A 5,600-year-old wooden well in Zhejiang Province, China

Abstract

In 1973, traces of China’s early Neolithic Hemudu culture (7,000–5,000 BP) were discovered in the village of Hemudu in Yuyao County, Zhejiang Province, in the lower Yangtze River coastal plain. The site has yielded animal and plant remains in large quantities and large numbers of logs secured with tenon and mortise joints, commonly used in wooden buildings and other wooden structures. For hydrogeologists, the most interesting structure is an ancient wooden well. The well is believed to be about 5,600 years old, which makes it the oldest wooden well yet found in China. The well site contains over 200 wooden components and can be divided into inner and outer parts. The outer part consists of 28 piles around a pond. The inner part, the wooden well itself, lies in the middle of the pond. The walls of the well were lined with close-set timber piles reinforced by a square wooden frame. The 28 piles in the outer part of the site may have been part of a shelter for the well, suggesting that the people of the Hemudu culture were already concerned with water hygiene and protection of their water source.