Neolithic Farmers Paint Pottery Along the Yellow River
The Yangshao and Longshan cultures lay the groundwork for later Chinese civilization
Quick facts
- Region
- Yellow River valley, northern and central China
- Yangshao dates
- c. 5000-3000 BCE
- Longshan dates
- c. 3000-1900 BCE
- Key material
- Painted red pottery (Yangshao); wheel-thrown black pottery (Longshan)
What happened
Along the central Yellow River from roughly 5000 to 3000 BCE, the Yangshao culture farmed millet, kept pigs, and made fine red and white painted pottery decorated with human faces, animals, and geometric bands, all without a potter's wheel. Around 3000 BCE the Longshan culture, named for a site in Shandong province, grew out of the earlier Dawenkou tradition and eventually replaced Yangshao across northern and central China. Longshan potters used the wheel to throw thin-walled black pottery with a glossy surface, and some Longshan settlements built packed-earth walls, including one at Pingliangtai enclosing 34,000 square meters with gated entrances on the north and south sides.
Why it matters
The walled towns, specialized pottery, and social stratification visible at Longshan sites mark the shift from scattered farming villages toward the more complex, hierarchical societies that produced China's first states. By the early second millennium BCE, Longshan communities were evolving into the Bronze Age culture that later Chinese tradition remembers as the Xia dynasty.
How we know
Yangshao and Longshan sites were excavated across Shaanxi, Henan, and Shandong through the 20th century; the distinctive black pottery that gives Longshan its alternate name (the Black Pottery culture) was first recognized as archaeologically distinct from Yangshao's red-brown ware in the 1930s.
Sources
- World History Encyclopedia. Longshan Culture · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- World History Encyclopedia. Longshan Culture · Reputable sourceworldhistory.org · The domain "worldhistory.org" is on our Reputable source registry. · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
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