I have been, for as long as remembered fascinated by the Pre-Historic age and the visit to the Banpo Neolithic village was one of my favourites. The Banpo Neolithic Village was the second site we visited when in Xian.
Banpo Village is a Neolithic site in the Yellow River Valley (also known as the cradle of the Chinese civilization), east of Xian, Shaanxi Province, in China. It was discovered in 1953 by workers hired to dig the foundation for a factory that was to be built on the site. Once the find was identified, the workgroup upgraded their professional classification, changed occupations and became diggers for the archaeologists. The name means `half slope' and comes from the area near the site. Historians say that the village gets its name from the Banpo workgroup who uncovered it.
The site was occupied from 4500-3750 BC and covers almost 80,000 m2. Over 10,000 stone tools and artifacts, 250 tombs, six large kilns, storage pits and almost 100 foundations of buildings have been excavated at the site. It was the first large-scale archaeological operation of China and is one of the most significant Neolithic sites in the world.
The Banpo village is an example of the Yangshao culture, which flourished in the Yellow River Valley between 5000-3000 BC. Banpo is a ditch-enclosed settlement that was surrounded by a moat. Every building in the village was circular, and the village itself oval-shaped. The cemetery was located outside of the village, beyond the moat, and so was the ceramics factory. The six kilns for firing ceramics at Banpo have all been found in one location outside the village, suggesting a kind of industrial complex where communal pottery was shaped and fired.
The Yangshao culture was matrilineal, meaning that women were in charge and one's ancestry was traced through the mother's line, not the father's. In a matrilineal society, the women are in power and men subordinate. No wonder they disappear!!! Banpo Village was abandoned at some point around 3750 BC. No satisfactory reason has been found for the people leaving their homes. The village was abandoned quickly and most likely a flood may have been the cause. Most likely women were out shopping when an ancient flood hit the village, but this theory (developed by myself whilst visiting the museum) has not been proved because there is no way of knowing whether it happened before or after the people left.
Archaeological evidence strongly suggests they practiced what the Chinese call zouhun - "free love" - which is sexual relations without commitment (lucky buggers). Men would visit women's homes at night and sleep with them and then leave in the morning to return to their mother's house and work their mother's land. Children were raised by the mother in her mother's house. This type of marital relationship is still practiced in China today by the Mosuo people (known as the Na to themselves) of the Yunnan and Sichuan provinces near Tibet.
Banpo may have developed a system of writing long before the traditional date of the rise of literacy in China during the Shang Dynasty (1600-1046 BC). Scratch marks on ceramic shards have been classified into 27 distinct categories, which suggest a form of communication and are not at all random but archaeologists do not all agree that they are a form of written language. The now-famous Chinese dragon shape appears on the ceramics excavated from Banpo.
Today the ancient village is one of the most visited sites in China after The Great Wall and we can believe it by the number of people visiting it when we were there.
