On 29 April, China released a list of its top 10 archaeological discoveries of 2025, highlighting how these findings allow a better understanding of the people, traditions and innovations that shaped both the nation’s past and the profound history of humanity.

The annual list, which is considered one of the highest honours in the field of archaeology in China, was prepared by top-notch scholars from across the country and jointly released by the Chinese Society of Cultural Relics and China Cultural Relics News.

Among the top 10 is the Changbai Mountain Palaeolithic site group in eastern Jilin province, which covers 38,600 square miles and boasts more than 1,000 locations from where stone tools have been unearthed.

The discovery alters the impression that only small nomadic groups passed through the region in the Palaeolithic period, said Xu Ting, an archaeology professor at Liaoning University and secretary of the project in Jilin. Unearthed evidence points to sustained and widespread human presence from 220,000 to 13,000 years ago, he added.

Abundant obsidian — a natural glass formed from volcanic lava — found at the Changbai Mountain site group was crucial for toolmaking, and source-tracing studies show long-distance material exchanges, highlighting the region’s role in human migration and cultural transition in Northeast Asia, Xu noted.

Some projects among the selected top 10, like the Zhengjiagou site in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, offer new insights into the origins of Chinese civilisation.

Zhao Hui, an archaeology professor at Peking University, said the discovery alters the assumption that northern Hebei was merely on the periphery of Hongshan culture, a key Neolithic culture dating back 6,500 to 4,800 years, revealing that the area was actually a regional hub of the culture during its late stages.

Archaeologists discovered more than 270 stone-piled tombs in this area, a number higher than the findings at the Niuheliang site in Liaoning province, which is commonly believed to be the nucleus of Hongshan culture.

Zhao said the complex burial and sacrificial traditions and jade artefact assemblages show that about 5,000 years ago, Zhangjiakou was already on the path of civilisational progress.

Also on the top 10 list is the Nanzuo site in Qingyang, Gansu province, where archaeologists have unearthed a stunning settlement dating back 5,100 to 4,700 years and covering 64 million square feet.

The site boasts an architectural complex of 43,000 square feet and has a central axis, indicating that it was a high-level community that may have functioned as a capital settlement in ancient China.

“It updates our understanding of the origins of Chinese civilisation in the middle and upper reaches of the Yellow River, and provides further evidence of the over-5,000-year timeline of Chinese civilisation,” said Chen Xingcan, a veteran archaeologist from the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Some historical records have been vindicated by archaeological discoveries for the first time. For example, records show Shaoxing in Zhejiang province has 2,500 years of history since King Goujian of the Yue state from the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (770-256 BC) built a new capital in Shaoxing in 490 BC. To corroborate this, archaeological work yielded a layout of the capital, including city walls, palace complex and sacrificial places.

According to records, the site also housed the Kuaiji prefecture during the Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 220) and Six Dynasties (222-589), which has been confirmed following the discovery of government office building foundations and many inscribed wooden and bamboo slips, or jiandu. These reveal many facets of ancient societies, said Huo Wei, an archaeology professor at Sichuan University.

Last year, the Xixia Imperial Tombs in the Ningxia Hui autonomous region were inscribed on the World Heritage List. Archaeological research continues to deepen the understanding of Western Xia — a regime established in northwestern China by the Tangut people and inhabited by various ethnic groups from 1038 to 1227.

The Suyukou kiln site along the Helan Mountains in the region, which has been listed among the top 10 discoveries of 2025, made fine white porcelain for imperial use from 1080 to the end of the Xixia period.

Huo said the site offers glimpses into Xixia people’s innovations in porcelain-making, two centuries ahead of China’s popular porcelain capital Jingdezhen, Jiangxi province. It also features the earliest and most complete coal-fired kilns in northern China.