Residents of a village in central China's Henan Province have been silently watching over a 7,000-year-old cultural relic for 80 years.

No tombs, cellars, ditches, trenches, irrigation canals or wells have ever been built at the prehistoric village of Yangshao. Farmers plough with care so as not to damage any ancient articles that may pop up after thousands of years underground.

An Zhimin, an elderly researcher of the Institute of Archeology affiliated with the Chinese Academy of Social Science, marveled at Yangshao when he re-visited the site recently.

"It is exactly the same as it was 50 years ago; even the relic site's surface and the ash pits are well protected," he said. In the 1950s, An came to Yangshao village for archeological research.

Jointly discovered in 1921 by Chinese archeologist Yuan Fuli and his Swedish peer, J.G.Anderson, Yangshao Cultural Relic, as the prehistoric village is called, is situated in Yangshao Village of Mianchi County in Henan Province's Sanmenxia City.

Sprawling over 300,000 square meters, the ancient site offered China's first convincing evidence of its own Stone Age and was a catalyst for the country's archeological research on the Paleolithic Period, Bronze Age and Iron Age.

Among thousands of ancient articles unearthed during past three excavations, archeolgoists found out not only stoneware for farming like hatchets, shovels, chisels and adzes, but also hunting artifacts such as stone bullets and arrows.

Setting Their Own Rules for Protection

The Yangshao Culture, known for its painted pottery with a variety of finely designed geometrical patterns, is centered in the middle reaches of the Yellow River, extending to south China's Hubei Province and north China's Inner Mogolia.

Regarding the village as a "Holy Land of Culture," Chinese experts have been impressed not only by the soundness of the relic site but also the willingness of local farmers to protect it.

Those few villagers who gave thought to setting up a manufacturing plant to earn more income quickly abandoned the idea for fear that modernized production would destroy the local environment and damage the relic area. Villagers who felt great loyalty to their ancient neighbor agreed to move out when archaeological teams proposed digging in certain locations.

One family chose to temporarily settle in a cave-house dug at a nearby mountain ridge when floods drowned their home because the construction of another house within the relic area could potentially damage the precious land where ancient articles were buried as deep as four meters.

When asked about the daily inconveniences and delayed economic progress the village has experienced in safeguarding the historical relics, Wang Sanxing, a 67-year-old farmer, said simply: "It's worth it."

In 1961 when the prehistoric village was listed as one of China's first batch of cultural relics under State protection, local villagers set their own three rules for protection and have strictly followed them since.

No houses can be built within the relic area; no ditches can be dug around the site for depositing ash to make fertilizer; and no digging can be done within the relic site zone for any use unrelated to archeological study.

Any tourists found scratching the paintings on ancient walls or attempting to pocket various items were immediately stopped by the solicitous villagers, Wang said.

Facing Another Choice

There are two things experts could get from the remote and backward village, according to An: Academic satisfaction and a profound admiration of local villagers.

Now, with archeologists swarming to the village to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the discovery there, villagers may face another choice.

If the proposal made by archeologists to build a large theme park on Yangshao is approved by relevant authority of the country, the remaining 20 families in the village will have to be relocated.

Villagers said they were not especially reluctant to re-settle, as they believe the kind of protection given by the state would be best for the site, and at the same time their quality of life would be improved in new housing.

( November 9, 2001)