The Yangshao culture (仰韶文化, pinyin: Yǎngsháo wénhuà) 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 pa ...
culture that existed extensively along the middle reaches of the
Yellow River
The Yellow River or Huang He (Chinese: , Mandarin: ''Huáng hé'' ) is the second-longest river in China, after the Yangtze River, and the sixth-longest river system in the world at the estimated length of . Originating in the Bayan Ha ...
in
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 ...
from around 5000 BC to 3000 BC. The culture is named after the Yangshao site, the first excavated site of this culture, which was discovered in 1921 in
Yangshao town,
Mianchi County,
Sanmenxia, western
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 a ...
Province by the Swedish geologist
Johan Gunnar Andersson (1874–1960). The culture flourished mainly in the provinces of Henan,
Shaanxi
Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), N ...
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-leve ...
.
Recent research indicates a common origin of the
Sino-Tibetan languages
Sino-Tibetan, also cited as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages ...
with the
Cishan, Yangshao and/or the
Majiayao culture
The Majiayao culture was a group of neolithic communities who lived primarily in the upper Yellow River region in eastern Gansu, eastern Qinghai and northern Sichuan, China. The culture existed from 3300 to 2000 BC. The Majiayao culture repre ...
s.
Economy
Subsistence
The main food of the Yangshao people was
millet
Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets a ...
, with some sites using
foxtail millet
Foxtail millet, scientific name ''Setaria italica'' (synonym ''Panicum italicum'' L.), is an annual grass grown for human food. It is the second-most widely planted species of millet, and the most grown millet species in Asia. The oldest eviden ...
and others
proso millet
''Panicum miliaceum'' is a grain crop with many common names, including proso millet, broomcorn millet, common millet, hog millet, Kashfi millet, red millet, and white millet. Archaeobotanical evidence suggests millet was first domesticated abou ...
, though some evidence of
rice
Rice is the seed of the grass species '' Oryza sativa'' (Asian rice) or less commonly ''Oryza glaberrima'' (African rice). The name wild rice is usually used for species of the genera '' Zizania'' and '' Porteresia'', both wild and domesticat ...
has been found. The exact nature of Yangshao agriculture, small-scale
slash-and-burn cultivation versus intensive agriculture in permanent fields, is currently a matter of debate. Once the soil was exhausted, residents picked up their belongings, moved to new lands, and constructed new villages.
Middle Yangshao settlements such as Jiangzhi contain raised-floor buildings that may have been used for the storage of surplus grains. Grinding stones for making flour were also found.
The Yangshao people kept
pigs and
dogs.
Sheep
Sheep or domestic sheep (''Ovis aries'') are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Although the term ''sheep'' can apply to other species in the genus '' Ovis'', in everyday usage it almost always refers to domesticate ...
,
goat
The goat or domestic goat (''Capra hircus'') is a domesticated species of goat-antelope typically kept as livestock. It was domesticated from the wild goat (''C. aegagrus'') of Southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the a ...
s, and
cattle
Cattle (''Bos taurus'') are large, domesticated, cloven-hooved, herbivores. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae and the most widespread species of the genus '' Bos''. Adult females are referred to as cows and adult ...
are found much more rarely. Much of their meat came from hunting and fishing with stone tools. Their stone tools were polished and highly specialized. They may also have practiced an early form of
sericulture
Sericulture, or silk farming, is the cultivation of silkworms to produce silk. Although there are several commercial species of silkworms, '' Bombyx mori'' (the caterpillar of the domestic silkmoth) is the most widely used and intensively stud ...
.
Crafts
The Yangshao culture crafted
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 ...
: Yangshao artisans created fine white, red, and black painted pottery with human facial, animal, and geometric designs. Unlike the later
Longshan culture, the Yangshao culture did not use pottery wheels in pottery-making. Excavations found that children were buried in painted pottery jars.
The Yangshao culture produced
silk
Silk is a natural protein fiber, some forms of which can be woven into textiles. The protein fiber of silk is composed mainly of fibroin and is produced by certain insect larvae to form cocoons. The best-known silk is obtained from th ...
to a small degree and wove
hemp
Hemp, or industrial hemp, is a botanical class of '' Cannabis sativa'' cultivars grown specifically for industrial or medicinal use. It can be used to make a wide range of products. Along with bamboo, hemp is among the fastest growing plants ...
. Men wore
loin clothes and tied their hair in a top knot. Women wrapped a length of cloth around themselves and tied their hair in a bun.
Houses
Houses were built by digging a rounded rectangular
pit around one metre deep. Then they were
rammed, and a lattice of
wattle was woven over it. Then it was plastered with mud. The floor was also rammed down.
Next, a few short wattle poles would be placed around the top of the pit, and more wattle would be woven to it. It was plastered with mud, and a framework of poles would be placed to make a cone shape for the roof. Poles would be added to support the roof. It was then thatched with millet stalks. There was little furniture; a shallow fireplace in the middle with a stool, a bench along the wall, and a bed of cloth. Food and items were placed or hung against the walls. A pen would be built outside for animals.
Yangshao villages typically covered ten to fourteen acres and were composed of houses around a central square.
Social structure
Although early reports suggested 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 ...
culture, others argue that it was a society in transition from matriarchy to
patriarchy
Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of dominance and privilege are primarily held by men. It is used, both as a technical anthropological term for families or clans controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males ...
, while still others believe it to have been patriarchal. The debate hinges on differing interpretations of burial practices.
The discovery of a
dragon
A dragon is a reptilian legendary creature that appears in the folklore of many cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but dragons in western cultures since the High Middle Ages have often been depicted a ...
statue dating back to the fifth millennium BC in the Yangshao culture makes it the world's oldest known dragon depiction, and the
Han Chinese
The Han Chinese () or Han people (), are an East Asian ethnic group native to China. They constitute the world's largest ethnic group, making up about 18% of the global population and consisting of various subgroups speaking distinctive v ...
continue to worship
dragons to this day.
Archaeological sites
Yangshao, in
Mianchi County,
Sanmenxia, western Henan, the place which gave the culture its name, has a museum next to the archaeological site. The archaeological site of the village of
Banpo near
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 ...
is one of the best-known ditch-enclosed settlements of the Yangshao. Another major settlement called
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 ...
was excavated out to its limits, and archaeologists found that it was completely surrounded by a ring-ditch. Both Banpo and Jiangzhai also yielded incised marks on pottery which a few have interpreted as numerals or perhaps precursors to
Chinese characters
Chinese characters () are logograms developed for the writing of Chinese. In addition, they have been adapted to write other East Asian languages, and remain a key component of the Japanese writing system where they are known as ''kanji ...
, but such interpretations are not widely accepted.
[ Qiu Xigui (2000). Chinese Writing. Translation of 文字學概論 by Mattos and Jerry Norman. Early China Special Monograph Series No. 4. Berkeley: The Society for the Study of Early China and the Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley. .]
Phases
The Yangshao culture is conventionally divided into three phases:
* The early period or Banpo phase, c. 5000–4000 BC) is represented by the
Banpo, Jiangzhai, Beishouling and Dadiwan sites in the
Wei River valley in
Shaanxi
Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), N ...
.
* The middle period or Miaodigou phase, c. 4000–3500 BC) saw an expansion of the culture in all directions, and the development of hierarchies of settlements in some areas, such as western Henan.
* The late period (c. 3500–3000 BC) saw a greater spread of settlement hierarchies. The first wall of
rammed earth in China was built around the settlement of Xishan (25 ha) in central Henan (near modern
Zhengzhou).
The
Majiayao culture
The Majiayao culture was a group of neolithic communities who lived primarily in the upper Yellow River region in eastern Gansu, eastern Qinghai and northern Sichuan, China. The culture existed from 3300 to 2000 BC. The Majiayao culture repre ...
(c. 3300–2000 BC) to the west is now considered a separate culture that developed from the middle Yangshao culture through an intermediate Shilingxia phase.
Artifacts
Image:CMOC Treasures of Ancient China exhibit - pottery ding.jpg, ''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 ...
'', decorated with a string pattern
Image:YangshaoCordmarkedAmphoraBanpoPhase4800BCEShaanxi.jpg, Cordmarked amphora; 4800 BC (Banpo phase); Guimet Museum
The Guimet Museum (full name in french: Musée national des arts asiatiques-Guimet; MNAAG; ) is an art museum located at 6, place d'Iéna in the 16th arrondissement of Paris, France. Literally translated into English, its full name is the Nation ...
(Paris)
Large water bottle. Late Yangshao-Early Majiayao. Museum Rietberg.jpg, Large water vessel of the late Yangshao culture or early Majiayao; from Shaanxi
Shaanxi (alternatively Shensi, see § Name) is a landlocked province of China. Officially part of Northwest China, it borders the province-level divisions of Shanxi (NE, E), Henan (E), Hubei (SE), Chongqing (S), Sichuan (SW), Gansu (W), N ...
, 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-leve ...
or Gansu province
Gansu (, ; alternately romanized as Kansu) is a province in Northwest China. Its capital and largest city is Lanzhou, in the southeast part of the province.
The seventh-largest administrative district by area at , Gansu lies between the Tibet ...
; 4th millennium BC; Rietberg Museum
The Rietberg Museum is a museum in Zürich, Switzerland, displaying Asian, African, American and Oceanian art. It is the only art museum focusing on non-European art and design in Switzerland, the third-largest museum in Zürich, and the largest t ...
(Zürich
, neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon
, twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco
Z ...
, Switzerland)
WLA haa Amphora China Neolithic 2.jpg, Red amphora with carrying handles; circa 5000 - 3000 BC; Honolulu Museum of Art (USA)
Shijia hu.jpg, Pot; painted earthenware; in the Shijia style; Shaanxi History Museum
Shijia pot with animal face or mask.1975.jpg, Pot; painted earthenware; height: 27.8 cm; in the Shijia style; Shaanxi History Museum
半山类型圆点纹彩陶壶.jpg, Dotted pottery pot, semi-mountain type; dating from 4700 to 4300 years; Gansu Provincial Museum
The Gansu Provincial Museum () is a museum in Lanzhou, China. Its collections include over 350,000 artefacts, in two main sections: history and natural science. Since its foundation, the museum has held almost 300 exhibitions, and items from its ...
National Museum of China 2014.02.01 14-44-45.jpg, Painted pottery basin; 5000-3000 BC; National Museum of China
Pots,_Yangshao_culture,_neolithic_China,_c._2600-2300_BC,_ceramic_-_Östasiatiska_museet,_Stockholm_-_DSC09657.JPG, Pots, Yangshao culture; Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (Östasiatiska museet), Stockholm.
File:Bowl with ring handles. Earthenware painted with red and black mineral pigment. Yangshao Culture, Gansu Province. Neolithic period, 2600-2300 BCE. From the Garner Collection. Victoria and Albert Museum.jpg, An earthenware bowl painted with red and black mineral pigment with ring handles, Gansu Province, Neolithic period, Yangshao culture, from the Garner Collection, in the Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (often abbreviated as the V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.27 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and nam ...
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 def ...
*
Dawenkou culture
*
Hemudu culture
*
Majiayao culture
The Majiayao culture was a group of neolithic communities who lived primarily in the upper Yellow River region in eastern Gansu, eastern Qinghai and northern Sichuan, China. The culture existed from 3300 to 2000 BC. The Majiayao culture repre ...
*
Majiabang culture
*
Hongshan culture
*
Beifudi
Beifudi () is an archaeological site and Neolithic village in Yi County, Hebei, Yi County, Hebei, China. The site, an area of 3 ha on the northern bank of the Yishui River, contains Artifact (archaeology), artifacts of a culture contemporaneou ...
*
Xishuipo
References
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Yangshao Culture
5th-millennium BC establishments
3rd-millennium BC disestablishments
Neolithic cultures of China
History of Henan
History of Shaanxi
History of Shanxi
History of Xi'an
Archaeological cultures of East Asia