The Talitalihaha Site

The Talitalihaha Site

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

Era: Shang to Zhou Dynasties

The Talitalihaha Site is located south of the Third Squadron of the Second Brigade, Nomuhong Farm, Nomuhong Township, Dulan County, Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. The site covers an area of approximately 250×250 meters. "Talitalihaha" in Mongolian means "burned mountain" or "ash mountain." The site consists of three small hills. In 1959, the Qinghai Provincial Cultural Relics Management Committee and the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences conducted trial excavations at the site.

Among the unearthed artifacts, production tools include bronze ware, bone ware, stone ware, horn ware, pottery, and wood ware. Bronze items consist of bronze axes, bronze knives, bronze (unspecified), and bronze arrowheads; stone items include stone axes, stone arrowheads, stone adzes, stone chisels, stone knives, stone pestles, grinding tools, stone balls, stone spinning whorls, and whetstones; bone items include bone shovels, bone chisels, bone knives, bone needles, bone arrowheads, bone spindles, and bone spinning whorls; horn items include horn shovels and gun-shaped objects; wood items include wood spinning whorls and wheel hubs; pottery items include pottery spinning whorls and pottery balls. Daily utensils were mainly made of pottery. All pottery was sand-tempered, available in gray and red, with gray pottery being more common.

The site also yielded a significant amount of woolen cloth, woolen ropes, woolen belts, as well as stone beads, flute-shaped objects, bone whistles, and small pottery yaks. The Talitalihaha Site is the naming site of the Nomuhong Culture and also the most representative site of this culture. In addition to its unique cultural characteristics, many elements of the site are related to the Kayue Culture—for instance, the pottery-making techniques are entirely identical to those of the Kayue Culture, and some vessel shapes are also similar.

In May 2013, it was designated and announced by the State Council as part of the seventh batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units.

Further Reading:

· Seventh Batch of National Key Cultural Relics Protection Units