Majiabang culture

The Majiabang culture, formerly also written Ma-chia-pang, was a Neolithic culture that occupied the Yangtze River Delta, primarily around Lake Tai west of modern Shanghai and north of Hangzhou Bay. The culture spread throughout southern Jiangsu and Zhejiang north of Hangzhou Bay from around 5000 BC to 3300 BC, coexisting with the Hemudu culture in Zhejiang south of the bay. The later part of the period is now considered a separate cultural phase, referred to as the Songze culture. The Majiabang and Songze cultures were succeeded in their area by the Liangzhu culture.

Based on their archaeological findings, archaeologists have theorised that the Majiabang culture is the origin of the early fishing, hunting and gathering economy in China, and that the rice-dominant system of agriculture was developed by people living in this period.

Majiabang people cultivated rice. At Caoxieshan and Chuodun, sites of the Majiabang culture, archaeologists excavated paddy fields, indicating the centrality of rice to the economy. In addition faunal remains excavated from Majiabang archaeological sites indicated that people had domesticated pigs. However, the remains of sika and roe deer have been found, showing that people were not totally reliant on agricultural production. Archaeological sites also bear evidence that Majiabang people produced jade ornaments.

In the lower stratum of the Songze excavation site in Shanghai's modern day Qingpu District, archaeologists found the prone skeleton of one of the area's earliest inhabitants—a 25–30-year-old male with an almost complete skull dated to the Majiabang era.