5,000-year-old Skeleton Unearthed in South China

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Saturday, July 12, 2003

5,000-year-old Skeleton Unearthed in South China

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Chinese archaeologists have unearthed an intact skeleton at a Neolithic site in Dongguan City of south China's Guangdong Province.

Experts say that the 5,000-year-old skeleton, positioned face-up with limbs extended was a male inhabitant of the Pearl River delta in the central-south part of Guangdong.

Archaeologists with the Guangdong Provincial Cultural Heritage,the Archaeological Research Institute and the Dongguan City Museum have excavated large quantities of pottery and stone, bone and mussel tools at the Haogang Neolithic site in the Nancheng District of Dongguan, since excavations began on April 15.

The Haogang site was discovered by archaeologists in the 1980s.

The Haogang New Stone Age site has residential housing, designated sites for public activities, areas for garbage disposal and a designated burial area, indicating that human beings lived in the Pearl River delta more than 5,000 years ago, said Feng Mengqin, an expert with the Guangdong Provincial Cultural Heritage and Archaeological Research Institute and head of the excavation team.

Judging from the materials unearthed thus far, the Haogang site was the earliest site on the Pearl River delta inhabited by human beings, according to Feng.

Also excavated at the site were numerous oyster shells, fish bones and fishing tools, which indicate that the ancient inhabitants lived on fishing instead of farming, according to experts.

Local people say that piles of shells were still a common sightin the Haogang area in the 1980s.

Feng Mengqin says that the discoveries of the Haogang site and of the skeleton are crucial to the study of the origins of the culture of the Lingnan area, located south of the Five Ridges (Dayu, Qitian, Dupang, Mengzhu and Yuecheng) that comprise Guangdong Province and the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region in south China.

The discovery also provides evidence for the study of the relationship among ancient civilizations in the area of the Pacific Ocean.

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