China News Service, Beijing, February 15th (Reporter Ying Ni) The important progress work meeting of the "Archaeological China" major project was held at the State Administration of Cultural Heritage on the 15th.
As an important breakthrough in Neolithic archeology in northern China, experts specially introduced recent important discoveries at the Sitai Site in Shangyi, Hebei Province at the meeting.
Located in Shangyi County, Hebei Province, the Sitai site is an early and middle Neolithic site.
Approved by the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, from 2020 to 2022, units such as the Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology will conduct systematic archaeological investigations and excavations on the Sitai site.
Photo courtesy of Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology
According to Zhao Zhanhu, a researcher at the Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, the area of the Sitai site is about 150,000 square meters, and more than 40 house sites have been found in archaeology. Among the five groups of cultural remains, the first and second groups are in the transitional stage from Paleolithic to Neolithic.
The first group of cultural relics dates from 10,400 to 10,000 years ago. Six nearly square and half-crypt chamber sites were discovered. Stone tools, fine stone tools, polished stone tools, bone horn tools, and animal bones were unearthed. The pottery includes cylindrical pots, Plate-shaped utensils, etc., the surface of the utensils is stamped with circle patterns or embossed with folded lines and grid patterns.
The second group of cultural remains dates from 9,200 to 9,000 years ago. Four nearly square and half-crypt chamber sites were discovered, and pottery plates, stone grinders, and many bone needles and bone cones were unearthed, showing a continuous development with the first group. Characteristics.
In terms of zooarchaeology, the animal species in the site include clams, snails, frogs, fish, pheasants, birds, zokors, voles, hares, hedgehogs, dogs, wolves, bears, small cats, weasels, badgers, sika deer, Red deer, roe deer, muntjac, wild horse, bison, wild boar, etc., and dogs may have been domesticated, indicating that the surrounding paleoenvironment was a mountainous grassland environment suitable for the survival of wild animals, with certain water sources such as rivers and lakes; indicating the livelihood mode of the ancestors of Sitai The main source of meat is wild deer, wild boar, wild horse, bison and other large and medium-sized mammals. Fish, birds and freshwater shellfish are also supplementary meat resources.
Photo courtesy of Shiye Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archeology
From the perspective of botanical archeology, it shows that between 10500-10200 years ago, the surrounding area of the Sitai site was dominated by grassland vegetation, and the ancestors may have collected seeds of Carex, Polygonum, and Poaceae; the climate between 8000-7000 years ago The conditions are humid, and forest-grassland vegetation is developed. The ancestors collected some arbor fruits and had millet agricultural activities.
From the aspect of environmental archaeology, it shows that from 10,500 to 10,200 years ago, grassland vegetation dominated by Artemisia was developed around Sitai, and the climate was relatively dry; from 8,000 to 7,000 years ago, the pollen content of trees such as Quercus was the highest, and the research area was open. Forest-grassland vegetation occupies, and the climate is warm and humid.
From the aspect of livelihood economy, it shows that the first and second groups of cultural relics of the Sitai site are hunting and gathering economy, while the third and fourth groups are hunting and gathering economy, at the same time, herbivorous food processing is frequent, and the proportion of millet utilization increases, and the fifth group In cultural remains, carbon isotopes reveal that C4 plants (such as millet) account for a higher proportion of food, and higher nitrogen isotopes also indicate that meat plays an important role in daily life.
Zhao Zhanhu pointed out that the first and second groups of remains represented by typical artifacts such as embossed cylindrical pottery pots, pottery plate-shaped utensils, fine stone leaf stone tools, grinders, etc., have distinctive cultural characteristics, and are preliminarily judged to be a new archaeological group. Learn culture.
Archaeological discoveries have distinctive features such as embossed pottery, fine stone tools, and half-cave houses. The transition from the development of gradual settlement to the early Neolithic age.
Among them, the discovery of millet and broomcorn millet provides important basic data for exploring the origin and development track of dry farming agriculture in northern my country.
The fine stone tool industry inherited from the tradition of wedge-shaped fine stone core technology in the Nihewan Basin for more than 10,000 years, showing the continuity of culture and population, providing typical and direct evidence for the study of the transition between the Paleolithic and Neolithic ages in northern China. An important link in the social development process of the early and middle Neolithic period in the northern region.
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