The Caoyangang Ruins, located in Xinghua City of Jiangsu Province, has been confirmed as a new Neolithic site dating back 7,200 years, an archaeological team from Nanjing Museum announced on August 22 following preliminary studies.

The Caoyangang Ruins spans more than 80,000 square meters. Archaeologists have unearthed a large number of relics, including pottery, bone and wooden pieces. The pottery mainly consists of cauldrons of various types used in ancient China. The site has also revealed animal and plant remains of pigs, cattle, dogs, oysters, water chestnuts, and rice, offering an insight into the dietary habits of ancient people.

Bone needles (Qiu Bingqing/Xinhua News Agency)

Gan Huiyuan, lead archaeologist of the Caoyangang project and researcher at the museum, said the bone pieces are intricately crafted and polished. Bone needles were used for sewing clothes and bone farming tool called "si" was used for tilling the soil. These artifacts illustrate the typical labor distribution of “women sewing and men ploughing” in ancient times, according to Gan.

Bone flute

The archaeological findings also include two unique items - a drill tool, presumed to be used for making fire, and a semi-finished bone flute. “It’s highly likely that ancient inhabitants use the drill tool to start fires manually,” Gan said.