Relations between man and nature reflected by the evolution of the Neolithic production tools in the Three Gorges region of Yangtze River,China

The relations between man and nature reflected by evolution of Neolithic production tools in the Three Gorges region of Yangtze River is discussed in this paper.Our results show that there is a good correlation between the percentage vibration of cutting tool types and the environmental evolution indicated by the natural profile nearby.It is possible for ancestors from the Three Gorges region to learn the advantage of mortise and tenon in the early Neolithic Age because they used the stones as vital tools for processing woods.The hunting method in the early Neolithic is throwing,which was inherited in the mid-Neolithic Age when hunting with arrow and bow was developed.Fishing tools are found at the same period.Numbers of net sinkers and spinning wheels unearthed from the strata of the Western Zhou Dynasty from Zhongba Site reveal the fact of fishing with net,while a mass of fishbone pits indi- cate the powerful productivity brought by new production tools.Quantity of stone spades and stone hoes proves that cultivation agriculture by hoe is extremely attached importance by the ancestors in the Three Gorges region.Moreover,the developed agriculture in Daxi Culture at Zhongbao Island benefits from the landform,climate,traffic location,etc.Otherwise,the reason that the farming tools declined in the late Neolithic Age is related to the extreme flood during the early Xia Dynasty and the fishing hunting preference of some ancient settlements.This research shows that ancestors of the Three Gorges region during the Neolithic Age attached importance to fish hunting and cultivation, fought against the natural environment by production tools,constantly created and improved them, then comprehensively utilized them to evolve the relations between man and nature.