Based on archaeological materials,this paper discusses the formation and development of the natural environment of the Hemudu site,and the exploitation of the natural environment by the prehistoric people and the way how the environment influenced the living of the Hemudu people.
The Zishan site is an important Neolithic site in the Yaojiang River valley and belongs to the Hemudu culture. Noticeable achievements were obtained through excavation in 1996. The site contains deep deposits and rich remains, including tombs, ash-pits and wells. Beneath the eighth layer,remains of pile-dwellings have discovered in three units in an extensive area and can be reliably divided into two phases with respective technical features. Among the unearthed objects are many types of pottery articles, as well as a wide variety of wooden, bone and flint-chipped artifacts. The site corresponds to the Hemudu site in deposition, cultural aspect, cultural character and chronological attribution, and the new-discovered plentiful data enrich to a good extent our understanding of the contents of the Hemudu culture and have great importance to the study of the culture's developmental links and related problems.
