Pengtoushan
Pengtoushan Culture Site · Lixian Pengtou
Pengtoushan culture 7500–6000 BCE → Zaoshi → Tangjiagang → Chengtoushan·Pengtoushan (Middle Yangzi earliest Neolithic)·🇨🇳 Hunan Province, Changde Prefecture, Li County, Bashidang–Pengtoushan hillock cluster on Li River plain (Middle Yangzi wetland north of Liye), China
About
About Pengtoushan
Type-site for Pengtoushan culture (c.7500–6000 BCE, 9000–8000 BP) on the Li River plain near Li County — earliest permanent village in the Middle Yangzi (Hunan), contemporary with Peiligang and Shangshan, excavated 1988–94 by Hunan Institute. Pengtoushan is 2 ha hillock with 1 m Neolithic deposit containing earliest cord-marked pottery in Middle Yangzi, incised white pattern ware, polished stone, earliest rice paddy fields (7500 BCE microfossils), and domestic pig remains. Bridging Xianrendong incipient ceramics to the later Tangjiagang–Chengtoushan walled rice towns, with Bashidang adjacent showing burial continuity.
Why it mattersEarliest Middle Yangzi rice village (7500 BCE) — middle reaches counterpart to Lower Yangzi Shangshan, proving dual rice origins.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Was Pengtoushan rice Japonica or wild along Li River?
Theories
- 01Middle vs Lower Yangzi independent rice trajectories (Yan model)
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c.7500 BCE earliest cord pottery village
- Period
- Pengtoushan culture 7500–6000 BCE → Zaoshi → Tangjiagang → Chengtoushan
- Culture
- Pengtoushan (Middle Yangzi earliest Neolithic)
- Builders
- Middle Yangzi rice-millet farmers (Pengtoushan culture)
- Purpose
- Earliest Middle Yangzi rice village on Li River alluvium bridging incipient pottery to paddy farming
- Abandoned
- c.6000 BCE (shift to Zaoshi–Tangjiagang nearby)
- Rediscovered
- 1988 Hunan rescue excavation; defined 1990s
- Excavation
- Partially excavated
c.7500–6500 BCE
Earliest cord-marked handmade pottery and rice microfossils
c.6500–6000 BCE
Polished stone and early paddy bunds; pig domestication
1988–94
Hunan Institute defines Pengtoushan culture 7500 BCE type
On the ground
Structures & features
29.5800° N · 111.4700° E · 35 m · 2 mapped features
Hillock Habitation Core
settlementCord-marked pottery village on hillock summit with pit houses
29.5805° N · 111.4705° EPaddy Flank Horizon
fieldEarly paddy bund and ditch with rice phytoliths on lower slopes
29.5795° N · 111.4695° E