erligang

name

1. A village in Henan, China, site of the Bronze-Age Erligang culture

   “Shang bronzes predating the thirteenth century BC were first found at Erligang, in Zhengzhou City, Henan Province. The finds at Erligang include the site of an early Shang city wall and, around it, the remains of workshops that made pottery, bone implements and bronzes.”

2. a Bronze Age urban civilization and archaeological culture in China

   “In the Huai River valley, which as we saw has yielded good evidence of Shang occupation in the Erh-li-kang phase, there have been a number of late Shang sites that have been reported on, but the only site of any notable scale is the residential-plus-burial site at Ch'iu-wan 丘灣, north of Hsü-chou in northwestern Kiangsu, discovered in 1959 and excavated in 1959, 1960, and 1965.”

   “Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan province, sits in the heartland of China: the central valley around the Yellow River that birthed ancient civilizations such as Erligang over 3,500 years ago. But today, Henan is one of the poorer provinces of eastern China, and Henanese are often the targets of discrimination.”