Shangshan
Shangshan Archaeological Site · Shangshan Culture Type-Site
Shangshan culture 9000–7000 BCE → Kuahuqiao (8500–7700) → Hemudu·Shangshan (Lower Yangzi earliest Neolithic, Pre-Yangshao)·🇨🇳 Zhejiang Province, Pujiang County, Huangzhai Town, Shangshan village (Pujiang River plain north of Shangshan hill, Lower Yangzi foothills), China
About
About Shangshan
11000–9000 BP, 9000–7000 BCE) at Huangzhai near Pujiang, Zhejiang — earliest Neolithic in the Lower Yangzi (currently oldest pottery in Zhejiang), excavated 2001–06 by Jiang Leping (Zhejiang Institute). Shangshan is 2 ha with earliest painted pottery in China (red-slipped with white painting 9000 BCE), 24 semisubterranean pit houses with hearths, and critically the world's earliest carbonized rice remains (10,000 BP rice husk in pottery temper and pit storage lines dating 9450 BP) pushing rice domestication to 9000 BCE, 1000 years before Hemudu and contemporaneous with early Jiahu.
The site bridges Upper Paleolithic Xianrendong incipient ceramics to Lower Yangzi paddy agriculture.
Why it mattersWorld's earliest rice remains (9450 BP) in pottery — proves Lower Yangzi rice origin 2000 years before Hemudu; earliest painted pottery in China 9400 BCE.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Was 9450 BP rice wild or early domesticated?
Theories
- 01Lower Yangzi as earliest Neolithic pottery-and-rice cradle (Jiang–Liu model vs Yangshao millet)
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.11000–9000 BP (9400 BCE) earliest pit houses
- Period
- Shangshan culture 9000–7000 BCE → Kuahuqiao (8500–7700) → Hemudu
- Culture
- Shangshan (Lower Yangzi earliest Neolithic, Pre-Yangshao)
- Builders
- Shangshan early farmers (proto-Hemudu Yangzi group)
- Purpose
- Earliest pottery-and-rice hamlet bridging incipient ceramics to paddy farming
- Abandoned
- c.7000 BCE (transition to Kuahuqiao–Hemudu wetland village)
- Rediscovered
- 2001–06 Jiang Leping Zhejiang excavation; carbonized rice AMS 2009
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
c.9400–8000 BCE
Earliest painted pottery China (red with white) and pit houses
c.8500 BCE
Carbonized rice husk in pottery and pit 9450 BP — earliest rice
2001–06
Jiang Leping defines Shangshan culture; Nature 2009 rice
On the ground
Structures & features
29.4500° N · 119.9700° E · 45 m · 2 mapped features
Pit House Cluster (Shangshan Phase)
settlement24 semisubterranean pit houses with painted pottery and rice temper
29.4505° N · 119.9705° ERice Storage Pit Area
storageCarbonized rice husk pits 9450 BP on eastern terrace
29.4495° N · 119.9695° E