House-foundation No. 15 on the Diaolongbei site in Zaoyang city is a large-sized earth floor artificially baked to red, remaining of a multi-room building, and has a rectangular plan further divided into seven rectangles. Along the outer and inner wall lines, closely-arranged post-holes were discovered together with grooves as the remains of eight push-and-pull doors. Each partition left behind a fireplace and, in some cases, a ruined storeroom. The floor is made of lime and a material similar to concrete, and 93 objects were found scattered on it. These belong to the types of pottery jar, basin, grinding bowl, bowl, dou stemmed vessel, small cup and curve-bellied cup, and stone axe, adze, spade, hoe, plough and si spade. The remains are assigned to the third phase of the Diaolongbei site, going back to c. 5000 BP.
Congo red staining can be used to detect effectively the remains of starch grain processing,so some pottery objects and stone implements unearthed from the Diaolongbei site were tested through a starch grain analysis. Most of the examined artifacts were detected to bear remains of starch grain,which provided important information for understanding their function. In particular,processed and undamaged starch grains were discovered on rare-seen pottery rollers,which,therefore,must have been used for processing plants. The remains of cooked starch grain on the grooved basins suggest that this type of vessel may be a processing tool or container of plant food,which reflects the multiple use of ancient pottery.
The archaeological finds unearthed from the Yin site at Locus South of Wangyukou include three ash-pits，two house-foundations and 21 tombs，which yielded nearly one hundred pottery，stone，bronze，bone and shell objects．The site may have been a settlement of Yin people and then became a clan cemetery of theirs．The burial data show that the tomb-owners were freemen．Part of them were better living warriors．The site can be roughly dated to Yinxu Ⅲ and Ⅳ．
The present paper is a brief account of the vestiges and objects unearthed from the Xipo site for the first time. H20 and H22 are man-made large round pits unclear in use. H1 was originally the remains of a semi-subterraneous dwelling and became a rubbish pit after its destruction. G1 is a reservoir, the first finding of this kind. The plenty of unearthed objects includes: pottery--the basin, bo bowl, jar, small-mouthed pointed-based bottle, fu cauldron, stove, zeng steamer, urn, bowl, cup,vessel cover, ring, ball, spindle whorl, pellet, arrowhead, bar, circular shard and mark-incised shard;stone tools--the axe, spade, knife, pestle, ball and top-shaped implement; and bone artifacts-the hairpin, arrowhead and peculiar-shape object. In addition, animal bones were also found in a great number.
The Diaolongbei site in Zaoyang City,Hubei,is the remains of a Neolithic settlement located at the confluence of the Changjiang and Huanghe rivers.A lot of house-foundations were found to contatin much charcoal.The present paper reports the species identification of the charcoal samples un-earthed from the site by means of light microscope and scanning electron microscopes.The results show that the samples belong to sawtooth oak (Quercus acutissima) and eucommia(Eucommia ulmoides) respectively.The other data obtained include information on the wood exploitation of the prehistoric population,as well as paleoenvironmental and paleoclimatic evidence.
The Beiyangping site lies in the northwest of Lingbao, Henan, 20km west of the city proper, in the middle and south of the small Yangping plateau, and west of Beiyangping village. It occupies an area of 900,000 sq m. On the site are remains of the Miaodigou Ⅰ phase of Yangshao culture and the Eastern Zhou culture. The former include house-foundations, ash-pits and tombs. Among the unearthed objects are the pottery ding tripod, fu cauldron, stove, urn, vat, pot, cup, dish, turntable,stand, cover, ball, ring, spindle-whorl and human head, the stone axe, knife, arrowhead, ball, pearl and microblade, bone hairpin, spoon and awl, and horn awl. The remains of the Eastern Zhou culture comprise ash-pits and tombs, as well as the pottery jar, dou stemmed vessel and li tripod, bronze and iron belt-hook, crystal ring, and shell ornament.
