The Banpo Museum in Xi'an is
located in the east of Xi'an and is the site of a village that dates back to
around 6,000 years ago in the Neolithic era, which is known as the Yangshao
Culture in China. Built in 1958, it is the first on-the-spot museum and also a
museum of Neolithic site in China. The main hall, in the rear, was built over
the excavation site. Two smaller exhibition halls by the entrance display
unearthed items.
The site was discovered in 1953 and covers
an area of approximately 50,000 square meters. Excavations revealed 45 houses,
pottery, kilns, a burial ground, grain stores and tool stores. Banpo is
considered to be one of the best examples of an agricultural community of this
era anywhere in the world.
The museum boasts a collection of more than
30,000 cultural relics, of which 200 are of the first class. Among these
cultural relics there are about 3,000 stone objects, 14,000 china items, 200
human bone fossils, and 200 fossils of ancient extinct life. The world famous
piece is the Human Face and Fish Body Design Colored Pottery Basin unearthed in
1955 and with a history of about 10,000 years.
Covering 3,000 square meters, the preserved
ruins of the primitive society in the exhibition hall vividly reflects the
ancient production and life in the Banpo region. It details the gradual
evolvement from the appearance of human beings, to the birth, development,
prosperity and breakup of the clan society, through these precious relics and
specimens.