The Xinle culture (新樂文化) ( 5500– 4800 BC''Archaeology of Asia'', pp.129) was a

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...

culture in northeast

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, found primarily around the lower

Liao River The Liao River () is the principal river in southern Northeast China, and one of the seven main river systems in China. Its name derived from the Liao region, a historical name for southern Manchuria, from which the Liaoning province, Liaodong P ...

on the

Liaodong Peninsula The Liaodong Peninsula (also Liaotung Peninsula, ) is a peninsula in southern Liaoning province in Northeast China, and makes up the southwestern coastal half of the Liaodong region. It is located between the mouths of the Daliao River (the ...

Liaoning Liaoning () is a coastal province in Northeast China that is the smallest, southernmost, and most populous province in the region. With its capital at Shenyang, it is located on the northern shore of the Yellow Sea, and is the northernmost ...

. The culture showed evidence of

millet Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets al ...

cultivation and pig domestication. The

type site In archaeology, a type site is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it. For example, discoveries at La Tène and Hallstatt led scholars to divide the European Iron Age ...

at Xinle was discovered in the

Huanggu District Huanggu District () is one of ten districts of the prefecture-level city of Shenyang, the capital of the Chinese province of Liaoning. It borders Shenbei New Area to the north, Dadong to the east, Shenhe to the southeast, Heping to the sout ...

Shenyang Shenyang (, ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly known as Fengtian () or by its Manchu language, Manchu name Mukden, is a major China, Chinese sub-provincial city and the List of capitals in China#Province capitals, provincial capital of Lia ...

. The site is named after an old inn, upon whose grounds the remains were first discovered.

Naming

The site of the ancient settlement was discovered in the grounds of an old accommodation block for an electrical factory. The accommodation block was called the Xinle Dormitory () and hence the discovery was named the Xinle Relic. When it was discovered that the settlement was that of a hitherto unknown civilization, the whole civilization was named after the relic and hence became known as the Xinle civilization. Although more recent discoveries in nearby areas have been extremely significant, especially one in Xinmin, the original name has prevailed.

Excavations

In 1973, excavations at the site discovered evidence for some 40 neolithic houses. Artifacts uncovered during the dig included stone tools, pottery, jade, bone tools, wood carvings, and refined coal. In 1978, another dig uncovered yet more artifacts including one wooden carving that was some 7,200 years old, presumably a type of

totem A totem (from oj, ᑑᑌᒼ, italics=no or ''doodem'') is a spirit being, sacred object, or symbol that serves as an emblem of a group of people, such as a family, clan, lineage, or tribe, such as in the Anishinaabe clan system. While ''the wo ...

worshipped by the clan. No other find in the whole of

has been older, and the find is one of the oldest wooden carvings found anywhere in the world. The excavations also discovered two Khitan tombs from 1,000 years ago.

Museum

In 1984, the Museum of the Xinle Civilization () was founded. The museum is divided into two sections, north and south. The southern section contains displays of the various artifacts unearthed during the various excavations that have taken place on the site. The northern section contains a reconstruction of a 7,000-year-old Xinle village. Some of the houses in the settlement contain representations of life 7,000 years ago.

Gallery

Notes

References

Stark, Miriam T. Miriam T. Stark (born September 14, 1962) is an American archaeologist whose field experience and emphasis of studies have included locations in North America, the Near East and Southeast Asia. She is currently a professor of Southeast Asian Arch ...