THE RITUAL LANDSCAPE OF BOAR MOUNTAIN BASIN - THE NIUHELIANG SITE COMPLEX OF NORTH-EASTERN CHINA

The relic Neolithic landscape at Niuheliang was recognized and partial ly excavated by the Liaoning Provincial Archaeological Research Instit ute in the mid-1980s. A decade later, scholars are competing to re-int erpret the landscape's symbolic and ritual nature deriving from its un ique and unprecedented complexity within the East Asian Neolithic. In these new interpretations, the old pitfall of untestable speculation i s joined by politically emotive considerations in acting to shape the significance of Niuheliang within the origins of Chinese civilization.