Qamdo Karub Relics

　　All the relics of the Stone Age in Tibet were discovered after 1951 as a result of tens of years efforts by archaeolo-gists.

　　Among the relics of Neolithic Period that have been discovered, there are Karub of Qamdo, Yunsing, Hongkung, Jumu and Gyarama of Nyingchi County, Bai-bung and Marniyong of Medog County, Qukong of eastern Lhasa and Qinba and Ngariza of Nedong County. Among these, only the relics in Karub have been scientifically exca-vated and classified.

　　The Karub relics were discovered in 1977 and excavat-ed in the summer of 1978. A total area of 230 square meters was opened at that time. The second excavation was carried out in 1979 with another 1,570 square meters opened. The relics cover a total of 10,000 square meters. This means the major part of the relics were discovered after the second ex-cavation.

　　The Karub relics are located 12km south to Qamdo of Tibet. It is on trianglular terrain near Karub, which is to the west of Lanchang River at an altitude of 3,100 meters. They are so far the highest Neolithic remains ever found in China. The two excavations cleared 28 remains of houses, 7,968 pieces of stone tools, 366 pieces of bone tools, more than 20,000 pieces of pottery parts, 50 pieces of ornamen-tations, millets and animal skeletons.

　　The history of the Karub site dates back 4,000 to 5, 000 years ago, according to radioactive-carbon testing. It represents rich local features of primitive culture. First, the production tools show a complete picture of the Neolithic age, revealing a co-existence of ground stone tools, fine stone tools and grained stoneware with beaten stoneware most prevalent. Second, the pottery is hand-made, and sometimes mixed with sand. The line decoration is mainly chiseled and dotted. Flat-bottom vases, bowls and pots are commonly found. Most of the structures are made of large stone blocks, such as stone-walled houses, stone roads, round-stone tables and stone circles.

　　The above features of the Karub relics show that Karub Culture is representative of the Neolithic culture of the Ti-betan Plateau. other Neolithic cultures found in Tibet are all similar or influenced by the Karub Culture.

　　The Karub Culture did not develop independently on the Tibetan Plateau by itself. Rather, it has definite con-nections with the primitive culture in the upper-and middle-reaches of the Yellow River. Beaten stoneware has been discovered in the loess of the Yalong River and Dadu River to its east. To its north, there exist the Majiayao Culture and Panshanma Culture of more than 4,000 to 5,000 years ago. Karub seems to have had close cultural exchange with these two regions in the past. The same kind of beaten stoneware found in Karub has also been discovered in other Neolithic relics in Gansu and the upper reaches of the Yel-low River. The round and semi-square houses of the early phase of Karub Culture is the same traditional living form as that of Majiayao Culture in Gansu and Qinghai. The millet found in Karub is the traditional agricultural product of the Yellow River, which is seldom grown in the south. Millet in Karub was probably brought from the Majiayao Culture.

　　Karub relics provide detailed proofs of the origin of Ti-betan ethnic group. It shows the Di and Qiang tribes from the north only formed a small part of the ancestors of Ti-betans. In fact, primitive clans had lived in Tibet since be-fore the Stone Age. It tells that human beings have lived in the vast land of Tibetan Plateau for a very long time.