A group of Neolithic peoples known today as the Liangzhu culture lived in the Jiangsu province of China. Their jades, ceramics and stone tools were highly sophisticated. Cong tubes were extremely difficult and time-consuming to produce, as jade cannot be split like other stones; it must be worked with a hard abrasive sand. Yet the Neolithic is a period of hunting and cave living.
Due to their extraordinary and elegant workmanship, Liangzhu jade artifacts are always the most favorite collection items for professional collectors worldwide.
The Liangzhu people used two distinct types of jade objects: a disc, later known as a bi, and a tube, later known as a cong, of square cross-section, pierced with a circular hole. They clearly had great significance, but despite the many theories the meaning and purpose of bi and cong remain a mystery. They were (made and) buried in large numbers: one tomb had twenty-five bi and thirty-three cong.
The Lianggzhu were not the first Chinese people to create intricate jade products. Before them came the Hongshan Culture (3500-2200 B.C.). They lived in the areas of south-eastern of Inner Mongolia and western Liaoning Province of China.
But the Hongshan are unrelated to later dynasties and are now known as a distinct jade culture outside the central plains.
Hangzhou is the capital city of East China's Zhejiang Province. Long regarded as the nation's paradise city, it is often associated with spots of natural beauty such as the resplendent West Lake, and has been the capital of many ancient Chinese dynasties.
Hangzhou is also home to sites containing relics of some of the earliest Chinese civilizations, such as the famous Liangzhu Culture and the more recently discovered Kuahuqiao Culture. Chinese historians generally regard the Liangzhu Culture as the first peak of Hangzhou's development, while the history of civilization in the city dates back 8,000 years, starting with Kuahuqiao Culture of the Neolithic Age in its suburb Xiaoshan district.
Named after the place where it was first discovered in 1936, Liangzhu is a late Neolithic (or Chalcolithic) culture dating back to 3310 - 2250 BC. Well known for its large number of marvelous jade artifacts, Liangzhu succeeded the Majiabang Culture and later became part of the Shang Dynasty (16th-11th Century BC).
Over 5,000 jades have been discovered in the Liangzhu ruins to date. These jades, especially the congs, also have the earliest taotie mask designs as a part of their inscriptions.
The taotie mask is an image formed when the elaborate carvings on a jade are arranged in such a way that the image of a face can be seen in the macro image. These taotie designs were later used and stylized by the Shang and Zhou cultures.
In addition to the more widely known Liangzhu Culture, Hangzhou is also the place of origin of the much earlier Kuahuqiao Culture - a Neolithic Age culture that once thrived in its suburban Xiaoshan district.
Although it is lesser known than Liangzhu, Kuahuqiao Culture is no less and probably even more significant than the former.
The discovery of the Kuahuqiao relic site actually pushes the history of civilization in Hangzhou to 8,000 years ago, much earlier than the Liangzhu Culture.
Located in Xianghu Village in Xiaoshan District in the outskirts of Hangzhou, the Kuahuqiao relic site was first formally discovered in 1990, which led to the unearthing of large quantities of cultural relics such as sophisticated painted pottery, unglazed pottery, stoneware and jade artifacts.
A second excavation was carried out in 2001, with more relics discovered.
Kuahuqiao Culture, which was regarded as one of the Top 10 most important archeological discoveries in China in 2001, is also an unresolved mystery that still enthralls and puzzles archeologists.
While there were many wooden, stone and pottery utensils unearthed from the site, there were no tripods and stones with drilling holes, indicating that hunting may have been the main lifeline of the Kuahuqiao people.
"This means the site has got the characteristics of a very early age," said Yan Wenming, a Peking University professor and researcher at the State Administration of Cultural Heritage.
"The culture of Kuahuqiao is very unique," said Yan. "It can hardly be compared to any other ancient cultures discovered in the province, and we found it difficult to put it into the cultural chronology within our knowledge," he added.
