Xinghua Mountain and Xiaokong Mountain Sites

Xinghua Mountain and Xiaokong Mountain Sites

The Xinghua Mountain and Xiaokong Mountain Sites are Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level.

The Nanzhao Ape Man Site is located on Xinghua Mountain in Ruanzhuang Village, Yunyang Town. It is a site where Homo erectus lived and carried out activities approximately 500,000 to 600,000 years ago. The site stretches 98 meters from north to south and 96 meters from east to west, covering an area of about 9,408 square meters. In the autumn of 1978, Comrade Zheng Xuehua from the Yunyang Cultural Sub-bureau collected fossils from local residents and reported them. Afterward, the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Henan Provincial Cultural Relics Research Institute, and the Nanyang Municipal Cultural Relics Work Team conducted archaeological excavations at the fossil discovery site. They unearthed a fossilized human tooth (currently housed in the National Museum). It was identified by Professor Wu Rukang, former director of the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as the right lower second premolar of a young or middle-aged adult, dating back to the same period as Peking Man, belonging to the Middle Pleistocene epoch, and was named "Nanzhao Man." Other mammalian fossils discovered at the site include 22 species such as saber-toothed tigers, saber-toothed elephants, giant deer, and Chinese hyenas.

Nanzhao Ape Man is considered the birthplace of Central Plains humanity and holds significant historical and scientific value for studying the life and reproduction of humans in the Central Plains region and surrounding areas. In February 1987, it was designated as a Provincial-Level Cultural Relics Protection Unit by the Henan Provincial Government. In May 2013, it was announced as part of the 7th batch of Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level by the State Council. Approved by the Henan Provincial People’s Government, the designated protection area is defined as follows: with the fossil discovery point as the center, extending 200 meters east, 200 meters south, 600 meters west, and 200 meters north. The construction control zone is bounded by lines extending 200 meters east to the eastern bank of the Ji River, 200 meters west to the western slope of Xinghua Mountain, 200 meters south to the southern end of the bridge at Xiangdong Factory, and 200 meters north to the southern edge of Ruanzhuang Natural Village.

Further Reading:

· Second Batch of Henan Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units

· Seventh Batch of Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level