Period: Neolithic (circa 9000 BC))
Listed in: 2005
Excavated by: the Hunan Province Cultural Relics and Archeological Research Institutioin
Archeological team leader: He Gang
The Gaomiao Relics are situated in Yanli village, 5 km northeast of Hongjiang, Hunan Province. The excavation site is a shell mound on the northern bank of the Yuan River and covers an area of 30,000 square meters. Unearthed objects currently include various pottery decorated with phoenix, animal face, and eight-square star-images; the earliest white pottery found in China; and the joint tombs of tribe leaders and their wives, all of which are of key importance learning about the culture of the Neolithic age in the area.
The large scale of the sacrificing site unearthed at the lower stratum of Gaomiao site is quite rare among the contemporaneous prehistoric relics. The various establishments in the site could help to tell about people's sacrificing activities in that period. The distribution and structure of the altar salso greatly influenced the later development of Chinese sacrificial activities.
The discovery of the Gaomiao relics has filled in the archeological blank on the middle and late Neolithic period in western Hunan. It reveals not only its connection with the late Paleolithic culture, but also the mutual influence with the contemporaneous Neolithic culture in Dongting Lake area and Zhujiang Valley.
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