As early as 7700 years ago, clever prehistoric humans knew how to build fields suitable for growing rice by burning wasteland and building dams. This is the latest discovery made by archaeologists at the site of the early Neolithic Age at the Lake Bridge near Hangzhou, China. This paper, jointly published by China Durham University, East China Normal University and Fudan University, was published in the latest issue of the British journal Nature.

It was a mysterious prehistoric man who created the prehistoric culture across the lake bridge. Chen Chun, one of the authors and a professor in the Department of Cultural Relics and Museums of Fudan University, described this group of ancestors as follows: this human moved to this land of fish and rice about 7,800 years ago, lived for less than 200 years, and then disappeared. Although they are about 1000 years earlier than the nearby Hemudu site, their pottery-making technology is far superior to the descendants of Hemudu. A canoe with oars has become one of the most important archaeological discoveries at the site of the bridge across the lake. 1990, this site buried in mud more than 2 meters underground was discovered, and the organic matter was surprisingly well preserved.