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14C DATING OF THE ERLITOU SITE

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 September 2021

Xuelian Zhang Open the ORCID record for Xuelian Zhang [Opens in a new window] ,
Shihua Qiu ,
Lianzhen Cai ,
Hong Xu ,
Haitao Zhao  and
Guoliang Chen
Xuelian Zhang*
Affiliation:
The Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China
Shihua Qiu
Affiliation:
The Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China
Lianzhen Cai
Affiliation:
The Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China
Hong Xu
Affiliation:
The Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China
Haitao Zhao
Affiliation:
The Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China
Guoliang Chen
Affiliation:
The Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China
*
*Corresponding author. Email: xlzhang@cass.org.cn
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Abstract

This article outlines the research progress on radiocarbon (14C) dating of the Erlitou site. The Erlitou site, belonging to the Bronze Age, located in Yanshi, Henan province, China, was discovered by archaeologists in 1959 when they investigated the Xia people’s remains in the area where the Xia people lived according to the records of ancient documents. Since then, there has been a standing debate about whether the site belongs to the Xia or Shang dynasty. By the mid-1990s, several hundred discussion articles on the issue had been published, but the question was still unresolved. Therefore, evidence from the chronology has attracted a great amount of attention. The dating of the Erlitou site began in the 1970s, and since the Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project began in the mid-1990s, by application of wiggle-matching on the basis of improving the dating accuracy, the date of the Erlitou site has gradually become clear, which provides a basis for the archaeological research on the Xia and Shang dynasties.

Keywords

Bronze AgeErlitou siteradiocarbon datingwiggle-matching
Type
Review Article
Information
Radiocarbon , Volume 64 , Issue 4: Seven Decades of Radiocarbon Dating: Remembering the Pioneers & Looking Towards the Future Part 2 of 2 , August 2022 , pp. 819 - 832
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Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press for the Arizona Board of Regents on behalf of the University of Arizona

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