Welcome to China Service Mall!

The Banpo Museum is located in the eastern outskirt of Xian City, Shaanxi Province. As the first museum at the prehistoric site, it was built at the base of the excavations of the Banpo site. Since it opened to the public formally in 1958, two million people have visited it.

The Banpo Site is a typical Neolithic matriarchal community of the Yangshao Culture dating back about 6,000 years. At that time, the Banpo people used tools made primarily of wood and stone. Women, the crucial labor force, were responsible for making pottery, spinning, and raising the family, while men fished.

The approximately 4,500 square meters (about 1 acre) exhibit area of Banpo Museum is divided into two Exhibition Halls and a Site Hall.

The first Exhibition Hall is about the unearthed relic exhibitions consisting of the First Hall and the Second Hall. The showpieces in this two halls are primarily production tools and domestic tools used by the primitive Banpo people, including axes, chisels, sickles, and stone and pottery knives from which we can have a general picture of the production activities of the Banpo people thousands of years ago. In addition, artwork and adornments here reflect the social life, culture, art and inventions of the period.

The second Exhibition Hall is primarily used for auxiliary exhibitions and it contains two halls. Special shows are held here on ethnology, folklore and the history of art related to the prehistoric culture.

The Site Hall is about 3,000 square meters (about 0.7 acre) and contains residential, pottery making and burial section. And among the three, the residential section is the main part of the site, including the huts, kilns and tombs of the primitive residents. All these present us an outlook of the aboriginal village and the hard situations of the forefathers in pursuing the civilization, reflecting the production level and the social systems at that period of time.

The Banpo Matriarchal Clan Community Village is an extension of the museum based on archeological findings. The entire village enriches the cultural connotation of the museum and carries forward the long and splendid history of China at the same time.

A Brief Introduction to Yangshao Culture

Yangshao Culture, distributed mainly in the Henan, Shaanxi, Shanxi, southern Hebei and eastern Gansu Provinces, is a culture belonging to the late Neolithic Age. Extant from 5,000 BC to 3,000 BC, its name is derived from the first-known Yangshao Culture site - Yangshao Village in Yinchi County, Henan Province. Over a thousand Yangshao Culture sites have been found including the Banpo Site in Xian, and Jiangzhai at Lintong County, Shanxi Province. As Shanxi possesses the most Yangshao Culture sites, it is regarded as the center of this culture.

The art of pottery is one of the achievements during this period. Red pottery ware including cooking vessels, bowls, cups, and jars were made by hand. Another characteristic of the pottery during this time is the painted patterns and animal lines. One of the pottery masterpieces is the famous basin with a human face and fish patterns at Banpo Village in Xian, Shaanxi Province.

Yangshao Culture gives priority to agriculture; the main crops are millet and chestnuts. Fishing, hunting and collecting assisted farming to some extent. Pigs and dogs were raised as livestock. Tools were used mainly for grinding. Refined grind stone axes, shovels, millstones, arrows, and harpoons etc were commonly used.

Villages were of different sizes. Some large ones were of strict layouts such as Jiangzhai Village. The village is divided into dwelling places and grave area by dikes. Five architecture groups were scattered around a center square each of which had many houses.

Humans during this period belonged to different clans. They worked collectively and allotted treasures evenly. Women played a leading role both in manufacturing and in daily life.