"This settlement has residential and sacrificial areas. The residential area is located in the eastern part of the site, and covers about 54,000 sq m. It is surrounded by a moat with a circumference of nearly 900 meters. Inside the moat, 11 houses, 46 ash pits, and one ash trench have been discovered. Four large houses seem to be in the center, with smaller houses and other relics distributed around them," says Fan.

The sacrificial area is in the northern part of the site, where 42 sacrificial pits and three burnt sacrificial remains have been discovered. Intact pottery vessels, stone tools, as well as animal bones and shells have also been unearthed in this area, he adds.

Discoveries show that early Hongshan Culture was settled and mostly relied on agriculture for food.

"Microelement analyses of human and pig bones show that both relied on grain as their principal source of nutrition. This means the early Hongshan Culture period witnessed the development of agriculture, and that the crops harvested were not only used to feed people, but also livestock," he explains.

Zhang Chi, a professor of archaeology at Peking University, says the excavations at Ma'anqiaoshan are very important. "Since the discovery of the Niuheliang site (a major sacrificial site from the late Hongshan period) in Jianping in the 1980s, which was a milestone in the study of Hongshan Culture, it has attracted a great deal of attention," he says.