Stone tools give Shibazhan a history far older than its numbered name. The site lies on a terrace above the Huma River, within today's Oroqen ethnic township in Tahe County. Excavations in 1975–76 recovered more than 1,070 stone objects, including cores, flakes, scrapers and pointed tools. The county's account dates the site to the late Paleolithic, roughly 12,000 years ago. These small worked stones record people making and using tools in a northern river landscape.
From the journal
Shibazhan: Archaeology, Relay Routes and Oroqen Township
Shibazhan brings together several timelines: archaeological traces, the relay-station system and a contemporary Oroqen township. Its story is best read as layered local history rather than a single-origin narrative.
In the same city · Greater Khingan Range Prefecture ↗Stone tools above the Huma River
The eighteenth station on a northern route
The name Shibazhan means 'Eighteenth Station.' A Qing relay route extended north from Mergen, today's Nenjiang, in 1685 during the conflict at Albazin. Stations supplied communication and transport across long distances; the route was later extended toward Mohe and Qiqian. After the military need diminished, parts fell into disuse. Li Jinyong followed the neglected road toward the Mohe goldfields in 1887. A Nenjiang–Mohe road formally opened on 15 November 1915 with government-supervised, commercially operated postal stations. Shibazhan's name thus connects several successive transport systems rather than one continuously functioning road.
A name and an archaeological site
The archaeological site became a provincial protected monument in 1981, and marker stones were installed the following year. Today the surrounding township carries both an Oroqen identity and a transport name inherited from the relay network. River terrace, stone tools and station name bring different periods into the same place.