Bashidang was the site of a Neolithic

Neolithic

The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...

 Yangtze River

Yangtze River

The Yangtze, Yangzi or Cháng Jiāng is the longest river in Asia, and the third-longest in the world. It flows for from the glaciers on the Tibetan Plateau in Qinghai eastward across southwest, central and eastern China before emptying into the East China Sea at Shanghai. It is also one of the...

 settlement in Lixian County

Li County, Hunan

Li or Lixian is a county under the municipal region of Changde, Hunan.-Administration:The county executive, legislature and judiciary are in Liyang Town , together with the CPC and PSB branches.-Special Status:...

, Hunan

Hunan

' is a province of South-Central China, located to the south of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and south of Lake Dongting...

, China

China

Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

. Bashidang is considered to be a very late site of the Pengtoushan culture

Pengtoushan culture

The Pengtoushan culture , dating 7500–6100 BCE, was a Neolithic culture centered primarily around the central Yangtze River region in northwestern Hunan, China. It was roughly contemporaneous with its northern neighbor, the Peiligang culture...

. The site is the earliest in China to feature both a wall and a ditch; the ditch was the outermost perimeter. A raised, star-shaped platform was found at the center of the settlement, possibly used for ceremonial purposes.

The people at Bashidang cultivated rice

Rice

Rice is the seed of the monocot plants Oryza sativa or Oryza glaberrima . As a cereal grain, it is the most important staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in East Asia, Southeast Asia, South Asia, the Middle East, and the West Indies...

, along with water caltrop

Water caltrop

The water caltrop, water chestnut, buffalo nut, bat nut, devil pod or Singhara or Pani-fol is either of two species of the genus Trapa: Trapa natans and Trapa bicornis...

 and Nelumbo nucifera

Nelumbo nucifera

Nelumbo nucifera, known by a number of names including Indian Lotus, Sacred Lotus, Bean of India, or simply Lotus, is a plant in the monogeneric family Nelumbonaceae...

. Over 15,000 grains of rice were found at Bashidang, the largest find discovered in a Neolithic site in China. The size of the rice was close to the size of modern domesticated rice. Several different types of cultivated rice were found at Bashidang.