What does the earliest archaeological discovery of Taosi site and Taosi culture mean?

Taosi Site is located in Taosi Town, 7 kilometers northeast of Xiangfen County, Linfen City, southern Shanxi Province, covering an area of more than 3 million square meters. 1978 to 1985, the Shanxi team of the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences cooperated with the Cultural Bureau of Linfen Administrative Office of Shanxi Province to conduct a large-scale excavation of the Taosi site, and obtained a large number of exquisite cultural relics such as pottery, stone tools, ritual vessels and decorations, which unveiled the mystery of the Taosi site.

Starting from 1999, Shanxi team of Institute of Archaeology of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences cooperated with Shanxi Institute of Archaeology and Linfen Cultural Relics Bureau to start a new round of archaeological excavation and research of Taosi site. Since 2002, the archaeological work of Taosi site has been included in the national science and technology support project "Chinese Civilization Sourcing Project".

After 37 years of archaeological excavation in two stages, a relatively complete evidence chain is put forward, which shows that the Taosi site is highly consistent with Yao recorded in the literature in terms of age, geographical location, capital connotation, scale level and the degree of civilization it reflects. The vice president of China Academy of Social Sciences said that a series of new discoveries at Taosi site proved that the middle reaches of the Yellow River had entered an early civilized society during the Yao period.

Li, a professor at Peking University Institute of Archaeology and Culture, pointed out that Taosi site was the first representative site in the Central Plains to enter the kingdom stage. However, he also believes that there are still many problems such as the source of Taosi culture and the reasons for its demise, which need further study.

Bai Yunxiang, deputy director of the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that according to the clues provided by the literature and the archaeological achievements at this stage, most experts believe that Taosi site is the earliest discovered capital.