Dayan Site

Dayan Site

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

The Dayan prehistoric cultural site, located near Xiaotaiping Village in Lingui Town, Lingui County, was the first excavation site in northern Guangxi by a national-level archaeological research institution. It is a highly typical cultural site from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic periods in the Lingnan region. After several months of intensive excavation, it has drawn significant attention from the archaeological community and the National Cultural Heritage Administration, and was rated as one of China's major archaeological discoveries of the year 2000.

Since the official excavation of the Dayan Site began in October 2000, the first phase of excavation has been largely completed, yielding abundant and fruitful results. The focus of the first-phase excavation was on Cave A, with an excavation area of approximately 60 m², accounting for about one-third of the site’s total area. Due to the thick and well-preserved cultural strata, nearly 1,000 artifacts were unearthed, including pottery, stone tools, bone tools, and shell tools, along with 10 tombs, most of which contained relatively intact remains. The burial methods included supine flexed burials, lateral flexed burials, squatting burials, and prone extended burials. Based on the formation sequence of the cultural layers and the differing contents within them, the excavation squares were divided into layers 19–32. From each square and layer, 2–8 bags of snail shells and soil samples were collected, along with all associated tombs, animal bones, stone tools, pottery shards, and shell tools. In total, over 600 bags of animal bones and snail shells, as well as more than 800 bags of soil samples, were gathered for technical processing and research, including stratified classification, identification, dating, and analysis. The first-phase excavation confirmed the rich cultural content of the Dayan Site, providing a rare opportunity and highly valuable firsthand material for studying the Paleolithic and Neolithic cultures of northern Guangxi. The unearthed artifacts represent a major breakthrough.

Based on the analysis of relics such as tombs, ash pits, and a large number of stone tools, bone tools, pottery, and shell tools discovered at the site, its age is estimated to range from approximately 15,000 to 4,500 years ago. Its cultural developmental sequence can be divided into five periods: the Late Paleolithic (around 15,000 years ago), the transitional period from the Paleolithic to the Neolithic, the Early Neolithic, the Late Neolithic, and the Final Neolithic (around 4,500 years ago), spanning a period of over 10,000 years. Such an extensive time span is extremely rare in the history of Chinese archaeology and is unparalleled among cave sites in Guangxi. The rich cultural content of the site establishes a chronological framework for the development of ancient cultures in northern Guangxi and fills gaps left by previous research. Through scientific study, it can reveal the interaction between ancient humans in northern Guangxi and their natural environment, and will for the first time uncover the cultural developmental sequence from the Paleolithic and Neolithic periods through the Xia and Shang dynasties in the region, showcasing ancient culture and civilization. Various signs indicate that the Dayan Site will become a benchmark for ancient culture in northern Guangxi. Archaeological experts believe it holds significant academic research value.

Among the unearthed artifacts, there are some special pottery pieces that are crudely made, undecorated, and so fragile that they can be easily broken by hand, resembling jars or similar vessels. According to Captain Fu, these were utensils used by early inhabitants of the Neolithic period and are among the oldest pottery pieces discovered in China to date.

During the excavation, the archaeological team also found phytoliths of rice. However, as this evidence is isolated, it is currently difficult to determine whether it came from cultivated or wild rice. Captain Fu Xianguo of the archaeological team specifically visited Huixian Town in Lingui County and Yanshan District in Guilin City to collect samples of modern wild rice for comparative experiments. For the first time in Guangxi archaeological excavations, the team employed the flotation method to search for ancient plant remains, floating over 700 soil bags. Currently, relevant experts are conducting high-tech testing. Regardless of whether the results indicate wild or cultivated rice, the findings are of great significance to the study of the origin of cultivated rice and agriculture in China, as well as to reconstructing the natural environment of northern Guangxi at that time.

In 2019, the Dayan Site was included in the eighth batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

Further Reading:

· Eighth Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units