ARCH 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Liangzhu Culture, Shang Dynasty, Xia Dynasty

• School: Simon Fraser University
• Department: Archaeology
• Course: ARCH 100
• Professor: David Maxwell

Document Summary

The pattern in china is similar to the pattern elsewhere. Agriculture and animal domestication correlate with increasing population sizes. Villages grow larger, and we begin to see evidence for craft specialists. One early neolithic culture is called liangzhu. In china, the liangzhu culture goes through this process between roughly 5500 and. Craft specialists produce fine ceramics, baskets, woven silk items, and jade carvings. Most settlements are near rivers, which are used for transportation. By the end of longshan culture, we see: Craft specialization in ceramic and jade artifact production. Argued to be first dynasty in china, known from historic texts and archaeology. City of erlitou, south of yellow river (henan province) known from archaeology. Erlitou covers 300 hectares, and 4 occupations. Erlitou yielded elite burials with painted wooden coffins and bronze offerings. Specialist workshops for producing bronze, turquoise ornaments, jade & fine ceramics. Shang dynasty discovered archaeologically at site of anyang, the last shang capital.