11/07/2024
The earliest human occupation of what is now China dates to the Lower Paleolithic c. 1.7 million years ago—attested by archaeological finds such as the Yuanmou Man. The Erlitou (c. 1900 – c. 1500 BCE) and Erligang cultures (c. 1600 – c. 1400 BCE) inhabiting the Yellow River valley were Bronze Age civilizations predating the historical record—which first emerges c. 1250 – c. 1200 BCE at Yinxu, during the Late Shang.
The Paleolithic period in palaeogeography refers to the stage of civilization development in which humans began to use stone tools as their main means of labor, and is the early stage of the Stone Age. This period is generally defined as from about 2.6 million or 2.5 million years ago (the first production of stone tools by archaic humans) to 12,000 years ago (the emergence of agricultural civilization). The division of this period is generally threefold: the Lower, Middle, and Upper Paleolithic, followed by the Mesolithic.
Paleolithic humans usually lived together in tribes and subsisted by collecting plants and hunting wildlife. Although humans also used wooden and bone tools within this era, the Paleolithic period is typified by the use of stone tools made by hammering stones. Other materials, such as leather and plant fibers, are also suitable for tooling, but the nature of these materials has prevented them from being used in a wider range of applications. During the Paleolithic period, humans evolved dramatically from early homo sapiens to anatomically modern humans. During the latter stages of the Paleolithic humans began to create the earliest art and became involved in religious and spiritual realms, such as funerals and rituals.
The distribution of early Paleolithic cultures in China has been widespread. Chinese Paleolithic cultures dating back to 1 million years BP include the Xihoudou Culture, the Yuanmou Man stone tools, the Kehe Culture, the Lantian Human Culture, and the Donggutuo site. Fewer than 1 million years ago, sites are represented in the north by the Peking Man culture at Zhoukoudian site 1, and in the south by the Guanyin Cave culture at Guanyin Cave in Qianxi, Guizhou. All in all, Chinese Early Paleolithic cultures are basically of a type similar to the Oldowan cultures, and do not seem to display the technological advancements of the Acheulean Culture of the West. However, some scholars believe that there may have been exchanges between the Chinese Paleolithic culture and the Western Acheulean culture during this period.
The Middle Paleolithic culture in China can be represented by the Dingcun site found in Xiangfen, Shanxi Province. Also more important are the Zhoukoudian Locality 15 culture and the Shanxi Yanggao Xujiayao Culture. The Middle Paleolithic cultures of China maintained the types and processing techniques of earlier cultures. Despite slight changes in types and slight advances in technology, they were all slow in progress. One notable feature is the lack of significant development of Levallois technique.
Into the Late Palaeolithic, the number of sites increased, artefacts of visual culture became more abundant and elaborate, technological change took place and the material evidence of cultural types became more diverse from one another. In North China and South China, as well as in other regions, there are cultural types of a similar periodization but with different technological traditions.: 237–239
In north China, there is a tradition of small stone tools inherited from the previous period, the important representatives of which are the Sarawusu site, the Zhiyu culture, the Xiaonanhai site, and the Shandingdong site. There is the Blade culture type, represented by the Shuidonggou culture in Lingwu, Ningxia, which has more than a few similarities with its Western contemporaries. There are also typical microlithic cultures discovered after the 1970s, such as the Xiachuan culture in Qinshui, Shanxi, and the Hutouliang culture at the Hutouliang site in Yangyuan, Hebei.
In the northeast, important sites belonging to this period include the Xiaogushan site in Haicheng, Liaoning, and the Yanjiagang site in Harbin, Heilongjiang.
In the south, several regional cultures emerged during this period, such as the Fulin culture type named after the Fulin site in Hanyuan, Sichuan, the Tongliang culture type represented by the Zhang Ertang site in Tongliang, Chongqing, and the Maomao culture type initially discovered at the Maomao site in Xingyi, Guizhou.
In addition, a number of Paleolithic cultural sites belonging to this period or slightly later have been found in Tibet, Xinjiang and Qinghai. In general, the main characteristic of the cultures of this period is that, with the exception of a few sites, the production of blade crafts and bone and horn tools was not very well developed.
The Mesolithic period in China, between the Upper Paleolithic and Early Neolithic, was characterized by the manufacture of microliths, and is therefore also known as the "Microlith Period". China was in the Mesolithic period from about 10,000 to 7,000 years ago, with cultures successively entering the Neolithic period after one or two millennia, a relatively brief span of time. There are also the Shayuan Culture of Shayuan in Dali, Shaanxi, the Lingjing Culture of Lingjing in Xuchang, Henan, and the Xiachuan Culture of Xiachuan in Qinshui, Shanxi.
to be continued
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prehistory_of_China
Meta A.I. imagination of Peking Man which inhabited the Zhoukoudian cave site in modern northern China during the Chibanian.
