The Dingcun Site is located along both sides
of the Fen River in Xiangfen County, Shanxi Province.
The Dingcun Site, discovered in 1953,
is an archaeological site of the Mid Paleolithic located in North China. It has
become one of the key projects under excavation the next year. A total of 11
Paleolithic sites were excavated together with 3 sites of animal fossils, 3
human teeth, and 2005 stone tools. Altogether there are 28 kinds of mammal
fossils, including rhinoceros, wild horse, Nama elephant, deer, field mouse, and
primitive ox. A child's right upper skull fossil was unearthed in 1976, and the
child was named as Dingcun Man according to modern archaeological nomination
standard. With the fore-tooth taking the shape of shovel, the Dingcun Man
belongs to a developing period between Peking Man and modern man, and is similar
to Mongoloid and far different from white.
Stone tools excavated in the site were
mostly made of hornfels, mausoleum stone and limestone. Shaped by direct strike,
these stone tools were comparatively thick and sturdy, including chopping tools,
scraping tools, sharp-pointed tools and stone balls. The most representative
tool of the Dingcun Culture is the three-edge pointed tool, which was known as
Dingcun pointed tool for its discovery site. The geological age of the Dingcun
Man and its culture belongs to the late Pleistocene period, while their cultural
age belongs to the Mid Paleolithic Age.
The Dingcun Culture is a major
representative culture of the Mid Paleolithic Age in
China.