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Introduction of the Banpo Village

Six to seven thousand years ago, a stable village was built by a late Neolithic people. Banpo had about 500 people lived in the village.It was a matriarchal society based on farming. The houses were constructed of thatch over wood beams while the floors were sunk two to three feet into the ground. Heat was provided by a central fire. Food was stored in underground caves, dug deep enough to protect the provisions from being devoured by wildlife or contaminated by insects. Architecture, village organization, and food storage methods appear to have been strikingly similar to the way of life of some native American plains tribes.
The Banpo Village covers an area of 50,000 square meters and is divided into three sections: the Residential Section, the Pottery-making Section, and the Burial Section. There were five excavations between 1954 and 1957, a total area of 10,000 square meters. The discoveries include 46 horse remains, two pigsties, 200 cellars, 174 adult tombs, 73 child's burial urns, six pottery kilns and many production tools and living utensils. All these show the production and lives of the Banpo ancestors 6,000 years ago during the prosperous period of the matrilineal clan society.
In the Neolithic Age, the Banpo villagers lived on hunting, farming and fishing. Land was opened up by slashing and burning the surrounding vegetation. Women then played an important part in society. This stage can be divided into two periods: an early period and a developmental period. As far as the first period was concerned, women were engaged in collecting wild fruits while men were occupied with fishing and hunting. As a result of the intertribal communal marriages, children were closely associated with their mothers from morning to night. They followed their mothers in the family pedigree. The latter period saw the transition to exogamy. Women took up farming, and managed the tribal affairs and the economic life as well. Husbands lived in the homes of their wives, and they were also recorded together with their property in the family pedigree after their wives.
The Banpo worked together. They dug a trench around the entire complex both for protection and for drainage. There was a large meeting hall in the center of the village and a place for central storage. Most of the tools (e.g., axes, hoes, knives) were of stone, but some implements were of bone (e.g., needles for sewing). The stone tools look remarkably sharp, but it was still fortunate that the Banpo settled in an area where the soil was loose and easily tilled.
Pottery making became an important activity of the village and pottery products (dishes, vases, etc.) improved the daily life of the villagers At the site of living section, The pottery wares unearthed total up to 50 to 60 kinds. Some of the pottery objects were decorated with colorful geometric designs, and some were decorated with the designs of fish with a big mouth, running deer and various types of human-faced fish. It is worthwhile to mention that some carved and painted signs were found on the unearthed pottery vessles. The village pottery produced specialized pots for drinking, storage, cooking, and burial. (Although adults were buried in the cemetery outside the village, children and infants were buried alongside the huts in special clay urns; the reason for this continues to be matter for speculation.)
The matriarchal clan community shows the first signs of primitive communes after advancing from the primitive tribes, and came to an end not long before patriarchy society was established. This happened in approximately the period spanning the late Paleolithic and Neolithic Ages.
Over the next 3000 years, the descendants of the Banpo people founded new villages, began to build cities, used jade, bronze, and copper, and increased their skills in agriculture. The first dynasty (or unified government) was called the Xia and lasted from approximately 2200 B.C. to 1700 B.C. Life changed more rapidly after that time.