Neolithic signs, perhaps related to subsequent scripts, such as those of the Shang dynasty, have been found on Dawenkou pottery.

A dominant kin group likely held sway over Dawenkou village sites, though power was most likely manifested through religious authority rather than coercion.

[3] The warm and wet climate of the Dawenkou area was suitable for a variety of crops, though they primarily farmed millet at most sites.

Fish and various shellfish mounds have been found in the early periods indicating that they were important food sources.

A skull of a Dawenkou man dating to 3000 BC was found with severe head injuries which appeared to have been remedied by this primitive surgery.

"For two and a half millennia of its existence the Dawenkou was, however, in a dynamic interchange with the Yangshao Culture, in which process of interaction it sometimes had the lead role, notably in generating Longshan.

[7][8][9] Other researchers also note a similarity between Dawenkou inhabitants and modern Austronesian peoples in cultural practices such as dental avulsion and architecture.

[14] The Dawenkou descends from the Beixin, but is deeply influenced by the northward-expanding Longqiuzhuang culture located between the Yangtze and Huai.

[16] They practiced body modification in the form of dental ablation and cranial deformation.Many Dawenkou burials exhibited cranial deformation and dental ablation, but both forms of modification had disappeared from mainland China by the beginning of the Bronze Age.

[12] DNA testing revealed that the neolithic inhabitants of Shandong were closer to ancient Northern East Asians.