Yangshao Culture: The Most Influential Prehistoric Civilization in China

Yangshao Culture is the most influential mainline culture in China's prehistoric period, the core of the Central Plains cultural region, and a huge cultural complex or system that lasted for over two thousand years with extremely rich connotations. It is the most widely distributed archaeological culture in China, covering ten provinces and autonomous regions including Henan. There are numerous sites, with as many as 30,000 in Henan alone. The Yangshao Village Site in Mianchi County, Henan Province, is the discovery site of Yangshao Culture, an important coordinate of Yangshao Culture, and also the starting point of Neolithic archaeology in China.

Yangshao Culture was first excavated in 1921 and has now been under investigation for over a century. It was the first archaeological culture discovered and named in China and also the core culture of the Neolithic Age in China. It corrected the previous prejudice held by the Western archaeological community that there was no Neolithic culture in China. Currently, with the excavation and research of multiple sites, the origin and periodization of Yangshao Culture have been identified. The cultural characteristics, temporal and spatial framework, and evolution of Yangshao Culture have been basically clarified, and a vivid historical picture of the period when Chinese civilization was gestating and emerging has been initially sketched.

Painted pottery is the most important symbol of the Yangshao Culture. In the early stage of the Yangshao Culture (7000 - 6000 years ago), the painted pottery was mainly black, with realistic patterns such as fish, frogs, human faces and geometric patterns. In the middle stage of the Yangshao Culture (6000 - 5300 years ago), red-painted pottery and white-painted pottery emerged, and the patterns were mainly floral shapes composed of geometric patterns. The late stage of the Yangshao Culture (5300 - 4600 years ago) was the decline period of painted pottery. Represented by the Dahu Village Site in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, the painted pottery was mainly red, and the patterns tended to be simple, including stripes, grids, zigzags and dots. Similar features appeared in many contemporary and later civilizations, proving the strong influence of the Yangshao Culture.