Yangtze River History – Prehistoric Period

The prehistoric period is an important part in Yangtze River history. In this period, there appeared many wonderful things which have become a necessary part of Yangtze Cruises tourist.

Yangtze River History – Human Beings

As early as 2 millions years ago, there were human beings lived in Yangtze River Three Gorges area. The "Wushan ape man fossils" and the relics of living cave are the historic beginning of human lived in Yangtze River Three Gorges area. At Wushan County, Longgu (Dragon Bone) Hill, scientists not only found the human fossils, but also stone wares which were processed by human beings. From that, we can image that the people who lived in Longgu Hill ever fight with nature with the stone tools or weapons. During the fights, human beings not only changed the nature, but also themselves.

Yangtze River History – Production Tools and Livestock

Yangtze River Three Gorges area is, same as some other districts in China, with some relics of early, middle and late stage of Ancient Stone Age. About 10,000 years ago, the Yangtze River Three Gorges had come into the Matriarchal clan society, which was named "New Stone Age" in archeology culture. In this period, human beings have begun to move to Three Gorges area and the more flat areas of the Yangtze River from the caves. Human beings began to live together, and there formed some villages with houses. People also began to use the grind stones on the river bank to repair stone wares, and there appeared more delicate stone wares. People also began to make potteries. The emergence of grinded stone wares and potteries was the symbol of Ancient Stone Age coming into New Stone Age.

As for the special geographical environment of Yangtze River Three Gorges, working people in this area in Ancient Stone Age mainly work on hunting and picking foods. After came to New Stone Age, the fishing industry began to play a role. In Yangtze River Three Gorges areas, there unearthed some tools which was used to hunt and catch fish in the New Stone Age relics.

There unearthed large amount of stone production tools from the relics of Daxi Culture, Qujialing Culture in New Stone Age, most of them are stone hoe, shovel, scythe and so on. In 1979, there unearthed over 3000 pieces of agriculture production tools in the 250 square meters Daxi Culture stratum in the Zhongbaodao Ruins. There also found some skeletons of pig, dog, ox, sheep and some other livestock animals in some ruins layers.

According to some archeology data, we can see that in New Stone, the human beings in Yangtze River Three Gorges area have begun to change the nomadic life to the more ideal permanent residence life; the agriculture crop production got a certain degree development; and in the eastern area of Xiling Gorge, there began to plant rice as early as 8000 years ago. As for the permanent residence, the planting industry in agriculture got great development which also promoted the livestock farming development.