Yellow River Bronze Age

expand_more Description

The Yellow River Bronze Age occurred from 3900–3050 BP in the lower, middle, and upper reaches of the Yellow River basin and the central Yangtze River basin of China. The people were sedentary intensive agriculturalists, relying on millet, wheat, or rice (depending on local conditions), with meat from livestock, and fish. They lived in a state society with a four-tiered settlement hierarchy; the territory controlled by any one polity shifted over time and was not necessarily contiguous. The Shang dynasty was the most well-known and centrally-located polity. Warfare was common. Writing began, found on oracle bones and ritual bronze objects. Ancestor worship was practiced.

Identifier

Region

• Asia

Subregion

• East Asia

Subsistence Type

• intensive agriculturalists

Countries

• China