Hemudu

Refers to a Chinese Neolithic culture dating to ca. 5200 to ca. 3300 BCE; its name comes from the site of a Neolithic village in Yuyao countyin Zhejiang province. The culture was centered in the lower Yangzi valley and is noted for its evidence of China's earliest rice cultivation, ca. 5000 BCE. The earliest known lacquerware from China, a red lacquered wooden bowl, comes from a Hemudu site. Hemudu pottery is handmade, thick, and greyish black in color. Surfaces are often burnished, cord-impressed or incised with plant and animal motifs. Other Hemudu artifacts include crude clay figurines of animals and humans and incised wood and ivory, with bird motifs, particularly the double bird, being the most interesting.