A 5,000-year-old large house has been discovered in China’s Yangshao Village

Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology archaeologists have excavated the ruins of house foundations dating back more than 5,000 years in the Yangshao Village site in Central China.

The country’s China.org.tr reports that the remains of a large building with rammed earth have been discovered, though to date back to the neolithic Yangshao Culture – which was active in the Yellow River basin as far back as 3000 BC.

It is the first time archaeologists have discovered house ruins at the Yangshao Village site in Mianchi county, which was first excavated in 1921. The fourth archaeological excavation at Yangshao Village started on August 22, 2020, and is still ongoing.

In addition to the foundations, which are estimated to cover over 130 square meters, archaeologists discovered trenches and various artifacts, including a jade axe, that provide information about the community that once inhabited the site.

Excavation is still ongoing, which means that more information about the prehistoric Yangshao people may be discovered in the future.

According to speculation, it dates from the late Yangshao Culture period, according to Li Shiwei, director of the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology, who is in charge of the excavation site.

“This is the first time that large house ruins have been discovered since the excavation of the Yangshao Village site in 1921. The findings can provide new materials for studying the types, shapes and building techniques of houses during the Yangshao Culture period,” said Li Shiwei.

The findings show that the settlement in the Yangshao period had a large population, prosperous development, and complete defense facilities.

The Yangshao culture (Chinese: ; pinyin: Yngsháo wénhuà) was a Neolithic culture that existed extensively in northern China along the valleys of the Wei River and the middle Yellow River (Huanghe). The Yangshao culture, which dates from around 5000 BCE to 3000 BCE, is one of China’s earliest settled cultures.

Yangshao, the first excavated representative village of this culture, was discovered in Henan Province in 1921. The culture thrived primarily in Henan, Shaanxi, and Shanxi provinces. There are over a thousand Yangshao Culture sites, including the Banpo Site in Xian and Jiangzhai in Lintong County, Shanxi Province. Shanxi is considered the center of this culture because it has the most Yangshao sites.

While little is known about the Yangshao culture, information gleaned from archaeological excavations of tombs and tribal villages has provided a rudimentary picture of prehistoric life in China. Furthermore, the geometric paintings that adorn Neolithic vessels are some of the earliest evidence of the origins and evolution of Chinese calligraphic writing.

While these designs are purely abstract and do not constitute a written language, the patterns, motifs, and use of paint all contribute to our understanding of the intellectual and aesthetic environment that would eventually foster the creation of Chinese symbols.

Stone Tools Offer Clues to Rice Domestication in China

A new Dartmouth-led study analyzing stone tools from southern China provides the earliest evidence of rice harvesting, dating to as early as 10,000 years ago. The researchers identified two methods of harvesting rice, which helped initiate rice domestication. The results are published in PLOS ONE.

Wild rice is different from domesticated rice in that wild rice naturally sheds ripe seeds, shattering them to the ground when they mature, while cultivated rice seeds stay on the plants when they mature.

To harvest rice, some sort of tools would have been needed. In harvesting rice with tools, early rice cultivators were selecting the seeds that stay on the plants, so gradually the proportion of seeds that remain increased, resulting in domestication.

“For quite a long time, one of the puzzles has been that harvesting tools have not been found in southern China from the early Neolithic period or New Stone Age (10,000—7,000 Before Present), the time period when we know rice began to be domesticated,” says lead author Jiajing Wang, an assistant professor of anthropology.

“However, when archaeologists were working at several early Neolithic sites in the Lower Yangtze River Valley, they found a lot of small pieces of stone, which had sharp edges that could have been used for harvesting plants.”

“Our hypothesis was that maybe some of those small stone pieces were rice harvesting tools, which is what our results show.”

In the Lower Yangtze River Valley, the two earliest Neolithic culture groups were the Shangshan and Kuahuqiao. The researchers examined 52 flaked stone tools from the Shangshan and Hehuashan sites, the latter of which was occupied by Shangshan and Kuahuqiao cultures.

The stone flakes are rough in appearance and are not finely made but have sharp edges. On average, the flaked tools are small enough to be held by one hand and measured approximately 1.7 inches in width and length.

Our hypothesis was that maybe some of those small stone pieces were rice harvesting tools, which is what our results show.

JIAJING WANG, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF ANTHROPOLOGY

To determine if the stone flakes were used for harvesting rice, the team conducted use-wear and phytolith residue analyses. Phytolith refers to the silica skeleton of plants.

For the use-wear analysis, micro-scratches on the tools’ surfaces were examined under a microscope to determine how the stones were used. The results showed that 30 flakes have use-wear patterns similar to those produced by harvesting siliceous, or silica-rich, plants, likely including rice.

Fine striations, high polish, and rounded edges distinguished the tools that were used for cutting plants from those that were used for processing hard materials, cutting animal tissues, and scraping wood.

Through the phytolith residue analysis, the researchers analyzed the microscopic residue left on the stone flakes. They found that 28 of the tools contained rice phytoliths.

“What’s interesting about rice phytoliths is that rice husk and leaves produce different kinds of phytolith, which enabled us to determine how the rice was harvested,” says Wang.

The findings from the use-wear and phytolith analyses illustrated that two types of rice harvesting methods were used—“finger-knife” and “sickle” techniques. Both methods are still used in Asia today.

The stone flakes from the early phase, 10,000—8,200 BP, showed that rice was largely harvested using the finger-knife method in which the panicles at the top of the rice plant are reaped. The results showed that the tools used for finger-knife harvesting had striations that were mainly perpendicular or diagonal to the edge of the stone flake, which suggests a cutting or scraping motion, and contained phytoliths from seeds or rice husk phytoliths, indicating that the rice was harvested from the top of the plant.

“A rice plant contains numerous panicles that mature at different times, so the finger-knife harvesting technique is especially useful when rice domestication was in the early stage,” says Wang.

The stone flakes however, from the later phase, 8,000—7,000 BP, had more evidence of sickle harvesting in which the lower part of the plant was harvested. These tools had striations that were predominantly parallel to the tool’s edge, reflecting that a slicing motion had likely been used.

“Sickle harvesting was more widely used when rice became more domesticated, and more ripe seeds stayed on the plant,” says Wang. “Since you are harvesting the entire plant at the same time, the rice leaves and stems could also be used for fuel, building materials, and other purposes, making this a much more effective harvesting method.”

Wang says, “Both harvesting methods would have reduced seed shattering. That’s why we think rice domestication was driven by human unconscious selection.”