IDENTIFICATION AND STUDY OF THE ANIMAL BONES FROM THE ZHUKAIGOU SITE, INNER MONGOLIA
Huang Yunping
Among the animal bones from the Zhukaigou site, Inner Mongolia, the identifiable specimens number 1002, which belong to the pig (Sus domestica), sheep (Ovis sp.), ox (Bos domestica), dog (Canis familiaris), red deer (Cervus elaphus), roe deer (Capreolus capreolus), goral (Naemorhedus goral), double-humped camel (Camelus bactrianus), badger (Meles meles), leopard (Panthera pardus) and bear (Ursus sp.), altogether 11 species. The total animal bones represent at least 157 individuals. The pig, sheep, ox and dog were domestic animals the Zhukaigou people raised, and the rest must have been wild beasts they hunted. The former, according to the statistic data of the minimum number of individuals represented by the bones, account for 88.65% of the total, while the latter 11.4%. This suggests that the Zhukaigou people were mainly engaged in primitive agriculture, though hunting remained an important means of subsistence. Deer, Oxe. and sheep's limb-bones and antlers were then used to make tools and objects. The material was prepared by sawing and chopping and then wrought by grinding and polishing into needles, awls, arrowheads, spades, etc. Oxen, deer, sheep, camels and bears' scapulae were made oracle bones. The process was first to touch up a bone, then drill and scorch both of its sides for divination. Judged by traces of working, when drilling, a stone drill was fixed to an end of a wooden stick, which was rotated by the operator's rubbing his palms. The cultural deposits of the Zhukaigou site are divided into three periods with five subperiods and dated from the late Longshan culture via the Xia to the early Shang, with the fourth subperiod going back to 3420±70 BP according to ~(14)C dating.
【Key Words】：
【CateGory Index】： Q915
【CateGory Index】： Q915
CAJViewer7.0 supports all the CNKI file formats; AdobeReader only supports the PDF format.