Yangshao culture - Wikiwand

The Yangshao culture (Chinese: 仰韶文化; pinyin: Yǎngsháo wénhuà) was a Neolithic culture that existed extensively along the middle reaches of the Yellow River in China from around 5000 BC to 3000 BC. The Yangshao culture saw social and technological development in the region, with advancements in agriculture, architecture, and crafts.

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The culture is named after the Yangshao site, the first excavated site of this culture, which was discovered in 1921 in the town of Yangshao in western Henan by the Swedish geologist Johan Gunnar Andersson (1874–1960).^[1] The culture flourished mainly in Henan, as well as the neighboring provinces of Shaanxi and Shanxi.

Recent research indicates a common origin and spread of the Sino-Tibetan languages with the Cishan, Yangshao and/or Majiayao cultures.^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]

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Origins

After the discovery of the Yangshao site in 1921, Johan Gunnar Andersson hypothesized, based on his analysis of the pottery patterns, that the Yangshao culture was originated from Anau and Trypillian cultures, from Central Asia and Southwest Europe. His hypothesis is considered weak, as the similarity of the pottery patterns are now considered coincidental, and in 1954, it was estimated the Yangshao culture was more than 1,000 years older than the Anau culture.^[6]

Later, Chinese archeologists, such as Yin Da, Shi Zhangru and Guo Baojun argued that the Yangshao culture was developed by the indigenous population from the Yellow River and transitioned to other cultures. Liang Siyong discovered a three-layer stratigraphy at the Hougang site, confirming the transaction from the Yangshao culture to the Longshan and Shang cultures.^[7] It is now understood that the Yangshao culture had a big impact in the pottery culture Central Plains region, being transmitted from east to west. Some examples are the Shandong Longshan culture, considered to be it's eastern branch, and the Majiayao culture, considered to be it's western branch.^[8]

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Phases

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The Yangshao culture is conventionally divided into three phases:

The Early Yangshao 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.^[9]
The Middle Yangshao period or Miaodigou phase (c. 4000–3500 BC) saw an expansion of the culture and population in all directions, and the development of hierarchies of settlements in some areas, such as western Henan.^[10]^[11]
The Late Yangshao 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).^[12]

The Majiayao culture (c. 3300 – c. 2000 BCE) to the west is now considered a separate culture that developed from the middle Yangshao culture through an intermediate Shilingxia phase.^[13]

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Economy

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Subsistence

The main food of the Yangshao people was millet, with some sites using foxtail millet and others proso millet.^[14] The Yangshao people cultivated and consumed rice, though to a lesser extent than millet.^[15]^[16] The exact nature of early 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.^[14] During the late Yangshao period, the region became a fully settled farming society, with an economy centered on growing crops and raising animals.^[16]

During the Yangshao period, advancements in farming techniques and crop cultivation led to improvements in agricultural productivity. Dryland agriculture was of importance to the Yangshao culture starting in the middle Yangshao culture period. The introduction of mixed farming across more sites played a crucial role in shifting subsistence practices away from gathering. As a result, agriculture became the dominant means of sustenance, ultimately laying the foundation for the development of an agricultural society in the Central Plain.^[15]

Archaeological research indicates that beer brewing and communal feasting were integral aspects of Yangshao culture. Evidence suggests that Yangshao people produced beer primarily using common millet and rice, while foxtail millet was notably absent from the brewing process. These brewing practices, along with associated social gatherings, indicate that rice may have been a valuable resource to larger Yangshao settlements.^[15]

The Yangshao people kept pigs and dogs. Sheep, goats, and cattle are found much more rarely.^[17] Reared domestic pigs were the main source of meat for the Yangshao people, while a small amount of hunted animals were also included in their diet.^[15] They may also have practiced an early form of sericulture.^[17]

The Yangshao people gradually introduced rice into young children's diets alongside foxtail millet and broomcorn millet. This practice was used for both weaning and post-weaning transitional foods, leading to variations in early childhood nutrition and distinct feeding practices among the Yangshao.^[16]

Tools

The Yangshao would hunt and fish with stone tools. Their stone tools were polished and highly specialized.^[17]

During the Yangshao period, the development of stone axe types flourished in the Guanzhong Plain. By the late Yangshao period, stone axes began to show specialized functions, with some used for woodworking and others for chopping. Differences in raw materials suggest these tools were produced and used by different groups.^[19]

Shihushan stone knives, produced during the Yangshao period, are rectangular and simply made, often with side notches. Usually crafted from fine sandstone, these tools were likely used to process soft materials like plants, and sometimes for cutting grains.^[20]

Crafts

The Yangshao culture crafted pottery: 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. Pottery style emerging from the Yangshao culture spread westward to the Majiayao culture, and then further to Xinjiang and Central Asia.^[21]

Pottery production during the Yangshao period saw development at an increased pace, leading to the creation of unique ceramic forms. One example is the jiandiping amphora, recognized by its narrow opening, cone-shaped base, and varied rim styles. The amphorae may have been used to ferment grain to create alcoholic beverages, although research also suggests that amphorae were rather used to filter impurities in alcoholic beverages.^[22] The pottery patterns changed with time. In the beginning of the Yangshao culture, there was a preference for fish patterns, but it later changed to more abstract, streamlined, and geometric patterns in the middle period and monochromic fashion in the late period.^[23]

The Yangshao culture produced silk to a small degree and wove hemp. 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.

Bowl of the Banpo culture (first stage of the Yangshao culture), with geometrial human face motif and fish, 4500–3500 BC, Shaanxi.^[24]^[25]^[26]

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Structures

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During the early Yangshao culture, a variety of architectural styles emerged, reflecting the development of construction techniques. Housing structures were categorized into five main types: small and medium round houses, small and medium square or rectangular houses, and large square dwellings. These buildings were constructed either as semi-subterranean homes, which provided insulation, or as ground-level structures. Based on evidence such as the presence of communal storage pits and the performance of shared tasks within public structures, it is likely that certain elements of production and distribution were managed collectively. These large public buildings may have served as hubs for community-based activities.

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.

In the late Yangshao period, architecture underwent significant changes. Square ground-level houses became the most common form, and longhouses with multiple rooms began to appear. Some homes featured floors covered with a layer of lime. Organizational features first seen in the middle Yangshao period persisted, including large settlements associated with public buildings resembling palaces. This period also saw the emergence of the first walled-town site in the Yellow River valley.

Excavations at various Yangshao sites have uncovered large structures that appear to have served as public ritual spaces rather than homes for elites. It was not until the late Longshan culture that substantial palace-like residences for elites were built at locations such as Guchengzhai and Taosi, indicating the early stages of residential separation between social classes.^[11]

Residential homes were typically built by digging a rounded rectangular pit around one meter 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.^[14]

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Social structure

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Beishouling pottery head, 5000-3000 BCE. Baoji, Shaanxi

Liujiahe pottery head, 5000-3000 BCE, Ankang city, Shaanxi

Archaeological evidence suggests that the social organization of the Yangshao culture underwent significant changes over time. In the early Yangshao period, society was primarily structured around clans connected by blood ties. However, as private ownership emerged in the later Yangshao period, these clan-based communities gradually gave way to smaller, independent family units. The development of monogamous, self-sufficient households led to distinct economic practices, with each family managing its own production methods and resources.^[16]

Although early reports suggested a matriarchal culture,^[27] others argue that it was a society in transition from matriarchy to patriarchy, while still others believe it to have been patriarchal. The debate hinges on differing interpretations of burial practices.^[28]^[29] Another interpretation is that the Yangshao culture had a parallel with a segmentary lineage system.^[30] New archeological sites, specially in the Xipo site, revealed very large houses and tombs with rich furnishes. This suggest the late Yangshao culture was an early form of chiefdom.^[31]

A Marxist analysis of the Yangshao site suggests that the inhabitants practiced punaluan marriage.^[32]

In the Yangshao culture, it was a common mortuary practice to place deceased children in funerary urns and bury them near the foundations of houses.^[11] All the children buried were girls.^[32]

The discovery of a Chinese dragon statue dating back to the fifth millennium BC in the Yangshao culture makes it the world's oldest known dragon depiction,.^[33]

A few Yangshao pottery heads, including one found in Liujiahe in Ankang, southern Shaanxi, "clearly show Caucasian characteristics", with "a long and large nose, deep eyes and narrow face". These archaeological finds suggest that during the prehistorical period different ethnic groups from west and east may have interacted in the region of the Wei River valley.^[34]

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Archaeological sites

Pre-
Harappan
culture

Samara
culture

Kelteminar
culture

Western
Steppe
Herders

Ancient
Northeast Asians

Xinle

Yangshao culture and contemporary cultures and polities c. 5000 BC

Yangshao, in Mianchi County, Sanmenxia, western Henan, the place which gave the culture its name, has a museum next to the archaeological site.^[35] The archaeological site of the village of Banpo near Xi'an is one of the best-known ditch-enclosed settlements of the Yangshao. Another major settlement called Jiangzhai 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,^[36] but such interpretations are not widely accepted.^[37]

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Artifacts

Ceramics
Ding, decorated with a string pattern
Cordmarked amphora; 4800 BC (Banpo phase); Guimet Museum (Paris)
Large water vessel of the late Yangshao culture or early Majiayao; from Shaanxi, Shanxi or Gansu province; 4th millennium BC; Rietberg Museum (Zürich, Switzerland)
Red amphora with carrying handles; circa 5000 - 3000 BC; Honolulu Museum of Art (USA)
Pot; painted earthenware; in the Shijia style; Shaanxi History Museum
Pot; painted earthenware; height: 27.8 cm; in the Shijia style; Shaanxi History Museum
Dotted pottery pot, semi-mountain type; dating from 4700 to 4300 years; Gansu Provincial Museum
Painted pottery basin; 5000-3000 BC; National Museum of China
Pots, Yangshao culture; Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (Östasiatiska museet), Stockholm.
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
Pottery pot with human and fish design, Shaanxi province.
Coloured pottery pot depicting a stork, a fish, and a stone axe. Yangshao culture, Miaodigou phase (3900-3000 BC). Part of the List of Chinese cultural relics forbidden to be exhibited abroad.^[38]
Miaodigou Culture mask, 3500 BC
Puyang Dragon Burial, with the earliest depiction of a Dragon in China, Yangshao culture