Chinese archaeologists have discovered a pit house in north China's Shanxi Province believed to be occupied by people 7,000 years ago.

Cultural relics taken from the pit house proved to be highly valuable for the study of human beings in the Yellow River reaches, the archaeologists said.

The pit house is located in Zaoyuan Village, Yicheng County of Shanxi, where archaeologists have been carrying out excavation work in a 250-square-meter area for a month.

The archaeologists said the pit house, known as the Zaoyuan Remains, contains a large quantity of exquisite cultural relics, including millstones, stone axes, stone shovels, pots, clay bowls, small-mouth kettles and other tools for daily life and production. The items could have been made in fires as hot as 900 degrees Celsius.

In Zaoyuan, the experts have also discovered traces of fire, including niches for illumination and half-burned branches.

The pit house is the oldest Neolithic remains archaeologists have ever discovered in the province, some 1,000 years earlier than previous finds.

The discovery is significant as it provides clues to help trace the origin of the world-famous Yizhou pottery, and has successfully resolved disputes by academicians over the relationship between the Banpo Culture and Miaodigou Culture, the archaeologists said.