In China, archaeologists found a possible 5,000-year-old ritual hall beside Liangzhu’s royal tombs

Archaeologists in eastern China have reconstructed the footprints of three wooden buildings beside Fanshan, an elite cemetery on the outskirts of the ancient city of Liangzhu in Zhejiang Province. One of them, a large oval building, may have been a hall for ceremonies honoring dead rulers. The researchers do not present that function as established fact.

What the team reconstructed

The Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology worked out the footprints from 120 postholes east of the cemetery. The three buildings, labeled F1, F2 and F3, appear to have stood inside a walled precinct.

• F1: the largest, an oval building of about 25.2 by 16 meters (roughly 316 square meters). It may have reached about 15 meters in height.
• F2: a circular building of about 105 square meters.
• F3: a small, roughly square structure of about 23 square meters.

Evidence suggests a passageway linked F1 to the circular building. All size figures come from the reconstruction, so they are estimates.

How old is it?

The precinct has a rectangular wall about 180 meters east to west and 140 meters north to south. Radiocarbon dating of parts of its eastern and southern walls suggests it dates to about 5,000 years ago. That date applies to the wall, so the buildings inside it share that age only by association.

Why call it a ritual building?

Three things point that way: its large size, its unusual oval design and its position beside the royal burial ground. The buildings stand next to high-status graves, including Tomb M12, which held prestigious jade objects. Wang Ningyuan, a senior researcher leading the Liangzhu investigations, proposed that F1 could be a xiangdian, a hall for rituals commemorating deceased rulers or high-ranking ancestors.

Further excavation will look for hearths or refuse. Domestic traces like those would point to a residence instead of a ceremonial hall.

Source: Arkeonews, 21 October 2026. The article names no journal or DOI. Lead image: aerial reconstruction of the prehistoric buildings near the Fanshan royal cemetery (Xinhua).