Page 134 - Middle Georgia State University - Knighted 2019

Sichuan, and Southern Hills.2 The Chinese Plains would become the cradle of Chinese
civilization in its Neolithic period during the years 6000 BCE to 2000 BCE, and the region in
which numerous dynasties would rise and fall throughout its history. The two most famous
Neolithic cultures to develop were the Yangshao culture and the Longshan culture. The
Yangshao began in 5000 BCE and ended in 3000 BCE.

The culture developed along the Yellow River Valley, a culture of nomadic
agriculturalists that used mobile villages to shift from different areas when their current
farmland’s fertility began to diminish. After a time, the Yangshao would return to these areas
when the soil regained its fertility. These villages’ religion and government structure were
intricately linked. The Yangshao followed a clan-based government and would select only a few
members of their society to honor as ancestors. Women who married outside of the clan and the
poor men of society were excluded from this rite. This practice was combined with their
shamanist religion. The Yangshao culture lasted for two thousand years, until a combination of
interacting with other cultures and changes in the climate and economy would lead to its
inevitable demise and the rise of even greater culture, the Longshan culture.3

The Longshan culture began in 3000 BCE and ended 2000 BCE, forming in the Central
Plains and replacing the Yangshao as the dominant culture in Neolithic China. A short life span
did little to hinder the impact of the culture on ancient China. The change of cultures was not that
of the invasions of people of the Longshan, but that as the Yangshao began to decline the
remnants of the Yangshao were absorbed by the Longshan. Longshan moved into the new lands
and developed fortified settlements equipped with moats and earth walls. The Longshan societal
norms were hierarchical, as is evident from archaeological burial sites. They maintained the clan

2 Dr. Larry Israel, “TC2NEOLITHICBRONZEAGE”, Lecture, 2018.
3 Tanner, China: A History, vol. 1 (Indiana: Hackett Publishing, 2010), 20-23.

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