What was China like in Erlitou Culture Period?

Erlitou culture refers to an archaeological cultural relic represented by Erlitou site in Yanshi, Henan Province, which is an archaeological culture between Longshan culture and Erligang culture in Henan Province. This archaeological culture is mainly distributed in southern Shanxi and western Henan, especially Erlitou cultural site, which is the most representative and typical, hence its name. However, do you know what China was like in Erlitou culture period? What is its development process? Now, please go back to that period with Bian Xiao and see what China was like in Erlitou culture period and its development process.

China in Erlitou Culture Period

Erlitou culture period is the development stage of various archaeological cultures, which summarizes the unbalanced and lagging characteristics of archaeological culture development in this period. It reveals the process and trend of cultural exchange centered on Erlitou culture and the interaction between peripheral archaeological cultures. The development and change of culture is helpful to further explore the social and historical situation of this period. From a dynamic point of view, we can see that the cultural pattern of Erlitou culture period inherited and developed China's cultural tradition of "multiple integration".

The excavation of Erlitou site established Erlitou culture, which proved that Erlitou site was a capital-scale site earlier than Zhengzhou shopping mall, and Erlitou site and Erlitou culture became recognized as the key research objects for exploring Xia culture. The excavation of Erlitou site, Linru Jingshan Park, Yuzhou Wadian, Xinmixinzhai, Gongyi Chai Shao and Dengfeng Wang Chenggang confirmed the relative chronological relationship that Erlitou culture was earlier than Erligang Shang culture and later than Longshan culture in the Central Plains, and its cultural characteristics were inherited to some extent, which also provided important clues for exploring Xia culture and the capital of Xia Dynasty.

Erlitou culture not only includes Erlitou site culture, but also includes the cultural features reflected by hundreds of sites with Erlitou site cultural characteristics outside Erlitou site. Erlitou site and Erlitou culture have been recognized as the key research objects to explore Xia culture.

The development of Erlitou culture

Erlitou site is a capital site in the late Xia Dynasty, with a total area of about 3 square kilometers. The remains can be divided into four periods. There are palaces, residential areas, pottery workshops, bronze workshops, caves, tombs and other relics found in the site. A large number of stone tools, pottery, jade articles, bronzes, bone horns, mussels and other relics have been unearthed, among which bronze Jue is the earliest known bronze container in China.

Through years of field archaeological work and comprehensive research, the development order of Yangshao culture in the Central Plains → Longshan culture in the Central Plains → Erlitou culture → Erligang Shang culture was established, and the excavation scope of Xia culture was concentrated on the relevant remains of Longshan culture and Erlitou culture in central and western Henan and southwestern Shanxi.

The pottery of Erlitou culture is mainly composed of sand-mixed gray pottery and mud-gray pottery, and the decorative pattern is mainly rope pattern. Deep-bellied pot, round-bellied pot, tripod, retort, retort, flat-bottomed pot for food containers, three-legged vegetables, beans, reeds, wine containers, jars, jars, deep-bellied pots for containers, large-mouthed pots and various jars and jars are carved by food processors. According to the evolution of pottery, Erlitou culture is divided into four consecutive periods; It is also divided into several local types because of the regional differences of cultural factors dominated by pottery.

Erlitou culture, on the basis of absorbing cultural factors from all over the country, had a great cultural influence on the surrounding areas, and became the first "core culture" in East Asia to enter the Bronze Age, laying the foundation for the future "China" world.