Panxian Dadao Paleolithic Site

Panxian Dadao Paleolithic Site

Panxian Dadao Paleolithic Site is a cultural tourism attraction.

The national cultural heritage site — Panxian Dadao is located in Shili Village, Zhudong Township. Originally a cave used for religious purposes, the Guangxu-era “Annals of Pu’an Direct-Controlled Prefecture” recorded it as “bright and spacious, free from the misery of darkness; the ground is flat, with a three-room Buddhist temple built in the middle. Winding up from the temple, there stands a tall stalactite with a flat top, on which a Guanyin Pavilion was erected. Descending from there, steep rock walls close in, and one must sidle crab-wise to reach the great cave.” Later, it became a place where locals processed saltpeter. The mountainous piles of ancient fossils in the cave were discarded at will, smashed and fed to pigs, or used to fertilize fields. It was discovered by geologists in the 1970s.

In 1990, relevant departments in Liupanshui City sent several stone artifacts collected from the surface deposits at the mouth of Panxian Dadao Cave to the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, for study. Huang Weiwen, head of the Paleoanthropology Department at the institute, and others noted that the standardized and distinct evidence of platform preparation techniques on these finely made stone tools was typically considered unique to contemporary Western cultures. They subsequently dispatched geologist Yuan Zhenxin and others to conduct an on-site survey, during which more than ten stone artifacts and a large number of mammalian fossils—including several extinct species such as the Stegodon orientalis, the Chinese rhinoceros, and the giant tapir—were collected from the cave.

In April 1992, with approval from the National Cultural Heritage Administration, a 21-day trial excavation and cleaning of Panxian Dadao was carried out, yielding astonishing results. Covering an area of 12 square meters, the excavation unearthed over 700 stone artifacts and more than 500 fossil specimens, including one human tooth fossil and dozens of mammal species as well as a small number of bird and fish fossils. The findings from the several excavations at Panxian Dadao have drawn increasing amazement and attention from the international archaeological community. Especially noteworthy is the fact that the cultural relics and original living surfaces of the Dadao site were preserved in their abandoned state, containing rich potential information. The abundant and well-preserved Quaternary deposits in Dadao provide ideal conditions for establishing a standard stratigraphic profile of Quaternary cave sediments in South China.

A formal excavation of Panxian Dadao was conducted in 1993, uncovering four ancient human tooth fossils, over 2,000 stone artifacts, nearly 10,000 animal fossils, as well as a collection of paleoanthropological remains such as ash, charcoal fragments, and burnt bones. Panxian Dadao is an Pleistocene cave, and the discovery of a Middle Paleolithic human site here is extremely rare worldwide. Among the top ten archaeological discoveries in China in 1993, the Panxian Dadao site ranked first and was recognized by experts both at home and abroad as a major find of ancient human cave sites in China. The excavation at Panxian Dadao is also rare among early human sites globally, offering an ideal site for interdisciplinary comprehensive research with significant scientific value. In terms of scale, age of the cultural strata, and the variety and quantity of archaeological materials, it is comparable to Beijing’s Zhoukoudian site.

Zhudong Township: Located in the southeastern part of Panxian, Zhudong Township is about 70 kilometers from Hongguo New Town. Established in 1992 through a merger of three smaller townships—Shili, Zhudong, and Zhongshan—from the former Laochang District, it covers an area of over 129 square kilometers. The township governs 23 administrative villages, 164 villager groups, and has a population of over 26,300. The area lacks rich mineral resources, with only limited deposits of coal, gold, and brick clay. Approximately two-thirds of the land consists of karst landforms. Within Zhudong, there is the Shili Dadao tourist attraction, which remains underdeveloped due to insufficient funding. The local residents primarily engage in agriculture and livestock farming, cultivating crops such as corn and... More details about Zhudong Township ++