Chinese Skilled at Building Weather-Proof Dwelling 7,000 Years AgoArchaeologists say that Chinese people as early as 7,000 years ago could build homes which kept them cool in summer and warm in winter.This finding is based on the excavation of the Hemudu Culture ruins dating back 7,000 years in Yuyao, east China's Zhejiang Province, according to Zhao Xiaobo, curator of a museum in Humudu, located in Yuyao. The site was first found in 1972 and is the earliest Neolithic culture discovered thus far in the country's eastern coastal areas. In the ruins were found a large number of wooden structures, which were propped up with numerous wooden posts and interlaced wooden girders. These structures aroused the attention of scholars and experts worldwide, because they are very distinct from the architecture of prehistoric crypts and semi-crypts which were unearthed elsewhere in China. Experts found at least seven almost paralleling rows of the wooden buildings in the ruins after two excavation attempts. Some of the wooden houses face southeast and others due south. Their orientation are conducive to good airflow, receiving sunlight and remaining cool in summer and retaining heat during the winter, experts said. Experts restored some of the original wooden structures in 1997. In Zhao's paper about the new findings of the wooden structures in the Hemudu ruins, it makes the point to highlight not only the ancient Chinese's building skills but also their consideration for the orientation which helps weatherproof the houses. This means, according to her paper, that primitive human beings were able to adapt themselves to their surrounding environment as they got to know nature and geography. In addition to wooden structures, the Hemudu Culture, introduced the earliest cultivated rice, painted pottery, knitting, lacquerware, and jewelry made of jade, bone and the teeth of various animals. |
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