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China and the steppe: reception and resistance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2017

Jessica Rawson
Jessica Rawson*
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford, 34–36 Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PG, UK (Email: jessica.rawson@merton.ox.ac.uk)
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Abstract

The development of several key technologies in China—bronze and iron metallurgy and horse-drawn chariots—arose out of the relations of central China, of the Erlitou period (c. 1700–1500 BC), the Shang (c. 1500–1046 BC) and the Zhou (1046–771 BC) dynasties, with their neighbours in the steppe. Intermediaries in these exchanges were disparate groups in a broad border area of relatively high land around the heart of China, the Central Plains. The societies of central China were already so advanced that, when these foreign innovations were adopted, they were transformed within highly organised social and cultural systems.

Keywords

ChinaEurasian steppebronzegoldironchariotsinnovationmass-production
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 91 , Issue 356 , April 2017 , pp. 375 - 388
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2017 

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