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HISTORY

hilly terrain has been severe and evidence of inland settlement is scanty, though not totally absent.

Recent excavations have revealed two main Neolithic cultures lying in stratified sequence. At the lower, older level, coarse, cord-marked pottery has been found together with fine, soft, fragile pottery decorated with incised lines, perforations and occasionally painted. Chipped and polished stone tools are also present. Current indications suggest a fourth millennium BC date for this initial phase.

Cord-marked pottery and chipped stone tools continue into the higher, later levels, in which appears a new ceramic form decorated with a range of impressed geometric patterns. In this phase, beginning in the mid-third millennium BC, polished stone tools show better workmanship and a proliferation of forms, some with steps and shoulders features probably connected with improvements in hafting techniques. Ornaments such as rings, some slotted, were also made from quartz and other suitable stones. These adornments came in a range of sizes, sometimes displaying exquisite craftsmanship.

The final phase of Hong Kong's prehistory was marked by the appearance of bronze in about the middle of the second millennium BC. Bronze artefacts seem not to have been in common use, but fine specimens of weapons, knives, arrowheads and halberds, and tools such as fish hooks and socketed axes have been excavated from Hong Kong sites. There is evidence, too, in the form of stone moulds from Kwo Lo Wan on the original Chek Lap Kok Island, Tung Wan and Sha Lo Wan on Lantau Island and Tai Wan and Sha Po Tsuen on Lamma Island, that the metal was actually worked locally.

The pottery of the Bronze Age comprises a continuation of the earlier cord- impressed and geometric traditions and a new type of ware, fired at a much higher temperature leading to vitrification. This so-called hard geometric ware is decorated with designs, many of which are reminiscent of the geometric patterns of the late Neolithic period, but with their own distinctive style, including the 'Kui-dragon' or 'double F' pattern so characteristic of the region during this period.

Archaeology is silent on such questions as the ethnic and linguistic affinities of the ancient peoples. However, ancient Chinese literary records make references to maritime people known as 'Yue' occupying China's south-eastern seaboard. It is probable, therefore, that at least some of Hong Kong's prehistoric inhabitants belonged to the 'Hundred Yue', as this diverse group of peoples was often called.

The discovery of a prehistoric burial ground at North Tung Wan Tsai on Ma Wan Island in 1997 shed light on the ethnicity of prehistoric inhabitants in Hong Kong. Among the 20 burials discovered, 15 yielded human skeletal remains, seven of which were well preserved. Study of the human bones revealed that these early inhabitants were Asian Mongoloid with characteristics of a tropical racial group.

The discovery of a Neolithic stone-working site at Ho Chung, Sai Kung, in mid- 1999 was another significant archaeological discovery. Scattered around an activity floor, which covered about 200 square metres, were a number of stone cores, flakes, chipped stone tools such as oyster picks, carving tools and polished implements such as adzes, rings and slotted rings. The findings provide valuable data for the study of the stone-working technology of Hong Kong's Neolithic inhabitants.