Beifudi

Beifudi (Chinese: 北福地) is an archaeological site and Neolithic village in Yi County, Hebei, China.

The total excavated area is more than 1,200 square meters and the collection of neolithic findings at the site has been conducted in two phases.

[2] The most significant discovery in the first phase of the site's excavation is the large number of pottery masks in the shape of human and animal faces, the oldest extant carvings to date.

A dozen carved clay masks, in cat, monkey and pig as well as human likenesses, have been unearthed at Beifudi.

The first engraved clay artifacts ever found in ruins of this age, the masks add several millennia to China's history of carving.