Xiaochangliang: Geography and Culture
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Xiaochangliang: Geography and Culture Liu Yang Laboratory of Human Evolution, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, China
Introduction The Nihewan Basin, located in the valley formed by Sanggan River and its tributary, the Huliu River, which covers an area of about 9,000 km2 with an average elevation of 1,000 m, in northwest Hebei province and northern Shanxi province, 50 km west of Beijing, is a key region for studying Chinese or even global Quaternary geology, paleontology, and Paleolithic archaeology. Research in the Nihewan Basin can be traced back to the 1920s, when French scholars E. Licent and P. Teilhard de Chardin and others found and studied mammalian fossils contained in Late Cenozoic fluviolacustrine strata near Nihewan village, which eventually corresponded to the Villafranchian fauna in Europe (Barbour et al. 1927). The lacustrine sediments in the ancient Nihewan
lake basin were called the “Nihewan Formation” (Barbour 1924). In 1960s (Gai & Wei, 1974) and 1970s (Jia & Wei 1976), the Hutouliang and Xujiayao sites were discovered. Paleolithic archaeology then became an important part of research here. In 1978, with the discovery of Xiaochanglaing (You et al. 1979), scholars began to study the Lower Paleolithic. This was the first time that Lower Paleolithic archaeology was studied systematically in the area, although the age of Xiaochangliang was controversial at that time. At present the Lower Paleolithic sites in the Nihewan Basin are known as one of the richest areas in North China, or even all of China. Over 20 Lower Paleolithic sites have been discovered, including 14 Early Pleistocene ones. They are located in the eastern part of the Nihewan Basin, around the Donggutuo Village and Cengjiawan Platform (Fig. 1).
Definition The Xiaochangliang site (40 130 1000 N, 0 00 114 3 944 E, altitude 916.52 m), whose name has been carved on the first bronze broad at China Millennium Monument’s historical corridor in Beijing, is one of the most extensively excavated and prolific sites yet studied in the Nihewan Basin. It is located on the edge of
C. Smith (ed.), Encyclopedia of Global Archaeology, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-0465-2, # Springer Science+Business Media New York 2014
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Xiaochangliang: Geography and Culture, Fig. 1 A map showing the position of the Xiaochangliang site (After Ao et al. 2010)
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