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City thrived 5,000 years ago: experts
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AN ARCHEOLOGICAL expedition to Shenzhen's eastern areas has unearthed artifacts that offers fascinating details of day-to-day life in the city's ancient past.
The expedition was sponsored by the city's cultural relics management authority and the government of Yantian District to further excavate the Dameisha Archaeological Sites. The archeologists excavated 1,600 square metres and unearthed objects which date back as far as the Neolithic period. These finds shed new light on the lives of those long-gone people.
Living on fishing
Dameisha, being by the sea, was already a fertile fishing ground in ancient times. Among the objects found by archaeologists are weights used to anchor fishnets, along with some pottery. Since no farming tools have been discovered, scientists say agriculture did not play an important role in people's lives. In other words, they lived off the sea.
In addition, in the Neolithic layers more than 20 horse teeth were found. That could mean the locals had already domesticated livestock.
Evidence of immigration
At the site were found, for the first time in the area, shards of the three-colour pottery of the Song Dynasty (960-1279). That form of pottery was used in daily utensils by people in northern China around that time.
That reinforces the long-held belief that a wave of northern migrants made their way to southern China in the 12th and 13th centuries to escape the devastating wars of that era.
Experts say that from the finds at the Dameisha site it seems certain that Shenzhen has experienced at least three waves of migration since ancient times. The first occurred in the 4th century, the second in the 12th and 13th centuries, and the third wave arrived in the 17th century.
5,000-year history
Archeologists say that bronze tools found at the site have helped them push the history of Dameisha back to 5,000 to 6,000 years ago.
Bronze wares originated in northern China about 5,000 years ago. That they were found in Dameisha also means that the local people had very advanced means of maritime transportation at that time.(Wu Yan)
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