Construction began Monday in Qingpu district on a museum that will display relics that show people settled in Shanghai as early as 6,000 years ago. 

The relics provide evidence that the sea receded from what is now Shanghai and people settled the area far earlier than scientists once thought, said Gao Menghe, a professor from the Department of Cultural Heritage and Museology of Fudan University.

"Shanghai has always been seen as a city with no traceable history. Academics used to think the area emerged relatively late in human history," Gao told the Global Times. "However, the discovery of the ruins with three layers going back 6,000 years show how the land of Shanghai developed. The fact that a museum is being built on the site of the ruins has a lot of meaning."

The planned 3,680-square-meter museum, which is scheduled to be completed in 2013, will display about 3,000 relics, including the oldest human skull to have been discovered in Shanghai. The remains are believed to have belonged to a man aged between 25 and 30.

The museum is being built in Qingpu's Songze village. "This will be the first museum built on ruins in suburban Shanghai," Gao said.

The ruins include an ancient domicile, which shows that the people who settled this area 6,000 years ago lived indoors. "The museum will have a modern style but ancient content, which represents the beginnings of Shanghai," Gao said.