For over 1,000 years from about 4000 BC, the inhabitants of Hemudu grew rice, gathered wild plants like gourd and the water-loving water-caltrop, raised water buffalo and pig and hunted and fished in the nearby subtropical deciduous forests and lakes.
Their black pottery was tempered with rice husks, sometimes decorated with animal and plant patterns.
The finely made joinery preserved within the timber buildings found at Hemudu shows the presence of skilled carpenters. The people of Hemudu were also adept at working bone, making hoes from animal shoulder blades, the earliest known bone weaving shuttles and ornaments.
The oldest-known Chinese lacquerware, a red lacquered wooden bowl, also attests to a life of some opulence in the Hemudu culture.
