Zhanglinggang Cultural Site

The site is located in the hilly area 1.5 kilometres north of Anyi County Seat, at 115°32′E and 28°51′N. It stretches over an area of more than ten li in circumference. Stone artefacts dating back to the Paleolithic Age were unearthed here in 1988. After excavation and appraisal by the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, these relics were confirmed as Paleolithic stone tools with a history of about 50,000 years.

In September 1988, Hu Xiangang, a young worker at Anyi Food Factory and an amateur archaeology enthusiast, discovered Paleolithic stone implements at Zhanglinggang, 1.5 kilometres north of the county seat, a scenic spot known as "Nine Dragons Racing to the Mound". On December 22 the same year, the artefacts were sent to the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology in Beijing for identification. In May 1989, experts from the institute together with the Jiangxi Provincial Archaeological Team came to Anyi for excavation and field investigation, which lasted nearly one month.

To verify this scientific discovery and gather more supporting evidence, archaeologists studied historical documents including Anyi County Annals, Soil Records of Anyi, military maps and local meteorological data. They conducted field surveys across Zhanglinggang to the north, Fenghuang Mountain to the east, Taishan Hill to the west, and the banks of the Liao River to the south. A large number of chipped stone tools from the Paleolithic Age were collected, such as stone cores, stone flakes, pointed implements, choppers and scrapers.

On July 7 of the same year, China Culture News published this major discovery nationwide under the headline First Discovery of Paleolithic Culture in Jiangxi Province. The report read: "A joint survey team formed by the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the Jiangxi Provincial Cultural Relics Working Group and the Anyi County Cultural Centre has found three Paleolithic sites at Zhanglinggang, Fenghuang Mountain and Shangxu Village near the county seat, yielding dozens of human relics of the Paleolithic Age. This marks the first discovery of Paleolithic culture in Jiangxi. It fills a gap in the provincial distribution of known Paleolithic sites across China, provides vital materials for national Paleolithic culture research, and pushes back the record of human activities in Jiangxi from 8,000 to 9,000 years ago to roughly 50,000 years ago."

In 2005, Cao Keping, a Jiangxi archaeological expert, published the paper Chronological Research on Paleolithic Remains in Jiangxi in Southern Cultural Relics. Supported by substantial historical evidence, he re-examined the prehistoric age of Zhanglinggang. The history of human activities in Jiangxi was first advanced from 8,000–9,000 years ago to about 50,000 years ago, and further traced back to 200,000 years ago.