Xiacaowan Site

Xiacaowan Site

The Xiacaowan Site is a cultural relic protection unit of Suqian City.

The Xiacaowan Cultural Site is located on the eastern bank of the Xiacaowan Diversion River, approximately 8 kilometers southeast of Shuanggu Town in Sihong County. It borders the Huai River to the south and Hongze Lake to the north, and is the earliest known ancient human site discovered in Jiangsu Province. Currently, the site appears as an ordinary riverbank slope and was designated as a municipal-level key cultural relics protection unit by the city government in 2002. In June 1954, Professor Yang Zhongjian, an academician of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, geologist, and paleontologist, conducted an investigation at Xiacaowan and collected a 15.27 cm-long femur fossil of an ancient ape. This fossil, dating back to the Late Pliocene epoch and estimated to be around 40,000–50,000 years old, belongs to a late-stage hominid with advanced intelligence and was named “Xiacaowan Man.”

In recent years, experts have conducted multiple archaeological surveys and scientific excavations in the Xiacaowan area, discovering nearly a hundred species of Paleozoic and Miocene fossilized vertebrate mammals, many of which are new species and genera, collectively referred to as the Xiacaowan Fauna. Of particular significance are the unearthed Shuanggu Zuiyuan (Drunken Ape of Shuanggu) and the ½-Huai Kuandechi Ape, both of which hold important value for studying the evolutionary process from apes to humans. Geologists, during their investigation of the Xiacaowan Site, found that the soil structure of the area consists of lacustrine sedimentary deposits, referred to as the “Xiacaowan Kaolinite Stratum.” Similar strata have been uniformly named the “Xiacaowan Formation,” which has been included in the Chinese Geological Literature.