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The Yangshao culture was a Neolithic
Neolithic

The Neolithic period was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 Before the Christian Era in the Middle East that is traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age....
 culture that existed extensively along the central Yellow River
Yellow River

The Yellow River or Huang He / Hwang Ho is the second-longest river in China and the List of rivers by length in the world at 4,845 kilometers ....
 in China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
. The Yangshao culture is dated from around 5000 BC to 3000 BC. The culture is named after Yangshao, the first excavated representative village of this culture, which was discovered in 1921 in Henan
Henan

Henan , is a Province of the People's Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. Its one-Chinese character abbreviation is ? , named after Yuzhou , a Han Dynasty province that included parts of Henan....
 Province. The culture flourished mainly in the provinces of Henan, Shaanxi
Shaanxi

is a north-central political divisions of China of the People's Republic of China, and includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River as well as the Qinling Mountains across the southern part of the province....
 and Shanxi
Shanxi

is a political divisions of China in the North China of the People's Republic of China. Its one-character abbreviation is Jin , after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring and Autumn Period....
.

Subsistence
The subsistence practices of Yangshao people were varied.






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The Yangshao culture was a Neolithic
Neolithic

The Neolithic period was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 Before the Christian Era in the Middle East that is traditionally considered the last part of the Stone Age....
 culture that existed extensively along the central Yellow River
Yellow River

The Yellow River or Huang He / Hwang Ho is the second-longest river in China and the List of rivers by length in the world at 4,845 kilometers ....
 in China
China

China is a Culture of China, an ancient civilization, and, depending on perspective, a national or multinational entity extending over a large area in East Asia....
. The Yangshao culture is dated from around 5000 BC to 3000 BC. The culture is named after Yangshao, the first excavated representative village of this culture, which was discovered in 1921 in Henan
Henan

Henan , is a Province of the People's Republic of China, located in the central part of the country. Its one-Chinese character abbreviation is ? , named after Yuzhou , a Han Dynasty province that included parts of Henan....
 Province. The culture flourished mainly in the provinces of Henan, Shaanxi
Shaanxi

is a north-central political divisions of China of the People's Republic of China, and includes portions of the Loess Plateau on the middle reaches of the Yellow River as well as the Qinling Mountains across the southern part of the province....
 and Shanxi
Shanxi

is a political divisions of China in the North China of the People's Republic of China. Its one-character abbreviation is Jin , after the state of Jin that existed here during the Spring and Autumn Period....
.

Subsistence


The subsistence practices of Yangshao people were varied. They cultivated millet
Millet

The millets are a group of small-seeded species of cereal Crop or grains, widely grown around the world for food and fodder. They do not form a scientific classification group, but rather a functional or agronomic one....
 extensively; some villages also cultivated wheat
Wheat

Wheat , is a worldwide cultivated Poaceae from the Levant region of the Middle East. Globally, after maize, wheat is the second most-produced food among the cereal just above rice....
 or rice
Rice

Rice is a staple food for a large part of the world's human population, especially in tropical Latin America, and East Asia, South Asia and Southeast Asia, making it the second-most consumed cereal grain, after maize....
. The exact nature of Yangshao agriculture -- small-scale slash-and-burn cultivation versus intensive agriculture in permanent fields, is currently matter of debate. However, Middle Yangshao settlements such as Jiangzhi contain raised floor buildings that may have been used for the storage of surplus grains. They kept such animals as pig
Pig

Pigs, also called hogs or swine, are a genus of even-toed ungulates within the Family Suidae. The name pig, hog, or swine most commonly refers to the Domestic pig in everyday parlance, but technically encompasses several distinct species, including the Wild Boar....
s and dog
Dog

The dog is a domesticated subspecies of the Gray Wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties....
s, as well as sheep
Sheep

#REDIRECT Domestic sheep...
, goat
Goat

The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep: both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae....
s, and cattle
Cattle

Cattle, colloquially referred to as cows, are domestication ungulates, a member of the subfamily Bovinae of the family Bovidae. They are raised as livestock for meat , dairy products , leather and as draft animals ....
, but much of their meat came from hunting and fishing. Their stone tools were polished and highly specialized. The Yangshao people may also have practiced an early form of silkworm cultivation
Sericulture

Sericulture, or silk farming, is the rearing of silkworms for the production of raw silk.Although there are several commercial species of silkworms, Bombyx mori is the most widely used and intensively studied....
.

Pottery

The Yangshao culture is well-known for its painted pottery
Pottery

Pottery is the ceramic ware made by potters. Major types of pottery include earthenware, stoneware, and porcelain. The places where such wares are made are called potteries....
. Yangshao artisans created fine white, red, and black painted pottery with human facial, animal, and geometric designs. Unlike the later Longshan culture
Longshan culture

The Longshan culture was a late Neolithic culture in China, centered on the central and lower Yellow River and dated from about 3000 BC to 2000 BC....
, the Yangshao culture did not use pottery wheels in pottery-making. Excavations found that children were buried in painted pottery jars.

Archaeological sites


The archaeological site of Banpo
Banpo

Banpo is an archaeological site first discovered in 1953 and located in the Yellow River Valley just east of Xi'an, China. It contains the remains of several well organised Neolithic settlements dating from approximately 4500 BCE....
 village, near Xi'an
Xi'an

Xi'an , is the Capital of the Shaanxi Provinces of China in the People's Republic of China and a sub-provincial city. As one of the oldest cities in Chinese history, Xi'an is one of the Historical capitals of China because it has been the capital of some of the most important Dynasties in Chinese history in Chinese history, including the Zh...
, is one of the best-known ditch-enclosed settlements of the Yangshao culture. Another major settlement called Jiangzhai
Jiangzhai

Jiangzhai is a Banpo phase Yangshao culture village site in the east of Xi'an, where excavated the earliest copper artifacts in China....
 was excavated out to its limits, and archaeologists found that it was completely surrounded by a ring-ditch. Both Banpo and Jiangzhai also yielded controversial incised marks on pottery which a few have interpreted as numerals or perhaps precursors to the Chinese script. However, such conclusions may be premature .

Phases

Among the numerous overlapping phases of the Yangshao culture, the most prominent phases, typified by differing styles of pottery, include:
  • Banpo phase, approximately 4800 BC to 4200 BC, central plane
  • Miaodigou phase, circa 4000 BC to 3000 BC, successor to Banpo
  • Majiayao
    Majiayao culture

    The Majiayao culture is a name given by Archaeology to a group of Neolithic communities who lived primarily in the upper Yellow River region in Gansu and Qinghai, China....
     phase, approximately 3300 BC to 2000 BC, in Gansu
    Gansu

    or , is a political divisions of China located in the northwest of the People's Republic of China. It lies between Qinghai, Inner Mongolia, and the Loess Plateau, and borders Mongolia to the north and Xinjiang to the west....
    , Qinghai
    Qinghai

    is a provinces of China of the People's Republic of China, named after Qinghai Lake. It borders Gansu on the northeast, the Xinjiang on the northwest, Sichuan on the southeast, and Tibet Autonomous Region on the southwest....
  • Banshan
    Banshan

    Banshan was a phase of the Chinese Neolithic Yangshao culture, circa 2600 BC to 2300 BC....
     phase, approximately 2700 BC to 2300 BC, successor to Majiayao
  • Machang phase, approximately 2400 BC to 2000 BC


See also

  • List of Neolithic cultures of China
    List of Neolithic cultures of China

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

    The Dawenkou culture is a name given by Archeologys to a group of Neolithic communities who lived primarily in Shandong, but also appeared in Anhui, Henan and Jiangsu, China....
  • Majiayao culture
    Majiayao culture

    The Majiayao culture is a name given by Archaeology to a group of Neolithic communities who lived primarily in the upper Yellow River region in Gansu and Qinghai, China....
  • Majiabang culture
    Majiabang culture

    The Majiabang culture was a Neolithic culture that existed at the mouth of the Yangtze River, primarily around the Lake Tai area and north of Hangzhou Bay in China....
  • Hongshan culture
    Hongshan culture

    The Hongshan culture was a Neolithic culture in northeastern China. Hongshan sites have been found in an area stretching from Inner Mongolia to Liaoning and Hebei, and dated from about 4700 BC to 2900 BC....
  • Prehistoric Beifudi site
    Prehistoric Beifudi site

    The Prehistoric Beifudi site near Yixian in Hebei Province, China, is the excavation of a recently discovered prehistoric Neolithic village that Chinese archaeologists say is one of the most important sites found so far....
  • Xia
    Xia

    Xia may refer to:*Xia , a Chinese philosophy similar to the chivalrous code of European knights.*Xia , a Chinese family name*Xia Dynasty, Chinese dynasty, ca....
  • Xishuipo
    Xishuipo

    Xishuipo is a Neolithic site in Puyang, Henan, China, associated with the Yangshao culture. The site was excavated from 1987 to 1988; 186 burials were discovered at the site....