Tatalahexi Site

　　  The Tatalahexi Site is situated south of the Third Squadron base in the Second Brigade of the Nuomuhong Farm in Nuomuhong Township, Dulan County, Haixi Mongol and Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Qinghai Province. The site covers an area of approximately 250×250 meters. "Tatalahexi" means "burned mountain" or "ash mountain" in Mongolian. 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 tools, stone tools, horn tools, pottery, and wooden items. Bronze items comprise bronze axes, bronze knives, bronze chisels, and bronze arrowheads; stone tools include stone axes, stone arrowheads, stone adzes, stone chisels, stone knives, stone pestles, grinding tools, stone balls, stone spinning whorls, and whetstones; bone tools consist of bone shovels, bone chisels, bone knives, bone needles, bone arrowheads, bone awls, and bone spinning whorls; horn tools include horn shovels and spear-like implements; wooden items feature wooden spinning whorls and wheel hubs; pottery items include pottery spinning whorls and pottery balls. Daily utensils were mainly made of pottery. All the pottery was sand-tempered, coming in gray and red varieties, with gray pottery being more common.

　　  The site also yielded a significant amount of woolen cloth, wool ropes, wool belts, as well as stone beads, flute-shaped objects, bone whistles, and small pottery yaks. The Tatalahexi Site is the naming site of the Nuomuhong Culture and also its most representative site. In addition to having its own unique characteristics, many aspects of its cultural content are related to the Kayue Culture — for instance, the pottery-making techniques are 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 Major Historical and Cultural Sites Protected at the National Level.