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Prehistoric Cultures in China |
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Paleolithic Age began around 3,000,000 BC. During this period human begins underwent a long and slow course of physical evolution: first, from ape-man to Homo erectus, than passing through earlier and later stages of Homo sapiens, to the emergence of modern humans having a similar bodily makeup as that of humans today.
About ten thousand years ago, the ancient Chinese culture departed from the Paleolithic era and entered the Neolithic Age. Neolithic Age is referred to in China to the last period of a long prehistory. It began in 5000 BC, and lasted about 3000 years. It is defined by a large number of settled agricultural communities who were skilled in hunting and gathering as well. The largest concentration of agriculture stood below the southern bend of the Yellow River and the main crop was millet. There was much difference between Neolithic era and nowadays in geography. In Neolithic era, most of areas were covered with lakes and marshes and the climate was warm and moist. The mountains were well forested and there was a variety of animals.
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The prehistoric culture is also termed as “the primitive culture”, indicating the culture of the primitive society in which no Chinese language emerged. So far, Prehistoric cultures of different types have been found in all parts of China, among which Yangshao Culture, Dawenkuo Culture, Hemudu Culture, Banpo Culture, Longshan Culture, and Majiayao Culture are of the greatest importance.
In this newsletter, I’d like to introduce some well-known cultures unearthed in China, which are served as generally reading materials out of Chinese course. You may also contact Chinese teacher or leave a message if you got any questions.
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 The Yangshao culture was a classical Neolithic culture that existed extensively along the central Yellow River in China. The Yangshao people lived in round or rectangular houses in the mountainous regions that were below ground level and surrounded by little walls of earth. They cultivated millet extensively: some villages also cultivated wheat or rice. They kept such animals as pigs and dogs, as well as sheep, goats, and cattle, but much of their meat came from hunting and fishing. Their stone tools were polished and highly specialized. The Yangshao people may also have practiced an early form of silkworm cultivation. Especially note worthy was their gray or red pottery, so the Yangshao Culture, also referred to as the “Painted Pottery” Culture.
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Traces of this culture were first discovered in 1959 along the Dawenhe River near Dawenkou Town of Tai’an County, and Baotou Village of Ningyang County in Shandong Province. Most of the remnants lay around Mount Tai, reaching as far as the southern coast of the Bohai Sea in the North, Jiangsu Province in the south, the eastern line of the Western Plains of Shandong Province in the west, and the Coast of the Yellow Sea in the East. So far, over 200 remains have been discovered and more than 10 sites (mainly tombs) unearthed. Researchers have revealed that the culture lasted mainly from 4300 BC to 2500 BC. Ancestors of Dawenkou Culture had polished stoneware as their major production implements, including a large number of stoneware as their major production implements, including a large number of exquisite tools of bone, horn and tooth. Pottery for everyday use was mainly red clay pottery and red sand pottery. There were gray pottery, black pottery and a small amount of white hard pottery, and colored pottery as well. During this period, production developed from manual work to wheel work. Refined pottery art crafts came into being. Agriculture constituted their chief economic activity, while fishing and hunting were subsidiary activities. Stockbreeding, such as pig, dog, cow, and chicken raising, were rather developed. The handicraft industry of Dawenkou culture had separated itself gradually from agriculture and existed all by itself. The sharp contrast between the rich and poor was becoming more and more obvious. In the late period, there appeared the co-burial of men and women, which marked the social transition from the matriarchy to the patrilineal.
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The Hemudu culture (5000 BC to 4500 BC) was a Neolithic culture that flourished just south of the Hangzhou Bay in Jiangan in modern Yuyao, Zhejiang, China. The site at Hemudu was discovered in 1973. Hemudu sites were also discovered on the islands of Zhoushan.
The Hemudu culture co-existed with the Majiabang culture as two separate and distinct cultures, with cultural transmissions between the two. Two major floods caused the nearby Yaojiang River to change its course and inundated the soil with salt, forcing the people of Hemudu to abandon its settlements. The Hemudu people lived in long, stilt houses.
The Hemudu culture is one of the earliest cultures to cultivate rice. Most of the artifacts discovered at Hemudu consist of animal bones, exemplified by hoes made of shoulder bones used for cultivating rice.
The culture also produced lacquer wood. The remains of various plants, including water caltrop, acorns, beans, Gorgon Euryale and gourd, were found at Hemudu. The Hemudu people likely domesticated pigs, water buffalo and dogs. The people at Hemudu also fished and hunted, as evidence by the remains of bone harpoons and bows and arrowheads. Music instruments, such as bone whistles and wooden drums, were also found at Hemudu.
The culture produced a thick, porous pottery. The distinct pottery was typically black and made with charcoal powder. Plant and geometric designs were commonly painted onto the pottery; the pottery was sometimes also cord-marked. The culture also produced carved jade ornaments, carved ivory artifacts and small, clay figurines. |
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 Banpo Culture belongs to the Yangshao Culture of the Neolithic Age (about 10000 BC to 5000 BC), which originated in the middle valley of the Yellow River. As this culture was discovered in the vicinity of today’s Banpo Village, in Xi’an City in Shaanxi Province, it was named after this village. However, thousands of years ago it was not called this way. Primitive Banpo villagers lived 6800 – 6300 years ago, and they came from two different tribes. In light of many kinds of farm implements and fishing tools excavated, it is inferred that the Banpo people depended primarily on farming and fishing for survival. At the same time, the Banpo people cultivated a colored Pottery Culture, one of the most representatives of Yangshao Culture. Their earthen wares were uniformly red in color and decorated with black pigment. The craftsmen had their potteries simply decorated, the most striking are the designs of fish that can be seen everywhere. The fish was finished in symbolic pattern. It is concluded that fish should be the totem of ancient Banpo people. Here the masterpiece wares include: a tip-bottomed bottle, which is a water sucker under the principal of shifting gravity center (not really clear); and a painted basin with design of a human face holding fish at the corners of mouth. Moreover, on certain similar parts of potteries are found twenty-two kinds of mysterious marks, which are estimated to be some primitive script.
Meanwhile Banpo Culture witnessed the time of matriarchal clan society. Women took a dominant position in everything and there were no permanent couples. After death, adult women and men were buried separately in communal graveyard, having potteries and beads of animal bones as burial objects. Children, however, were not allowed to be buried with adults. The mother would put the body of her child into pottery jar and bury it in a pit close to her house. This special burial jar practice reveals that child was still not counted as the member of primitive community. More burial articles were found in girl’s pit than in that of boys. |
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 Remains of this culture were first discovered in Majiayao Village, Lintao County, Gansu province in 1923, hence the name of Majiayao Culture. It is generally considered as a local branch of Yangshao Culture in the late period; therefore it is also known as Yangshao Culture of Gansu. It was centered around the West Plain of Gansu Province, stretching to the north of Gansu Province and the south of Ningxia Hui Minority Autonomous Region in the north, the southern part of Gansu Province and the north of Sichuan Province in the south, and reaching the Gansu Corridor and the northeast of Qinghai Province in the west and the east of Gansu Province in the east. More than 20 ruins have been unearthed. According to relevant researches, the culture was prosperous from 3300 BC to 2050 BC.
Among the production implements the ancestors used in Majiayao Culture were stone or pottery sickles with one end shaped like a saw. About 20~50% of the pottery was colored pottery, profusely painted. The economic activities were mainly based on agriculture. Deer was the staple prey of hunting, but pigs, dogs, sheep were also raised. The handicraft industry included stoneware production, wood works, spinning and weaving, pottery production and so on. Art mainly took the form of colored pottery as well as man-like or animal-like pottery sculptures and pottery house models. Quite a number of types of pottery were carved with symbols, which some pieces of bone had breached for counting. |
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