The Erlitou culture was an early
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
urban society and
archaeological culture
An archaeological culture is a recurring assemblage of types of artifacts, buildings and monuments from a specific period and region that may constitute the material culture remains of a particular past human society. The connection between thes ...
that existed in the
Yellow River
The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Standard Beijing Mandarin, Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system in the world at th ...
valley from approximately 1900 to 1500 BC. A 2007 study of
radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating (also referred to as carbon dating or carbon-14 dating) is a method for determining the age of an object containing organic material by using the properties of radiocarbon, a radioactive isotope of carbon.
The method was dev ...
proposed a narrower date range of 1750 to 1530 BC. The culture was named after the site discovered at Erlitou in
Yanshi
Yanshi District () is a district in the prefecture-level city of Luoyang in western Henan province, China. Yanshi lies on the Luo River and is the easternmost county-level division of Luoyang.
History
After the Zhou conquest of Shang in mid-11th ...
,
Henan
Henan (; or ; ; alternatively Honan) is a landlocked province of China, in the central part of the country. Henan is often referred to as Zhongyuan or Zhongzhou (), which literally means "central plain" or "midland", although the name is al ...
. The culture was widely spread throughout Henan and
Shanxi
Shanxi (; ; formerly romanised as Shansi) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the North China region. The capital and largest city of the province is Taiyuan, while its next most populated prefecture-lev ...
and later appeared in
Shaanxi
Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see #Name, § Name) is a landlocked Provinces of China, province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichu ...
and
Hubei
Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...
. Chinese archaeologists generally identify the Erlitou culture as the site of the
Xia dynasty
The Xia dynasty () is the first dynasty in traditional Chinese historiography. According to tradition, the Xia dynasty was established by the legendary Yu the Great, after Shun, the last of the Five Emperors, gave the throne to him. In tradi ...
, but there is no firm evidence, such as writing, to substantiate such a linkage, as the earliest evidence of Chinese writing dates to the late
Shang dynasty
The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and ...
.
Erlitou site
![CMOC Treasures of Ancient China exhibit - bronze jue](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9f/CMOC_Treasures_of_Ancient_China_exhibit_-_bronze_jue.jpg)
The Erlitou culture may have evolved from the matrix of
Longshan culture
The Longshan (or Lung-shan) culture, also sometimes referred to as the Black Pottery Culture, was a late Neolithic culture in the middle and lower Yellow River valley areas of northern China from about 3000 to 1900 BC. The first archaeological fi ...
. Originally centered around Henan and Shanxi province, the culture spread to Shaanxi and Hubei provinces. After the rise of the
Erligang culture
The Erligang culture () is a Bronze Age urban civilization and archaeological culture in China that existed from approximately 1600 to 1400 BC. The primary site, Zhengzhou Shang City, was discovered at Erligang, within the modern city of Zhengz ...
, the site at Erlitou diminished in size but remained inhabited.
Discovered in 1959 by
Xu Xusheng
Xu Xusheng, also known by his courtesy name Xu Bingchang, (1888 – January 4, 1976) was a Chinese archaeologist, historian, and explorer born in Tanghe, Henan Province. Best known for his discovery of the Erlitou culture in 1959, he was one of C ...
, Erlitou is the largest site associated with the culture, with palace buildings and bronze smelting workshops. Erlitou monopolized the production of
ritual bronze vessels
Sets and individual examples of ritual bronzes survive from when they were made mainly during the Chinese Bronze Age. Ritual bronzes create quite an impression both due to their sophistication of design and manufacturing process, but also beca ...
, including the earliest recovered
ding
Ding may refer to:
Bronze and ceramics
* Ding (vessel), a bronze or ceramic cauldron used in ancient and early imperial China
* Ding ware, ceramics produced in Dingzhou in medieval China
People
* Ding (surname) (丁), a Chinese surname and lis ...
s. The city is on the
Yi River, a tributary of the
Luo River, which flows into the
Yellow River
The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Standard Beijing Mandarin, Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system in the world at th ...
. The city was ; however, because of flood damage only are left.
The
Erlitou Relic Museum
The Erlitou culture was an early Bronze Age urban society and archaeological culture that existed in the Yellow River valley from approximately 1900 to 1500 BC. A 2007 study of radiocarbon dating proposed a narrower date range of 1750 to 1530 B ...
, located in
Luoyang
Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River (Henan), Luo River and Yellow River in the west of Henan province. Governed as a prefecture-level city, it borders the provincial capital of Zhengzhou to the east, Pingdingshan to the ...
, Henan province, which has more than 2,000 items excavated from the Erlitou site in its collection, opened in October 2019.
Phases
![二里头遗址三期陶纹](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/%E4%BA%8C%E9%87%8C%E5%A4%B4%E9%81%97%E5%9D%80%E4%B8%89%E6%9C%9F%E9%99%B6%E7%BA%B9.png)
The site's growth is divided into four phases.
During Phase I, covering , Erlitou was a rapidly growing regional center with an estimated population of several thousand people, but not yet an urban civilization.
Urbanization began in Phase II, expanding to with a population of around 11,000. A palace area of was demarcated by four roads. It contained the Palace 3, composed of three courtyards along a 150-metre axis, and Palace 5. A bronze foundry was established to the south of the palatial complex and was controlled by the elite.
The city reached its peak in Phase III, and may have had a population of around 24,000. The palatial complex was surrounded by a two-meter-thick
rammed-earth wall, and Palaces 1, 7, 8 and 9 were built. Palace 1, the largest, had an area of . Palaces 3 and 5 were abandoned and replaced by Palace 2, measuring , and Palace 4.
In Phase IV, the population decreased to around 20,000, but building continued. Palace 6 was built as an extension of Palace 2, and Palaces 10 and 11 were built. Phase IV overlaps with the Lower Phase of the
Erligang culture
The Erligang culture () is a Bronze Age urban civilization and archaeological culture in China that existed from approximately 1600 to 1400 BC. The primary site, Zhengzhou Shang City, was discovered at Erligang, within the modern city of Zhengz ...
(1600–1450 BC). Around 1600 BC, a walled city was built at
Yanshi
Yanshi District () is a district in the prefecture-level city of Luoyang in western Henan province, China. Yanshi lies on the Luo River and is the easternmost county-level division of Luoyang.
History
After the Zhou conquest of Shang in mid-11th ...
, about northeast of Erlitou.
Production of bronzes and other elite goods ceased at the end of Phase IV, at the same time as the Erligang city of
Zhengzhou
Zhengzhou (; ), also spelt Zheng Zhou and alternatively romanized as Chengchow, is the capital and largest city of Henan Province in the central part of the People's Republic of China. Located in north-central Henan, it is one of the National ...
was established to the east. There is no evidence of destruction by fire or war, but, during the Upper Erligang phase (1450–1300 BC), all the palaces were abandoned, and Erlitou was reduced to a village of .
Bronze in Erlitou
Erlitou is the earliest large-scale bronze industry discovered in China, with the new-fashioned section-mold process there to produce ritual vessels and other bronzes.
Although the remains of bronze have been found in the
Qijia Culture and
Siba Culture
The Siba culture (), also called Huoshaogou culture (), was a Bronze Age archaeological culture that flourished circa 1900 to 1500 BC in the Hexi Corridor, in Gansu Province of Northwest China. It was discovered in 1984 at Sibatan in Shandan Co ...
, the progress and achievements of the Erlitou Culture bronze casting industry are far beyond the reach of the Qijia Culture and the Siba Culture. The Erlitou culture not only has bronze tools and bell musical instruments, but also bronze weapons and unique animal-faced plaques, especially more than ten kinds of bronze vessels have been unearthed. This shows that the bronze casting of Erlitou is diverse and systematic.
The bronzes of the Erlitou culture have obvious features of imitating pottery, with plain surfaces or simple geometric patterns. In the third phase of the Erlitou culture, the perforated decoration that was very popular throughout the Erlitou culture appeared on the bronze Jue.
The earliest bronze Ding have been found in China, unearthed in the fourth stage of the Erlitou culture, decorated with striped grid patterns.
Inventions
The earliest metal bells, with one found in the
Taosi
Taosi () is an archaeological site in Xiangfen County, Shanxi, China. Taosi is considered to be part of the late phase of the Longshan culture in southern Shanxi, also known as the Taosi phase (2300 BC to 1900 BC).
Archaeology
Taosi was surrounde ...
site, and four in the Erlitou site, dated to about 2000 BC, may have been derived from the earlier pottery prototype.
The first bronze dagger-axe or ''ge'' appeared at the Erlitou site, where two were being found among the over 200 bronze artifacts (as of 2002) at the site, three jade ''ge'' were also discovered from the same site.
Relation to traditional accounts
![Erlitou sites and Xia capitals](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4a/Erlitou_sites_and_Xia_capitals.svg)
A major goal of archaeology in China has been the search for the capitals of the
Xia
Xia (Hsia in Wade–Giles) may refer to:
Chinese history
* Xia dynasty (c. 2070 – c. 1600 BC), the first orthodox dynasty in Chinese history
* Xia (Sixteen Kingdoms) (407–431), a Xiongnu-led dynasty
* Xia (617–621), a state founded by Dou Ji ...
and
Shang
The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and f ...
dynasties described in traditional accounts as inhabiting the
Yellow River
The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Standard Beijing Mandarin, Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the List of rivers by length, sixth-longest river system in the world at th ...
valley. These originally oral traditions were recorded much later in histories such as the ''
Bamboo Annals
The ''Bamboo Annals'' (), also known as the ''Ji Tomb Annals'' (), is a chronicle of ancient China.
It begins in the earliest legendary time (the age of the Yellow Emperor) and extends to 299 BC, with the later centuries focusing on the history ...
'' () and the ''
Records of the Grand Historian
''Records of the Grand Historian'', also known by its Chinese name ''Shiji'', is a monumental history of China that is the first of China's 24 dynastic histories. The ''Records'' was written in the early 1st century by the ancient Chinese hist ...
'' (1st century BC), and their historicity, particularly regarding the Xia, is an area of debate for the
Doubting Antiquity School
The Doubting Antiquity School or Yigupai ( Wilkinson, Endymion (2000). ''Chinese History: A Manual''. Harvard Univ Asia Center. . Page 345, see/ref>Loewe, Michael and Edward L. Shaughnessy (1999). ''The Cambridge History of Ancient China'' Cambridg ...
of Chinese history. The discovery of writing in the form of
oracle bone
Oracle bones () are pieces of ox scapula and turtle plastron, which were used for pyromancy – a form of divination – in ancient China, mainly during the late Shang dynasty. ''Scapulimancy'' is the correct term if ox scapulae were used for th ...
s at
Yinxu
Yinxu (modern ; ) is the site of one of the ancient and major historical capitals of China. It is the source of the archeological discovery of oracle bones and oracle bone script, which resulted in the identification of the earliest known Chine ...
in
Anyang
Anyang (; ) is a prefecture-level city in Henan province, China. The northernmost city in Henan, Anyang borders Puyang to the east, Hebi and Xinxiang to the south, and the provinces of Shanxi and Hebei to its west and north respectively.
It had a ...
definitively established the site as the last capital of the Shang, but such evidence is unavailable for earlier sites.
When Xu Xusheng first discovered Erlitou, he suggested that it was Bo, the first capital of the Shang under
King Tang in the traditional account. Since the late 1970s, archaeologists in China have tended to identify the site with
Zhenxun
Zhenxun () was the last capital for the pre historical Chinese Xia dynasty. There is a consensus among many Chinese scholars that the Erlitou site about 20 km east of central Luoyang
Luoyang is a city located in the confluence area of Luo River ...
, the last Xia capital. The traditional account of the overthrow of the Xia by the Shang has been identified with the ends of each of the four phases of the site by different authors. The
Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project
The Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project () was a multi-disciplinary project commissioned by the People's Republic of China in 1996 to determine with accuracy the location and time frame of the Xia, Shang, and Zhou dynasties.
The project was dir ...
identified all four phases of Erlitou as Xia, and the construction of the Yanshi walled city as the founding of the Shang. Other scholars, particularly outside China, point to the lack of any firm evidence for such an identification, and argue that the historiographical focus of Chinese archaeology is unduly limiting.
Archaeological evidence of a
large outburst flood at Jishi Gore that destroyed the
Lajia
Lajia () is a Bronze Age archaeological site in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, on the border between the Chinese provinces of Gansu and Qinghai. As at other sites of the Qijia culture (c. 2300–1500 BCE), the people of Lajia had an agric ...
site on the upper reaches of the Yellow River has been dated to about 1920 BC. This date is shortly before the rise of the Erlitou culture in the middle Yellow River valley and the
Yueshi culture
The Yueshi culture () was an archaeological culture in the Shandong region of eastern China, dated from 1900 to 1500 BC. It spanned the period from the Late Neolithic to the early Bronze Age. In the Shandong area, it followed the Longshan cultur ...
in Shandong, following the decline of the
Longshan culture
The Longshan (or Lung-shan) culture, also sometimes referred to as the Black Pottery Culture, was a late Neolithic culture in the middle and lower Yellow River valley areas of northern China from about 3000 to 1900 BC. The first archaeological fi ...
in the
North China Plain
The North China Plain or Huang-Huai-Hai Plain () is a large-scale downfaulted rift basin formed in the late Paleogene and Neogene and then modified by the deposits of the Yellow River. It is the largest alluvial plain of China. The plain is bord ...
. The authors suggest that this flood may have been the basis for the later myth, and contributed to the transition of cultures. They further argue that the timing is further evidence for the identification of the Xia with the Erlitou culture.
However, no evidence of contemporaneous widespread flooding in the North China Plain has yet been found.
See also
*
List of Neolithic cultures of China
This is a list of Neolithic cultures of China that have been unearthed by archaeologists. They are sorted in chronological order from earliest to latest and are followed by a schematic visualization of these cultures.
It would seem that the defin ...
*
Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors
The Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors were two groups of mythological rulers in ancient north China. The Three Sovereigns supposedly lived long before The Five Emperors, who have been assigned dates in a period from 3162 BC to 2070 BC. Today ...
*
Women in ancient and imperial China
Women in ancient and imperial China were restricted from participating in various realms of social life, through social stipulations that they remain indoors, whilst outside business should be conducted by men. The strict division of the sexes, a ...
References
Works cited
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* Original article in ''
Kaogu
''Kaogu'' () is a peer-reviewed monthly academic journal of Chinese archaeology, published by the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
History
The predecessor to what would become Kaogu was published from 1934-193 ...
'' 2007.8: 74–84.
Further reading
*
*
External links
Bronze Age China ''The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology'': Exhibition brochure, National Gallery of Art.
''Erlitou Site – Relics of the Capital of the Xia Dynasty''
Cultural China
{{Prehistoric cultures of China
1959 archaeological discoveries
Archaeological cultures of China
Bronze Age in China
Xia dynasty
Yanshi
2nd-millennium BC establishments in China
19th-century BC establishments