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Zengpiyan Cave

Zengpiyan Cave
甑皮岩遗址
Guilin Zengpiyan Yizhi 2012.10.03 15-55-45.jpg
The Zengpiyan Site
Zengpiyan Cave in China
Zengpiyan Cave in China
Location in China
Zengpiyan Cave in China
Zengpiyan Cave in China
Location in China
Location Guilin China
Region Guangxi
Coordinates 25°12′56″N 110°16′40″E / 25.21556°N 110.27778°E / 25.21556; 110.27778Coordinates: 25°12′56″N 110°16′40″E / 25.21556°N 110.27778°E / 25.21556; 110.27778
Altitude 154 m (505 ft)
Type Cave
Area 400 m2 (4,306 sq ft)
History
Material limestone Karst
Abandoned 7,000 years BP
Periods Neolithic
Associated with Palaeo-humans
Site notes
Excavation dates since 1973
Archaeologists Fu Xianguo

The Zengpiyan Site (Chinese: 甑皮岩遗址; pinyin: Zèngpíyán yízhǐ) is a Neolithic cave site in southern China. It is located in the Guilin region on the south-western fringes of the Dushan Mountain (Dú Shān 独山) in the autonomous region Guangxi and is considered to be one of the most important cave sites of the Neolithic in China as it is one of the many independent centers for the introduction of animal domestication and pottery.

The cave was discovered in 1969 and archaeological excavations began in 1973. Dating revealed that the cave was occupied between 9,000 and 7,500 years ago, the oldest layer reaching as far back as 12,000 years ago. This natural cave was used as a dwelling place, whether it was only a seasonal habitat is not yet clear. The main cave has an area of approximately 220 m2 (2,368 sq ft) and faces southwest, adjacent to the Li River with neighboring woods for hunting, lakes for fishing and plains for collecting wild vegetables.

Excavations have so far yielded over 30 human corpses, 110 kinds of mammals, birds, fishes and reptiles, over 1,000 pieces of polished and pierced stone and bone ware, animal teeth, mussel shells and over 10,000 pieces of pottery. A large number of fireplaces and waste pits were also discovered. In the back of the cave stone material is piled up. In older sediments semi-finished stone tools were abundant. Pierced stone tools and polished stone tools were unearthed from more recent layers. Bone artifacts included fishing spears (Yubiao 鱼镖), arrowheads (zú ) needles (zhēn ) and hairpins (jī ).

The cave yielded some of the country's oldest pieces of pottery as the appearance of pottery in the area is believed to be related to freshwater snail eating. "Freshwater snails were one of their staple foods, judging by the quantities of snail shells found in various strata". The oldest local pottery is according to Chinese archaeologists dated to 12,000 years BP. The ceramics of more recent strata were determined to belong to the "String pattern-Guan-vessel-type" (绳纹罐类).


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