List of Neolithic cultures of China explained

This is a list of Neolithic cultures of China that have been unearthed by archaeologists. They are sorted in chronological order from earliest to latest and are followed by a schematic visualization of these cultures.

It would seem that the definition of Neolithic in China is undergoing changes. The discovery in 2012 of pottery about 20,000 years BC indicates that this measure alone can no longer be used to define the period.^[1] It will fall to the more difficult task of determining when cereal domestication started.

List

Dates (BCE)	English name	Chinese name	Modern-day name and location
18000–7000	Xianren Cave culture (Paleolithic)		Wannian County, Shangrao, Jiangxi
8500–7700	Nanzhuangtou culture		Yellow River region in southern Hebei
7500–6100	Pengtoushan culture		central Yangtze region in northwestern Hunan
7000–5000	Peiligang culture		Yi-Luo river basin valley in Henan
6500–5500	Houli culture		Shandong
6200–5400	Xinglongwa culture		Inner Mongolia-Liaoning border
6000–5000	Kuahuqiao culture		Zhejiang
6000–5500	Cishan culture		southern Hebei
5800–5400	Dadiwan culture		Gansu and western Shaanxi
5500–4800	Xinle culture		lower Liao River on the Liaodong Peninsula
5400–4500	Zhaobaogou culture		Luan River valley in Inner Mongolia and northern Hebei
5300–4100	Beixin culture		Shandong
5000–4500	Hemudu culture		Yuyao and Zhoushan, Zhejiang
5000–3000	Daxi culture		Three Gorges region
5000–3000	Majiabang culture		Lake Tai area and north of Hangzhou Bay
5000–3000	Yangshao culture		Henan, Shaanxi, and Shanxi
4700–2900	Hongshan culture		Inner Mongolia, Liaoning, and Hebei
4100–2600	Dawenkou culture		Shandong, Anhui, Henan, and Jiangsu
3800–3300	Songze culture		Lake Tai area
3400–2250	Liangzhu culture		Yangtze River Delta
3100–2700	Majiayao culture		upper Yellow River region in Gansu and Qinghai
3100–2700	Qujialing culture		middle Yangtze region in Hubei and Hunan
3000–2000	Longshan culture		central and lower Yellow River
2800–2000	Baodun culture		Chengdu Plain
2500–2000	Shijiahe culture		middle Yangtze region in Hubei
1900–1500	Yueshi culture		lower Yellow River region in Shandong
1600–1400	Erligang culture		North China Plain

Schematic outline

These cultures existed for the period from 8500 to 1500 BC. Neolithic cultures remain unmarked and Bronze Age cultures (from 2000 BC) are marked with *. There are many differences in opinion on the dating for these cultures, so the dates chosen here are tentative:

Year (BC)	North- east China (1)	Upper Yellow River (2)	Middle Yellow River (3)	Lower- Yellow River (4)	Lower- Yangtze (5)	Middle- Yangtze (6)	Sichuan (7)	Southeast China (8)	South- west China (9)
8500			Nanzhuangtou
			8500–7700
8000
7500
7000
						(including
6500		Dadiwan	Peiligang	Houli		and Zaoshi)		Zengpiyan
	Xinglongwa	Laoguantai	Cishan	6500–5500		7000–5800		7000–5500
	6200–5400	Baijia	Jiahu
6000		6500–5000	Lijiacun		Kuahuqiao
			6500–5000		6000–5000
5500
				Beixin
	Xinle			5300–4500
5000	5300–4800		Yangshao		Hemudu	Daxi		Dapenkeng
			5000–3000		5000–3400	5000–3300		Fuguodun
					Majiabang			5000–3000
4500	Zhaobaogou				5000–4000
	4500–4000			Dawenkou	Songze
				4300–2600	4000–3000
4000
3500						Qujialing
	Hongshan					3500–2600	Yingpanshan
	(incl. Fuhe)	Majiayao			Liangzhu		3100-?
3000	3400–2300	3300–2700			3200–1800			Tanishan
		Banshan				Shijiahe	Baodun	Shixia
		2700–2400	Longshan			2500–2000	2800–2000	Nianyuzhuan
2500		Machang	2800–2000	Longshan		Qinglongquan		Qinglongquan
		2400–2000		2600–2000				Hedang	Baiyangcun
		Qijia				Longshan		3000-?	2200–2100
2000	Xiajiadian	2300–1800	2300-1800			2400–2000			Dalongtan
	2000–300		Erlitou	Yueshi					2100–2000
		Siba	1900–1500	1900–1500	Maqiao
1500		1950–1500	Erligang 1600–1400		1800–1200		Sanxingdui 1700-1150

For this schematic outline of its neolithic cultures China has been divided into the following nine parts:

1. Northeast China: Inner Mongolia, Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning.
2. Northwest China (Upper Yellow River): Gansu, Qinghai and western part of Shaanxi.
3. North-central China (Middle Yellow River): Shanxi, Hebei, western part of Henan and eastern part of Shaanxi.
4. Eastern China (lower Yellow River): Shandong, Anhui, northern part of Jiangsu and eastern part Henan.
5. East-south-eastern China (lower Yangtze): Zhejiang and biggest part of Jiangsu.
6. South-central China (middle Yangtze): Hubei and northern part of Hunan.
7. Sichuan and upper Yangtze.
8. Southeast China: Fujian, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guangxi, southern part of Hunan, lower Red River in the northern part of Vietnam and the island of Taiwan.
9. Southwest China: Yunnan and Guizhou.

See also

• History of China
• List of Bronze Age sites in China
• List of Palaeolithic sites in China
• List of inventions and discoveries of Neolithic China
• Neolithic signs in China
• Prehistory of China
• Prehistoric Beifudi site
• Three Sovereigns and Five Emperors
• Xia dynasty

Further reading

• Book: Chang, Kwang-chih . The archaeology of ancient China . Yale University Press . New Haven, Conn . 1986 . 0-300-03784-8 .
• Book: Loewe, Michael . The Cambridge history of ancient China:from the origins of civilization to 221 B.C . Cambridge University Press . Cambridge, UK New York . 1999 . 0-521-47030-7 .
• Book: Zhonghu . H. . Bonjean . A.P.A. . Cereals in China . Cimmyt . 978-970-648-177-1 . 2017-07-16.
• Book: Higham, Charles . The Bronze Age of Southeast Asia . Cambridge University Press . Cambridge England . 1996 . 0-521-49660-8 .
• Book: Liu, Li . The Chinese neolithic:trajectories to early states . Cambridge University Press . Cambridge, UK New York . 2004 . 0-521-81184-8 .
• Liu, Li; Chen, Xingcan (eds). 2012. The archaeology of China: from the late paleolithic to the early bronze age. Cambridge University Press.
• Underhill, Anne P (ed). 2013. A companion to Chinese archaeology. Blackwell Publishing.
• Book: Maisels, Charles . Early civilizations of the old world:the formative histories of Egypt, the Levant, Mesopotamia, India, and China . Routledge . London New York . 1999 . 0-415-10976-0 .
• Book: Scarre, Christopher . The human past:world prehistory & the development of human societies . Thames & Hudson . New York, N.Y . 2005 . 0-500-28531-4 . registration .

chapter 7, Higham, Charles, 'East Asian Agriculture and Its Impact', p.234-264.

chapter 15, Higham, Charles, 'Complex Societies of East and Southeast Asia', p.552-594

Notes and References

1. Wu . Xiaohong . Zhang . Chi . Goldberg . Paul . Cohen . David . Pan . Yan . Arpin . Trina . Bar-Yosef . Ofer . 3 . Early Pottery at 20,000 Years Ago in Xianrendong Cave, China . Science . 29 June 2012 . 336 . 6089 . 1696–1700 . 10.1126/science.1218643 . 22745428 . 2012Sci...336.1696W . 37666548 . 26 April 2022 . live . https://web.archive.org/web/20220426180328/https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Paul-Goldberg-3/publication/228089260_Early_Pottery_at_20000_Years_Ago_in_Xianrendong_Cave_China/links/0912f508ec8ac242a1000000/Early-Pottery-at-20-000-Years-Ago-in-Xianrendong-Cave-China.pdf . 26 April 2022.