| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
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The excavations of these sites established the basis for the understanding of the Tanshishan Culture. By the end of the 1970s, archaeologists in China reached a consensus that the Tanshishan Culture was a Neolithic culture distributed in the lower reaches of the Min River, and its date was possibly from 5500–4000 B.P. However, the definition of this culture remained one of the most actively debated problems until the 1990s in Fujian Neolithic archaeology.
In addition to the above excavation projects in the lower reaches of the Min River, Fujian archaeologists also conducted two large reconnaissance projects in the whole province in the 1950s and the 1970s, and a large number of Neolithic sites were found in Eastern, Southern, and Northern Fujian Province (FW, 1961b, 1961c, 1961d; Zeng, 1955, 1959; Zeng & Huang, 1961). Unfortunately, most of these sites have never been excavated; therefore, their date and cultural characteristics are not clear. Nevertheless, these archaeological reconnaissances provided clues for further archaeological investigations.
Eastern Guangdong Province
Archaeological investigations in eastern Guangdong were limited to surveys and very few small-scale test excavations during this period. From 1956 to 1960, Guangdong Provincial Museum organized a number of survey projects in 18 counties of eastern Guangdong, and discovered 241 Neolithic sites (GPM, 1961). Guangdong Administrative Committee for Cultural Heritage (Guangdong sheng wenguanhui) also conducted several surveys in Chao‘an and Chaoyang Counties (GWGW, 1956, 1961). A number of sites were reported in detail, and these data served as the basis for the understanding of the Neolithic cultures in this area until the late 1980s. The Chenqiao site, the Shiweishan site, and the Meilinhu site in Chao‘an County all yielded interesting materials. According to the brief description in the report, all three sites were shell midden, and most of the shells were marine shells such as oyster and clam (GWGW, 1961). The pottery collected at Chenqiao site consisted of coarse sand-tempered pottery, decorated with incised patterns in the neck and shoulder area. Some of them have red slips or are painted. As will be elaborated in the following chapters, the Chengqiao site has drawn much attention from scholars who are interested in the origin of the Austronesians. Unfortunately, it has never been excavated, and there has been no attempt to date this site either. Based on the characteristics of pottery, Mo Zhi, the writer of the survey report, contended that it was an early Neolithic site in Guangdong. Mo also argued that the Shiweishan site was slightly earlier than the Chenqiao site (GWGW, 1961).