The Hongshan Jade Controversy

Hongshan, the most advanced culture of the Chinese Neolithic, existed from around 6,500 to at least 5,000 years ago in a Montana-sized area northeast of what is now Beijing. Their riverside villages contained up to 1000 people and were probably connected by networks of paths through forests. They grew millet, raised pigs and cattle and sheep, hunted deer and other animals, fished, made red-and-black pottery, created stone/clay female figurines, worked with bronze, and sculpted art from nephrite jade, agate, and possibly natural glass.