincial People's government as a provincial key cultural relics protection unit

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Along with the excavation, precious human fossils, stone artifacts, bone artifacts, horn artifacts and other artifacts were found in the 2.5-meter-thick complete accumulation layer. In addition, some animal fossils and human fire relics were also found

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Archaeological value

The cultural relics and scientific research value of Maomao cave are unexpected. The unearthed bone and horn vessels are of unique manufacture, and some of them are first discovered in China. Today's National Museum of China has "ancient China Exhibition". In the first chapter of "ancient times", there are two cases of exhibits from the cat cave in Xingyi, one is "antler shovel" and the other is "pointed utensils". The instruction board indicates that in the late Paleolithic period (50000-10000 years ago), maomaodong cave was excavated in Xingyi, Guizhou Province in 1975

.

More importantly, seven precious human fossils were unearthed from Maomao cave

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