Lingbao, Didong, and Quanjiuli

On the west bank of a tributary to the Yellow river, Didong site (N34°34′03.75”, E110°27′10.55”, 360 meters above sea level) has a total area of 100,000 square meters or so and is one of the sites which has been relatively well-protected in the area of western Henan province. The site has been excavated in an area of 800 square meters and has provided abundant remains of the Yangshao Culture, including over 60 house ruins, tombs , and caves, as well as a great number of vessels made from pottery, stones and bones, etc. The new discoveries found here have changed the understanding of the Yangshao cultural meaning. Quanjiuli site is about 2 kilometers away from the south of the Didong site. It covers an area of around 40,000 square meters now. In order to protect the cultural relics, a trial excavation was made in an area of 100 square meters. The findings mainly belong to the Longshan Culture including kilns, stoves, ditches, caves, vessels made from pottery, stones and bones, etc. Most noticeably, large quantities of carbonized rice have been found here through flotation, which is a phenomenon never seen before in the Loess Plateau. Therefore, a multi-disciplinary study on these two sites, including environmental archaeology, animal & plant archaeology, pottery research and systematic archaeological dating, will bring lots of important results. As these two important sites belong to the Yangshao Culture and the Longshan Culture of the Neolithic Period respectively, and they are situated in the same village and were excavated at the same time in 2006, their excavation findings shall be analyzed, researched and published together.
This project is led by Dr. Wei Xingtao, a researcher from Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology.

Didong_excavation
Didong excavation