The Jiahu Site

The Jiahu site is located in Jiahu village, 1 kilometer southwest of Beiwudu town, Wuyang county, Luohe, Henan province, which covers an area of 5.5 hectares. It is an early Neolithic settlement site known for its large scale, complete preservation, and extremely rich cultural accumulation, which dates back approximately to 7500 to 9000 years ago.

The site was first discovered in the 1960s and from 1983 to 2013, eight archaeological excavations were conducted here successively by the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology and the University of Science and Technology of China, excavating an area of 3,017.1 square meters and unearthing nearly 6,000 cultural relics. The relics unearthed at the site, including the world’s earliest known seven-note bone flutes, carbonized rice, and engraved symbols, hold significant positions in the birth of music, agriculture, and Chinese characters in China and the world. Its archaeological achievements have been engraved on the prominent position of the bronze walkway of the “Chinese Century Monument” in Beijing, and have been selected as one of the top 100 archaeological discoveries in China in the 20th century.

In June 2001, the site was listed as the key historical and cultural sites under national-level protection. In July 2016, the Jiahu site was included in the textbook for history education Chinese History compiled by the Ministry of Education.  In 2017, the site was listed as the National Archaeological Site Park.