Zhukaigou culture
The Zhukaigou culture (朱 開溝 文化) was a late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age culture (up to approx. 1,500 BC) of the Ordos Plateau in Inner Mongolia , China .
The type locality was discovered near Ejin-Banner (Inner Mongolia) and excavated from 1977 to 1984. The Zhukaigou culture is the presumed forerunner of the Bronze Age section of the Ordos culture and consequently one of the first cultures of the northern region, with an expansion into northern and central Inner Mongolia, northern Shaanxi and northern Shanxi , with the Ordos region as Center. The introduction of metal processing is at the end of the 3rd millennium BC. At the same time, a higher quality of ceramic production can be observed.
The Zhukaigou culture was divided into five phases that correspond in time to the late stage of the Longshan culture , the early, middle and late stages of the Erlitou culture, and the early stage of the Erligang culture . The early phase was influenced by the Longshan culture, whereas the middle phase was influenced by the Qijia culture , as this is the period in which the first bronze artifacts appear in the remains of the Zhukaigou. They were farmers who mainly grew millet and raised sheep, pigs and cattle.
Artifacts of the Shang type suggest that contacts between the Zhukaigou and the Shang existed around the middle of the 2nd millennium BC, or that they spread to the north. Shang ritual vessels came to the Zhukaigou in the Erlitou (approx. 2,100-1,800 / 1500) and Erligang periods (approx. 1,500-1,400).
The end of the Zhukaigou is dated bronze objects from local production around 1,500 BC. Adopted. For this last period of the Zhukaigou a mixture of bronze objects of typical northern daggers, typical Shang ge (戈) dagger axes and knives that show characteristics of both cultures is typical.
See also
literature
- Katheryn M. Linduff: Zhukaigou, steppe culture and the rise of Chinese civilization. In: Antiquity Vol. 69 = No. 262, March 1995, ISSN 0003-598X , pp. 133-145.
- Michael Loewe , Edward L. Shaughnessy (Eds.): The Cambridge History of Ancient China. From the Origins of Civilization to 221 BC Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 1999, ISBN 0-521-47030-7 .