The Zhukaigou culture was a late
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 ...
and early
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
culture centered in the
Ordos Plateau of
Inner Mongolia
Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...
,
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 ...
. The type site at Zhukaigou was discovered in
Ejin Horo Banner
The Ejin Horo Banner, also known as Ejin Horo Qi or Yijinhuoluo County, is a banner in Ordos City in southwestern Inner Mongolia, China. It borders Shaanxi Province to the southeast. As of 2009, the Ejin Horo Banner covers an area of almost , ...
, Inner Mongolia, and excavated from 1977 to 1984. Zhukaigou culture is a reputed progenitor of the
Ordos bronze culture and accordingly a first "Northern Zone" culture, extending to northern and central Inner Mongolia, northern Shaanxi, and northern Shanxi, with the Ordos region at its center. Transition to metalworking is dated to around the end of the third millennium BCE, at the same time was attained a higher level in the ceramic. Zhukaigou culture lasted to c. 1500 BCE.
The culture appears to have begun as one of
hunter-gatherer
A traditional hunter-gatherer or forager is a human living an ancestrally derived lifestyle in which most or all food is obtained by foraging, that is, by gathering food from local sources, especially edible wild plants but also insects, fung ...
s, followed by an agricultural phase, which following
environmental degradation
Environmental degradation is the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as quality of air, water and soil; the destruction of ecosystems; habitat destruction; the extinction of wildlife; and pollution. It is defin ...
and perhaps the domestication of the horse, increasingly depended on
pastoralism
Pastoralism is a form of animal husbandry where domesticated animals (known as "livestock") are released onto large vegetated outdoor lands ( pastures) for grazing, historically by nomadic people who moved around with their herds. The anim ...
, perhaps the
nomadic pastoralism
Nomadic pastoralism is a form of pastoralism in which livestock are herded in order to seek for fresh pastures on which to graze. True nomads follow an irregular pattern of movement, in contrast with transhumance, where seasonal pastures are fix ...
of the succeeding
Ordos culture
The Ordos culture () was a material culture occupying a region centered on the Ordos Loop (corresponding to the region of Suiyuan, including Baotou to the north, all located in modern Inner Mongolia, China) during the Bronze and early Iron Age fr ...
.
The Zhukaigou culture is associated with about 327 burials, with recent
maternal genetic evidence showing that they were related to the remains from Yinniugou, as well as modern populations like
Daurs
The Daur people (Khalkha Mongolian: Дагуур, ''Daguur''; ) are a Mongolic people in Northeast China. The Daur form one of the 56 ethnic groups officially recognised in the People's Republic of China. They numbered 131,992 according to the la ...
and
Evenks
The Evenks (also spelled Ewenki or Evenki based on their endonym )Autonym: (); russian: Эвенки (); (); formerly known as Tungus or Tunguz; mn, Хамниган () or Aiwenji () are a Tungusic people of North Asia. In Russia, the Eve ...
. The archaeological finds at the site are similar to those of the
lower Xiajiadian culture
The Lower Xiajiadian culture (; 2200–1600 BC) is an archaeological culture in Northeast China, found mainly in southeastern Inner Mongolia, northern Hebei, and western Liaoning, China. Subsistence was based on millet farming supplemented w ...
. These finds are important, as they are associated with the development of snake pattern designs on the decoration of weapon and animal-depicting artifacts, which later would become a characteristic style of the Ordos.
Archaeologists have divided the culture into five phases, corresponding with the late stage of the
Longshan culture
The Longshan (or Lung-shan) culture, also sometimes referred to as the Black Pottery Culture, was a late Neolithic culture in the middle and lower Yellow River valley areas of northern China from about 3000 to 1900 BC. The first archaeological fi ...
, the early, middle and late stages of the
Erlitou culture
The Erlitou culture was an early Bronze Age urban society and archaeological culture that existed in the Yellow River valley from approximately 1900 to 1500 BC. A 2007 study of radiocarbon dating proposed a narrower date range of 1750 to 1530 B ...
, and the early stage of the
Erligang culture. The early phase of the culture was influenced by the Longshan culture, while the middle phases were influenced by the
Qijia culture; it was during this time frame when bronze artefacts begin to appear in the material culture. At this point, Zhukaigou people were agriculturalists, with millet as a main staple; they also had sheep, pigs, and cattle.
By the second millennium BC, the Zhukaigou people started using oracle-bone divination, a practice that was closely associated with
Shang
The Shang dynasty (), also known as the Yin dynasty (), was a Chinese royal dynasty founded by Tang of Shang (Cheng Tang) that ruled in the Yellow River valley in the second millennium BC, traditionally succeeding the Xia dynasty and ...
culture and statecraft. Shang-type artifacts suggest that around the mid-second millennium BCE increased contacts between the local Zhukaigou people and the Shang, or that the Shang culture extended northward. Shang ritual vessels, such as ''ding'' and ''jue'', and weapons appear there during the Erlitou (2100–1800
500?BCE) and Erligang (c. 1500–1,400 BCE) periods.
Bronze objects dated to the last period of existence of Zhukaigou culture c. 1500 BCE point to native production of a mixed complex of bronze objects that included typical "Northern Zone" items like daggers, with typical Shang ''ge'' (戈) dagger-axes, and knives that reveal both Shang and northern features.
In the late period of Zhukaigou culture, c. 1,500 BCE, motifs like snake patterns and the flower-shaped edge of the ''li'' (鬲) vessel appeared, which archaeologists regard as characteristic of later nomadic peoples of this area.
[Nicola Di Cosmo, ''The Northern Frontier in Pre-Imperial China//The Cambridge History of Ancient China'', p. 898] During the last phase of the Zhukaigou culture, the former practice of sheep and pig sacrifices was gradually being replaced by the practice of dog sacrifices.
See also
*
Lower Xiajiadian culture
The Lower Xiajiadian culture (; 2200–1600 BC) is an archaeological culture in Northeast China, found mainly in southeastern Inner Mongolia, northern Hebei, and western Liaoning, China. Subsistence was based on millet farming supplemented w ...
*
Ordos culture
The Ordos culture () was a material culture occupying a region centered on the Ordos Loop (corresponding to the region of Suiyuan, including Baotou to the north, all located in modern Inner Mongolia, China) during the Bronze and early Iron Age fr ...
*
Shimao
References
* Linduff, Katheryn M., Zhukaigou, steppe culture and the rise of Chinese civilization. ''Antiquity'' 69(262, March 1995): 133-145.
* ''
The Cambridge History of Ancient China'', M. Loeuwe, E.L. Shaughnessy, eds., Cambridge University Press, 1999,
Notes
{{Neolithic cultures of China
Archaeological cultures of China
Bronze Age in China
History of Inner Mongolia
Neolithic cultures of China
2nd-millennium BC establishments in China