In 1921, a large number of cultural relics including pottery wares and stone tools were unearthed at the Yangshao site in Yangshao village of Sanmenxia city, Central China's Henan province, which confirmed for the first time that there was a highly-developed Neolithic culture in Chinese history. Since then, the Yangshao Culture represented by the Yangshao site has become a "holy land" in the archaeological circle.
The Yangshao Culture is the longest-lasting and most widely influential type of prehistoric culture in China. Related heritage sites have been found in 10 provincial-level administrative regions, especially in Henan, Shaanxi and Shanxi. Dating back 4,700 to 7,000 years, the Yangshao Culture period played a substantial role in the development of Chinese Neolithic culture, thus known as the Yangshao Age. Today, it has become a benchmark for archaeologists to date other prehistoric cultures because of its influence.
The discovery of the Yangshao Culture at the site in 1921 marks the birth of modern archaeology in China. With generations of efforts, the system of Chinese archaeology has been established, the chronology of Chinese prehistory has been made clear and the reliable evidence to China's million-year human history, 10,000-year cultural inheritance and over 5,000-year-oldcivilization has been found. Accordingly, the origin and development of Chinese civilization have been confirmed.
For China's century-old modern archaeology, Yangshao village is not only a birthplace, but also a "holy land". (Zhao Hanqing Yang Jiaxin and Zhang Yahan)
