China's top 10 list of archaeological discoveries of 2025 — one of the highest honors for the country's archaeological projects — was released on Wednesday. Selected by top-tier scholars across the country, the list showcases outstanding examples of archaeological projects from last year.

The new laureates:

1. Changbai Mountain Paleolithic site group in east Jilin province

The Changbai Mountain Paleolithic site group is a major archaeological program uncovering sustained human activity from roughly 220,000 to 15,000 years ago. Covering over 100,000 square kilometers, it has identified more than 1,000 locations with stone tools. Key sites like Xianrendong and Dadong reveal the evolution of microblade technology and adaptation to cold climates. Abundant local obsidian was crucial for toolmaking, and source-tracing studies show long-distance material exchange, highlighting the region's role in human migration and cultural transitions in Northeast Asia.

2. The Peiligang site in Xinzheng, Henan province

Archaeological excavations have been carried out at the site consistently since 2018, yielding significant results. A new batch of tombs, house foundations, pottery kilns, ash pits, many cultural relics, and animal and plant remains have been discovered. Particularly significant is the confirmation of cultural remains from the late Paleolithic period — the earliest period of human prehistory, spanning from about 2.5 million years ago to roughly 10,000 BC — in the lower layers. The discoveries at the site have preliminarily established a chronology of technological evolution during the late Paleolithic period.

3. The Zhengjiagou site in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province

The discovery of the Zhengjiagou site from 5,300 to 4,800 years ago indicates that northwestern Hebei may have been a significant area of activity for people of the late Hongshan culture, a key Neolithic culture dating back 6,500 to 4,800 years and spanning across today's Hebei and Liaoning provinces and the Inner Mongolia autonomous region. This finding not only extends the lower chronological limit of the Hongshan culture, but also greatly expands the known range of its people's activities. It reveals a new trend in the development of the Hongshan culture from the northeast to the southwest and serves as a crucial link in its transition toward the formation of an ancient state.

4. The Nanzuo site in Qingyang, Gansu province

The Nanzuo site is a late Yangshao culture — a key Neolithic culture — settlement dating to approximately 5,100-4,700 years ago. Covering an area of about 6 million square meters, it represents the highest development of the Yangshao culture and serves as key evidence of the more than 5,000 years of Chinese civilization. The site features a multi-layered settlement structure centered on a well-preserved palace style building covering 690 square meters, forming the earliest and most clearly defined central axis of a capital settlement in ancient China. The discovery of the earliest bricks, adobe, and use of lime plaster demonstrates specialized labor, ritual systems, and social stratification, indicating the emergence of regional monarchy on the Loess Plateau.

5. The Zhongcun site in Xiyang county, Shanxi province

The Zhongcun site has revealed the highest status aristocratic cemetery of the late Xia period (c. 21st century-16th century BC) discovered to date. Excavations uncovered six Xia period tombs dating to approximately 1880-1450 BC. Luxury goods, including scallops, turquoise, cinnabar, and lacquerware, show long distance trade with the Erlitou culture — a Bronze Age culture in the middle reaches of the Yellow River that existed from the 18th to 16th centuries BC and believed to be associated with the Xia Dynasty — and other regions, demonstrating diverse cultural exchanges.

6. Zhengzhou Shang Dynasty (c. 16th century-11th century BC) city site in Zhengzhou, Henan province

The Zhengzhou Shang city site — the largest and highest grade known early Shang capital — has revealed key urban features dating to the early Shang period. New discoveries include large state owned storage foundations, an interconnected urban water network, and evidence of bronze casting and bone working industries within the inner city, transforming previous understandings of its layout. High status sacrificial remains and elite burials were also found. These findings provide critical evidence for studying early Shang society — including resource allocation, urban planning, craft production, and ritual systems — greatly advancing the understanding of early dynastic civilization in China.

7. The Changchun site in Fuping county, Shaanxi province

The Changchun site is a large Western Zhou (c. 11th century-771 BC) settlement within the royal domain. It features a planned settlement with over 3,150 confirmed tombs and chariot pits, including 12 large tombs with one tomb passage and a residential area divided by ditches into a "multi grid" pattern. A craft production zone includes pottery, bronze casting, and bone tool workshops. This site fills a long-standing gap in Western Zhou fief archaeology in the eastern Guanzhong plain, offering a crucial sample for understanding the political geography and state structure of the Western Zhou royal domain.

8. The Langyatai site in Qingdao, Shandong province

Archaeological excavations have provided concrete evidence for the historical accounts of Emperor Qinshihuang's eastern tour and the construction of the Langyatai complex. Langyatai is the earliest and largest imperial engineering project of the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) discovered to date in eastern China, serving as a political landmark for the Qin and Han (206 BC-AD 220) dynasties to assert their rule.

9. The site which yields capital city of the Yue State from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770-256 BC) and the Kuaiji prefecture from the Han (206 BC-AD 220) and Six Dynasties (222-589) periods in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province

The site has revealed the core area of the Yue capital for the first time, including city walls, palace platforms, horse pits, and high status sacrificial remains. Overlying this are well preserved official complex buildings, a large cache of over 1,200 administrative documents on wooden slips, and official workshops for armor, coin casting, and mirror making dating to the Han and Six Dynasties. This site provides crucial material for understanding the urban layout and ritual system of the Yue state, as well as local administrative systems, documenting 2,500 years of continuous urban development.

10. The Suyukou kiln site along the Helan Mountains in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region

The Suyukou kiln site is the largest and best preserved Xixia (or Western Xia, 1038-1227) imperial kiln discovered to date, producing fine white porcelain for the royal court. Active from approximately 1080 to 1227, it features major technological innovations two centuries before Jingdezhen and the earliest and most complete coal fired kilns in northern China. The site preserves a complete ceramic production chain from raw material processing to firing. This kiln represents a fusion of northern and southern Chinese ceramic traditions with local Xixia characteristics, demonstrating technological exchange and multicultural integration under a minority led regime.