Ancient site · Settlement
Hemudu
Hemudu, about 22 km northwest of Ningbo in Zhejiang, was found in 1973 and is the type site of the Hemudu culture. Waterlogged soil preserved long wooden houses raised on stilts, along with large amounts of rice, bone spades used in the fields, and black pottery.
A red lacquered wooden bowl from the culture, dated to about 5000–4000 BCE, is among the earliest lacquerware known. Two major floods affected the settlement. Some scholars suggest the Hemudu people were linked to the ancestors of Austronesian-speaking peoples.
- Dates
- c. 5500–3300 BCE
- Still standing
- No, or only traces
- Location
- 29.96° N, 121.34° E
How we know
No writing existed; the waterlogged village was dated by radiocarbon after its discovery in 1973.
Nearby sites
- Liangzhu City c. 3300–2300 BCE
- Shangshan c. 9400–6600 BCE (11,400–8600 cal BP)
- Xianrendong Cave pottery c. 18,000 BCE (20,000–19,000 years ago); used to c. 8000 BCE
- Gochang, Hwasun and Ganghwa dolmens c. 1000–300 BCE (Bronze Age; Gochang group c. 7th century BCE)
- Jiahu c. 7000–5700 BCE
- Mawangdui burials c. 186–160s BCE
Related
- Hemudu culture archaeological culture