The Jiaojia Neolithic Siteunearthedin Zhangqiu District, Jinan,is announced as one of the six "2017 New Archeological Discoveries in China" at the 2017 Archeology Forumbythe Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in Beijing.

The site was discovered and excavated by archaeologists from the Archaeology and Museology, Department of the School of History and Culture, Shandong University.

The excavation was carried out during 2016 and 2017 along with students' archeological practice by the Department of Archaeology and Museology, of the School of History and Culture, Shandong University. Headed by Wang Fen, the department's vice dean, and assisted by Mr. Lu Guoquan, Tang Zhongming and Song Yanbo, all vice professors from the department, more than 70 students and faculty members participated in the excavation, which has made significant and fruitful archaeological findings.

Discovery of the Jiaojia Site, dated 5,000 years ago, has located the earliest town site in the Haidai cultural zone, a region that extends from the Bohai Sea to the Taishan Mountains. It is one of the most important archeological discoveries in this region for the past 30 years. Besides ancient walls and trenches, the ruins of 116 houses, 215 graves including 20 large graves and nearly 1,000 pits of ashes, are also discovered together with a great deal of artifacts of jade, white pottery, colorful pottery and painted pottery. This indicates that Jiaojia had been a large settlement site during the earlier phase of civilization, a location of profound cultural history in the Jishui Basin of Northern Shandong. More extensive excavations and multi-discipline research on Jiaojia settlement will be of great significance and value to a deeper understanding of the origin and formation of civilization in eastern China.

Wang Fen from Shandong University is invited at the forum to report on the new archeological discovery and Professor Li Xinwei from the CASS observes in his review that the discovery of city walls and trenches in Jiaojia Site provides new evidence for recognizing settlement areas of core Dawenkou Culture and for studying social interaction and cultural exchange 5,000 to 4,000 years ago.

The Archeology Forum, first started in 2002 by CASS, unveils new archeological discoveries of the year known as "Chinese Six New Archeological Discoveries". It is regarded as the best pick of the year's finds and a big academic event, equal in fame to the "Chinese Ten New Archeological Discoveries" co-sponsored by the Chinese Cultural Relics and Chinese Society of Archeology.

Source: view.sdu.edu.cn

Translated by Zhang Kaige

Edited by Wang Keyou, Song Yijun