Protected Sites:Site of Hexian Ape Man

The Site of Hexian ape man is located on the northern slope of Jiangjia Mountain in Taodian Town, Hexian County of Anhui Province.

The site was the deposit of the Cambrian limestone cave where two excavations were carried out in October 1980 and June 1981. Discoveries included a human fossil skull, a section of a mandible, a top bone, an upper frontal bone, 11 molars and a frontal tooth. It was concluded that the fossils belonged to at least three ape men and the skull belonged to a young male who exhibited many typical features of Homo Erectus. The skull of the Hexian Man is generally similar to that of the Peking Man, but a little more advanced. This suggests that Hexian Man lived in the period of late Peking Man.

Moreover, a large number of vertebrate fossils were also unearthed along with the human fossils. According to initial studies, the animal fossils amounted to over 50 species belonging to the Pleistocene Period.

The discovery of Hexian Man provides important materials for the study into the origin and development of human beings, as well as comparing the similarities and differences between primitive humans of the south and the north.

Protected Sites :Gaxian Cave Site

The Gaxian Cave Site is located 10 kilometers northwest of Alihe Town in the Oroqen Banner of the Hulunbair League in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

The site lies at the eastern foot of the northern peak of the Great Hinggan Mountains. The cave is located on a 100-meter-high granite peak and towers at about 25 meters. The mouth of the cave is shaped like a triangle 12 meters high and 19 meters wide. The cave contains a wide space stretching 92 meters from south to north, 27 to 28 meters east to west and reaching over 20 meters at its highest peak. It covers an area of over 2,000 square meters, resembling a grand hall. To the northwest is an oblique cave nine meters wide, six to seven meters high and 22 meters long. About 11 meters up in the east wall of the grand hall is a five-meter-wide cave that is over 10 meters deep. In the middle of the grand hall lies an irregular natural stone board about 3.5 meters in length and three meters wide, with a 0.5-meter-high stone supporting it that resembles a stone table.

Located about 15 meters to the west wall is a line of stone inscriptions containing 19 rows and 201 characters, written in a style typical of the Northern Dynasties (386-581). The discovery of the Gaxian Cave provides precious archaeological materials for study into the cultural origin of such ethnic groups as the Serbi.

Protected Sites:Erlitou Site

The Erlitou Site, which dates back about 3,500 to 3,600 years ago, is located along the banks of the Luo River in the south of Erlitou Village in Yanshi County, Henan Province.

Discovered in 1959, the Erlitou Site is rich in a culture typical of the period; Erlitou Culture was, in turn, named after the area.

The site is divided into four periods, each with an area of three square kilometers. Remains of two palaces, a residential area, pottery and bronze workshops, and kilns and tombs were excavated at the site.

One of the palaces, which experts believe provided the foundation for Chinese palace architecture, is square in shape and measures 108 meters from east to west, 100 meters from south to north and 0.8 meters in height. Its front yard covers an area of 5,000 square meters, and winding corridors can be found on all four sides of the site.

Cultural relics, such as bronze ware, jade, pottery, stone, bone and mussel wares were unearthed at Erlitou, including the Jue (an ancient wine vessel with three legs and a loop handle), which, so far, has been the earliest bronze vessel ever excavated in China. The exquisite beast-headed bronze plate embedded with turquoise stones reveals a mastery of the enchasing technique.

According to archaeological studies, the Erlitou Site, which existed during the same period as the Xia Dynasty (21st-16th century BC), provides important material for the study of the Xia culture.

There are two schools of thought regarding the relationship between the Erlitou Site and the Xia culture at present. One says that the first and second periods of the site are the deposits from the Xia culture, while the third and fourth periods are the deposit of Bo Capital of the Shang Dynasty (16th-11th century BC). According to the second theory, the Erlitou Site is the city site of the Late Xia Dynasty.

Protected Sites: Dayao Site

Dayao Site is located near Dayao Village in the northeast of Hohehot Municipality, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.

Lying in the highlands in front of Daqing Mountain, the site comprises two stoneware workshops -- one from the early Paleolithic Age and the other from the late Paleolithic Age. The Inner Mongolia Museum team carried out the first excavation at the site in 1976, and the second followed in October 1978.

Many large flint stones were unearthed in the early Paleolithic workshop, where pieces of chipped stone gallets, broken fragments and stone blocks were scattered around the site. There are some stone gallets typical of the age and a few well-shaped stone implements.

At the late Paleolithic site are many typical gallets and stone kernels, and a few stone implements, most of which are semi-manufactured or left over. The stone implements are simply designed and only a few varieties include chopping, sharp-pointed and scraping tools. Among the most common scraping tools, the tortoise-back-shaped ones are the most particular: they have a thick back shaped like that of a tortoise. These tools, typical of the age, can be used for skinning, slicing meat and processing leather.

The discovery of the Dayao Site provides important, concrete materials for the study of the stone-manufacturing process and crafts from the Paleolithic Age in China.

Protected Sites: Site of Celadon Kiln at Longquan

The site of the Longquan Kiln spreads across the Lishui area and its surrounding counties, including Wuyi, Yongjia, Wencheng and Taishun in Zhejiang Province.

The Longquan Kiln is one of the most famous celadon kilns in southern ancient China. Kiln sites are densely distributed in Longquan County (over 300). Sites containing porcelain of better quality are concentrated in Dayao Village, which was regarded as the center of the Longquan kilns. Hence, the kilns of that area are generally known as the Longquan Kilns.

The Longquan Kiln is located in the upper reaches of the Ou River in south Zhejiang Province. The county is abundant in porcelain, clay and pinewood, which was used for baking porcelain.

The Longquan Kiln was implemented in the early Northern Song Dynasty (960-1127) and reached its peak during late Southern Song Dynasty (1127-1279). During the Northern Song and Southern Song period, the kiln mainly produced daily commodities, such as plates, bowls and kettles. Such wares adopted high techniques: enchasing flowers supplemented with dots and waves and floating clouds. The glaze used on Longquan wares was thin and of a cyan hue mixed with yellow.

During mid-Southern Song period, stoves, bottles and statues appeared in various patterns. Most of the decorations consisted of carved flowers, and the insides of bowls were adorned with cloud carvings. With its thin, almost translucent glaze, the kiln's technique had its own characteristics. Some of the most famous representatives include the pale, blue-glazed and plum, green-glazed wares that were created during the late Southern Song period. Wares from this period were rich in variety, including the ones imitating jade or bronze wares.

Due to the popularity of large wares, it was during the Yuan Dynasty (1271-1368) that the kiln's technique experienced a great breakthrough. Following the mid-Ming (1368-1644) period, a large number of technicians moved away from the Longquan Kiln due to the thriving porcelain industry around the country, especially with the development of the porcelain capital, Jingdezhen, which triggered the decline of the Longquan Kiln.

Protected Sites:Dadiwan Site

The Dadiwan Site is located in the east of Nacun Village in Wuying Town, Qin'an County of Gansu Province.

Located about 45 kilometers from the county, the Dadiwan Site covers an area of over 360,000 square meters. The Gansu archaeological team carried out a six-year excavation project at the site from 1978 to the end of 1983, having unearthed over 200 house sites, 30 kilns and 8,000 pieces of cultural relics. According to the excavation data, Dadiwan is a site of the Neolithic Age that dates back 4,000 to 7,500 years ago.

Cultural relics found at the Dadiwan Site trace the development of manufacturing techniques as they evolved from the crude to the delicate. Early stone tools were simple, chipped implements, and only a select few were cut and polished. In the middle period, species and quantity increased along with technical development, resulting in cut and polished tools. In the late period, more complex and larger, more specialized and polished implements appeared, along with bone ware.

The technical development of pottery ware is more obvious. Among the unearthed pottery are red, gray and other ancient painted items made of clay pottery and sand pottery to form jars, pots, bottles, cups and wine vessels. Such items were painted with rope patterns and line shapes. Colored pottery includes such patterns as broad strips, arcs, triangles, stripes, fish, birds and geometric shapes composing dots, lines and arcs. Among the amaranth, black and white pieces, the round-bottomed pots with fish patterns and items embossed with three human figures are the most precious. The markings etched on a few wares provide new clues into the study of the origin of Chinese characters.

Most early house sites are half-pits that assume a round shape with a diameter of two to three meters, containing a small fireplace inside. Among the houses from the middle period are structures built on the ground besides half-pits with enlarged areas. In such houses the grounds were paved with small stones. During the late period, houses were mainly built on the ground and on a comparably large scale. The F405 House, for example, is about 14 meters in length and 11 meters wide, covering an area of about 150 square meters. It has a large room in the center and two small rooms on either side, with three doors open in each room. The remaining walls range from 0.1 to 0.9 meters in height. Over 100 wooden pillars were erected in the rooms, and 24 pillars stand near the walls for support. A huge kitchen ranging from 2.34 meters in diameter and 0.6 meters in height stands in the center of the hall. Its floor is smooth and solid with a thickness of 0.2 meters and paved with small stones mixed with earth. In another house, the floor contains charcoal drawings of human figures and animals.

The Dadiwan Site is rich in cultural relics and its layering of various cultures is clear and long-lasting. It is among the few Neolithic sites with a systemic chronicle sequence in east Gansu and the upper reaches of the Wei River, which plays a key role in archaeological study.

Protected Sites: Cishan Site

The Cishan Site spreads across the mesa on the northern banks of the Luo River, southwest of Wu'an County in Hebei Province.

Discovered in 1973, Cishan is the earliest site of the Neolithic Age found in North China. Preceding the Yangshao Culture, the site dates back to 5400 to 5100 BC. It is of key importance to the study of Yangshao Culture, as well as the cultural deposit of the Neolithic period. Owning to its unique features, the Cishan Culture was named after the site. To date, over 10 Cishan Culture sites were discovered in the central southern areas of Henan Province.

Agriculture was the main form of production back then. Two half-pit foundations surrounded by over 460 kilns, 80 of which were stored with carbonized millet, were discovered at the site. The millet deposits in some kilns were piled up over two meters high. Production tools, such as stone axes, knives, sickles, shovels and millstones used for grain processing, were spread around the site. People of that period learned how to raise livestock, such as chicken, pigs and dogs. Moreover, economic activities like fishing and collecting food also held an important position in people's lives.

A crucial feature of the Cishan Culture is its pottery making. Mainly red potteries mingled with sand were found in great varieties, including cups, bowls, plates, earthen bowls, three-legged wares, double-ear pots and jars. These items were decorated using rope or by etching patterns into the surface. Such crude techniques, however, were inferior to those used by the Yangshao Culture.

Protected Sites: Chuandong Site

The Chuandong Site is located on an isolated mountain, five kilometers west of Puding County, Guizhou Province.

The limestone cave was named Chuandong (through cave) due to its passage from the south end to the north end. Located 26 meters above ground, the cave was formed on the 87-meter-high mountainside and measures nine meters in height, 13 meters in width and 18 meters in length from the inside. First discovered in the autumn of 1978, the site was excavated by the Guizhou Museum team in May 1979. Over 100 relics were unearthed, including stone, bone and fossils. According to scientific studies, the site dates back over 10,000 years to the late Paleolithic Age.

In 1981 and 1983, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Science and the Guizhou Museum jointly carried out excavations at the site and unearthed over 10,000 old stone implements, such as axes, hammers and knives, including over 1,000 polished bone implements. Also discovered at the site was a large number of fossils of over 10 mammal species, such as deer, porcupine, bear and tiger, including fire sites. Moreover, the excavation team unearthed about 100 human fossils, including a complete skull, mandibles, thighbones, and teeth, etc.

The most representative relics discovered at the Chuandong Site are the polished bone implements, such as needles, mallets and shovels. So many bone implements, made in such varieties and with such high craftsmanship, are seldom seen in China. The relics, therefore, provide precious raw materials for the study of the type, use and craft of bone implements used during the Chinese Paleolithic period.

Protected Sites: Tongguan Kiln Site in Changsha

The Tongguan Kiln Site spreads over an area of about five kilometers from Tongguan Town to Shizhu Lake in Wangcheng County of Changsha City, Hunan Province.

The site is one of the important kiln sites of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) in China. The 13 remaining kilns at the site are mainly scattered throughout Lan'anzui, Wazhaping, and Lanjiapo. Two excavations were carried out in 1965 and 1978.

A large number of unearthed color-glazed ware proved that the technique was incorporated no later than the Tang Dynasty. The pottery comes in a large variety, and is both exquisitely shaped and practical. The pieces are decorated with green-colored patterns depicting human figures, animals, plants and natural landscapes and reflecting the masterly crafts of pottery making from the Tang period. Moreover, most of the items have inscribed poems or other scripts -- an important feature of the pieces unearthed at the Tongguan Kiln Site.

Although Tongguan Kiln porcelain was popular around the Jianghuai area, it was also discovered in Japan, Korea and Indonesia. Museums in Britain, the United States and Sweden also have such collections from the Tongguan Kiln. The discovery of the Tongguan Kiln is of great importance to the study of China's porcelain history.

Protected Sites: Beiting Ancient City Site

The Beiting Ancient City is located in Hubaozi, about 12 kilometers north of Jimusaer County in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The city, developed from Tingzhou City of the Tang Dynasty (618-907), was a town of military importance in North China until its desolation in the early Ming (1368-1644).

In 1820 during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Chinese scholar Xu Song carried out the first site study and discovered some precious cultural relics, such as stone tablets from the Tang Dynasty. Between 1979 and 1980, the Archaeological Research Institute of the Chinese Social Science Academy discovered a large number of clay statues and exquisite frescos at a Buddhist temple site from the Gaochang Huihu period , about 700 meters north of the city.

The ancient city was built on a large scale, assuming an irregular oblong shape. The inner city is located in the northeast part of the central outer city. The outer city has a perimeter of 4,596 meters, while the inner one measures 3,003 meters. The 10-meter-high city walls were built with tampered earth about eight to 12 meters thick. The city is surrounded by military defense works, such as the city moat. Original constructions from within the city no longer exist, with the exception of three damaged city-wall bases and nine other dilapidated sites, two of which are temples.

According to analyses, the outer city was built during the Zhenguan reign of the Tang Dynasty (627-649), while the inner city was built during the Gaochang Huihu period, A large number of cultural relics from the Tang period were unearthed at the site, including flat and round tiles, square bricks with lotus-flower patterns, bronze official seals, bronze lions, stone lions, bronze mirrors, stone balls, pipes and porcelain wares.