The reporter of the General Taiwan Bureau learned from the Tianjin Municipal Cultural Heritage Protection Center that the archaeological excavation of the Paleolithic site of the Tianjin Prince Mausoleum has made important gains. The Paleolithic site of the Prince Tomb is located on the secondary terrace of the river in the west of Yantai Village, Sun Gezhuang Manchu Township, Jizhou District, Tianjin, south of the Tributary Of the Yang River, the North Side is backed by Huanghua Mountain, and the East Side is adjacent to the Qing Dynasty Prince Rong Garden Residence Site, and the Loess Is Well Developed.
△ The site of archaeological excavations at the site of the Prince's Tomb
The site is backed by mountains and rivers, the terrain is flat, the field of view is wide, and it has the basic conditions suitable for the activities of ancient humans here, and has found and collected a wealth of Paleolithic stone products in the special survey of Paleolithic archaeology in the north of Jizhou District in 2005 and 2015.
△ Grinding stone tools excavation site
In order to deeply understand the cultural accumulation, cultural characteristics and cultural types of the Paleolithic site group in the northern part of Jizhou, and continue to promote the exploration of early human sources in Tianjin, after reporting to the Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Cultural Relics and the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, from October to November 2021, the Tianjin Cultural Heritage Protection Center, the School of Archaeology of Jilin University, and the Jizhou District Cultural Heritage Protection Center jointly completed the first active archaeological excavation at the site. Subsequently, the Tianjin Municipal Bureau of Cultural Heritage invited experts and scholars in relevant fields such as Peking University, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Jilin University, Hebei Normal University, and the Counsellor's Office of the Tianjin Municipal Government to consult and evaluate the archaeological findings. Archaeologists agree that with the archaeological excavations at the Paleolithic site of the Prince Tomb as a marker, Tianjin Paleolithic archaeology has entered a new stage.
△Stratigraphic accumulation and sample sampling profile of The Prince's Tomb site (local)
In the 50-square-meter excavation area of the Taizi Mausoleum site, the thickest cultural accumulation reached 5.5 meters, and 158 stone specimens were excavated in five consecutive stratigraphic accumulations. From the geomorphological parts, stratigraphic accumulation and cultural characteristics of excavated stone products, it is speculated that the age of the TaiziLing site is the middle and late Paleolithic, that is, the absolute age should be between 100,000 and 10,000 years. At present, the photoreflective series of yearning samples and environmental analysis samples collected from the excavation of the site have been sent to professional institutions at home and abroad for analysis and testing.
△Stone products excavated from the site of the Prince's Tomb (tools)
The raw materials of stone products excavated by this excavation are mainly quartz sandstone and flint, and there are a small amount of quartz, crystal and iron ore, etc.; the stone product stripping technology is mainly based on the hammering method, and the smashing method is occasionally seen; the combination of stone product types is very rich, both stone hammers and a large number of stone cores, and there are also rich tool types such as choppers, sharp blades, scrapers, and concave devices, and there are also stone chips, stone leaves, broken blocks, etc. Stone products show obvious cultural characteristics of fine stone tools and stone chip industry in terms of cultural appearance. The continuous cultural accumulation and its excavated relics at least three stages of the Paleolithic site of Taiziling Reveal two different types of stone tool industries, which provide direct materials for the establishment and resolution of the chronicles, site types, cultural types and development changes of Tianjin Paleolithic archaeological remains, marking the entry of Tianjin Paleolithic archaeology into a new stage.
△ Stone products excavated from the site of the Prince's Mausoleum (chopper)
It is extremely rare that this archaeological excavation unearthed a stone tool with polish marks buried in the first layer. Observed by the laboratory's ultra-depth-of-field electron microscopy, the stone tool grinding technology is mature, the local manual grinding traces are clear, and the ridgeline of the blade after grinding is clear and obvious. This is the only and earliest excavated in Tianjin, and the new type of stone tool with polishing traces in the Paleolithic era that is rarely seen in the country, which provides a very important Tianjin sample for studying the transition of the Neo-Paleolithic Age, the history of grinding stone tools used by early humans in China and the origin of grinding technology. At present, laboratory-related analytical research work is underway.
△ Ground stone tools excavated from the site of the Prince's Mausoleum
The site of the Taizi Mausoleum is the Paleolithic site with the thickest cultural accumulation, the largest sequence of continuous strata and the richest specimens of excavated stone products in Tianjin. This is another major discovery of Tianjin archaeology, which will continue to advance the early human exploration work in Tianjin area. Synthesizing the previous paleolithic archaeological discoveries and achievements in Tianjin, it is fully empirical that Tianjin not only has a human development history of not less than 100,000 years, but also is an important area for early human reproduction and continuous exchange and evolution in North China and even northern China, highlighting the great potential and expansion space of Tianjin Paleolithic archaeology in the future.
△ The site of the Prince's Tomb was excavated with fine stone cores
In the next step, Tianjin Cultural Heritage Protection Center and The School of Archaeology of Jilin University will start the analysis, testing and collation of excavation data as soon as possible to provide scientific basis and professional support for comprehensive interpretation, interpretation and publicity of important achievements of site excavation. At the same time, in the future, we will continue to carry out active archaeological excavations at this site, more comprehensively and accurately reveal the cultural connotation of the site, and make Tianjin contributions to promoting paleolithic archaeology in North China. (Reporter Sun Qiang, Meng Xiangyun)
Source: CCTV