Xi'an, Jan 26 (Xinhua) Archaeologists have unearthed the earliest man-made cave houses and privately-owned pottery workshops in China which date back 5,500 years.

After four years of excavation, a row of 17 cave houses were found on a cliff along the Jinghe River in northwest China's Shaanxi Province, said Wang Weilin, deputy director of the Shaanxi Archaeology Institute and chief archaeologist of the excavation.

They were built between 3,500 to 3,000 BC, near the Yangguanzai village of Gaoling county, 20 km away from the provincial capital Xi'an.