Qijia culture

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Bronze mirror from the Quijia culture
Neolithic cultures of China
Mesolithic
Neolithic
Shangshan culture 11000-9000 cal BP
Zaoshi culture of the lower class 7500-7000 BC Chr.
Pengtoushan culture 7500-6100 BC Chr.
Gaomiao culture 7400-7100 BC Chr.
Zhaobaogou culture 7000-6400 BC Chr.
Hemudu culture 7000-4500 BC BC / 5000–3300 BC Chr.
Houli culture 6250-5850 BC Chr.
Xinglongwa culture 6200-5400 BC Chr.
Laoguantai culture also Dadiwan-I culture 6000-5000 BC BC / 6000-3000 BC Chr.
Dadiwan culture 5800-3000 BC Chr.
Chengbeixi culture 5800-4700 BC Chr.
Peiligang culture 5600-4900 BC Chr.
Xinle culture 5500-4800 BC Chr.
Cishan culture 5400-5100 BC Chr.
Beixin culture 5400-4400 BC Chr.
Qingliangang culture 5400-4400 BC Chr.
Tangjiagang culture 5050-4450 BC Chr.
Baiyangcun culture 5000-3700 BC Chr.
Yangshao culture also Miaodigou-I culture 5000-2000 BC Chr.
Yingpanshan culture 5000 –... v. Chr.
Caiyuan culture 4800-3900 BC Chr.
Majiabang culture 4750-3700 BC Chr.
Hongshan culture 4700-2900 BC Chr.
Daxi culture 4400-3300 BC Chr.
Dawenkou culture 4100-2600 BC Chr.
Beiyinyangying culture 4000-3000 BC Chr.
Songze culture 3900-3200 BC Chr.
Miaozigou culture 3500-3000 BC Chr.
Liangzhu culture 3400-2000 BC Chr.
Longshan culture also Miaodigou II culture 3200-1850 BC Chr.
Shanbei culture 3050-2550 BC Chr.
Majiayao culture 3000-2000 BC Chr.
Xiaoheyan culture 3000-2000 BC Chr.
Tanshishan culture 3000-2000 BC Chr.
Shixia culture 2900-2700 BC Chr.
Qujialing culture 2750-2650 BC Chr.
Shijiahe culture 2600-2000 BC Chr.
Banshan Machang culture 2500-2000 BC Chr.
Baodun culture 2500-1700 BC Chr.
Keshengzhuang II culture 2300-2000 BC Chr.
Zhukaigou culture ...– 1500 BC Chr.
Qijia culture 2000 –... v. Chr.
Qugong culture v. Chr.
Shangzhai culture v. Chr.
Xinkailiu culture v. Chr.
Youziling culture v. Chr.
Kuahuqiao culture v. Chr.
Lijiacun culture v. Chr.
Pianbaozi culture v. Chr.
Banpo culture v. Chr.
Shijia culture v. Chr.
Miaodigou culture v. Chr.
Xiwangcun culture v. Chr.
Qinwangzhai culture v. Chr.
Hougang culture v. Chr.
Dasikongcun culture v. Chr.
Xiawanggang culture v. Chr.
Changguogou culture v. Chr.
Copper Age

The Qijia culture ( Chinese  齐家 文化 , Pinyin Qíjiā Wénhuà , English Qijia Culture ) was a Neolithic to Chalcolithic culture in China that existed between about 2000 and 1600 BC. Existed and possibly developed copper processing. It was after the 1924 discovered locality Qijiaping named (齐家坪) located in the area of greater community Qijia of the circle Guanghe in the province of Gansu is located. The first discoveries of remains of the Qijia culture go back to the Swedish archaeologist Johan Gunnar Andersson .

The Qijia culture was widespread in Gansu , west of Qinghai , south of Ningxia, and west of Inner Mongolia on the banks of the Yellow River and its tributaries, the catchment area of ​​the Wei He , Tao He , Daxia He, and Huang Shui rivers . A total of about 350 sites are known. The carriers of the Qijia culture settled in villages with adjoining cemeteries, their houses were rectangular and built at ground level, with some of them sunk into the ground inside. The fireplaces were round or square and were partly inside and partly outside the houses. The walls were made of wattle and daub, while the roofs were supported by pillars and beams. The dead were buried in individual graves, with grave goods in the form of stone or bone tools, oracle bones , pig jaws or ceramic vessels placed in the graves. In the cemeteries, rocks and remains of sacrificial animals were found in a circle.

At sites of the Qijia culture mainly yellow or yellow-brown ceramics ( xini hongtao细 泥 红陶 and jiasha hongtao夹砂 红陶 in the Chinese typology) with comb or furrow decorations were found. Typical of Qijia ceramics are jugs with a flattened bottom, a narrow neck, two curved, vertical handles and a widened beak. Some ceramic objects are painted with black muddy clay, with rhombic, checkerboard or reticulate patterns dominating, patterns with stylized frogs appear less often. Ceramic lids with knobs that are modeled on animal heads were also found. The tools of the Qijia culture were mainly made of stone and bone: knives, spoon-shaped eating utensils and axes made of bone were found. In addition, copper and bronze devices began to appear. It is possible, but not certain, that the Qijia culture was the origin of copper processing in Gansu. Around 50 copper artefacts were found in four sites , including tools such as knives, awls , chisels and hatchets, as well as jewelry such as finger rings and earrings. The objects were either forged or cast in molds with two valves , the copper was sometimes alloyed with lead or tin . A round mirror three millimeters thick and 89 millimeters in diameter, on the back of which there are two concentric star-shaped patterns, is an example of the development of copper processing by the Qijia people. Excavations in the Huoshaogou site , which is counted as a successor culture to Qijia, uncovered significantly more copper objects. The Erlitou culture may have adopted the technique of processing copper from the Qijia culture and developed it further.

While Anderson was of the opinion that he had found the earliest Neolithic Gansu culture with the Qijia culture , later excavations and radiocarbon dating have shown that Qijia was a successor to the western Yangshao culture and eastern at about the same time as later phases of the Longshan culture the distribution area of ​​the Qijia culture existed.

The Qijiaping site (Qijiaping yizhi, 齐 家坪 遗址) has been on the list of monuments of the People's Republic of China (4-21) since 1996 . Another site is the Dahezhuang site (Dàhézhuāng yízhǐ, 大 何 庄 遗址) in the south of Dahezhuang in Yongjing , also in Gansu Province.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Blent L. Pedersen: Qijia . In: Jane Turner (Ed.): The dictionary of art . tape 25 . Grove, Oxford 1996, ISBN 1-884446-00-0 , pp. 782 .
  2. ^ A b Robert Bagley: Shang Archeology . In: Michael Loewe and Edward L. Shaughnessy (Eds.): The Cambridge History of Ancient China . Cambridge University Press, 1999, ISBN 978-0-521-47030-8 , pp. 139-142 .