Getting the earth to reveal our history

He says that, for a city that was estimated to house 30,000 people, such a large quantity of pottery might have been made to trade with other places. Animal-shaped pottery was unearthed in Chengtoushan site in Changde, Hunan province, a culture that existed at about the same time with Shijiahe.

The most magnificent feature of Shijiahe is its skillfully sculpted jade.

More than 500 pieces of jade have been unearthed, all crafted using a particular technique.

Wang Renxiang, a researcher at the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, says the skills and craftsmanship evidenced by the jadeware of Shijiahe represents the highest level of its time and is a benchmark of late Neolithic period jade culture in China.