Hongshan Excavations Complete Civilization Evidence Chain

New archaeological excavations at the Hongshan culture sites in northeastern China are providing crucial evidence that continues to complete the chain of evidence for Chinese civilization, according to researchers gathered at the 2026 Conference on Hongshan Culture held August 5-6 in Chaoyang, Liaoning Province. The conference, themed “Hongshan Culture: A Dialogue Between Eras and Civilizations,” brought together guests from 26 countries and international organizations, including diplomatic envoys and scholars from around the world, as Xinhua News reported.

A Civilization Pushed Back in Time

Hongshan culture dates back approximately 6,500 to 5,000 years and was primarily distributed across western Liaoning, southeastern Inner Mongolia, and northern Hebei. The Niuheliang site, discovered in 1981 with systematic excavation beginning in 1983, has yielded altars, temples, tombs, and numerous jade and pottery artifacts over more than four decades of work.

In late 2023, the National Cultural Heritage Administration released the latest results of the Chinese Civilization Origins Tracing Project, officially confirming the Niuheliang Hongshan Culture site as a typical representative of the first phase of the “Era of Ancient States” dating from approximately 5,800 to 5,200 years ago. This designation pushed the timeline of Chinese civilization origins back by 500-600 years, as China Daily noted.

New Discoveries at Niuheliang

The latest excavation season has yielded remarkable findings. At the first location of the Niuheliang core area, archaeologists have identified nine large platform foundations and auxiliary facilities, with the overall building complex covering approximately 100,000 square meters and dating back to around 5,800 years ago. Confirmed site points in the protected area and surrounding region have increased to more than 60.

Jia Xiaobing, director of the World Archaeology Research Office at the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, and field archaeology team leader at the Niuheliang site, reported a significant new discovery at Platform No. 7: seven red-burnt earth pits arranged in a pattern resembling the Big Dipper constellation. “We speculate that this is the Hongshan ancestors materializing their understanding of cosmic astronomical phenomena into a model,” Jia said, according to Xinhua News.

At the second location, a triple concentric circular altar with a maximum diameter of about 22 meters rises layer by layer from inside to outside. Researchers believe the three layers correspond to the winter solstice, spring/autumn equinox, and summer solstice solar annual movement nodes. “From the circular altar to the newly discovered red-burnt earth pits, this reflects the ancestors’ ideas of observing the heavens, marking time, and revering heaven and earth,” Jia explained, “also providing earlier clues for understanding later ritual traditions.”

The Significance of Hongshan Culture

Wang Wei, a member of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences Academic Divisions, outlined three aspects of Hongshan culture’s significance: it contains the earliest altars, temples, and stone tombs in East Asia; it represents the earliest regional civilization in Northeast China with clear social stratification, large-scale public works, and unified belief systems; and it is a critical link in the diverse-yet-unified formation of Chinese civilization.

“Hongshan culture transitioned from ‘beauty in jade’ to ‘preciousness in jade, communicating with spirits through jade,’ with jade artifacts becoming carriers of identity, power, and belief,” Wang said, as reported by China Daily. He noted that Hongshan culture demonstrates Chinese civilization did not originate from a single center but emerged from independent development and mutual influence among multiple regional cultures.

Guo Dashun, renowned archaeologist and honorary director of the Hongshan Culture Research Institute, emphasized that “Hongshan culture is the root vein of Chinese culture; telling the 5,000-year history of Chinese civilization development always involves Hongshan remains.”

Cross-Regional Connections

A cross-regional discovery at the Zhengjiagou stone tomb site in Xuanhua, Hebei, yielded typical Hongshan jade ritual artifacts alongside Yangshao-style painted pottery. Carbon-14 dating places the site at 5,300-4,800 years ago, extending the lower limit of Hongshan culture by nearly 200 years. Ancient human genome research confirmed that Zhengjiagou ancestors had direct genetic connections with the western Liaoning Hongshan population, providing evidence that Hongshan people migrated southwestward across the Yanshan corridor during their peak period.

The Hongshan culture’s ritual system influenced later periods as well. The Northern Wei dam-top sacrificial site and Tang Dynasty Chang’an circular mound both show traces of Niuheliang altar construction concepts.

International Dialogue and Heritage Preservation

The conference also served as a platform for international cultural exchange. Shahbaz Khan, director and representative of the UNESCO Regional Office for East Asia, said in a video speech: “Hongshan culture represents a foundational chapter in human development. Its ritual architecture and extraordinary jade craftsmanship reveal humanity’s early spiritual and social evolution.” Elizabeth Childs-Johnson, a US Sinologist, described Hongshan culture as a “cultural miracle,” highlighting its importance in the study of prehistoric civilizations worldwide, as China Daily reported.

During the conference, cultural heritage administrations from Liaoning, Hebei, and Inner Mongolia signed a cooperation agreement on Hongshan Culture archaeological research, strengthening regional coordination and multidisciplinary joint research. Liaoning Provincial Party Secretary Xu Kunlin announced that the province will promote the joint application for World Heritage status for Hongshan Culture sites with neighboring provinces, as Global Times reported.

What’s Next

Archaeological work at Niuheliang continues. The exact nature of the seven red-burnt earth pits, the complete contents of the Goddess Temple, and the large settlements matching the ritual center all await further research. As researchers continue to piece together the evidence chain, the discoveries are making China’s 5,000-plus years of civilization increasingly observable and interpretable, showing the world how Chinese civilization formed through multi-regional interaction and has endured to this day.