JINAN, March 11 (Xinhua) -- A prehistoric site dating back more than 4,000 years was recently discovered in Zibo City, east China's Shandong Province.
The "Gaonan Site" was found at a construction site in Fangzhen Township, Zhangdian District, covering an area of approximately 20,000 square meters.
A local archaeological team began excavating the site on Feb. 20. Pottery artifacts have already been unearthed.
Fang Shuyu, an employee of the provincial institute of cultural relics and archaeology, said that an unearthed pottery cooking utensil had been identified as a typical tool of the Longshan Culture, a late Neolithic civilization that could be found along the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River.
"Based on the current excavation work, we can tell that the site is a relatively small primary-level settlement from the Longshan Period. The excavation is of great academic significance to the exploration of the period's basic grassroots settlement structure," Fang said. ■
