More than 90,000 Neolithic stone artifacts unearthed in northeast China

This photo taken on Nov. 7, 2024 shows stone artifacts unearthed in the Shiren cave relic site in Hailin City, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province. (Xinhua)

HARBIN, Nov. 13 (Xinhua) -- More than 90,000 stone artifacts, dating back to the Neolithic period more than 5,000 years ago, have been unearthed in northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, according to local sources.

The artifacts were discovered in the Shiren cave relic site, located east of Shihe Village in Hailin City, and most of them are bifaces and their processing products. The Heilongjiang provincial institute of cultural relics and archaeology stated that, according to carbon-14 dating results, the cave was excavated no later than about 5,700 years ago.

The excavation of Shiren cave relic site was conducted between April and November. Li Youqian, vice director of the institute and head of the archaeological team, told Xinhua that stone wares found at the site are of great value for studying the transition from the Paleolithic Age to the Neolithic Age, as well as the development of prehistoric society in northeast China.

This archaeological excavation provides a lot of data for the study of stone technology, production and lives of ancient humans in different periods in the area, which is of great significance for better understanding human origins and migration, and it also provides important evidence for the study of the origin of Chinese civilization, said Li.