Hemudu Site, Archaeological site in Yuyao City, China

The Hemudu Site is an archaeological location near the Yangtze River Delta where ancient buildings rested on wooden posts to protect from flooding. The museum displays pottery, stone tools, jade objects, and textile fragments that were discovered there.

The site was found in summer 1973, when a sluice foundation pit dug 3 m deep at Hemudu village exposed black pottery, wooden building parts and animal bones; Wang Shilun of the Zhejiang Provincial Museum urged a rescue dig. Excavations in 1973–74 and 1977–78 revealed four superimposed Neolithic layers, dated by radiocarbon to 5000–3300 BCE, and defined the Hemudu Culture. In 1982 it became a National Key Cultural Relic Protection Unit.

The name Hemudu comes from the village where the site was found. Excavations uncovered a lacquered wooden bowl with red pigment, pushing the known history of Chinese lacquerware back some 2,000 years to the Shang dynasty. A pottery stove with a ring foot, side handles and inner supports for holding a cauldron is the earliest known vessel made specifically for cooking over fire in China.

The excavation area and museum display findings with explanations at different points throughout the site. Plan enough time to walk through all exhibits and understand the layout of the ancient structures on display.

The lacquered wooden bowl from the second layer pushed the known date of Chinese lacquerware back by 2,000 years, from the Shang dynasty to the Hemudu period. Excavators also found a bone spade still bound to its wooden handle, showing how the tool was mounted.