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China's major Late Neolithic centres and the rise of Erlitou

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 June 2019

Chi Zhang ,
A. Mark Pollard ,
Jessica Rawson ,
Limin Huan ,
Ruiliang Liu  and
Xiaojia Tang
Chi Zhang
Affiliation:
School of Archaeology, Center for the Study of Chinese Archaeology, Peking University, Beijing 100871, P.R. China
A. Mark Pollard
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford, 36 Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PG, UK
Jessica Rawson*
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford, 36 Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PG, UK
Limin Huan
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford, 36 Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PG, UK
Ruiliang Liu
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford, 36 Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PG, UK
Xiaojia Tang
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford, 36 Beaumont Street, Oxford OX1 2PG, UK
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: jessica.rawson@merton.ox.ac.uk)
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Abstract

Recent archaeological survey and excavation in China have demonstrated that large sites of the late fourth and third millennia BC were situated not on the Central Plains—where the later dynastic centres were located—but along the Yangtze and lower Yellow River Basins. Their decline in the late third and second millennia BC coincided with the growth of sites to the north of the Central Plains. Evidence for settlement size and a new chronology constructed from radiocarbon dates emphasise discontinuities in the geographic distribution of settlements, combined with continuity in cultural practices of ritual feasts and the use of symbolic jades.

Keywords

ChinaEurasiaErlitouNeolithicsettlementvessel setsjades
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 93 , Issue 369 , June 2019 , pp. 588 - 603
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2019 

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