Yangshao Culture: Ancient Chinese and Neolithic Painted- Pottery
Dating back to around 7,000 BC to 4,700 BC along the Yellow River, ancient Chinese built villages, farmed and brewed liquor, and made pottery wares upon which they painted scenes of people hunting and fishing or the stars and moon.
These activities formed basis for the Neolithic painted- pottery culture known as the Yangshao Culture, which it was one of the world’s earliest Neolithic cultures.
The culture with its distinctive use of red terracotta products mainly existed in today’s Northwest China’s Shaanxi Province, North China’s Shanxi Province and Central China’s Henan Province.
Almost synonymous for the birth of modern Chinese archaeology, the discovery of the Yangshao Culture cannot be discussed without mentioning the support of Swedish geologist Johan Gunnar Andersson. Yet Andersson wrongly surmised that the redbrown pottery discovered in the Central Plains
may have been introduced from Central Asia instead of originating locally.
Based on research and later excavation, scholars generally believe Yangshao was in fact the backbone of Chinese pre- historic culture.
With millet as its main agricultural base, the culture had far- reaching influence on later ancient Chinese cultures.
Through the efforts of Chinese scholars such as Yuan Fuli as well as the Chinese government, excavation of the Yangshao site was launched in October 1921.
It took archaeologists 36 days to excavate 17 sites unearthing, during which time they unearthed a large number of fine pottery wares, stone and bone tools, mussel shells and other precious relics.
“As the most widely distributed prehistoric culture in China, this cultural circle is also an archaeological basis for assessing the origin of Chinese civilization,” Wu Peng, a history professor from Renmin University of China, noted.