The Shan Women Site

The Shan Women Site

The Shan Women Site is a cultural heritage site protected at the provincial level in Shanxi Province.

The Shan Women Site

The Shan Women Site (Second Batch of Provincial-level Protected Sites)

Era: Paleolithic

Location: 1.5 km east of Shan Nügou Village, Chengguan Town, Xiangfen County, on the western range of the Tail Mountain

Excavated in October 1984. Within an area of approximately seven to eight square kilometers including Li Gou, Qingyangling, and Liujiazui, stone tools have been discovered successively, with the most concentrated and abundant finds on the southern slope of Daguduishan. Within an area approximately 1,000 x 300 meters in size, stone artifacts are densely layered and found everywhere. These artifacts lie on slopes composed of gray-black hornfels, generally tens of centimeters thick, with the thickest layer reaching up to 4 meters. No polished stone tools or pottery shards have been found in the cultural layer.

The cultural remains include stone cores, flakes, and tools, all made of hornfels. Stone cores are divided into two major types: regular and irregular. Most flakes are wider than they are long, with roughly half having a cleavage plane as their striking platform, and the majority of impact points are clear. Percussion tools were made using hammering and battering techniques. Tool types mainly include stone hammers, choppers, scrapers, hand axes, points, and stone spearheads.

The stone artifacts from the Shan Women Site are generally sharp-edged, with tens of thousands of stone cores and flakes, while tools make up a very small proportion. This site is considered to be a stone tool manufacturing workshop. It dates from the late Paleolithic to the Neolithic period.

Further Reading:

· Second Batch of Provincial-level Cultural Heritage Protected Sites in Shanxi Province