This resource contains information and teaching resources about the Shimao archaeological site, an ancient stone-built fortress city close to the Ordos Desert in China’s Shaanxi Province that is believed to have flourished in the late Neolithic (ca. 5000-2000 B.C.E.) to the early Xia Dynasty (ca. 2100-1800 B.C.E.).  Shimao's early date and location in the hills of China's Loess Plateau in the northern part of Shaanxi Province surprised many upon its discovery and it has changed our understanding of early Chinese civilization. People living near the site originally believed the crumbling rock walls they saw were originally part of the Great Wall.  However, systematic archeological survey and reexamination of the site since about 2011 has revealed many exciting discoveries. Researchers working there, including Zhouyong Sun of the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology who is leader of the dig, stated “Shimao reveals a unique trajectory to urbanism in China. This once-powerful kingdom was completely unknown in ancient textual records” (https://archaeology.org/issues...).

We now know that the Shimao city site was a very large center of settlement, the main part of which encompasses an almost 1,000-acre area (more than 4 million square meters and 25% bigger than New York City's Central Park). Carbon dating at the site reveals that constructions in the city's core areas date back to approximately 4,300 to 3,800 years ago. Yet, only a part of Shimao has been excavated so far so there will likely be be more discoveries that will lead to our understanding of this early "palace city."

The five resources together form a collection that can be used independently or together to discover more about this amazing archeological site. We hope that this will provide authoritative information to enable you to examine background information about the site along with various objects used to illuminate aspects of early Chinese history, artistic traditions, culture and society.