When the Dragon Was Young...
The exhibition began with a brief exploration of the Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age roots of societies in the Manchurian region. Heilongjiang's western border is with Inner Mongolia making for a dichotomy in the province's history. This involved nomadic Mongol ancestors to the west, whose lifestyle contrasted with the majority of other peoples in northeastern China. The latter peoples were early and continuously involved in settled village lifeways that involved agriculture (especially domesticated pigs and millet growing) or intensive fishing. Some scholars have observed that these settled peoples were more predisposed to take up Chinese ways as they formed conquest dynasties.

Heilongjiang's Neolithic period was represented by artifacts such as the extraordinarily finely chipped stone points from the Angangxi Culture (as much as 6,000 years of age), a deftly made pottery pig from the Yinggeling site that is more than 3,000 years old, an early jade ornament from the Yabuli site, and various ceramics.

The gradual onset of the Bronze Age in northeastern China was treated with ceramics (including a three legged li style vessel) and bronze artifacts, including bronze casts of tigers and deer of the Donghu and Xianbei cultures ancestral to later Mongolian peoples. Iron Age artifacts included a beautiful, duck-shaped vessel in burnished red ware and an oracle bone likely used in shamanistic practices.