Editor's Note:

The Yangshao Culture, which dates back to 7,000 to 5,000 years ago in northern China, is China's most widely distributed and far-reaching archaeological culture, and its discovery marks the birth of modern Chinese archaeology. Recently, China News Release interviewed Yang Hongxing, director of the Yangshao Culture Research Center in Sanmenxia City, central China's Henan Province. He told our reporter that the Yangshao Culture is an important archaeological culture in the Yellow River basin in the Neolithic Age (c.10000-4000 BEC) and occupies a pivotal position in China's prehistoric social development history.

In 1921, with the first excavation of the Yangshao Village site in Mianchi County, Sanmenxia, this small village became a sacred site of ancient culture to which Chinese and foreign archaeologists aspired.

CHINA NEWS RELEASE: When it comes to the Yangshao Culture, Johan Gunnar Andersson (1874–1960), a Swedish geologist and archaeologist, is a person we must mention because his discovery unveiled the mystery of China in the Stone Age. Back then, Andersson believed that the Yangshao Culture might come from the West. What are your opinions about the origins of the Yangshao Culture?

YANG HONGXING: Andersson, a Swedish scholar working for the Chinese government, initially discovered and named Yangshao Culture. Andersson and Chinese geologist Yuan Fuli (1893–1987) discovered many artifacts of the Neolithic Age in Yangshao Village in 1921, thus starting modern archaeology in China.

During the excavation of the Yangshao Village site, Andersson found some painted pottery fragments and polished stone tools. The pottery, beautifully painted, was of such high artistic value that Andersson believed that the Yangshao Culture was already a mature culture. He thought it was not born in Yangshao Village, nor was it the oldest culture. Where did it come from?