Zhukaigou culture

The Zhukaigou culture (朱開溝文化) was a late Neolithic and early Bronze Age culture centered in the Ordos Plateau of Inner Mongolia, China. The type site at Zhukaigou was discovered in Ejin Banner, Inner Mongolia, and excavated from 1977 to 1984. Zhukaigou culture is a reputed progenitor of the “Ordos bronze culture” and accordingly a first "Northern Zone" culture, extending to northern and central Inner Mongolia, northern Shaanxi, and northern Shanxi, with the Ordos region at its center. Transition to metalworking is dated to around the end of the third millennium BCE, at the same time was attained a higher level in the ceramic.^[1] Zhukaigou culture lasted to ca. 1500 BCE.

Archaeologists have divided the culture into five phases, corresponding with 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 of the culture was influenced by the Longshan culture, while the middle phases were influenced by the Qijia culture; it was during this time frame when bronze artefacts begin to appear in the material culture. Zhukaigou people were agriculturalists, with millet as a main staple, they also had sheep, pigs, and cattle.^[2]

In the first half of the second millennium (2000-1500 BCE) the Zhukaigou people already used oracle-bone divination, a practice that later was closely associated with Shang culture and statecraft. Shang-type artifacts suggest that around the mid-second millennium BCE increased contacts between the local Zhukaigou people and the Shang, or that the Shang culture extended northward. Shang ritual vessels, such as ding and jue, and weapons appear there during the Erlitou (2100—1800 [1500?] BCE) and Erligang (ca. 1500–1,400 BCE) periods.^[3]

Bronze objects dated to the last period of existence of Zhukaigou culture ca. 1500 BCE point to native production of a mixed complex of bronze objects that included typical "Northern Zone" items like daggers, with typical Shang ge (戈) dagger-axes, and knives that reveal both Shang and northern features.^[4]

In the late period of Zhukaigou culture, ca. 1,500 BCE, appeared motifs like snake pattern and the flower-shaped edge of the li (鬲) vessel which archaeologists regard as characteristic of later nomadic peoples of this area.^[5] During the last phase of the Zhukaigou culture, the former practice of sheep and pig sacrifices was gradually being replaced by the practice of dog sacrifices.

See also

• Lower Xiajiadian culture

References

• Linduff, Katheryn M., Zhukaigou, steppe culture and the rise of Chinese civilization. Antiquity 69(262, March 1995): 133-145.
• The Cambridge History of Ancient China, M. Loeuwe, E.L. Shaughnessy, eds., Cambridge University Press, 1999, ISBN 9780521470308

Notes

1. ^ Nicola Di Cosmo, The Northern Frontier in Pre-Imperial China//The Cambridge History of Ancient China, p. 898
2. ^ Nicola Di Cosmo, The Northern Frontier in Pre-Imperial China//The Cambridge History of Ancient China, p. 898
3. ^ Nicola Di Cosmo, The Northern Frontier in Pre-Imperial China//The Cambridge History of Ancient China, p. 899
4. ^ Nicola Di Cosmo, The Northern Frontier in Pre-Imperial China//The Cambridge History of Ancient China, p. 898
5. ^ Nicola Di Cosmo, The Northern Frontier in Pre-Imperial China//The Cambridge History of Ancient China, p. 898