On the 100th anniversary of the birth of Chinese archaeology, in August this year, a team of experts who have long been engaged in archaeological research on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau and reporters from the central station formed the "Nam Co Lake Scientific Research Team" to conduct the first survey of the Nam Co Lake Area, the second largest lake in Tibet, and northern Tibet. A comprehensive survey was launched on the plateau.
During the scientific expedition of Lake Namco, the expedition team members also found 3 stone tool sites in Nima and Shenzha counties in northern Tibet. More than 100 stone products were collected on the surface, including stone cores, stone flakes, and stone leaves. Stone products such as, scrapers, and pointed objects provide physical materials for the study of the Stone Age in northern Tibet.
Driving along the dirt road beside Dangyayongcuo Lake, the Daguo Snow Mountain in the distance is majestic and majestic, and the mountains and the lake complement each other.
A few kilometers away from the resident of Daguo Township, Nima County, the expedition team members found stone tools on the grass on the side of the road when they stopped to rest!
At the Nagang Tangga stone tool site in the Qiangtang grassland at 4680 meters above sea level, Zhang Jianlin, Li Yongxian, and Tang Huisheng, three professors who have been engaged in prehistoric archaeology on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau for 30 to 40 years, took everyone to collect stone tools with relish.
These 45 stone products, including stone chips, stone cores, scrapers, etc., are mainly black siliceous rocks.
Zhang Jianlin, vice president of the Chinese Rock Art Society and a distinguished professor of the School of Cultural Heritage of Northwest University: The
most typical stone cores have also appeared, such as the wedge-shaped stone cores.
The age is not easy to judge. We do not have a framework of this age for the fine stone tools in northern Tibet. We only find a lot of fine stone tools in the distribution area, from Nagqu to Ali.
The Nagang Tangga stone tool site is the first stone tool site discovered around Dangra Yongcuo.
In the plateau lake area, Nam Co, Selin Co, and Dangyayong Co have an average elevation of more than 4,500 meters. Stone sites have been found on the lakeside platforms of these three large lakes, which further confirms the early period of the high-altitude area dominated by inland lakes in northwestern Tibet. Human activities are frequent.
Li Yongxian, vice president of the Chinese Rock Painting Society and professor of the Institute of Tibetan Studies of Sichuan University:
So far, the altitudes found on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau belonging to the late Paleolithic age are all very high, almost all above 4,500 meters.
So this period of time reached the Neolithic Age and even later. So many relics such as this rock painting, this stone structure relics, tombs, and stone tool sites were left on the plateau. What kind of relationship does it have with the early humans? This is It opened a new window for us, allowing us to pay more attention to the survival of humans on the plateau before the historical period.
Tang Huisheng, professor of the Department of Archaeology, School of History and Culture, Hebei Normal University, and director of the International Rock Art Dating Center:
This is a typical stone leaf.
Stone leaves are inlaid on bones and wood, used as blades to scrape skin or cut meat, etc.
At the Xiasang stone tool site in Nima County, the expedition team collected 54 stone products.
Among them, the "pencil-shaped" fine stone core made of white flint is the most exquisite.
Li Yongxian, vice president of the Chinese Rock Painting Society and professor of the Institute of Tibetan Studies of Sichuan University:
This tool is very suitable for mobile people to carry and keep.
Throughout the Neolithic Age on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, this fine stone tool has been used from beginning to end.
The fine stone tool is a new composite tool technology that appeared in the late Paleolithic period.
Chinese scientists began collecting fine stone tools in Tibet in 1956, and now there are more than 100 fine stone tools discovered in Tibet, which are of great significance to the study of prehistoric culture in the high-altitude areas of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.