Lingfeng Cave

Lingfeng Cave

Lingfeng Cave

Lingfeng Cave is located on the southwestern slope of the rock mass, with a relative height of 37 meters and a remaining area of approximately 250 square meters. In the less than 10 square meters of cleaned calcareous slab layers, 75 stone artifacts from Lingfeng Cave and Fanyard Cave were unearthed. Most of them are fragments, cores, and hammerstones, including 11 stone tools. Among these artifacts, both the flaking and the processing of stone tools were done using the hammering method. The resulting flakes, cores, and tools are not very regular in shape, showing a certain degree of primitiveness. The cave dates back to about 180,000 years ago. Additionally, fossils of mammalian animals such as the Chinese rhinoceros, tiger, water buffalo, and bamboo rat were discovered. Uranium-series dating of the calcareous slabs indicates an age of 185,000 ± 13,000 years.

Nearly 100 stone artifacts were found in the site area, including cores, flakes, choppers, and scrapers, along with fossils of various mammalian animals, dating back to around 200,000 years ago. Also discovered was a rare early artificial stone-paved surface site in the world, with an exposed area of about 120 square meters. This is the first such discovery in China and also quite rare globally. More than 400 fossil remains of accompanying animals, including the Chinese rhinoceros, tiger, brown bear, and bovines, belonging to over 10 species, were also found.