Dingcun

Author: Tao Fuhai
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2005-09-01
Features: Ding Village is located five kilometers south of Xiangfen County and 35 kilometers away from Linfen City. Ding Village is famous both at home and abroad for its discovery of fossils from the Paleolithic era in China's history. The Ding Village Site is a sandy gravel area in a series of cliffs and gullies, where the Paleolithic cultural site of the middle period was unearthed. Initially, it was discovered during sand mining in 1953. In the autumn of 1954, a team of professional archaeologists from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Shanxi Province conducted surveys and excavations in the area of Ding Village, which is about 11 kilometers long and 5 kilometers wide. From the ancient river sand and gravel layers beneath the loess, three fossilized teeth of Ding Village people, over 2,000 stone tools made by Ding Village people, as well as fossils of 28 species of mammals, 5 species of fish, and 30 species of mollusks that coexisted with Ding Village people were discovered. Based on the characteristics of these fossils and the stratigraphic accumulation, the fossil-bearing and stone-bearing sandy gravel geological era was determined to be the lower part of the Upper Pleistocene, approximately 100,000 years ago. Therefore, Ding Village was designated as a Paleolithic middle-period cultural site. This era lies between the Peking Man and modern humans, being closer to modern Asians. In 1976, another fossilized right parietal bone of a child was discovered, further confirming the existence of Ding Village people. Ding Village still preserves residential buildings from the Ming and Qing dynasties. These Ming Dynasty siheyuan (traditional quadrangle houses) have modest roofs, simple yet elegant exteriors, and are adorned with colorful paintings both inside and out. The Qing Dynasty siheyuan feature smaller courtyards and taller rooms, with dignified and grand designs, elaborate decorations, and a strong emphasis on carvings. The carvings are grouped and lifelike. Each ancient building and every exquisite carving radiates the wisdom of the Chinese nation. In Ding Village, animal fossils and stone tools from the Ding Village Site are displayed. Among them are a 3.5-meter fossilized tusk of an ancient elephant, square rhinoceros horns, and neatly arranged horse teeth. These indicate that rhinoceroses, wild horses, elephants, and other wildlife once thrived in Ding Village during the Paleolithic era. They also highlight the position of ancient humans in nature. This evokes even more vividly the natural ecological conditions of the time, including the resources, forests, grasslands, and rivers.