Erligang culture

Not to be confused with Erlitou culture.

Erligang culture

Geographical range	North China Plain
Period	Bronze Age China
Dates	c. 1600 – c. 1400 BC
Type site	Erligang
Major sites	Zhengzhou, Yanshi, Panlongcheng
Preceded by	Erlitou culture
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	二里崗文化
Simplified Chinese	二里岗文化
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Èrlǐgǎng Wénhuà

The Erligang culture is a Bronze Age urban civilization and archaeological culture in China that existed from approximately 1600 to 1400 BC. The primary site was discovered at Erligang, within the modern city of Zhengzhou, Henan, in 1951.

Major sites

The culture was centered in the Yellow River valley. In its early years, it expanded rapidly, reaching the Yangtze River. The culture then gradually shrank from its early peak.

Zhengzhou

Later investigations showed that the Erligang site was part of an ancient city surrounded by a roughly rectangular wall with a perimeter of about 7 kilometres (4 mi). The walls were of rammed earth construction, a technique dating back to Chinese Neolithic sites of the Longshan culture (c. 3000–1900 BC). It has been estimated that the walls would have been 20 metres (66 ft) wide at the base, rising to a height of 8 metres (26 ft). Large workshops were located outside the city walls, including a bone workshop, a pottery workshop and two bronze vessel workshops. The modern city sits on the remains of the Erligang city, rendering archaeological excavations impossible. Therefore, most of the information about the culture comes from studying other Erligang sites.

Panlongcheng

The large site at Panlongcheng, on the Yangtze River in Hubei, is currently the largest excavated site of Erligang culture. It was discovered in 1954, and excavated in 1974 and 1976. Since Zhengzhou lacked access to local bronze metals, sites like Panlongcheng were probably used to secure distant metal resources.

Bronze vessels

Erligang bronzes developed from the style and techniques of the earlier Erlitou culture, centred 85 kilometres (53 mi) to the west of Zhengzhou. Erligang was the first archaeological culture in China to show widespread use of bronze vessel castings. Bronze vessels became much more widely used and uniform in style than at Erlitou.

Relation to traditional accounts

Many Chinese archaeologists believe that the ancient city of Zhengzhou was one of the early capitals of the Shang dynasty mentioned in traditional histories. However many scholars and Western archaeologists have pointed out unlike the later Anyang settlement, no written records have been found at Erligang to link the archaeological remains with the official history.

References

• Bagley, Robert (1999), "Shang Archaeology", in Loewe, Michael; Shaughnessy, Edward L. (eds.), The Cambridge History of Ancient China, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 124–231, ISBN 978-0-521-47030-8.
• Liu, Li, "The products of minds as well as of hands: production of prestige goods in the Neolithic and early state periods of China", Asian Perspectives: the Journal of Archaeology for Asia and the Pacific, 42 (1): 1–40, doi:10.1353/asi.2003.0025.
• Liu, Li; Chen, Xingcan (2012), The Archaeology of China: From the Late Paleolithic to the Early Bronze Age, Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-64310-8.

Further reading

• Fong, Wen, ed. (1980). The great bronze age of China: an exhibition from the People's Republic of China. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. ISBN 978-0-87099-226-1.