Bampo
Neolithic Village Museum
 In
the present-day Banpo village, about five
kilometers to the east from Xi'an, lies
the actual and complete archaeological site
of a Neolithic village---the Banpo Site,
dating back to 6000 years. It is a typical
village of that time, discovered in the
spring of 1953. Later, after five large-scale
digs of excavation organized by Chinese
Academy of Sciences, an area of approximate
10,000 square meter was excavated, covering
one fifth of the total site area. Among
the excavated finds are 45 house sites,
2 penned sites, 6 pottery-making kilns,
over 200 stronge pits, over 250 burial jars
of adults and children, over 1,000 pieces
of tools and utensils, as well as thousands
of kernels, animal bones and rotten millets.
An on-the-site museum was set up here in
1985, and named after the present place
where it was discovered "Xi'an Banpo
Museum". Apart from the relic exhibition
rooms, a 3,000 square-meter on-the-site
great hall of the remains was set up for
protection of the site. The Banpo Museum
is one of the historical sites designated
for state protection.
The Banpo Neolithic Site consists
of 3 sections: the dwelling area, the pottery-making
center and the cemetery. According to archeologists'
demonstration, the Banpo inhabitants' social
organization was the matriarchal society
and the villagers lived in a primitive communist
society. Women were the organizers and main
forces in the primitive society. They were
mainly engaged in pottery-making, weaving,
domestic animal rearing and farming while
men mainly engaged in fishing, hunting and
fighting.
 Banpo
Village was in the loess area, so the soil
was spongy. The tools of production used
by the ancestors not only include stone
axes, knives, spades and hoes, but also
some tools made of wood, such as digging
sticks and hoes, etc.
A complete vertical pottery-making
kiln is kept here and it is the oldest pottery-making
kiln discovered in China up to now. The
pottery wares unearthed here total up to
50 to 60 kinds, including jars for cooking,
tripots, the tip-bottomed bottles for holding
water, gourd-shaped pots, narrow-necked
flasks, pottery bowls, ect. Some of the
pottery objects were decorated with colorful
geometric designs, and some were decorated
with the designs of fish with a big mouth,
running deer and various types of human-faced
fish. It is worthwhile to mention here that
some carved and painted signs were found
on the unearthed pottery vessles. Are these
signs incantation characters, a kind of
characters or implying deeper meaning? This
will be left for further investigation by
the later generations.
 In
the north of the site, lies the communal
cemetery. The adults and children were buried
in different ways. The adults were found
to be buried in various postures. Some were
buried with their faces upwards, some were
buried with their faces downwards, and some
were buried with the limbs dended. The burying
pits are in a proper order with burial articles
in each while children were always buried
in rough pottery jars near their houses.
The famous archeologist Guo Moruo wrote
a poem describing this as: "There are
graves for children at Banpo Museum, the
corpses are placed in pottery jars. A hole
is chipped in each cover of the pottery
coffin, and the souls can go in and out
through. The burial pits are near the houses,
it seems that they are still in their mothers'
bosoms. While the adults are buried without
coffins, and they are buried in places of
desolation. This shows the inhabitants'
love for their children and this kind of
love will go from generation to generation
forver." From this we can see how our
ancestors loved and concerned about their
children.
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