8,000-year-old village sites found in North China’s Inner Mongolia

A total of 16 village house sites dating back to 8,400-7,800 years ago have been found in North China’s Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, local archaeologists announced on Wednesday.

These house sites were found in the Simagou ruins and display distinctive features of the Yumin Culture, a civilization that existed between the Paleolithic Age and Neolithic Age and which was first discovered in 2014 in the middle part of Inner Mongolia.

The 16 house sites are mainly half crypts in a circle shape or rounded rectangle shape.

These house sites are of different sizes. The diameters of the round house sites measure between 3.3 meters to 4.5 meters, while the roundedrectangle sites range from 4.4 to 5.2 meters in length and 1.1 to 6.6 meters wide.

Archaeologists at the site have also unearthed more than 500 items including stone wares, bone tools and pottery shards.

Some animal bones and clamshells have also been found in the house sites at the dig.

Hu Xiaonong, leader of the archaeological team, said the animal bones and stone wares found at the sites show that hunting and gathering were still the main modes of food production for the people in the ancient village.

The findings have provided important materials for researching the region’s Yumin Culture, Hu said.