A special exhibition titled “Stars Shining in the East: Qingpu Archaeology and the Exploration of Yangtze River Delta Civilization” at the Qingpu District Museum demonstrates that the region’s “diversity within unity” began to emerge as early as 6,000years ago.

The show brings together nine cultural institutions from across the Yangtze River Delta, spanning four major archaeological cultures – Majiabang, Songze, Liangzhu, and Guangfulin – and reassembles the scattered fragments of Jiangnan civilization that have been lost in the river of time.

The earliest form of regional integration can be found in the daily lives of prehistoric communities. Fish bones with signs of burning from the Majiabang culture offer the earliest record of subsistence in the Jiangnan area, while carbonized rice grains bear witness to the formation of the region’s famed “land of fish and rice.”

Artificially cultivated rice unearthed at the Caoxieshan site in Suzhou finds its counterpart in similar rice remains from the Songze site in Qingpu, suggesting that as early as 6,000 years ago, communities across the Yangtze River basin had already broken down geographical barriers and achieved shared modes of production and ways of life.

The exhibition also presents a wealth of “cross‑city lookalike artefacts” that provide solid evidence of cultural exchange as a natural state of prehistoric civilization in the region. For instance, a grey pottery jar with incised patterns from Qingpu’s Songze culture and a similar jar from the Dawangxu site in Jiashan are practically prehistoric “twin vessels.”

If material exchange represents the surface, then shared ritual systems form the ultimate core of the Yangtze River Delta’s cultural unity. The show’s centrepiece,a pair of jade cong (ritual objects) from the Liangzhu culture found at two different sites, the Yaoshan site in Hangzhou’s Anxi and the Fuquanshan site in Qingpu, separated by over100kilometers,offers the most compelling answer.

As high‑status ritual objects reserved for elite classes, these jade cong,symbolizingpower, belief, and social order, confirm that4,000 to 5,000years ago the Yangtze River Delta region shared a common ritual system, a common belief structure, and a common social framework.

The exhibition is open to the public free of charge throughout the summer season, running until September 13. This summer, visitors are invited to step into the Qingpu District Museum, feel the warmth of millennia‑old artefacts, and unlock the enduring code of shared origins that connects the Yangtze River Delta across time.