YangshaoCordmarkedAmphoraBanpoPhase4800BCEShaanxi

Banpo is an

archaeological site An archaeological site is a place (or group of physical sites) in which evidence of past activity is preserved (either prehistoric or historic or contemporary), and which has been, or may be, investigated using the discipline of archaeology an ...

discovered in 1953 by Shi Xingbang, and located in the Yellow River Valley just east of

Xi'an Xi'an ( , ; ; Chinese: ), frequently spelled as Xian and also known by other names, is the capital of Shaanxi Province. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong Plain, the city is the third most populous city in Western China, after Chongqi ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...

. It contains the remains of several well organized

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several pa ...

settlements, like

Jiangzhai Jiangzhai () is a Banpo phase Yangshao culture archaeological site in the east of Xi'an, where the earliest copper artifacts in China were found. The Jiangzhai site is located on the east bank of the Lin River in Lintong District, Xi'an, Sha ...

, carbon dated to 6700–5600 years ago. The area of is surrounded by a ditch, probably a defensive moat, wide. The houses were circular, built of mud and wood with overhanging thatched roofs. They sat on low foundations. There appear to be communal burial areas. Banpo is the

type site In archaeology, a type site is the site used to define a particular archaeological culture or other typological unit, which is often named after it. For example, discoveries at La Tène and Hallstatt led scholars to divide the European Iron A ...

associated with

Yangshao Culture The Yangshao culture (仰韶文化, pinyin: Yǎngsháo wénhuà) was a Neolithic culture that existed extensively along the middle reaches of the Yellow River in China from around 5000 BC to 3000 BC. The culture is named after the Yangsh ...

. Archaeological sites with similarities to the first phase at Banpo are considered to be part of the “Banpo phase” (5th millennium BC) of the Yangshao culture. Banpo was excavated from 1954 to 1957. The settlement was surrounded by a

moat A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that is dug and surrounds a castle, fortification, building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive ...

, with the graves and pottery

kiln A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay int ...

s located outside the moat perimeter. Many of the houses were semisubterranean with the floor typically below the ground surface. The houses were supported by timber poles and had steeply pitched thatched roofs. According to the Marxist paradigm of archaeology that was prevalent in the

during the time of the excavation of the site, Banpo was considered to be a

matriarchal Matriarchy is a social system in which women hold the primary power positions in roles of authority. In a broader sense it can also extend to moral authority, social privilege and control of property. While those definitions apply in general En ...

society; however, new research contradicts this claim and the Marxist paradigm is gradually being phased out in modern Chinese archaeological research. Currently, little can be said of the religious or political structure from these ruins from the archaeological evidence. The site is now home to the

Xi'an Banpo Museum The Banpo Museum () is a museum in Xi'an, Shaanxi, China. The museum houses artifacts from the archaeological site of Banpo Banpo is an archaeological site discovered in 1953 by Shi Xingbang, and located in the Yellow River Valley ju ...

, built in 1957 to preserve the archaeological collection.

Footnotes

References

* Allan, Sarah (ed), ''The Formation of Chinese Civilization: An Archaeological Perspective'', *

Chang, Kwang-chih Kwang-chih Chang (15 April, 1931 – January 3, 2001), commonly known as K. C. Chang, was a Chinese / Taiwanese-American archaeologist and sinologist. He was the John E. Hudson Professor of archaeology at Harvard University, Vice-President of the ...

. ''The Archaeology of Ancient China'', {{Shaanxi topics Populated places established in the 7th millennium BC 1953 archaeological discoveries History of Xi'an Archaeological sites in China Neolithic cultures of China Neolithic settlements Former populated places in China Archaeological type sites Major National Historical and Cultural Sites in Shaanxi 5th-millennium BC establishments Tourist attractions in Xi'an Yangshao culture

See also

Footnotes

References