Grave items include pottery, shell ornaments, and small jade and bronze items. Among the most notable finds is a bronze earring shaped like a spring, commonly seen in Bronze Age burial sites in the northern section of the Great Wall area.

"We had hoped to find one in the past two years," Chang recalls."When we finally did last year, there was a collective sense of 'there it is!'"

The site also yielded the northernmost known jade handle-shaped object from this period, he says.

Radiocarbon dating places the cemetery between 1500 BC and 1300 BC, extending the understood timeframe of the Datuotou culture. "This discovery helps fill a gap in the archaeological chronology of the northern edge of the North China Plain," Chang says.

It confirms that Datuotou extended south to the Yishui River valley and lasted until around 1300 BC, directly preceding the Weifang III culture with no chronological gap. The Datuotou and Weifang III cultures are two distinct local cultures that existed successively in this region.

Chang believes Fuwei was a key regional center during the early Shang period, located at the forefront of interaction between the emerging Shang culture and the indigenous Datuotou culture.

Compared with the sites of the same period in Beijing, Tianjin or northern Hebei, Fuwei shows a much stronger Shang culture influence, creating a unique blend.

"This site provides the most comprehensive and crucial evidence of how the Shang Dynasty managed the northern region and how the indigenous populations evolved," he says.

Further research has begun to reveal aspects of daily life in the settlement. More than 40 researchers and technicians from multiple institutions took part, including specialists from various scientific fields.

Preliminary studies show the settlement practiced dryland farming centered on millet, with no evidence of wheat or rice cultivation.

"Through comprehensive interdisciplinary research, we expect breakthroughs in understanding the social structure, migration patterns, economy, technology and resource use of Datuotou," Chang says. "The entire excavation process of the site brought many pleasant surprises, but also confirmed much of what we thought we knew. Perhaps this is the charm of archaeology."

Wei Yueqi, Zhao Rixi and Sun Ke contributed to this story.