The Daxi culture (5000–3300 BC) was a

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 parts ...

culture centered in the

Three Gorges The Three Gorges () are three adjacent gorges along the middle reaches of the Yangtze River, in the hinterland of the People's Republic of China. With a subtropical monsoon climate, they are known for their scenery. The "Three Gorges Scenic A ...

region around the middle

Yangtze The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest river in Asia, the third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in the Tanggula Mountains (Tibetan Plateau) and flows ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. The culture ranged from western

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 ...

to eastern

Sichuan Sichuan (; zh, c=, labels=no, ; zh, p=Sìchuān; alternatively romanized as Szechuan or Szechwan; formerly also referred to as "West China" or "Western China" by Protestant missions) is a province in Southwest China occupying most of the ...

and the

Pearl River Delta The Pearl River Delta Metropolitan Region (PRD; ; pt, Delta do Rio das Pérolas (DRP)) is the low-lying area surrounding the Pearl River estuary, where the Pearl River flows into the South China Sea. Referred to as the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Mac ...

. The site at Daxi, located in the

Qutang Gorge The Qutang Gorge () is the shortest of China's Three Gorges. Immediately downstream of the ancient village Baidicheng (白帝城) the Yangtze River passes between the Chijia Mountain (赤甲山) on the north and the Baiyan Mountain (白鹽山 ...

around Wushan,

Chongqing Chongqing ( or ; ; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), Postal Romanization, alternately romanized as Chungking (), is a Direct-administered municipalities of China, municipality in Southwes ...

, was discovered by

Nels C. Nelson Nels Christian Nelson (April 9, 1875 – March 5, 1964) was a Danish-American archaeologist. Biography Nelson was born near Fredericia, in the Fredericia municipality in the eastern part of Jutland, Denmark. He was the eldest child in a poor f ...

in the 1920s.

Material culture

Daxi sites are typified by the presence of ''dou'' (cylindrical bottles), white ''pan'' (plates), and red pottery. The Daxi people cultivated

rice Rice is the seed of the grass species ''Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima ''Oryza glaberrima'', commonly known as African rice, is one of the two domesticated rice species. It was first domesticated and grown i ...

extensively. Daxi sites were some of the earliest in China to show evidence of moats and walled settlements. The Daxi culture showed evidence of cultural interactions with the

Yangtze River Delta The Yangtze Delta or Yangtze River Delta (YRD, or simply ) is a triangle-shaped megalopolis generally comprising the Wu Chinese-speaking areas of Shanghai, southern Jiangsu and northern Zhejiang. The area lies in the heart of the Jiangnan reg ...

region. The white ''pan'' artefacts from the culture were discovered at several Yangtze River Delta sites, including the type site of the

Majiabang culture The Majiabang culture, also named Ma-chia-pang culture, was a Chinese Neolithic culture that existed at the mouth of the Yangtze River, primarily around Lake Tai near Shanghai and north of Hangzhou Bay. The culture spread throughout southern Jiang ...

. Conversely,

jade Jade is a mineral used as jewellery or for ornaments. It is typically green, although may be yellow or white. Jade can refer to either of two different silicate minerals: nephrite (a silicate of calcium and magnesium in the amphibole group of ...

artefacts at Daxi sites show possible influence from the Yangtze River Delta region. The Daxi culture was followed by the

Qujialing culture The Qujialing culture (3400–2600 BC) was a Neolithic civilisation centered primarily on the middle Yangtze River region in Hubei and Hunan, China. The culture succeeded the Daxi culture and reached southern Shaanxi, northern Jiangxi and southwes ...

People of Daxi

Remains at Daxi were found to possess a high frequency of the Y-chromosome haplogroup O3d, which was not found at other prehistoric sites in China. This haplogroup is very rare in modern populations, with significant incidence only among Hmong–Mien (10%) and

Austroasiatic The Austroasiatic languages , , are a large language family A language family is a group of languages related through descent from a common ''ancestral language'' or ''parental language'', called the proto-language of that family. The te ...

(6%) populations. This might indicate that the people of Daxi were the ancestors of Hmong–Mien speakers, who subsequently migrated to the southwest.

References

* Allan, Sarah (ed), ''The Formation of Chinese Civilization: An Archaeological Perspective'', * Chang, Kwang-chih. ''The Archaeology of Ancient China'', {{Neolithic cultures of China Neolithic cultures of China 5th-millennium BC establishments

Material culture

People of Daxi

See also

References