In November 2001-July 2002, the Institute of Archaeology, Nanjing Museum, carried out a large-scale excavation on the Luotuodun site in Yixing City, Jiangsu Province. They revealed a large number of tombs, ash-pits, house-foundations, shell deposits and sacrificial vestiges of the Majiabang culture and a few tombs and ash-pits of the Songze and Liangzhu cultures. The urn-burials of the Majiabang culture are the first discovered remains of this kind in the lower Changjiang River valley. The site yielded lots of stone implements, pottery vessels, bone artifacts, jade objects, animal bones and carbonized rice grains. The discoveries on the site made up a gap in our understanding of the prehistoric culture in the western Taihu Lake area and have great significance to the study of the Neolithic Age and civilizing course in the lower Changjiang River valley.
