Erlitou

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Coordinates: 34 ° 40 '  N , 112 ° 24'  E

Map of Erlitou Culture , Erlitou, Yanshi, Henan Province

Erlitou ( Chinese  二 里頭  /  二 里头 , Pinyin èrlǐtóu ) is a Bronze Age site a few kilometers east of Luoyang in Henan . The Erlitou phase or Erlitou culture of the same name is named after her and some researchers suspect that it may have been a city of the Xia dynasty .

The place was already inhabited by the pre-Bronze Age Longshan culture . Radiocarbon measurements have for the oldest phase around 1900 BC. BC, which supports the thesis that it was a Xia city, possibly a capital. In the third phase (around 1625 BC) traces of the Shang culture can be found, those that later overthrew the Xia and found the Shang dynasty .

Overall, the finds are assigned to four phases, which encompass the entire area of ​​the Xia dynasty and the beginnings of the Shang dynasty. In the beginning, the Longshan culture was the basis, and it is believed that Erlitou was inhabited during the entire period of bronze development. And thus at the time when the first cities and state systems were formed on Chinese soil.

In the center there was a terrace (100 × 108 m²) built out of compacted earth and on top of it a second, which provided the basis for a 360 m² building, which had a column around the outside. This could have been a palace or a temple.

A second such facility, albeit a little smaller (73 × 58 m²), was excavated nearby, as were smaller houses that also stood on earth pedestals, many storage rooms and a few graves.

Walls, which are otherwise characteristic of the Chinese area, have not been found to this day.

The Erlitou site ( 二 里头 遗址 , Erlitou yizhi ) in Yanshi ( 偃师 市 ) has been on the list of monuments of the People's Republic of China (3-197) since 1988 .

See also

literature

Web links