Erlitou culture

The Erlitou culture is an early Bronze Age urban society and archaeological culture that existed in China from approximately 1900 to 1500 BC.^[1] The culture was named after the site discovered at Erlitou in Yanshi, Henan. The culture was widely spread throughout Henan and Shanxi and later appeared in Shaanxi and Hubei. Chinese archaeologists generally identify the Erlitou culture as the site of the Xia dynasty, but there is no firm evidence, such as writing, to substantiate such a linkage.^[2]

Erlitou site

Bronze jue (wine vessel)

The Erlitou culture may have evolved from the matrix of Longshan culture. Originally centered around Henan and Shanxi Province, the culture spread to Shaanxi and Hubei Province. After the rise of the Erligang culture, the site at Erlitou diminished in size but remained inhabited.^[3]

Discovered in 1959 by Xu Xusheng,^[4] Erlitou is the largest site associated with the culture, with palace buildings and bronze smelting workshops. Erlitou monopolized the production of ritual bronze vessels, including the earliest recovered dings.^[5] The city is on the Yi River, a tributary of the Luo River, which flows into the Yellow River. The city was 2.4 km by 1.9 km; however, because of flood damage only 3 km² (1.2 sq mi) are left.^[3]

Phases

Plan of palace 1 (phase III)

The site is divided into four phases, each of roughly a century.

During Phase I, covering 100 ha (250 acres), Erlitou was a rapidly growing regional center, but not yet an urban civilization.^[6]

Urbanization began in Phase II, expanding to 300 ha (740 acres). A palace area of 12 ha (30 acres) was demarcated by four roads. It contained the 150x50 m Palace 3, composed of three courtyards along a 150-meter axis, and Palace 5.^[3] A bronze foundry was established to the south of the palatial complex.^[7]

The city reached its peak in Phase III, and may have had a population of between 18,000 and 30,000.^[6] The palatial complex was surrounded by a 2-meter thick rammed earth wall and Palaces 1, 7, 8, 9 were built. Palaces 3 and 5 were abandoned and replaced by 4200 m² Palace 2 and Palace 4.^[8]

Phase IV was formerly considered a period of decline, but recent excavation has revealed continued building. Palace 6 was built as an extension of Palace 2, and Palaces 10 and 11 were built. Phase IV overlaps with the Lower phase of the Erligang culture (1600–1450 BC). Around 1600 BC, a walled city was built at Yanshi, about 6 km northeast of Erlitou.^[8]

Production of bronzes and other elite goods ceased at the end of Phase IV, at the same time as the Erligang city of Zhengzhou was established 85 km (53 mi) to the east. There is no evidence of destruction by fire or war, but during the Upper Erligang phase (1450–1300 BC) all the palaces were abandoned, and Erlitou was reduced to a village of 30 ha (74 acres).^[8]

Relation to traditional accounts

Traditional Xia sites (black) and Erlitou sites (red)

A major goal of archaeology in China has been the search for the capitals of the Xia and Shang dynasties described in traditional accounts as inhabiting the Yellow River valley.^[9] These originally oral traditions were recorded much later in histories such as the Bamboo Annals (c. 300 BC) and the Records of the Grand Historian (1st century BC), and their historicity, particularly regarding the Xia, is doubted by many scholars.^[10] The discovery of writing in the form of oracle bones at Yinxu in Anyang definitively established the site as the last capital of the Shang, but such evidence is unavailable for earlier sites.^[11]

Early symbols appearing on ceramics; from the site of Yanshi near Erlitou site

When Xu Xusheng first discovered Erlitou, he suggested that it was Bo, the first capital of the Shang under King Tang in the traditional account.^[12] Since the late 1970s speculation among Chinese achaeologists has focused on its relationship to the Xia. The traditional account of the overthrow of the Xia by the Shang has been identified with the ends of each of the four phases of the site by different authors. The Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project identified all four phases of Erlitou as Xia, and the construction of the Yanshi walled city as the founding of the Shang.^[13] Other scholars, particularly outside China, point to the lack of any firm evidence for such an identification, and argue that the historiographical focus of Chinese archaeology is unduly limiting.^[14]

References

Works cited

Allan, Sarah (2007). "Erlitou and the Formation of Chinese Civilization: Toward a New Paradigm". The Journal of Asian Studies (Cambridge University Press) 66 (2): 461–496. doi:10.1017/S002191180700054X.
Lee, Yun Kuen (2002). "Building the chronology of early Chinese history". Asian Perspectives: the Journal of Archaeology for Asia and the Pacific 41 (1): 15–42. doi:10.1353/asi.2002.0006.
Li, Jinhui (November 10, 2003). "Stunning Capital of Xia Dynasty Unearthed". China Through a Lens. Retrieved 2009-02-03.
Liu, Li (2004). The Chinese neolithic: trajectories to early states. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-81184-2.
Liu, Li; Xu, Hong (2007). "Rethinking Erlitou: legend, history and Chinese archaeology". Antiquity 81 (314): 886–901. Retrieved 2009.
Liu, Li; Chen, Xingcan (2012). The Archaeology of China: From the Late Paleolithic to the Early Bronze Age. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-64310-8.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Erlitou culture.

Bronze Age China, The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Exhibition brochure, National Gallery of Art.

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