Keywords: Qinghai  Lajia Site  settlement of the Qijia Culture  catastrophe ruins

 

 

    The Lajia 喇家 Site, named after the Lajia Village ofGuanting 官亭 Township in Minhe 民和 County, Qinghai青海, is situated at the Guanting Basin in the upper valley of the Yellow River. In this area, affluent ecological resources and warm and moist climate have been well suitable for human beings’ growth since prehistoric times.

 

    Since 1999, archaeologists and scientists from the Institute of Archaeology, CASS, and the Qinghai Provincial Institute of Antiquity and Archaeology have carried out a series of joint research projects aiming at study of ancient settlements in the region, one of which is the investigation of the Lajia Site. Following the 1999test excavation at the site, the 2000 session excavation exposed a 500 sq m area and yielded a number of features including house remains, pits, ditches, and burials, as well as a total of 225 artifacts. The investigation at the site reveals previously unknown ruins of prehistoric catastrophes such as earthquakes, mountain torrents, or river flood.

 

    I. House Remains and Artifacts The houses recovered from the Lajia Site are cave-dwelling types. The upper part of cave dwelling was destroyed by human activities or eroded by natural causes in later period. As a result, in previous studies, remaining lower walls and house floors in this region were mistakenly identified as subterranean structures. Built into accumulated-loess deposits on the second terrace of the Yellow River valley, the Lajia cave structures were consisted of a chamber room, a doorway, and front courtyard, varying in sizes, shapes, and facilities in rooms. The followings are description of house remains F3 and F4 as the examples of such structures.

 

    1. The F3 cave house, built into secondary loess deposit, displays a chamber room floor with 3.65 m in length and 3.35 m in width. The floor shows clearly repair marks and undulate surface due to extensive human trampling. The floor was constructed with layers of straw-mud covered with white plaster; same method was applied to walls where most of layers were fallen off. The straw-mud layer is about 2 cm thick, while the white plaster layer is 0.1– 0.5 cm thick. All walls are up inwards with slightly arch surfaces and no post-moulds were found around the walls, indicating clearly features of cave structures. In the center of the chamber room is a hearth, dug into ground in concave shape, which retains fired-red-clay surfaces, charcoal, and ashes. At eastern side of floors a conical hole on the ground, presumably a posthole, were found.

 

 

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