Banpo is a typical site of the Yangshao Culture which belonged to China’s Neolithic Age. Remains of the Culture were located mainly in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River. Yangshao Culture first came to light in Yangshao Village, Mianchi County, Henan Province in 1921. With painted red pottery as its chief feature, Yangshao Culture is also known as “the Painted Pottery Culture.” More than 400 sites of the Yangshao Culture have been discovered in Central Shaanxi Plain of the Yellow River Valley. Thus the Yellow River Valley has always enjoyed the reputation of being the cradle of China’s ancient culture.

 

Production tools, such as the knife, axe, adze and chisel, were mostly made of stone by means of grinding and polishing. There were chipped stone implements and bone objects as well. Pottery utensils for daily use were chiefly made from refined terracotta and red sandy clay. Some objects of refined terracotta were decorated with zoomorphic and geometric designs. Agriculture dominated the economic life of that age, while fishing and domestic animal rearing came second. All these finds give evidence to the fact that matriarchal clan community came to its prime. Using the Carbon-14 dating method, we may come to the conclusion that the Yangshao Culture can be traced back to 5,000 to 3,000 B.C. in Central China.

 

It is believed that the matriarchal clan community began with the birth of primitive clan communes, and came to an end not long before patriarchal society was established. This happened in approximately the period spanning the late Paleolithic and Neolithic Ages. Women then played a dominant role in society. The matriarchal society falls into two periods: the early period and the latter period. In the early period women were engaged in gathering while men were occupied with fishing and hunting. As a result of the intertribal communal marriage, children were closely associated with their mothers. Yet their fathers remained somewhat like a stranger to them. They followed their mothers in the family pedigree. The latter period of the matriarchal society saw the transition to exogamy. Women took up farming, and managed the tribe affairs and the economic life as well. Husbands lived in the homes of their female partners, and they were also recorded together with their property in the family pedigree after their female partners.

 

Banpo remains were discovered by chance in the spring of 1953. It extends over an area of 50,000 square meters. Excavations were conducted in six phases between 1954 and 1957, opening up an area of 10,000 square meters, one fifth of the total. Banpo Museum was set up at the site in 1958, the first of its kind in China.

 

According to the archaeological survey, the village is divided into three sections: the living section, the pottery-making section and the burial section. By means of scientific excavation, archaeologists have discovered nearly 10,000 production tools or daily utensils, 46 houses, 2 pigsties, 200 cellars, 174 burial pits for adults and 73 burial jars for children. The discovery of so many artifacts is indeed unprecedented.