In the long Paleolithic period
Human wisdom is constantly being discovered in the course of labor
The hands are becoming more and more dexterous
The brain is getting more and more developed
And there is such a place in Jilin
You can witness this development
Here it is
and the ruins of the Great Cave of the Dragon
The site of Helong Dadong is located in Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture, Jilin Province, at the eastern foot of Changbai Mountain, on the left bank of the upper reaches of the Tumen River, the boundary between China and North Korea, about 80 kilometers away from Tianchi in Changbai Mountain in the west, and about 40 kilometers away from Helong City in the north. It was discovered in 2007, and since 2021, with the joint efforts of the Jilin Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Liaoning University, the site has been subject to archaeological investigation and excavation for many years.
▲Mr. Zhang Senshui, a famous paleolithic archaeologist, and Professor Chen Quanjia at the excavation site
The age of the Helong Cave site is 50,000-15,000 years ago, and in the long time of 35,000 years, three groups of ancient humans have come to settle down here, leaving three cultural relics of different periods.
About 50,000 years ago, a group of ancestors living in Northeast Asia were driven by the cold weather of the last glacial period to travel thousands of miles here. Attracted by the landscapes, trees, and the various animals that live in them, they put down their bags, set up camp, live and reproduce, and mysteriously disappear after thousands of years. They used local materials to select suitable raw materials on the hills and riversides to make long, thin and sharp stone tools. But at this time, they were still not skilled enough stone tool makers. Therefore, the stone tools of this period were relatively simple, crudely made, and mainly made of stone tools, reflecting the basic survival skills and hunting methods of early humans.
Nearly 30,000 years ago, another group of people came here to continue the story of life. They have moved away from simply making stone tools, but have begun to use more advanced techniques of local polishing and pressing and stripping to make more handy stone tools. During this period, the variety of stone tools increased, and the craftsmanship was fine, showing the evolution and upgrading of human beings in the production and use of tools. People lived here, lit fires, sang songs, and rested around fires, and this migration evolved intermittently, until 24,000 years ago, it suddenly came to a halt. At that time, the earth was entering the peak of the last glacial age, the weather was freezing, food was hard to find, animals were moving south, and people were fleeing.
Until 17,000 years ago, when the earth rejuvenated and was full of life, another group of people came to call it home. They were already able to skillfully peel long, slender stone leaves from flint blocks, and then attach them to wooden handles or bone handles to make sharp-edged composite tools; They also know how to put hot gravel into a soup mixed with wild grains and animal bones to make fragrant delicatessen dishes.
▲The basalt plateau where the Dadong site is located and the Tumen River
Cultural relics from different periods at the Helongdadong site have been slowly uncovered and deciphered by our archaeologists, showing not only the development and evolution of stone tools, but also the ability of humans to survive and adapt to the environment in this area for a long time.
It is the largest Upper Paleolithic wilderness site ever discovered in Northeast Asia, and is an important center of human activity in the Sea of Japan region, with a wealth of archaeological information. Its cultural characteristics are very similar to those of the southern part of the Korean Peninsula, the Primorsky region of the Russian Far East, and the Japanese archipelago at the same time, and together they formed the Upper Paleolithic Northeast Asian Cultural Circle around the Sea of Japan. In addition, there are many Araya-type carvings (named after the Araya ruins in Japan) in north-central Japan, and there is also a high occurrence rate at the Waryu-dong site, indicating that there was a close connection between the Changbai Mountain area of mainland China and northern Japan in the late Paleolithic period.
▲ Obsidian fine stone leaf stone core
The appearance of polished stone tools in the Dadong site proves that the humans living at the site were already in the stage of transition from the Upper Paleolithic to the Neolithic. And the study of the transition between the Neo-Paleolithic has been in a weak link. How did humans cope with the end of the last glacial age and the changes in environmental resources caused by the arrival of the Holocene? How to alleviate the pressure of survival caused by population growth? How to meet the new needs of survival? The advent of these new conditions will certainly promote the transformation of the mode of production and the increase in the level of productivity of mankind at that time. The Helong Cave site provides a solid material foundation for the study of this transitional period.
▲The obsidian stone tool excavation site of the big cave site
The discovery and in-depth study of the Dadong site is of great academic significance for the Paleolithic archaeological research in Northeast Asia. It has become a typical site for in-depth understanding of the Upper Paleolithic human material culture, productivity level and economic model in the Changbai Mountains of mainland China and even the entire Northeast Asia. At the same time, it also fills the gap in the transition period between the Neolithic and Paleolithic in the northeast of the mainland. In the study of the migration, cultural exchange and spread of modern humans in Northeast Asia in the late Paleolithic period, Helongda Cave is also a key site to prove the communication between different regions.
▲The excavation site of polished stone tools at the edge of the Dadong site
Time flies, and the era of the ancients in the Dragon Cave has gradually drifted away from us, but they also left a number of relics and relics for future generations to find, hang, and reverie. Today's people occasionally stop to gaze at the ruins where their ancestors once lived, but soon turn around and hurry forward. Each of us is a passerby of history, but at the same time, we are the creators of history, and we will leave a light or heavy, thick or light stroke in history.
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