The History of the Xiajiadain Period in Ancient China

Before the major dynasties of ancient Chinese history, there were several Neolithic cultures that sprang up around the valleys of the Yangtze and Yellow Rivers. These ancient civilizations, known as cultures, established agricultural communities in the Bronze Age which later gave way to better known cultures such as the Shang civilization.

The Lower Xiajiadain culture was established in Inner Mongolia and Liaoning and Hebei provinces in the north of China. At the time it emerged (around 2200 BCE) it was contemporary with the Longshan culture. Excavations have separated the Xiajiadain period into three phrases with the known 2000 sites falling into one of the three categories, based on size and the presence of defences.

Some Xiajiadain sites had large walls for protection; the largest site covers more than 10 ha (25 acres). Smaller defended sites and those without walls clustered around a large central place. An example of this can be found at Chijiayingzi. A number of these stone walls included bastions of stone or stamped earth and had plastered walls and floors.

Different locations had slight variations. For example, in Sifendi in Inner Mongolia, houses were constructed as circular buildings with a diameter of not more than 4m (13ft), dominated by a hearth in the middle of the room.

The Xiajiadain culture was based on millet cultivation and many storage pits were likely to have been dug to store millet for the winter period. Archaeologists have unearthed large amounts of cultural implements, such as stone hoes, sickles, spades made from animal shoulder bones, and bones from several types of animals. The animal bones strongly indicate that the Xiajiadain people had raised livestock as well as hunting deer. From grave excavations, it appears pigs were placed with the bodies as ritual offerings.

Graves have been found at many sites belonging to the Xiajiadain culture. At Dadianzi, some 800 burials have been excavated. The elite classes were placed in large graves of up to 8.9m (29ft) where a wooden coffin was placed at the bottom. On top of the coffin finely painted ceramic vessels and limbs of domestic pigs were placed in niches at the side. Archaeologists have also found polished stone battle-axes, lacquer-ware, rare jades, ornaments made from bronze and skeletons of dogs and pigs.

Not only can the Xiajiadain culture tell us what the society was like, it can also tell us what the conditions were like to live in at the time. “Pollen collected from graves of the Lower Xiajiadian period, however, suggests that conditions did not significantly deteriorate during the 5th and 4th millennia B.P. Analysis of pollen collected from Lower Xiajiadian graves showed that in some samples, tree pollen accounted for up to 99% of the total pollen, while in others bush and grass pollen accounted for 95% of the pollen. Among the trees, pine and other polipodia dominated the pollen spectrum. This suggests that the area had a wooded environment with patches of grassland and agricultural fields. On the basis of the types and relative frequencies of plants identified, a wetter environment than the present is suggested”.

The Xiajiadain period was a remarkable period in Chinese history; because of this ancient society, it is believed they were, in part, the ancestors of the Shang civilization.

Bibliography:

Linduff, Katheryn. M., Drennan, Robert D. & Shelach, Gideon (2002-2004) Early Complex Societies in NE China: The Chifeng International Collaborative Archaeological Research Project, Journal of Field Archaeology, Boston University.

Higham, Charles (2005) The Human Past – Complex Societies of East and Southeast Asia, Thames & Hudson, London.

The Songze Culture

In the Yangzi River Valley during the Neolithic period of Chinese history, there emerged a series of different cultures including the Songze, the Majiabang, the Chengbeixi, the Daxi and the Yangshao. At this time, these early cultures interacted with each other, and through these exchanges new cultures prang up one after another, each expanding and evolving in their turn.

The Songze culture was a later stage of the Majiabang culture (which emerged around c.5000 BCE) and materialized in the lower Yangzi region around c.4000 BCE and was given its name after the site of Songze in Shanghai. The general dates in which the Songze culture flourished is usually given is between 3400 – 3300 BCE and it was these people that are considered to be one of the ancestors of the Shanghai people.

The site has been able to give us great insight into the weather conditions during the time that the Songze culture flourished. Scholars have determined from pollen samples that indicate that in the sixth millennium BCE temperatures w ere 2 -3 degrees C higher than at present and that the Yangtze delta was at an early stage of formation. In the fifth millennium BCE (which has been determined as the middle cultural layer of Songze) the climate was slightly cooler and deciduous tree species had replaced an early forest dominated by broadleaf evergreen oak trees (Castanopsis and Quercus glauca). By the middle cultural layer, the final period of the Neolithic (third millennium BCE), the annual mean temperature is believed to have been 1 – 2 degrees C higher.

The site of Songze has given us some remarkable insights into the lives of the Neolithic people. The cemetery that was excavated revealed an increase of mortuary offerings from those found at Majiabang sites. Archaeologists uncovered bodies that were laid out in rows or clusters. The women were found to be buried with pieces of jade placed in their mouths and often wearing other jade ornaments.

Some individuals were buried more lavishly than others; for example, at the Beiyinyanying site in Nanjing, 225 burials were uncovered. There were some which wore exceptional agate and jade ornaments. There were pottery vessels and stone axes placed above the head and below the feet. When examining the vessels and the pieces of jade at this site, scholars noticed that the quality of these pieces were far higher than that of those found at Majiabang sites.

The Songze culture represents an important stage in Chinese Neolithic history. One of these stages was the creation of the quality and quantity of jade and the ritual element of upper-class graves which signalled the early stages of state formation.

Bibliography:

Higham, Charles (2005) The Human Past – East Asian Agriculture and Its Impact, Thames & Hudson, London.

Pearson, Richard (1981) Social Complexity in Chinese Coastal Neolithic Sites, Science, American Association for the advancement of Science.

Neolithic Cultures in the Yangzi River Valley

Neolithic China offers us great insight into pre-historical China as well as being important for the understanding of early rice farming. This time, place and people have fascinated scholars for decades. For this article, I will discuss three Neolithic cultures in the Yangzi River Valley, these being the Daxi, the Meudu and the Songze cultures.

Neolithic settlements in the Yangzi River Valley were based on millet cultivation proliferated, and a pattern of increasing cultural complexity that culminated in the formation of early states can be identified.

The Daxi culture can be dated around 4500 – 3300 BCE when village sites began to increase both in size and range. The Daxi culture is best known around the reign of Lake Dongting, which then spread out from there to both west and east. The terrain would have been swampy, suitable for the growing of rice fields and archaeological evidence for agricultural intensification through plowing has been established. Domestic pig and cattle were tended as well.

The Daxi Culture is contemporaneous with the Middle and Late Yangshao Culture (5200 – 3000 BCE) and at the Daxi site in Sichuan Province there are burials in narrow shafts apparently unique to the region. However, the most important Daxi site is at Chengtoushan where a series of excavations in the 1990’s revealed an early walled town. This was dated to 4000 BCE, with modifications to the walls undertaken at least three times. Here, 700 burials have been excavated. The majority of these burials were poor, but a number of them contained grave goods, including a body with two jade pendants and 50 pottery vessels (, p.246). Near the eastern wall, early rice fields were found, indicating the importance of rice farming at this time.

The Hemudu Culture had cultivated rice as early as 5000 BCE, as is shown by the archaeological evidence at the site of Hemudu, which, until Pengtoushan, was the oldest known site of rice cultivation.

The site is located around 3.3 ft above sea level, in the Lower valley of the Hangzhou River. Currently, only 5% of this site has been excavated (, p.247), yet the information revealed has been detrimental in the understanding of early rice farming. There are four layers to this site, beginning around 5000 BCE and ending around 3000 BCE. Houses have also been unearthed, one measuring 23 meters long by 7 meters deep with a veranda. It has been suggested by scholars that if these houses were built across the rest of the site, then Hemudu would have held a large population, possibly thousands of people.

The pottery manufactured by the Hemudu was handmade ware with black, tempered with charcoal powder from tempering with plant stems and leaves. The most common type of Hemudu pottery found is the cooking pot, sometimes with a waist ring. Other forms are urns, bowls, shallow plates, basins, vessel lids, and pot supports.

The economy of the Hemudu culture was based on rice cultivation, although it should be noted that these people attained a high level of technological skill. This is illustrated by the number of bone shuttles, needles and spindle whorls found at the site.

The Songze culture was located on the margins of Lake Tai, with sites in northern Zhejiang and southern Jiangsu provinces, dated around 4200 – 3000 BCE. The Songze Culture is considered a successor phase to Hemudu, which was immediately to the south and the later stage of the Majiabang culture.

The modern day city of Shanghai was first occupied by the Songze around 4000 BCE, and the cemeteries here have revealed interesting information. Burials were oriented with the head to the southeast, rather than, as before with earlier cultures, to the north. There were more grave goods buried with the bodies, with tripod vessels as standard. One of the earliest boat coffins found in China is from the Songze Culture at Jiaxing.

Houses were built on raised ground that allowed access to the wet lowlands for rice cultivation as well as marshes and lakes for hunting and fishing.

Pollen data from the Songze site in the Yangtze delta indicate that in the sixth millennium BCE temperatures were 2 to 3 degrees C higher than at present and that the Yangtze delta was at an early stage of formation. The final period of the Neolithic the annual mean temperature is thought to have been 1 to 2 degrees C higher.

The history of Neolithic cultures in the Yangzi River Valley is important to the study, not only of Neolithic China, but also of rice cultivation and Chinese history as a whole. These cultures are important as they pave the way for the later Chinese Dynasties that make China so fascinating to all audiences.

Bibliography:

Higham, Charles (2005) The Human Past – East Asian Agriculture and It’s Impact, Thames & Hudson, London.

Pearson, Richard (1981) Social Complexity in Chinese Coastal Neolithic Sites, Science, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Zhimin, An (1988) Archaeological Research on Neolithic China, Current Anthropology, The University on behalf of Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research.