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Located on the eastern outskirts of Xian, the Banpo Museum is the first on-location prehistoric relics museum in China. The five excavations lasted from 1953 to 1957. Visitors from home and abroad can see how villagers in a matriarchal clan community lived in the Yellow River reaches some 6,000 years ago.
Encompassing some 50,000 square meters, the museum consists of dwelling areas, a pottery-making center, and a burial ground. The size of the habitation area is about 30, 000 square meters. One fifth of the whole village (about 10,000 square meter) has already been exhumed with a surrounding moat about 5 meters deep and 6 meters wide. The cemetery is located north of the moat. To the east is the pottery-making center. The distribution of the habitation area, the pottery-making center and the cemetery reflects the Banpo people’s idea of planning. Among the ruins are 46 dwellings, 2 domestic animal pens, more than 200 storage pits, six pottery kilns and 250 graves, including 73 burial jars for children. About 10, 000 artifacts have been exhumed, together with a large number of animal bones and fruit pits.
The museum is composed of three exhibition halls for cultural relics, a main exhibition hall on the site and a temporary exhibition hall. Exhibits on display include tools and utensils. The museum was set up and opened to the public in 1958, renovated around 2005.
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