The Songze Culture 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 that existed between 3800 and 3300 BCE in the

Lake Tai Taihu (), also known as Lake Tai or Lake Taihu, is a lake in the Yangtze Delta and one of the largest freshwater lakes in China. The lake is in Jiangsu province and a significant part of its southern shore forms its border with Zhejiang. With ...

area near

Shanghai Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

Dates

Three radiocarbon dates were taken from Songze culture layers at Jiangli near

. Two of the dates were obtained from charred rice grains, returning dates of 3360–3090 BCE and 3540–3370 BCE. The third date was taken from

knotgrass Knotgrass or knot grass is the common name for several plants and a moth and may refer to: *''Paspalum distichum'', a species of grass *''Polygonum'', a genus of plants in the buckwheat family, more often known as knot weed *''Acronicta rumicis ...

and produced a date of 3660–3620 BCE. Although it is accepted to be the successor 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 ...

, others have suggested that Songze was a successor phase to the

Hemudu culture The Hemudu culture (5500 BC to 3300 BC) was a Neolithic culture that flourished just south of the Hangzhou Bay in Jiangnan in modern Yuyao, Zhejiang, China. The culture may be divided into early and late phases, before and after 4000 BC respecti ...

Sites

Songze

In 1957, archaeologists discovered a site north of Songze Village near Zhaoxiang Town in Shanghai's

Qingpu District Qingpu District, is a suburban district of Shanghai Municipality. Lake Dianshan is located in Qingpu. The population of Qingpu was counted at 1,081,000 people in the 2010 Census. It has an area of . Qingpu District is the westernmost dis ...

. Excavations have been conducted throughout 1961, 1974–1976, 1987, 1994–1995, and 2004. These revealed three cultural layers: the most recent had

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and por ...

from the

Spring and Autumn period The Spring and Autumn period was a period in Chinese history from approximately 770 to 476 BC (or according to some authorities until 403 BC) which corresponds roughly to the first half of the Eastern Zhou period. The period's name derives fr ...

; the middle layer was a cemetery with 148 graves and numerous artefacts; the oldest layer belonged to a village of the

Nanhebang

92 graves have been excavated from a Songze cemetery at Nanhebang.

Pishan

The Pishan cemetery contained 61 burials.

Dongshan

Dongshan Village is located near Jingang Town 18 km west of

Zhangjiagang Zhangjiagang (), formerly Shazhou County (), is a county-level city under the administration of Suzhou, Jiangsu province, China and one of the many ports along the Yangtze river. With 1,246,762 inhabitants as of the 2010 census, the city is now ...

. It was discovered in 1989 and has undergone excavations by the

Suzhou Museum The Suzhou Museum () is a museum of ancient Chinese art, paintings, calligraphy and handmade crafts in Suzhou, Jiangsu, China. It is one of the most visited museums in the world, with 2,340,000 visitors in 2018. The Folk Branch of the muse ...

(1989–1990), followed by two large rescue excavations led by the

Nanjing Museum The Nanjing Museum () is located in Nanjing, the capital of Jiangsu Province in East China. With an area of , it is one of the largest museums in China. The museum has over 400,000 items in its permanent collection, making it one of the largest ...

in 2008–2009. The site is divided into three areas: area 1 was a small cemetery of 27 burials, all of which had different quantities of

grave goods Grave goods, in archaeology and anthropology, are the items buried along with the body. They are usually personal possessions, supplies to smooth the deceased's journey into the afterlife or offerings to the gods. Grave goods may be classed as a ...

, which has been used to suggest the existence of a

stratified society Social stratification refers to a society's categorization of its people into groups based on socioeconomic factors like wealth, income, race, education, ethnicity, gender, occupation, social status, or derived power (social and political). As su ...

; area 2 was a residential comprising five buildings in the centre of the site; area 3 was another burial ground in the site's west, with 10 tombs.

Notes

References

* * * * * * {{Neolithic cultures of China Neolithic cultures of China Yangtze River Delta History of Jiangsu History of Shanghai History of Zhejiang 4th-millennium BC establishments