Findings display an organized community

From pits and broken artifacts, heritage professionals are attempting to piece together the life of people living about 7,000 years ago in what is now Shenyang in Liaoning province.

Covering an area of 178,000 square meters, the Xinle Site is a Neolithic settlement dating back over 7,000 years. More than 3,000 artifacts and 40 house foundations have been found at the site during the course of six archaeological digs.

The Xinle Site Museum, founded in the mid-1980s, will be upgraded into an archaeological ruins park to continue to demonstrate the significance of the site, according to Zeng Yang, director of the museum.