In the vast territory along the Qinghai-Tibet railway now being
built in some of western China's most hazardous landscapes, the
ancestors of today's Chinese lived and prospered on a plateau with
an average elevation of more than 4,000 meters above sea level and
left us precious clues to their lives.
There had never been any overall investigation of the cultural
relics in this territory until the end of May this year, when
archaeologists from the Qinghai Provincial Cultural Relic and
Archaeology Research Institute started large-scale fieldwork along
the railway in northwest China's Qinghai
Province.
To
date, they have found four historical sites and eight clusters of
ancient tombs, where a number of microlithic implements were
unearthed, according to Liu Baoshan, a researcher with the
institute.
Microlithic implements -- tools containing minute worked flint,
often with stick handles -- were widely used between the
Palaeolithic Age and the Neolithic Age.
The implements made in this way are more standardized than the
chopped-stone implements prevalent in the Palaeolithic Age.
Liu said: "Historical sites discovered in the investigation are the
most important findings that provide clues to the microlithic
culture in northwest China."
According to Liu, only a few historical sites of microlithic
culture have been found in China, and the two most important ones
found before this investigation are in the central plains -- the
Shayuan historical site in northwest China's Shanxi Province and
the Lingjing historical site in central China's Henan Province.
In
this investigation, archaeologists found the Sanchakou microlithic
site and the Tuotuo River microlithic site.
The Sanchakou site is on the terrace to the north of the Sancha
River and to the south of the Kunlun Mountains. On the terrace are
seasonal streams and several lumps of earth, near which most of the
stone implements were unearthed.
At
the site, archaeologists found 64 stone implements, including
cores, slabs and slices, as well as tools for carving, scraping or
chopping.
Among the implements found, the three leaf-shaped stone implements
are quite delicate. Made of hard quartz, they are between 2 and 3
centimeters long, semi-transparent, and have sharp blades. One of
them can be used as an arrowhead.
Relatively few stone implements were discovered at the Tuotuo River
site, where the weather is particularly bad, compared with the
Sanchakou site. The site sits on a terrace on the south bank of the
Tuotuo River, which is the origin of the Yangtze River.
Most of the implements unearthed at this site were made of light
green silicon. The historical sites have not yet been dated,
according to Liu Baoshan.
(China
Daily July 31, 2002)