The Houjiayao Site

The Houjiayao Site

The Houjiayao Site is a National Key Cultural Relics Protection Unit.

The Houjiayao Site is located 1,000 meters southwest of Houjiayao Village, Dongjingji Town, Yangyuan County. It was discovered in 1973 by Jia Lanpo, Wei Qi, and others from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, and was officially excavated in 1976. Sixteen pieces of human fossils were found, along with a large number of vertebrate fossils. A total of 14,041 stone artifacts were discovered, including 1,079 stone balls — the largest weighing over 1,500 grams and the smallest under 100 grams — which were "sling stones" used by ancient humans for hunting and are extremely rare in the world. The site dates back approximately 100,000 years.

The Houjiayao Site and the Xujiayao Site in Yanggao County, Shanxi Province, together form the Xujiayao-Houjiayao Ancient Human Site. At the Houjiayao Site, 16 pieces of human fossils were found, along with a large number of vertebrate fossils. A total of 14,041 stone artifacts were discovered, including 1,079 stone balls — the largest weighing over 1,500 grams and the smallest under 100 grams — which were "sling stones" used by ancient humans for hunting and are extremely rare in the world. The site dates back approximately 100,000 years.

The ancient human fossils unearthed at the Houjiayao Site, in terms of both distribution scale and burial content, can be considered comparable to those of Peking Man to some extent, making it a splendid treasure in the history of China's paleolithic archaeology.

The Houjiayao Site is vast in scale and rich in unearthed stone tools and animal fossils. The types of stone tools are complex, including scrapers, points, engravers, stone drills, and a considerable number of stone balls. Many types of these stone tools can also be found at the Zhoukoudian Peking Man Site. The animal fossils include ostrich, pika, tiger,

wild horse, wild ass, woolly rhinoceros, red deer, Ordos megacerine deer, argali, wild boar, and others. Among them, wild horse, woolly rhinoceros, and antelope fossils are the most numerous. The Houjiayao Site is an important location from the middle Paleolithic Age and provides valuable data for the study of human development in primitive society. In 1982, it was designated as a Provincial-Level Cultural Relics Protection Unit by the People’s Government of Hebei Province. On November 20, 1996, it was listed as part of the fourth group of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units by the State Council under the name “Xujiayao–Houjiayao Site.”

Further Reading:

· Second Batch of Hebei Provincial Cultural Relics Protection Units