Food beside the wetlands
During the seventh millennium BCE, the inhabitants of Jiahu in present-day Henan lived beside wetlands. Rice cultivation and pig keeping accompanied fishing, hunting and gathering. Houses, refuse pits and burials occupied a settled village landscape. Cultivated food did not immediately replace wild resources. Its economy combined cultivation, fishing, hunting and gathering, with different activities suited to changing water levels and seasons.
Flutes and fermented drinks
Bird bones were shaped and pierced to make playable flutes. Pottery served for cooking, storage and drinking. Chemical analysis of absorbed residues identified a mixed fermented beverage associated with rice, honey and fruit. These finds give village life a material texture: people had learned craft skills and occasions for music and shared drinking. Producing such objects required accumulated experience, practice and time beyond obtaining food.
Living together
Burials differed in their arrangement and associated objects, revealing distinctions within the community. Incised signs on some tortoise shells belong to this material record, although they do not provide a continuously readable written account. Jiahu is reconstructed through buildings, food residues, tools and burial practices. Settlement brought repeated use of shared space, while craft, music and ritual connected people through activities extending beyond individual households.