erlitou

name

1. A Bronze Age culture along the Yellow River in China

   “Of the other Honan sites reported since 1954 which have been assigned to the Erh-li-t'ou culture, none are as rich as Erh-li-t'ou itself.”

   “At present the direct antecedents of the sophisticated cast vessels from Erlitou-period tombs excavated at Yanshi near Luoyang remain undiscovered.”

   “Not so very long ago, the Xia and the Shang, legendary dynasties of the distant past, were regarded by most scholars as pleasing, misty fantasies, as sweetly insubstantial as Camelot or Shangri-La. Not anymore. A small turquoise plaque made 3,800 years ago by the culture known as Erlitou is now thought to be a Xia piece.”

   “Dr. Wu’s team said its reconstruction of the outburst flood from the Jishi Gorge showed that the ancient textual accounts of the Great Flood “may well be rooted in a historic natural event.” The finding also supports the idea, the researchers say, that archaeological remains found at Erlitou, a site about 1,550 miles downstream from the gorge, may have been the Xia capital, given that the Erlitou culture dates to 1900 B.C., the same time as the Jishi Gorge flood.”

2. A village in Yanshi district, Luoyang, Henan, China.

   “Continued excavation at the Shang dynasty site at Erlitou in Yenshih county, Honan province, has yielded more finds of importance.”

   “Most Chinese archaeologists believe that a site called Erlitou near Luoyang was for a time a Xia capital. If one takes the traditional commentaries and texts seriously, Erlitou was certainly at the right place and the right time to be a Xia capital.”

   “Dr. Wu’s team said its reconstruction of the outburst flood from the Jishi Gorge showed that the ancient textual accounts of the Great Flood “may well be rooted in a historic natural event.” The finding also supports the idea, the researchers say, that archaeological remains found at Erlitou, a site about 1,550 miles downstream from the gorge, may have been the Xia capital, given that the Erlitou culture dates to 1900 B.C., the same time as the Jishi Gorge flood.”

   “The excavation of a 2,000-year-old palace in the village of Erlitou, Yanshi county – which has since been recovered as farmland – led to the site being identified as Zhengxun, the last capital of the Xia, by the Chinese Academy of Sciences. This sparked both excitement and scepticism throughout the academic world.”