Chinese archaeologists discover 8,000-year-old village sites

Chinese archaeologists have discovered ruins of 16 village house sites dating back to 8,400-7,800 years in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, state-run media reported on Wednesday.

These house sites were found in the Simagou ruins with distinctive features of Yumin Culture, which was a civilisation between the Paleolithic Age and Neolithic Age and was first discovered in 2014 in the middle part of Inner Mongolia.

The 16 house sites are mainly half crypts in a circle shape or rounded rectangle shape, Xinhua news agency reported.

These house sites are of different sizes, with the diameters of the round-shape house sites measuring 3.3 meters to 4.5 meters, and for the rounded-rectangle sites, the lengths range from 4.4 to 5.2 meters and widths from 1.1 to 6.6 meters.

Archaeologists have also unearthed over 500 items, including stonewares, bone tools and pottery shards from the ruins this year.

Some animal bones and clamshells have also been found in the house sites.

Hu Xiaonong, leader of the archaeological team, said the animal bones and stonewares found at the sites show that the production modes of the ancient villagers were mainly hunting and gathering.

The findings have provided important materials for researching the region's Yumin Culture, Hu said.

(With inputs from agencies.)