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.

The Neolithic
Mesolithic
Fertile Crescent
Heavy Neolithic
Shepherd Neolithic
Trihedral Neolithic
Pre-Pottery (A, B)
Qaraoun culture
Tahunian culture
Yarmukian culture
Halaf culture
Halaf-Ubaid Transitional period
Ubaid culture
Nile valley
Faiyum A culture
Tasian culture
Merimde culture
El Omari culture
Maadi culture
Badarian culture
Amratian culture
Europe
Arzachena culture
Boian culture
Butmir culture
Cardium pottery culture
Cernavodă culture
Coțofeni culture
Cucuteni–Trypillia culture
Dudești culture
Gorneşti culture
Gumelnița–Karanovo culture
Hamangia culture
Khirokitia
Linear Pottery culture
Malta Temples
Ozieri culture
Petreşti culture
San Ciriaco culture
Shulaveri-Shomu culture
Sesklo culture
Tisza culture
Tiszapolgár culture
Usatovo culture
Varna culture
Vinča culture
Vučedol culture
Neolithic Transylvania
Neolithic Southeastern Europe
China
Peiligang culture
Pengtoushan culture
Beixin culture
Cishan culture
Dadiwan culture
Houli culture
Xinglongwa culture
Xinle culture
Zhaobaogou culture
Hemudu culture
Daxi culture
Majiabang culture
Yangshao culture
Hongshan culture
Dawenkou culture
Songze culture
Liangzhu culture
Majiayao culture
Qujialing culture
Longshan culture
Baodun culture
Shijiahe culture
Yueshi culture
Neolithic Tibet
South Asia
Lahuradewa
Mehrgarh
Rakhigarhi
Kalibangan
Chopani Mando
Jhukar
Daimabad
Chirand
Koldihwa
Burzahom
Mundigak
Brahmagiri
Other locations
Jeulmun pottery period
Jōmon period
Philippine jade culture
Capsian culture
Savanna Pastoral Neolithic

farming, animal husbandry
pottery, metallurgy, wheel
circular ditches, henges, megaliths
Neolithic religion
Neolithic decline

Chalcolithic

It would seem that the definition of Neolithic in China is undergoing changes. The discovery in 2012 of pottery about 20,000 years BC indicates that this measure alone can no longer be used to define the period.[1] It will fall to the more difficult task of determining when cereal domestication started.

List

Dates (BC) English name Chinese name Modern-day name and location
18000–7000 Xianren Cave culture
(Paleolithic)
仙人洞、吊桶环遗址 Wannian County, Shangrao, Jiangxi
8500–7700 Nanzhuangtou culture 南莊頭遺址 Yellow River region in southern Hebei
7500–6100 Pengtoushan culture 彭頭山文化 central Yangtze region in northwestern Hunan
7000–5000 Peiligang culture 裴李崗文化 Yi-Luo river basin valley in Henan
6500–5500 Houli culture 後李文化 Shandong
6200–5400 Xinglongwa culture 興隆洼文化 Inner Mongolia-Liaoning border
6000–5000 Kuahuqiao culture 跨湖桥文化 Zhejiang
6000–5500 Cishan culture 磁山文化 southern Hebei
5800–5400 Dadiwan culture 大地灣文化 Gansu and western Shaanxi
5500–4800 Xinle culture 新樂文化 lower Liao River on the Liaodong Peninsula
5400–4500 Zhaobaogou culture 趙宝溝文化 Luan River valley in Inner Mongolia and northern Hebei
5300–4100 Beixin culture 北辛文化 Shandong
5000–4500 Hemudu culture 河姆渡文化 Yuyao and Zhoushan, Zhejiang
5000–3000 Daxi culture 大溪文化 Three Gorges region
5000–3000 Majiabang culture 馬家浜文化 Lake Tai area and north of Hangzhou Bay
5000–3000 Yangshao culture 仰韶文化 Henan, Shaanxi, and Shanxi
4700–2900 Hongshan culture 紅山文化 Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, and Hebei
4100–2600 Dawenkou culture 大汶口文化 Shandong, Anhui, Henan, and Jiangsu
3800–3300 Songze culture 崧澤文化 Lake Tai area
3400–2250 Liangzhu culture 良渚文化 Yangtze River Delta
3100–2700 Majiayao culture 馬家窯文化 upper Yellow River region in Gansu and Qinghai
3100–2700 Qujialing culture 屈家嶺文化 middle Yangtze region in Hubei and Hunan
3000–2000 Longshan culture 龍山文化 central and lower Yellow River
2800–2000 Baodun culture 寶墩文化 Chengdu Plain
2500–2000 Shijiahe culture 石家河文化 middle Yangtze region in Hubei
1900–1500 Yueshi culture 岳石文化 lower Yellow River region in Shandong

Schematic outline

Map of the Chinese Neolithic

These cultures are brought together schematically for the period 8500 to 1500 BC. Neolithic cultures remain unmarked and Bronze Age cultures (from 2000 BC) are marked with *. There are many differences in opinion by dating these cultures, so the dates chosen here are tentative:

Year
(BC)
North-
east
China
(1)
Upper
Yellow River
(2)
Middle
Yellow River
(3)
Lower-
Yellow
River
(4)
Lower-
Yangtze
(5)
Middle-
Yangtze
(6)
Sichuan (7) Southeast
China
(8)
South-
west
China
(9)
8500     Nanzhuangtou            
    8500–7700            
                 
8000                  
                 
                 
7500                  
                 
                 
7000           Pengtoushan      
          (including      
          Chengbeixi      
6500   Dadiwan Peiligang Houli   and Zaoshi)   Zengpiyan  
Xinglongwa Laoguantai Cishan 6500–5500   7000–5800   7000–5500  
6200–5400 = Baijia Jiahu            
6000   6500–5000 Lijiacun   Kuahuqiao        
    6500–5000   6000–5000        
                 
5500                  
      Beixin          
Xinle     5300–4500          
5000 5300–4800   Yangshao   Hemudu Daxi   Dapenkeng  
    5000–3000   5000–3400 5000–3300   Fuguodun  
        Majiabang     5000–3000  
4500 Zhaobaogou       5000–4000        
4500–4000     Dawenkou Songze        
      4300–2600 4000–3000        
4000                  
                 
                 
3500           Qujialing      
Hongshan         3500–2600 Yingpanshan    
(incl. Fuhe) Majiayao     Liangzhu   c. 3100?    
3000 3400–2300 3300–2700     3200–1800     Tanishan  
  Banshan *Henan-     Shijiahe Baodun Shixia  
  2700–2400 Longshan *Shandong-   2500–2000 2800–2000 Nianyuzhuan  
2500   Machang 2800–2000 Longshan   Qinglongquan   Qinglongquan  
  2400–2000   2600–2000   = (Hubei-   Hedang Baiyangcun
  *Qijia       Longshan)   3000–.... 2200–2100
2000 *Xiajiadian 2300–1800       2400–2000     Dalongtan
2000–300   *Erlitou *Yueshi         2100–2000
  *Siba 1900–1500 1900–1500 *Maqiao        
1500   1950–1500 Xia
Dynasty
?
  1800–1200 *Chang Jiang
(Sanxingdui)
from 1500    

For this schematic outline of its neolithic cultures China has been divided into the following nine parts:

  1. Northeast China: Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning.
  2. Northwest China (Upper Yellow River): Gansu, Qinghai and western part of Shaanxi.
  3. North-central China (Middle Yellow River): Shanxi, Hebei, western part of Henan and eastern part of Shaanxi.
  4. Eastern China (lower Yellow River): Shandong, Anhui, northern part of Jiangsu and eastern part Henan.
  5. East-south-eastern China (lower Yangtze): Zhejiang and biggest part of Jiangsu.
  6. South-central China (middle Yangtze): Hubei and northern part of Hunan.
  7. Sichuan and upper Yangtze.
  8. Southeast China: Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, southern part of Hunan, lower Red River in the northern part of Vietnam and the island of Taiwan.
  9. Southwest China: Yunnan and Guizhou.

See also

References

  1. Xiaohong Wu, Chi Zhang, Paul Goldberg, David Cohen, Yan Pan, Trina Arpin, Ofer Bar-Yosef (2012). Early Pottery at 20,000 Years Ago in Xianrendong Cave, China. Science, 336, 1696–1700.

Further reading

  • Chang, Kwang-chih (1986). The archaeology of ancient China. New Haven, Conn: Yale University Press. ISBN 0-300-03784-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Loewe, Michael (1999). The Cambridge history of ancient China:from the origins of civilization to 221 B.C. Cambridge, UK New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-47030-7.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Zhonghu, H.; Bonjean, A.P.A. Cereals in China. Cimmyt. ISBN 978-970-648-177-1. Retrieved 2017-07-16.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Higham, Charles (1996). The Bronze Age of Southeast Asia. Cambridge England: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-49660-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Liu, Li (2004). The Chinese neolithic:trajectories to early states. Cambridge, UK New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-81184-8.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
  • Liu, Li; Chen, Xingcan (eds). 2012. The archaeology of China: from the late paleolithic to the early bronze age. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-64310-8
  • Underhill, Anne P (ed). 2013. A companion to Chinese archaeology. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4443-3529-3
  • Maisels, Charles (1999). Early civilizations of the old world:the formative histories of Egypt, the Levant, Mesopotamia, India, and China. London New York: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-10976-0.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
chapter 7, Higham, Charles, 'East Asian Agriculture and Its Impact', p.234-264.
chapter 15, Higham, Charles, 'Complex Societies of East and Southeast Asia', p.552-594
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