A culture that has lain hidden in the valley of the Pearl River Delta for 5,000 years is being brought to light out of the mysterious past and put onto the world stage.

These are the ruins at Dingshi Mountain in Yongning County of south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region.

Chinese and foreign archeologists are amazed at the unique burial method, the special architecture, intact pottery, and other cultural artifacts found at the ruins as the third phase of excavations at the pre-historic site came to an end on January 24.

Fu Jianguo, an associate research fellow of the Archeology Institute of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said, " These ruins demonstrate an ancient way of living that is entirely different from the life of other ancient human beings whose remains have been found in the Yellow River valley and in the Yangtze River valley, and these are of irreplaceable significance for understanding the formation of the Chinese nation."

The Dingshi Mountain ruins, covering an area of 5,000 sq m, are believed to be those of human beings living during the early New Stone Age, some 5,000 years ago. The site has been under excavation since April 1997, and was listed as one of the ten major archeological finds that year. Three stages of excavation have by now been carried out at the site.

As a legacy of the early New Stone Age, the Dingshi Mountain ruins are at a higher elevation along the riverside than those of previous similar archeological finds, which are mostly in cave dwellings. Fu said this site provides new information for researchers to better understand the way of life and activity of mankind during the early New Stone Age.

According to local sources, 331 ancient tombs have been found in the 950 sq m excavated section of the ruins. Judging from previous finds at other ruins from the same period, it is very rare to find so many tombs at a New Stone Age ruin.

Inside the tombs, the dismembered bodies were buried in a style quite different from the bent-limbs style commonly seen in tombs belonging to the New Stone Age found elsewhere in Guangxi. One-third of the remains of more than 400 ancient human beings excavated at the ruins were buried with their bodies dismembered.

The well-known anthropologist Han Kangxin confirmed after making investigations on the spot that this was the first instance on record of the burial of dismembered bodies, and the reason is currently a mystery.

Also discovered at Dingshi Mountain are the remains of the dwellings for primitive men living there 5,000 years to 10,000 years ago. The well-arranged post holes discovered in the dwellings certify them as dwelling structure for pre-historic human beings living in the region.

In accordance with the array and formations of the post holes, specialists conclude that the architecture of that period must have been rectangular.

More than 20 pieces of pottery have also been found at the site, and only four pieces of pottery from the same period have been found previously in Guangxi, and these four were all found in caves.

There are also more than 1,000 pieces of pre-historic tools, including stone implements, bone objects, clam articles, and the remains of aquatic products and other animals.

Research fellow Jiang Tingyu, curator of the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Regional Museum, told reporters that the excavations at Dingshi Mountain made it possible to link up the ruins of human beings living in the Old Stone Age previously found in Liuzhou and Guilin, both in Guangxi, and the early New Stone Age.

"The excavation has provided researchers with valuable materials to study the origin of the ancient Zhuang ethnic people living in Guangxi, and the ways of subsistence and life of pre-historic people living in south China," said the curator.

An archeologist with the Chinese University of Hong Kong believes that the Dingshi Mountain Culture, as it is known, has filled in the blank in research on pre-historic humans in the Pearl River valley, and will change the emphasis of research on pre-historic archeology that was formerly given to the Yellow and Yangtze river valleys. (Xinhua)