11 Facts About Jiahu

Jiahu was the site of a Neolithic settlement based in the central plain of ancient China, near the Yellow River.

Careful examination of the skeletons of over 400 individuals, removed from more than 300 graves, by several scientific teams over the course of the past 30 years illustrates that the Jiahu ethnic group was a part of the Northern Mongoloid group, and identified closely with the Miaodigou and Xiawanggang sub-groups which were descendants of hunting and gathering tribes in Henan Province, and the Dawenkou, Xixiahou and Yedian sub-groups that were later found in Shandong Province.

Jiahu is the site of the earliest find of wild soybean seeds in China; a large quantity of soybean remains were discovered at Jiahu.

Women of the Jiahu culture gathered wild pears and apricots, and foraged for acorns, chestnuts, broad beans, edible roots and tubers in the surrounding countryside.

The Jiahu people used manure from their pigs and cattle as fertilizer, substantially increasing the yield of their rice crops.

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The Jiahu people are not believed to have been warlike in nature, but capable of defending themselves if the need arose.

Burials at Jiahu were usually accompanied by burial offerings, with increasing frequency as the second and third phases progressed.

Oldest phase at Jiahu only contains two flutes, which are tetratonic and pentatonic; the middle phase at Jiahu contains several flutes, including an interesting pair of hexatonic flutes.

Jiahu yielded some of the oldest Chinese pottery yet found in Neolithic China.

Jiahu society is believed to have been fairly egalitarian, with several hundred residents of the village at the height of its development.

At Jiahu, archaeologists identified eleven markings of Jiahu symbols, known as pictograms: nine on tortoise shells and two on bone, as possible evidence for proto-writing.