The stars shine in the cave days - prehistoric period

The long Paleolithic Age can be divided into early, middle and late periods. At present, the early Paleolithic sites in Guizhou include Panxian Dadong Site and Qianxi Guanyindong Site. The latter is named "Guanyindong Culture" according to the stone industry. In the middle period, the stone technology tradition inherited the culture of Guanyin Cave and made some progress. In the later section, a new technology of using flat gravel to obtain zero mesa stone pieces - sharp edge smashing method, represented by the Xingyi Maomao Cave site, also appeared. The late culture presents complex and diverse characteristics, and grinding technology appears.

Comparison of ancient and modern utensils

According to the different types of tools, the ancient people chose different types of stone tools (stone for short). When making edge tools, select stones that are easy to shape and form sharp edges, that is, stones with high brittleness, uniform and isotropic texture, and stones that can produce shell shaped fracture surfaces, such as flint, crystal, etc. For percussion tools, select stones with durability and the ability to maintain the shape of the functional area during continuous percussion, such as gravel, massive granite, etc.

Stripping is the basic method for making stone tools. When the stone is hit more than it can bear, it will split along the edge of the hit and peel off the stone chips. Stripping technology includes hammering, smashing and anvil bumping, with hammering as the main method.

Hammer

The strip or oval gravel is used to directly knock the stone core to strip the stone chips, so it is called the stone hammer direct hitting technology, or simply the hammering method.

Smashing method

When it is necessary to deal with the stone that is difficult to control the shape of flaking, or the stone that is too small to hold directly, one end of the stone core can be vertically placed on the stone anvil, and then the other end can be vertically hit with a stone hammer to knock down the stone chips. This method is called smashing.

Anvil bumping method

It is also called throwing and smashing method. Knock the stone selected as stone on another larger stone, namely stone anvil, and use the peeled stone flakes as tools for processing.

Exhibition information

Exhibition time:

Opening time: 9:00-17:00 (no admission at 16:00) from Tuesday to Sunday, February 3, and closed on Monday (except national legal holidays).

Venue:

Three exhibition halls on the first, second and third floors of Guizhou Provincial Museum

Admission: free (WeChat search the public account of "Guizhou Provincial Museum" to reserve admission)