The Karuo site is located in Karuo Village, about 12 kilometers southeast of Karuo District, Qamdo City, Tibet Autonomous Region. It borders the Lancang River to the east and Karuo Water to the south. It is about 3,100 meters above sea level. It is one of the important Neolithic Age sites in my country.
In 1977, workers at Qamdo Cement Factory discovered the Karuo ruins during construction. After investigation, stone tools, bone tools, pottery fragments, etc. were unearthed from the site, which were deemed to have important archaeological value. With the approval of the State Administration of Cultural Heritage, the Tibet Autonomous Region Cultural Relics Management Committee carried out two archaeological excavations in 1978 and 1979. In 2002, the Tibet Autonomous Region Cultural Relics Administration jointly conducted a third excavation with Sichuan University. In 2012, in order to improve the site protection plan, archaeological excavation, exploration and surveying were carried out.
After four archaeological excavations, the site has revealed a total area of about 1,800 square meters. Relics such as house ruins, stone walls, round stone platforms, stone enclosures, and ash pits have been discovered. Tens of thousands of various cultural relics have been unearthed, including 7,978 stone tools, 368 bone tools, more than 200 pottery pieces, 50 ornaments, etc., providing important physical information for the study of prehistoric human production, life and settlement development on the Tibetan Plateau.
Archaeological research shows that the Karuo site is between 5,300 and 4,300 years old, belonging to the Neolithic Age. There are a wide variety of stone tools unearthed from the site, including hammered and ground stone tools, as well as fine stone tools such as stone arrowheads and stone spears. The bone tools mainly include bone drills and bone needles. The pottery is small flat-bottomed tools with sand, mostly with pots, basins, and bowls as the basic combination. Among them, a double-body pottery pot is the most prominent. Among the unearthed ornaments, there are rings, beads, bracelets, etc. made of jade, stone, bone, etc., which shows that the ancestors of the Karuo site already had a certain level of aesthetic awareness and handicraft industry. The jades and seashells unearthed from the site were exchanged between Karuo residents and ethnic groups in various regions, testifying to material exchanges between different regions.
Architectural remains are an important discovery at the Karo site. The remains of houses in the site are densely distributed and of complex types, mainly including round-bottom houses, semi-crypt houses, and above-ground houses. The walls are made of grass mixed with mud or stones, and wooden structures with local characteristics are also found in some buildings. These remains not only demonstrate the living styles and construction techniques of the Karuo ancestors, but also provide important basis for studying the early settlement patterns and social life on the Tibetan Plateau.
Based on the characteristics of the ruins and unearthed relics, the cultural features represented by the Karuo site are significantly different from other known prehistoric cultures in my country. The archaeological community named it "Karuo culture".
"Karuo culture" has distinct characteristics of regional exchanges. The microlithic tools unearthed from the site have cultural elements from the grasslands of northern China, and some stone tool production techniques show the possibility of exchanges with Central Asia, South Asia and other regions; the perforated shell ornaments come from the South China Sea, and cultural factors such as pottery are related to prehistoric cultures such as Majiayao, Banshan and Machang in the Yellow River Basin. These archaeological discoveries show that thousands of years ago, the Tibetan Plateau was not isolated from the outside world, but had been connected with surrounding and even further regions through personnel exchanges, material exchanges and cultural dissemination, providing important archaeological evidence for understanding the pluralistic and integrated pattern of Chinese civilization.
The twin clay pots are the iconic artifacts unearthed from the Karuo site and have a history of more than 4,000 years. Because it is made up of two bag-shaped pottery pots of the same shape, it is called "double-body pottery pot". Its simple and full shape, ingenious conception and exquisite production represent the higher level of pottery making of the "Karuo culture" at that time. It is a representative artifact of the Neolithic Age pottery in Tibet and an important cultural symbol of the "Karuo culture".
Since the discovery of the Karuo site, the Tibet Autonomous Region and Qamdo City have continued to strengthen protection. In 1978, the original cement factory area above the site was relocated, and protective walls were built in 1996 and 2004. In 2007, special funds were invested to demolish non-protected buildings in the site, and the preparation of a site protection plan was launched. Since then, the construction of Karuo Heritage Park has progressed steadily. The first phase of the project was started in 2015 and completed in 2016. The second phase of the project further improved the greening and infrastructure.
From archaeological excavation to site protection, from pieces of unearthed cultural relics to the unique "Karuo culture", the Karuo site has traveled through thousands of years, recording the history of the plateau's ancestors reproducing and creating civilization, and also witnessed the process of cultural exchanges and integration in different regions. Today, this ancient site is becoming an important window for understanding the diverse and integrated pattern of Chinese civilization in a more complete manner.
