WANG Peng (Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences)
【Editor's Note】 The COVID-19 epidemic continues, which has a great impact on the fieldwork of Chinese archaeology in 2021. However, archaeologists have actively resumed work and created job opportunities, and archaeological work throughout the year is still frequently highlighted.
Following "Archaeology 2019" and "Archaeology 2020", The Paper, in cooperation with the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences for the third consecutive year, the Surging News private history has invited 9 scholars to write a summary manuscript of "Archaeology 2021" to sort out the major archaeological discoveries in China in the past year in a full-time and all-round way for the benefit of readers.
In 2021, the archaeological work in China's frontier areas was fruitful, and the new discoveries were remarkable. The archaeological harvests from the prehistoric and pre-Qin periods in the frontier areas are summarized as follows.
Liaoning
New archaeological discoveries of the Hongshan culture: Ma'anqiao Mountain Site, Niuheliang Ruins Site No. 2 Building Site
The Ruins of Ma'anqiao Mountain are located on a small mountain beam called "Ma'anQiao" about 800 meters south of Shitaigou Village, Taipingzhuang Town, Jianping County, about 60 kilometers south of the Niuheliang ruins and about 60 kilometers northwest of the Hongshan Hou Ruins. In 2021, the Liaoning Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology excavated a site area of 1,000 square meters, confirming that the site was an early settlement of the Hongshan culture. The settlement as a whole is well preserved, carefully planned and laid out, surrounded by artificially excavated and regularly shaped trenches on the east side, and the sites are distributed in rows, and the remains of a large earthen platform associated with the sacrifice activities have been found in the north, and there are cemeteries and kiln sites on the outside of the ring trench. This excavation initially obtained important information related to the production and life of the early hongshan culture.
Ma'anqiao Mountain Ruins
The Niuheliang site is located at the junction of Jianping County and Lingyuan City in Chaoyang City. In 2021, the Liaoning Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences excavated a site area of 800 square meters at the first site of the Niuheliang site, and found symmetrical layout buildings, complete drainage facilities and relics related to sacrifice activities. On the basis of important discoveries such as "altars, temples, and tombs", these phenomena have advanced the formation time of the "rituals" of the typical characteristics of Chinese civilization forward for nearly a thousand years, providing an objective basis for further understanding the Hongshan society and its status and role in the origin of Chinese civilization.
Xiajiadian lower cultural large settlement: Water Spring Ruins
The shuiquan site is located in Liu Canzi Village, Zhuluke Town, Jianping County, Chaoyang City. In 2021, liaoning university and liaoning provincial institute of cultural relics and archaeology, on the basis of previous work, excavated a site area of 120 square meters at the northern end of the site, and found 30 ash pits, 6 tombs, and 1 ground-type housing site; In the northeast corner of the city site in the west of the site, the excavation site covers an area of 200 square meters, and found 2 ground-type housing sites, 44 ash pits, and 1 section of the wall foundation and trench. This year's excavations confirmed that the cultural accumulation of the site is dominated by the lower culture of Xiajiadian, and the lower culture of Xiajiadian in the excavation area outside the city is the cemetery of the Weiying sub-type stage. At the same time, it also clarifies the structural layout of the lower cultural city site of XiaJiadian in the ruins.
Heilongjiang
Early jade culture on the banks of the Ussuri River: The Ruins of Xiaonanshan
The Xiaonanshan ruins are located in Xiaonanshan on the left bank of the Ussuri River in Raohe County. On the basis of previous work, the Heilongjiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology will focus on archaeological excavations in the concentrated distribution areas of stone products at the south and north ends of the eastern slope of the Xiaonanshan site in 2021, with an excavation area of 540 square meters. 7 tombs, 4 ash pits, 3 ditches, 4 stoves, and 1 strip of stone pillars suspected of being a road were cleaned. The vast majority of the excavated relics are stone products, a total of more than 30,000 pieces, mainly stone chips and debris, as well as a certain number of tools such as hammers, spears, scrapers, and specimens reflecting more complex production techniques such as stone leaves, fine stone leaves, and fine stone cores. There are few restorable pottery, most of which are broken pottery pieces, totaling about 2,000 pieces, and 12 pieces of jade have been found. This year's work has further enriched the content of the remains of Xiaonanshan Phase I, and basically grasped the distribution within the sites of phase I relics; A small number of cultural relics of the middle Neolithic period have been newly discovered and confirmed at the Xiaonanshan site, further supplementing the connotation of the Xiaonanshan site; Discovered a large number of bronze age cultural relics, deepening the understanding of the originally identified cultural relics of Xiaonanshan Phase IV; A new necropolis from the early Neolithic period was discovered, and the form of the tomb of the stacked burial was determined from the stratum; The confirmation of the excavated mammoth formation is helpful to understand the distribution of mammoth fossils at the Xiaonanshan site.
Jade artifacts excavated from the Xiaonanshan site
Fishing and hunting gathering culture in the Nenjiang River Basin: Honghe Ruins
The Ruins of the Honghe River are located about 1 km south of Honghe Village, Duermen QindaUr Nationality Township, Fularki District, Qiqihar City, on a secondary terrace on the right bank of the middle reaches of the Nen River. In 2021, the Heilongjiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Frontier Archaeology Research Center of Jilin University jointly carried out archaeological excavations at the site. A total of about 1250 meters of sites were revealed, 15 housing sites, 11 mortars, 5 tombs, 18 ash pits, 2 ash ditches, 1 kiln site, and nearly 500 pottery, stone, bone horn mussels and other artifacts were unearthed, which belonged to the Neolithic Age, the Two Zhou and Liao Periods, mainly the Neolithic Age. This year's excavations provide new materials for discussing the structure, development and changes of the Anang Creek Cultural Ring Moat Settlement, as well as the burial customs and funerary concepts of the residents of the Ang Ang Creek culture.
Inner Mongolia
Neolithic settlement in western Liaoning: Ulantuga ruins
Ulantuga Neolithic site is located in Daban Town, Balin Right Banner, Chifeng City, Inner Mongolia, with a total area of about 20,000 square meters. In 2021, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology excavated more than 4,000 square meters of sites here, revealing more than 70 housing sites, more than 40 ash pits, and 1 tomb. The ruins in the site are densely distributed, including the remains of the Xinglongwa culture, the Zhao Baogou culture and the Hongshan culture. The remains of the Xinglongwa culture include more than 10 housing sites and some ash pits, which are more concentrated in the middle of the site. The sites are square or rectangular semi-crypt type, with an area of about 30 square meters. The sites are arranged in a northeast-southwest direction, and the largest one is located in the center of the settlement during this period, with an area of more than 100 square meters. The cultural remains of Zhao Baogou include about 20 housing sites and some ash pits, which are distributed except in the northeast of the excavation area. Most of the house sites in this period are rectangular semi-crypt buildings, with an area of generally only 30 square meters. The ornamentation of excavated pottery or pottery pieces is mostly narrow zigzag patterns or geometric patterns with grate points. The recognizable shapes of pottery are mainly cylindrical pots or false circle foot bowls. The remains of the Hongshan culture include more than 30 housing sites and some ash pits. It is distributed except in the northwestern part of the excavation area. Most of the house sites in this period are rounded rectangular semi-crypt buildings, and very few relics have been excavated, including sand and gray pottery arc zigzag-patterned cylinder jars, grinding discs, grinding rods, stone mounds and so on. The Xinglongwa culture and Zhao Baogou culture sites of this excavation are relatively well preserved, and there are many excavated relics, which is the main harvest of this excavation, which provides important materials for exploring the relationship between Xinglong culture and Zhao Baogou culture.
Ruins of Ulantuga
Xiajiadian lower cultural settlement in western Liaoning: Xiaotangshan ruins
The Xiaotangshan ruins are located in Xiaotang Tugou Village, Sanzuodian Town, Ningcheng County, Chifeng City, at the top of a higher hill. In 2021, the Inner Mongolia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Ningcheng County Cultural Relics Protection Center conducted a rescue excavation of the Xiaotangshan site. The excavation site covers an area of about 4,000 square meters, and more than 40 housing sites, 32 cellars and ash pits, 6 tombs, 1 pottery kiln were found, and more than 750 specimens of pottery, stone tools, bone tools, bronzes, mussels and other utensils were unearthed. Combined with the remains and excavated relics found at the Xiaotangshan site, it can be determined that the site is an important settlement site in the lower cultural period of Xiajiadian dating from about 4000 to 3400 years ago. The excavation of the Xiaotangshan site is of great academic value for in-depth discussion of the stage of social development, social organization structure, settlement layout and production and life of the lower culture of Xiajiadian.
Longshan period settlement in the Hetao area: the site of Houcheng Tsui City and the ruins of Shari Tara
Located in Qingshuihe County, Hohhot, Houcheng Tsui Shicheng is composed of urn city, outer city and inner city, with an east-west length of about 1200 meters, a north-south width of about 1150 meters, and an area of about 1.38 million square meters, which is the largest known prehistoric stone city site in central and southern Inner Mongolia. In 2021, on the basis of its previous work, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology continued to carry out archaeological excavations of the urn part of Shicheng, excavating a total area of 1,000 square meters, revealing more than 20 relics such as city gates, platform foundations, city walls, trenches, underground passages, tombs, ash pits, etc., and unearthing more than 20 important relics such as jade shovels, jade bi, jade materials, clay pots, stone hammers, bone pipes, bone hammers, and pig mandibles. At present, excavations have identified the half-moon defensive structure composed of double trenches, inner and outer urns and city walls in Houcheng Tsui Stone City, which is the earliest known relatively complete urban defense system in northern China, which provides new information for studying the civilization process and social complexity process in the Hetao area, and is of great value for exploring the origin of prehistoric culture and civilization in northern China and revealing the civilization genes of early China.
Aerial photograph of the Excavation Area of Houcheng Tsui Stone City
The ruins of Sharitara are located in the Ijinholo Banner of Ordos City, with an area of about 500,000 square meters. In 2021, the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, together with the Ordos Municipal Museum, the Ordos Municipal Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, and the Yijinholo Banner Cultural Relics Protection and Tourism Development Center, conducted rescue excavations at the Sharitara site. This year's excavation site area of 500 square meters, cleaned 8 housing sites, 30 ash pits and ash ditches, 31 tombs, 2 road surfaces, 1 stove site, unearthed more than 150 pieces of pottery, stone tools, jade, bone tools, horn mussels and other relics. The age of the remains is roughly equivalent to that of the second and third phases of the Zhukaigou site, which provides new materials for exploring the different local types of the Zhukaigou culture. In addition, a large number of jade, sea shell ornaments, shell ornaments, etc. have been excavated from the site, which provide physical materials for studying the cultural exchanges between the Ordos Plateau and the surrounding areas.
Ruins of Sharitara
Gansu
Large ring trench settlement in the early Yangshao culture: the ruins of the Yuanquan River
The ruins of the Wei River are located in Dayang Town, Zhangjiachuan County, at the confluence of the South River and the Songshu River, a tributary of the Wei River. In 2021, the Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology excavated and cleaned up more than 950 relics from the Yangshao, Qijia, Han Dynasty, Song and Ming Dynasties. The remains of the Yangshao period continue from the early Yangshao period to the late Yangshao period, and a large ring trench settlement of the early Yangshao culture was discovered, covering an area of about 80,000 square meters. The center of the settlement is a square, surrounded by groups of houses distributed in the centripetal direction, and the periphery is a nearly circular triple ring moat. There is a suspected pottery kiln area in the southeast outside the ring trench and a suspected burial area in the northwest, indicating that the settlement has obvious functional partitions. A large circular bag-shaped granary was found in the central square, with nearly 0.4-0.6 meters of carbonized millet remains preserved at the bottom. The excavated relics include pottery, stone, bone, horns, etc., mainly faience pottery, and the pottery combination includes pointed bottom bottle, circular bottom basin, round bottom bowl, extravagant barrel belly jar, gourd bottle, urn, lid and so on. Yangshao early historian type trench settlement is one of the largest, more complete preserved and most abundant yangshao culture early ring trench settlements found in the Yellow River Basin, which represents a key period in the development of Yangshao culture, indicates that the Longxi Loess Plateau is another center of Yangshao culture development, and confirms that the region has an extremely important position in the process of the origin of Chinese civilization and the process of social complexity. The discovery of large granaries and millet remains in the early Yangshao culture provides an important clue to explore the establishment of millet agriculture and the impact of human social development in northern China in the early Yangshao period.
Large ring trench settlement in the late Yangshao culture: Nanzuo site
Located in Nanzuo Village, Houguanzhai Town, Xifeng District, Qingyang City, on Dongzhiyuan, a tributary of the Jing River, between the Pu River and the Malian River, the excavation work of the past years has shown that the Nanzuo site is a large high-grade ring moat settlement in the late Yangshao culture. In 2021, a joint archaeological team composed of the Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Chinese Min University, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Lanzhou University and other units will carry out the third phase of archaeological excavation and survey and exploration work on the Nanzuo site, with an excavation area of about 1,000 square meters. Through excavations, a large architectural area with clear priorities and a large palace-like building F1 and its ancillary buildings were found in the core area of the site, with an area of more than 630 square meters, which is unparalleled in the same period. A large number of high-grade ceremonial vessels and a large number of carbonized rice remains and animal bones have been found in F2, and the number of carbonized rice excavations is relatively large, which is extremely rare in the Loess Plateau and even the entire northern region of China. Anatomical excavations on the west side of Rammed Earth Platform No. 1 basically confirmed the structure, age and trench structure of the large rammed earth platform foundation. The archaeological discoveries at the Nanzuo site are of great significance for correctly understanding the key position and important role of the middle reaches of the Yellow River and the Loess Plateau, especially the Longdong region, in the origin and formation of Chinese civilization, and to empirically verify the history of Chinese civilization for 5,000 years.
Yongsan period super-large settlement: Bridge Village Ruins
The ruins of Qiao village are located in Qiao Village, Xitun Town, about 20 kilometers northwest of Lingtai County, Pingliang City. Archaeological work over the years shows that the Qiaocun site is a super-large settlement with a core area of about 1 million square meters dating from the late Yongsan period. In 2021, the Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the College of Archaeology of Peking University excavated an area of 275 square meters, cleaned up more than 280 rectangular pits, ash pits, tombs, housing sites, roads (stampede surfaces), ditches and other relics in the late Longshan era, and unearthed more than 2,800 pottery specimens from the late Longshan era. Through excavation, the stratigraphic sequence and the type of ruins in the southeast of the core area of the site were basically mastered. The excavation of confirmed road remains provides important evidence for revealing the road network system in the core area of the site. The discovery of the ditch provides important clues to the possible presence of ring trenches around the core area of the site. A large number of terracotta specimens found in the accumulation in the ditch provide important objects for the study of prehistoric architectural form and the study of Chinese architectural history.
Bridge Village Ruins
The Ruins of Qiaocun unearthed a Western Zhou Qingyu double-hole axe
Majiayao and Siwa Cultural Settlements: Siwa Ruins
The ruins of Siwa are located in Siwashan Village, Lintao County, Dingxi City. Archaeological excavations by the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology in recent years have shown that the Ruins of Siwa mainly contain the remnants of the Majiayao culture and the Siwa culture. A large cemetery of Siwa culture has been excavated, more than 100 tombs have been cleared, and many new clues to the burial customs of Siwa culture have been discovered. It was found and preliminarily confirmed that a mid-mountain type settlement of Majiayao culture has been cleared out of 18 housing sites, 1 tomb, 2 kilns, and a large number of ash pits, cellars and other remains. The main harvest of the excavations in 2021 is the confirmation of the existence of a majiayao culture mid-mountain settlement in the northern part of the Siwa site, and the possibility of a mid-level cemetery, which is expected to fill many gaps in this field.
A large settlement from the two-week period: Shijia Yucun Ruins
The ruins of Shijia Yucun are located in Zaosheng Town, Ning County, Qingyang City, east of the Malian River, south of the Jiulong River, and north of the Wuritiangou River. Archaeological excavations in recent years have preliminarily confirmed that the site is a large settlement of the two-week period, and thus established the archaeological and cultural chronology of the Western Zhou to Spring and Autumn Period in the Longdong region. In 2021, the Gansu Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology discovered a new Warring States and Qin and Han Dynasty cemetery here, and about 200 tombs have been discovered. At present, 5 are excavated, and the age extends from the late Warring States period to the early Western Han Dynasty. From the perspective of family genus, it is closely related to Xi Rong. This year's work enriched the connotation of the two-week settlement at the Shijia Yucun site.
The Shijia cemetery is distributed in the north and south districts
Encounter village ruins
Xinjiang
Prehistoric caves in the southern foothills of the Altai Mountains: the ruins of the Tongtian Cave
The Tsutendo Ruins are a granite cave site in Jimunai County, Altay Region. Since 2016, the Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the School of Archaeology and Archaeology of Peking University have carried out active archaeological work on it, discovered the continuous strata of Paleolithic-Bronze Age-Early Iron Age, and made a major breakthrough in the construction of prehistoric archaeological cultural sequences in northern Xinjiang. The archaeological work in 2021 is mainly the continued cleaning of T1515 and T0118, with a total excavation area of 31 square meters and more than 160 excavated relics. In addition to the excavation of fine stone tools, a small number of sand-filled pottery pieces, animal bones and a large number of ashes were found in a shallow ash pit in T1515, and more plant remains were found. Archaeological work at the Tongtiandong site traces the history of human activity in Xinjiang to 45,000 years ago, and its continuous fine stone tool culture layer is about 13,000-8,900 years ago or even earlier, laying the foundation for further clarifying the fine stone tool technology and its time frame in Xinjiang. Carbonized wheat and millet grains dating back about 5,000 years show that the southern foothills of the Altai Mountains and North China were culturally connected 4,000 to 5,000 years ago.
Tsuten-dong ruins
A large Bronze Age settlement in the Ili River Valley: Jirentaigoukou Ruins
The ruins of Jirentaigoukou in Nilke County are located at the eastern end of the Ili River Valley in the West Tianshan Mountains. Since 2015, the Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and other units have carried out archaeological work here for many years, confirming that this is a large-scale settlement of the Bronze Age, of which the stone structure of the high platform "Wang Ling" building is the most eye-catching. In 2021, according to the results of archaeological exploration, 2 10×10-meter exploration parties were laid in the northwest of the Gaotai remains, and a charcoal kiln was cleared, which was consistent with the shape of the two carbon kilns found in the residential area in 2018, and the dating data were around 4500 years ago. Two antlers and one artificial iron product were unearthed, which are of great significance to the study of metallurgical history and the exploration of early cultural relics in the Ili area. After nearly three years of archaeological excavations, it has been clear that the remains of the high platform are a large square bucket-shaped tomb, which is mainly composed of two parts: an above-ground high tomb and a semi-underground burial chamber. The above-ground mound is a square with a side length of nearly 120 meters, with a direction of 3 degrees north-east and an area of 14,400 square meters. Surrounded by a stone wall and a perimeter of laterite, the edges are about 1-1.5 meters high and the center is about 5 meters high. It is the largest, highest specification and most complete preserved stone tomb building remnant of the prehistoric period found in Xinjiang and even the Eurasian grassland so far.
Panoramic view of the ruins of Jirentaigoukou
Large Bronze Age settlement in front of mount Alatau: Khusta ruins
The Husta ruins are located in the northern part of ChaganTunge Township, Wenquan County, Bortala Mongol Autonomous Prefecture, in front of the Alatau Mountains, in the Husta Steppe. Previous archaeological work has identified the site as a 12-square-kilometer Bronze Age settlement consisting of core and peripheral remains. The core area consists of a number of house buildings, a courtyard wall that surrounds the house building, and a wall outside the courtyard. The archaeological work of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology in 2021 is to confirm the location of the south gate of the courtyard and excavate the site. Second, the city wall outside the courtyard was surveyed and excavated, and the results showed that the city wall could be basically surrounded into an irregular long strip; There is a stone wall roughly parallel to the outer side of the western city wall, and its northern end leads to the west channel of the core area, or forms a diversion canal with the western wall. In addition, excavations were made of a tomb in the cemetery southwest of the city site, confirming that the cemetery belonged to the same period as the city site and corresponded to the city site.
Khusta Ruins Burial Area Z1
Bronze Age site group in the eastern foothills of the Pamir Plateau: the site of Aktara
Located about 4 kilometers west of upholster village in Uppal Town, Shufu County, Kashgar Region, the site is located in a typical Yadan landform, with pottery, stone tools, bronze tools and other relics scattered in the middle of loess mounds of different heights and sizes. The preliminary archaeological survey has found more than 20 sites, with a distribution area of more than 5 square kilometers. In 2021, Nanjing University and the Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology conducted archaeological excavations at the No. 1 and No. 3 sites of the Aktara site, with an excavation area of 850 square meters, cleaned up 15 remains such as fire chambers, ash piles, ash pits, ash ditches, and moving surfaces, and unearthed 94 pieces of pottery, stone, copper and other relics. The relics are mostly pottery pieces and stone tools, the former are all sand pottery, but the repairers are almost invisible; The latter are mostly ground stone tools, mainly stone grinding discs, stone pestles, stone hammers and so on. The excavation results show that there are at least two cultural relics of the Aktara site group, one is the Bronze Age cultural relics represented by site point 1, dating from about 1600 BC to 1500 BC, and the cultural connotation is characterized by sand black gray pottery, ground stone tools and small bronzes; The other is the remains of the Han and Jin Dynasties represented by site point 3, dating from about the 3rd century AD, represented by sand-filled red pottery, and no stone tools are found. In addition, the survey found that each site may serve as a different functional planning area, such as a large amount of bronze slag collected at site 9, perhaps a bronze smelting site, and the dating data of a fire chamber seen in the survey suggest that the Aktara site group does not rule out the possibility of earlier cultural remains.
Stone millstones and pestles excavated at the Aktara site
Qinghai
Zongri Cultural Settlement: Zongri Ruins
In order to further promote the study of Zongri culture, since 2020, the Qinghai Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, together with Hebei Normal University and Nanjing University, has carried out further archaeological excavations at the Zongri site. The 2021 excavation area (Area IV., III.) is located on the east 1st and 2nd terraces of the site, with an excavation area of 600 square meters. A total of 12 tombs and 1 trench were cleaned up, and a wealth of excavated cultural relics were unearthed. After two years of excavation, the distribution of the remains of the eastern first and second terraces of the Zongri site has been basically clarified. The discovery of the trench provides important clues for finding the site of the Zongri population and exploring the form of the Zongri settlement. The new burial materials added a new physical basis for the study of the funerary customs and socialization process at that time. The Zongri site is the only site of the Zongri culture that has undergone archaeological excavations, and these new achievements are of great academic value for in-depth study of the development and evolution of the prehistoric culture in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, the mode of life and industry, and the spread of the population.
Panoramic view of the zongri site
Soya-Japanese pottery excavated at the Munri ruins
Nomukhon Cultural Settlement: The Ruins of the Shire Yamakob
Located in Hedong Village, Balong Township, Dulan County, Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, the Charyamakob Site is a nomuhong cultural site with both a residential site and a cemetery, with an area of about 35,000 square meters and a burial area of about 120,000 square meters, dating from 1400 to 1050 BC. In 2021, the Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology of Qinghai Province and Northwest University cleaned up 35 relics in the residential area, including 2 living surfaces, 1 adobe wall, 1 wooden building, 1 smelting and casting remains, 1 urn coffin, 4 stone piles, 6 ash piles, 9 ash pits, 10 fire pits, and a large number of pottery, stone tools, bone tools, bronzes, wooden tools, woven objects and other relics and animal and plant remains were unearthed. A total of 25 tombs and 3 sacrificial pits were excavated in the burial area. The distribution of tombs has a tendency to be arranged in rows and columns, and the arrangement is dense but rarely breaks the relationship. The tombs are rectangular vertical pit tombs with wooden rafters, all of which are secondary disturbance burials. The number of burial items is abundant, including clay pots, ornaments and small bronzes. This year's archaeological excavations provide a wealth of material for studying the connotations of the Nomuhon culture.
Tibet
Neolithic fishing and hunting cultural settlement in high altitudes: The ruins of Ma good
Located in the southern part of Kangma County at an altitude of more than 4,400 meters above sea level, the Site of MaLiang is located in the heart of Tibet, dating back about 4,000 years, and is currently known as the world's highest-altitude Neolithic lakeside fishing and hunting cultural site. Since 2020, the Institute of Cultural Relics Protection of the Tibet Autonomous Region, the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, and Peking University have excavated 10 tombs, fire ponds, ash pits and other relics here, and unearthed a large number of stone tools, pottery, bone tools, shell ornaments, talc beads, jade pipe beads and other relics. There are two types of tombs: sarcophagus tombs and vertical pit tombs, and the pottery decorative patterns are mainly carved and scratched, and the style is similar to that of the same period in the Hengduan Mountains. The Machu site represents a new type of archaeological culture, which is of great significance for establishing the sequence of prehistoric archaeological cultures in Tibet and exploring the extreme environmental processes and strategies of human adaptation to high cold and lack of oxygen.
New discoveries in Neolithic archaeology in the lower Brahmaputra: the site of Rapo
The Site of Lapo is located in Batoka Natural Village, Bakang Village, Tianduo Town, Bomi County, Nyingchi City, located in the secondary terrace on the left bank of Bodezangbo, with a high northeast and a low southwest, with an altitude of more than 2800 meters. From October to November 2021, the Archaeological Research Center of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Institute of Cultural Relics Protection of the Tibet Autonomous Region, the Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and other units formed a joint archaeological team to carry out rescue archaeological excavations at the Lappo site. The excavation revealed a total of 81 square meters of site area, found 27 pillar caves, 1 tomb, 2 ash pits, and unearthed precious relics such as stone tools, bone tools, pottery pieces, animal bones, and plant seeds. The stone tools unearthed in this excavation are mainly stone tools, and the number of grinding stone tools is relatively small. Most of the stone tools are fine stone tools represented by crystal scrapers, side scrapers, end scrapers, and stone leaves, and a small number of choppers and plate-like choppers. Grinding stone tools include double-hole stone knives, stone chisels, stone axes, stone spinning wheels and so on. The pottery is all flat bottom, the utensils are mainly pottery bowls and clay pots, most of which use the handmade mud strip plate construction method, and a few are trimmed by slow wheels. The pottery system is mainly sand-filled pottery, with black gray pottery, gray pottery, red-brown pottery, and the table is mostly polished. The vessel pattern is decorated with jomon pattern, string pattern, diagonal check pattern, additional stacking pattern, additional mud stripe, nail pattern, milk nail pattern and so on. The identifiable excavated bone artifacts are mainly bone cones and bone needles. By dating the excavated plant specimens, the site was determined to be a site of the late Neolithic period. The discovery and excavation of the Lapo site fills the gap of Neolithic archaeology and culture in the region, and plays an important role in establishing the Neolithic cultural sequence in Tibet.
Crystal stone leaves excavated from the Rapo site
Guizhou
A new archaeological discovery of the Yelang culture: the ruins of Dapo
Located in the Tonggushan Group of Fanjiazhai Village, Qingshan Town, Pu'an County, Guizhou Province, the Dapo site is located in the middle of the Panjiang River Basin in the north and south, and is a cascade-shaped slope area for the transition from yunnan-Guizhou Plateau to Qianzhong. The ruins are distributed on the top of the hill with a height of about 65 meters, with a total area of about 4,000 square meters. In 2021, the Guizhou Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology cleaned up 16 Yelang cultural ash pits and 5 housing sites here. The excavated relics include jade, pottery, bronze, bone horn and tooth ware, of which the number of pottery is the most abundant, followed by jade. Pottery due to late disturbances, mostly fragments, mainly sand rope pattern orange and yellow pottery, identifiable shapes include open pots, spinning wheels, crucibles, feet, pottery beads, etc.; Jade tools include stone knives, fans, pendants, feet, grinding stones, jade pipes, gongs, etc.; Copper preservation is very poor, mostly copper slag, recognizable shape only copper needles; Bone horn teeth include perforated tooth ornaments, bone hooks, deer antlers and so on. The excavation of the Dapo site has provided new archaeological materials for the study of yelang culture, enriched the connotation of yelang culture, and has important academic significance.
Dapo ruins
Dental ornaments excavated at the Dapo site
Hainan
The Life of Neolithic Inhabitants of the South China Sea Dunes: Wan Chai Head Ruins
Wan ChaiTou Ruins, located in Wan chai tou Village, Shenzhou Peninsula, Dong'ao Town, Wanning City, Hainan Province, is a Neolithic dune site. The excavation area in 2021 is 500 square meters. The relics found this year are mainly pottery and stone tools. Pottery is densely distributed in a large area, including two kinds of coarse sand pottery and fine sand pottery. The pottery color is mainly red pottery, and there is a small amount of gray-brown pottery. The instrument table is more rope patterned, and the recognizable types include cans, kettles, cups and hoops. Stone tools are dominated by small trapezoidal axes and stone hammers, with a small number of concave and gravel stones. According to the characteristics of the relics, it is speculated that the wan chai head site is about 4,000 years old.
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