The Zhaobaogou Culture succeeded the Xinglongwa Culture and
originated in the middle and later period of the Xinglongwa
Culture. The ancient cultural relics of the Zhaobaogou Culture are
located in Aohan Banner, Chifeng City of Inner Mongolia.
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The site cover an area of about 90 000 m2. The houses at the
site are either square or of trapezium-shaped. They are
semi-basements and arranged in rows. Compared to the Xinglongwa
Culture, the settlements of the Zhaobaogou Culture were much
larger. However, the two had much in common, for example, the
arrangement of houses in rows and the different sizes of the
houses. This affinity was attributable to shared regions, close
technological levels, cultural heritage and other factors. However,
the main factor was the close economic mode. The characteristic of
Zhaobaogou's stoneware was the co-existence of ground stoneware and
fine stoneware. The tools used to produce stoneware were mainly
sharp-curved stone spades, flat stone axes, curve-edged stone
knives, ground plates and ground sticks. It can be noticed that the
Zhaobaogou Culture was more developed than the Xinglongwa Culture
in terms of production tools.
Pottery unearthed at the Zhaobaogou Culture site was mainly tan
or mahogany with sand inclusions. They were all hand-made and
simple, but more diversified in their shapes than those of the
Xinglongwa Culture.
Zun (a kind of ancient vessels for wine)-shaped ware is most
typical of the Zhaobaogou Culture. It has small or straight mouths,
long and thick necks, and flat and round bellies, with slightly
curved bottoms. When it was polished, geometrical shapes were
inscribed on it. Even the patterns of animals were cut into the
bellies. Animals' heads were treated in both realistic and
exaggerated ways to reflect the most noticeable part of the
animal's organs. The pig-dragons, flying deer and magic birds
patterns discovered at Xiaoshan made today's people marvel at the
intricate designs. The zun with a pattern of a pig's head and a
snake's body was the earliest example of dragon worship by the
Chinese people, which shows that Inner Mongolia was also one of the
important cradles of Chinese dragon worship. Pig-dragon, phoenix,
flying deer and other zun-shaped ware showed that society was
polarized to great extent at that time. These earliest "artistic
divine works" were 1,000 years older than the 6,000-year-old
Dragon-Tiger Heap Sculpture at Xishuipo, Puyang, Henan
Province.
No venues for sacrifices were found so far at the Zhaobaobou
Culture sites. Therefore, the activities might have been carried
out indoors. The zun-shaped ware was used during sacrificial
activities for wishing successful hunts. This indicated that
hunting was an important part of the life of the ancient Zhaobaogou
people. Their religious ceremonies were mostly related to hunting.
The ancient Xinglongwa people used the skulls of animals for
sacrifices, while the ancient Zhaobaogou people used pottery with
the images of animals they hunted.
The Zhaobaogou Culture was slightly younger than the Xinglongwa
Culture, but older than the Hongshan Culture. It was one of the
early cultures of the Neolithic Age. The three cultures were
obviously in succession. The Zhaobaogou Culture and the Hongshan
Culture shared many common aspects and the former was more
developed than the Hongshan Culture. For example, the pig-dragon
and a jade dragon with a pig's head and a snake's body must have a
close connection and the pottery of both cultures have Z shapes
printed on them. Therefore, the Zhaobaogou Culture should be an
ancient culture that exerted a great influence on the development
of the Hongshan Culture.