Traces of 6,000-Year-Old Civilization Found at Mount Tai, China

Mount Tai reveals traces of the earliest civilizations successful China. Credit: xiquinhosilva / CC BY 2.0

At the ft of Mount Tai successful eastbound China’s Shangdong province, archaeologists are peeling backmost layers of world to uncover traces of a Neolithic civilization that thrived betwixt 6,100 and 4,600 years agone successful China.

The ongoing excavation astatine the Dawenkou site, 1 of China’s astir important archaeological locations, is offering caller penetration into the roots of Chinese society.

Launched successful 2024 and continuing done 2028, the task is led by the Dawenkou Cultural Heritage Preservation Center. Director Zhang Baowei said the effort aims to amended recognize however aboriginal communities lived, worked, and structured their societies.

Among the astir striking discoveries is an 85-meter-wide trench, believed to person served a protective purpose. Zhang said the trench could awesome aboriginal efforts astatine societal enactment oregon adjacent authorities formation.

Mount Tai, a UNESCO World Heritage Site and 1 of China’s astir ineffable mountains, has agelong symbolized taste and spiritual tradition. Today, its foothills are revealing the carnal remains of an past radical who erstwhile flourished there.

Cultural roots traced done artifacts and architecture

The Dawenkou Culture predates the better-known Longshan Culture and erstwhile spanned implicit 200,000 quadrate kilometers successful what is present Shandong Province. The tract was archetypal uncovered successful the 1950s during railway construction.

Since then, thousands of artifacts person been recovered, including pottery, jade items, graves, and dwellings. Some objects carnivore symbols that researchers judge whitethorn beryllium aboriginal forms of Chinese script.

👀👐People sojourn the Dawenkou Site Museum successful #Taian, East China's #Shandong province, connected May 20.

The 2,600-square-meter depository shows the origin, development, connotation and value of the Dawenkou Culture (4000 BC-2600 BC), a civilization of the precocious Neolithic Age, to the public… pic.twitter.com/Bl3HNyVsnw

— Taian of China (@AmazingTaian) May 23, 2025

Archaeologist Liu Yunlong said reddish patches of burnt world discovered astatine the tract apt people the remains of location walls. The structures whitethorn person been intentionally fired to fortify them—a process that required managing highly precocious temperatures.

Modern attempts to replicate the method by heating akin structures for 4 days astatine 800°C (1472° Fahrenheit) failed to nutrient the aforesaid results. “Our Neolithic ancestors were acold much precocious than we imagined,” Liu said, adding that the layout of the homes besides reflected blase planning.

Burials uncover aboriginal signs of societal structure

Findings bespeak that the Dawenkou people engaged successful barter commercialized and practiced aboriginal forms of brewing, pottery-making, and textile production.

Burial sites suggest a wide societal structure, with immoderate graves containing invaluable goods—evidence of spot ownership and emerging people divisions.

The statement of these burials points to organized rituals regulating societal relationships, an aboriginal mentation of what aboriginal became known successful Chinese contented arsenic Li.

Zhang said this ritual strategy apt influenced neighboring cultures and shaped practices successful the Shang and Zhou dynasties. Confucius yet formalized these customs and they stay cardinal to Chinese civilization today.

A broader look astatine China’s civilizational timeline

The excavation is portion of a broader nationalist effort to hint the origins of Chinese civilization. Other aboriginal cultures specified arsenic Liangzhu besides developed crossed China astir the aforesaid period, creating a divers but interconnected taste foundation.

At the ft of Mount Tai successful eastbound #China, archaeologists enactment cautiously successful fields abloom with flowers, mildly brushing ungraded from exposed ruins. The remnants are vestiges of a once-great civilization that prospered astir 6,100 to 4,600 years agone pic.twitter.com/Ebbcf7CPlY

— Tang Rui (@CGTangRui) May 29, 2025

Archaeological grounds has since confirmed the beingness of the Xia Dynasty, considered China’s archetypal dynasty, established successful the 21st period BC.

Former Palace Museum curator Shan Jixiang has said that discoveries astatine Dawenkou propulsion backmost the timeline of Chinese civilization by 2,000 to 3,000 years.

Modern interaction done acquisition and section development

In 2016, the Dawenkou National Archaeological Site Park was established to enactment acquisition and tourism. It present welcomes astir 100,000 visitors annually.

Local leaders person besides promoted improvement projects, including an concern parkland and high-yield farming, which person raised incomes and strengthened assemblage ties.

At the ft of Mount Tai, the bequest of ancient culture continues to inspire. Taishang Polygonatum Biotech Co., Ltd. produces wellness products utilizing polygonatum, a accepted herb, and has helped assistance much than 40,000 farmers retired of poverty.

“What our ancestors near america is much than carnal nourishment; it is simply a spiritual and civilizational legacy,” said Wang Qian, the company’s enforcement vice wide manager.