THE ANIMAL REMAINS DISCOVERED AT CISHAN VILLAGE,WU'AN,HEBEI PROVINCE

Chow Ben-shun  

The Neolithic site at Cishan Village,Wu'an County,Hebei Province,lying at theeastern foot of the Taihang Mountains,on the terrace near the Nanming River,25 metersabove the present-day river bed,belongs to one of the two earliest cultures so far discoveredin North China,whose earliest known occupation is dated 5405—5285 radiocarbon years B.C.(5570 half-life:ZK 439,ZK 440).A considerable amount of Neolithic artifacts andanimal remains have been unearthed from this site.The animal remains are all ratherfragmentary and some of them bear traces of having been burt,which represent at leastthe following 23 speciesMyospalax psillurus Milne-Edwards,Lepus tolai Pallas,Macaca mulatta Zimmermann,Meles meles L.,Paguma larvata Hamilton-Smith,Panthera pardus L.,Canis sp.,Canisfamiliaris L.,Cervus nippon Temminck,Cervus claphus L.,Elaphurus davidianus Milne-Edwarde,Capreolus capreolus L.,Hydropotes inermis Swinhoe,Muntiacus muntjak Zimmer-mann,Cervus sp.,Bos exiguus Matsumoto,Sus domestics L.,Sus scrofa L.,Gallus gallusdomesticus(L.),Anser fabalis(L.),Emydidae G.et sp.indet.,Ctenopharygodon idellus(C.et V.)and Lampertula sp.Among the animals mentioned above,the dog and pig were certainly domesticated,the oxmight or might not be livestock,and the chicken was very likely to have been domesticated,while the rest were wild animals.Of the identified bones 60% were of domestic animals,and40% of wild animals,but there was greater variation of the number of individuals amongthe wild animals.Also discovered at the site were many hackberry seeds and carbonizedwild walnuts,This shows that though agricultural production was fairly developed in theNeolithic Age in Cishan,traditional economic activities of hunting,fishing and gatheringstill occupied an important place in people's economic life.A large quantity of remains of domestic chickens(Gallus gallus domesticus)unearthedmay prove,based on a comparative study of data obtained in and outside China,thechicken of Cishan site may be the earliest archeological record of domestic chickens foundso far.

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