Abstract
The origins, development, and makeup of early state societies in China have long been a favorite topic of research, though there has recently been an upsurge of attention among archaeologists in China and abroad. Research has been dominated by the identification of the Erlitou site from the early second millennium BC as the center of the earliest state in China, sometimes identified with the Xia Dynasty. Recently, several scholars have employed neo-evolutionary criteria for the identification of Erlitou society as China’s earliest state in an attempt to provide objective criteria for the traditional historiographical narrative. Overarching social and ecological models of cultural change have been severely criticized by anthropological archaeologists, and many archaeologists studying the development of ancient societies prefer to focus on individual case studies or specific institutions rather than on the state. In contrast to recent archaeological scholarship that has called for its total abandonment, we find the “state” a useful concept for understanding local trajectories as well as cross-cultural comparisons. In this article we suggest a way of incorporating the warnings against simplistic overarching models while maintaining the notion of rapid sociopolitical change associated with state formation. Based on an analysis of the long-term trajectory, we identify, in north China, two phases of rapid transformations: the first, starting around 2500 BC, when several unstable regional states evolved and declined, and the second, around 1600 BC, when an intraregional state, usually identified with the historical Shang, rapidly evolved.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abrams, P. (1988). Notes on the difficulty of studying the state (1977). Journal of Historical Sociology 1: 58–89.
Adams, R. M. (1966). The Evolution of Urban Society: Early Mesopotamia and Prehispanic Mexico, Aldine, Chicago.
Allan, S. (1984). The myth of the Xia Dynasty. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2: 242–256.
Allan, S. (1991). The Shape of the Turtle: Myth, Art, and Cosmos in Early China, State University of New York Press, Albany.
Bagley, R. (1999). Shang archaeology. In Loewe, M., and Shaughnessy, E. L. (eds.), The Cambridge History of Ancient China, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 124–231.
Baines, J., and Yoffee, N. (1998). Order, legitimacy and wealth in ancient Eypt and Mesopotamia. In Feinman, G. M., and Marcus, J. (eds.), Archaic States, School of American Research Press, Santa Fe, NM, pp. 199–260.
Beijing Daxue Kaogu Wenboxueyuan and Henanshang Wenwu Yanjiusuo (2007). Dengfeng Wangchenggang Kaogu Faxian yu Yanjiu (2002-2005) (Archaeological Discoveries and Research at Dengfeng, Wangchenggang between 2002-2005), Daxiang Chubanshe, Zhengzhou.
Bernbeck, R. (2008). The rise of the state. In Bentley, R. A., Maschner, H. D., and Chippindale, C. (eds.), Handbook of Archaeological Theories, AltaMira Press, Lanham, MD, pp. 533–546.
Blanton, R. E., Feinman, G. M., Kowalewski, S. A., and Peregrine, P. N. (1996). A dual-processual theory for the evolution of Mesoamerican civilization. Current Anthropology 37: 1–14.
Campbell, R. B. (2009). Toward a networks and boundaries approach to early complex polities. Current Anthropology 50: 821–848.
Chang, K.-C. (1981). Archaeology and Chinese historiography. World Archaeology 13: 156–169.
Chang, K.-C. (1986). The Archaeology of Ancient China, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.
Chang, K.-C. (1989). Ancient China and its anthropological significance. In Lamberg-Karlovsky, C. C. (ed.), Archaeological Thought in America, Cambridge University Press, New York, pp. 155–166.
Chapman, R. (2008). Alternative states. In Habu, J., Fawcett, C. P., and Matsunaga, J. M. (eds.), Evaluating Multiple Narratives: Beyond Nationalist, Colonialist, Imperialist Archaeologies, Springer, New York, pp. 144–165.
Chifeng International Collaborative Archaeological Research Project (2011). Settlement Patterns in the Chifeng Region, Center for Comparative Archaeology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.
Claessen, H. J., and Oosten, J. G. (eds.) (1996). Ideology and the Formation of Early States, E. J. Brill, Leiden.
Crumley, C. L. (1995). Heterarchy and the analysis of complex societies. In Ehrenreich, R. M., Crumley, C. L., and Levy, J. E. (eds.), Heterarchy and the Analysis of Complex Societies, Archeological Papers No. 6, American Anthropological Association, Arlington, VA, pp. 1–5.
DeMarrais, E., Castillo, L. J., and Earle, T. (1996). Ideology, materialization, and power strategies. Current Anthropology 37: 15–31.
Dobres, M. A., and Robb, J. E. (2000). Agency in archaeology: Paradigm or platitude. In Dobres, M. A., and Robb, J. E. (eds.), Agency in Archaeology, Routledge, London, pp. 3–17.
Drennan, R. D., Earle, T. K., Feinman, G. M., Fletcher, R., Kolb, M. K., Peregrine, P. N., Peterson, C. E., Sinopoli, C. M., Smith, M. E., Smith, M. L., Stark, B. L., and Stark, M. T. (2012). Comparative archaeology: A commitment to understanding variation. In Smith, M. E. (ed.), The Comparative Archaeology of Complex Societies, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 1–3.
Du, J. (2006). Yanshi Shangcheng di bahao gongdian jizhi chubu yanjiu (Initial research on palace structure number 8 at the Shan city of Yanshi). Kaogu 2006(6): 43–52.
Earle, T. K. (1997). How Chiefs Come to Power: The Political Economy in Prehistory, Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.
Earle, T. K. (2011). Comparative archaeology: Archaeology’s responsibility. In Lillios, K. T. (ed.), Comparative Archaeologies: The American Southwest (AD 900-1600) and the Iberian Peninsula (3000-1500 BC), Oxbow Books, Oxford, pp. 1–20.
Falkenhausen, L. von (1993). On the historiographical orientation of Chinese archaeology. Antiquity 67: 839–839.
Feinman, G. M. (1995). The emergence of inequality: A focus on strategies and processes. In Price, D. T., and Feinman, G. M. (eds.), Foundations of Social Inequality, Plenum, New York, pp. 255–279.
Feinman, G. M. (1998). Scale and social organization: Perspectives on the archaic state. In Feinman, G. M., and Marcus, J. (eds.), Archaic States, School of American Research Press, Santa Fe, NM, pp. 95–133.
Feinman, G. M. (2010). A dual-processual perspective on the power and inequality in the contemporary United States: Framing political economy for the present and the past. In Price, T. D., and Feinman, G. M. (eds.), Pathways to Power, Springer, New York, pp. 255–288.
Flad, R. K., and Chen, P. (2013). Ancient Central China: Centers and Peripheries along the Yangzi River, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Flannery, K. V. (1972). The cultural evolution of civilizations. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 3: 399–426.
Flannery, K. V. (1998). The ground plans of archaic states. In Feinman, G. M., and Marcus, J. (eds.), Archaic States, School of American Research Press, Santa Fe, NM, pp. 15–57.
Fried, M. H. (1960). On the evolution of social stratification and the state. In Diamond, S. (ed.), Culture in History: Essays in Honor of Paul Radin, Columbia University Press, New York, pp. 713–731.
Gledhill, J. (1988). Introduction: The comparative study of social and political transitions. In Gledhill, J., Bender, B., and Larsen, M. T. (eds.), State and Society: The Emergence and Development of Social Hierarchy and Political Centralization, Unwin Hyman, London, pp. 1–29.
Guojia, W. (2006). Zhongguo Wenwu Dituji Shanxi Fence (Atlas of Cultural Relics in China Shanxi Edition), Zhongguo Ditu Chubanshe, Beijing.
Guojia, W. (2007). Zhongguo Wenwu Dituji Shandong Fence (Atlas of Cultural Relics in China Shandong Edition), Zhongguo Ditu Chubanshe, Beijing.
Harris, M. (1968). The Rise of Anthropological Theory: A History of Theories of Culture, Crowell, New York.
He, N. (2013). The Longshan period site of Taosi in southern Shanxi province. In Underhill, A. P. (ed.), A Companion to Chinese Archaeology, Wiley-Blackwell, Malden, MA, pp. 255–277.
Hubei Sheng Wenwu Kaogu Yanjiusuo, Beijing Daxue Kaoguxue Xi, and Hubei Sheng Jing Zhou Bowuguan (2003). Dengjiawan: Tianmen Shijiahe Kaogu Baogao Shi Er (Dengjiawan: Archaeological Work at Shijiahe, Tianmen II), Wenwu Chubanshe, Beijing.
Henan Sheng Wenwu Kaogu Yanjiusuo (2001). Zhengzhou Shangcheng (The Shang City of Zhengzhou), Zhongzhou Guji Chubanshe, Zhengzhou.
Henan Sheng Wenwu Kaogu Yanjiusuo (2002). Henan Xinmishi Guchengzhai Longshan wenhua chengzhi fajue jianbao (Brief excavation report of the walled Longshan site at Guchengzhai in Xinmi, Henan). Huaxia Kaogu 2002(2): 53–82.
Hunan Sheng Wenwu Kaogu Yanjiusuo (2007). Lixian Chengtoushan: Xinshiqi Shidai Yizhi Fajue Baogao (Chengtoushan Li County: Excavation Report of the Neolithic Period Site), Wenwu Chubanshe, Beijing.
Hodder, I. (1982). Symbolic and Structural Archaeology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Johnson, M. (1989). Conceptions of agency in archaeological interpretation. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 8: 189–211.
Johnson, M. (2004). Archaeology and social theory. In Bintliff, J. L. (ed.), A Companion to Archaeology, Blackwell, Malden, MA, pp. 92–109.
Joyce, A. A. (2010). Mixtecs, Zapotecs, and Chatinos: Ancient Peoples of Southern Mexico, Wiley-Blackwell, Malden, MA.
Joyce, A. A., Bustamante, L. A., and Levine, M. N. (2001). Commoner power: A case study from the Classic period collapse on the Oaxaca coast. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 8: 343–385.
Kantner, J. (2008). The archaeology of regions: From discrete analytical toolkit to ubiquitous spatial perspective. Journal of Archaeological Research 16: 37–81.
Keightley, D. N. (1983). The late Shang state: When, where, and what? In Keightley, D. N. (ed.), The Origins of Chinese Civilization, University California Press, Berkeley, pp. 523–564.
Keightley, D. N. (2000). The Ancestral Landscape: Time, Space, and Community in Late Shang China, ca. 1200-1045 BC, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Lamberg-Karlovsky, K. (2008). Different path: Piotr Eltsov’s journey. In Eltsov, P. A., From Harappa to Hastinapura: A Study of the Earliest South Asian City and Civilization, R. J. Brill, Boston, pp. xvii–xxiv.
Lee, Y.-K. (2002). Building the chronology of early Chinese history. Asian Perspectives 41: 15–42.
Levy, J. E. (1999). Gender, power, and heterarchy in middle-level societies. In Sweely, T. L. (ed.), Manifesting Power: Gender and the Interpretation of Power in Archaeology, Routledge, London, pp. 62–78.
Li, X. (2002). The Xia-Shang-Zhou chronology project: Methodology and results. Journal of East Asian Archaeology 4: 321–333.
Liang, H., and Sun, S. (2004). Erlitou yizhi chutu tongqi yanjiu zongzhu [Studies of unearthed bronzes from Erlitou]. Zhongyuan Wenwu 2004(1): 29–39.
Linduff, K. M. (1998). The emergence and demise of Bronze-producing cultures outside the Central Plain of China. In Mair, V. H. (ed.), The Bronze Age and Early Iron Age Peoples of Eastern Central Asia, Institute for the Study of Man, Washington, DC, pp. 619–646.
Liu, L. (2004). The Chinese Neolithic: Trajectories to Early States, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Liu, L. (2006). Urbanization in China: Erlitou and its hinterland. In Storey, G. (ed.), Urbanism in the Preindustrial World: Cross-Cultural Approaches, University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, pp. 161–189.
Liu, L. (2009). State emergence in early China. Annual Review of Anthropology 38: 217–232.
Liu, L., and Chen, X. (2003). State Formation in Early China, Duckworth, London.
Liu, L., and Chen, X. (2006). Sociopolitical change from Neolithic to Bronze Age China. In Stark, M. T. (ed.), Archaeology of Asia, Wiley-Blackwell, Malden MA, pp. 149–176.
Liu, L., and Chen, X. (2012). The Archaeology of China: From the Late Paleolithic to the Early Bronze Age, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Liu, L., Chen, X., Lee Y.-K., Wright, H. T., and Rosen, A. (2003). Settlement patterns and development of social complexity in the Yiluo region, North China. Journal of Field Archaeology 29: 75–100.
Liu, L., and Xu, H. (2007). Rethinking Erlitou: Legend, history and Chinese archaeology. Antiquity 81: 886–901.
Maisels, C. K. (1990). The Emergence of Civilization: From Hunting and Gathering to Agriculture, Cities, and the State in the Near East, Routledge, London.
Maisels, C. K. (2010). The Archaeology of Politics and Power: Where, When, and Why the First States Formed, Oxbow Books, Oxford.
Miller, D., and Tilley, C. (1984). Ideology, Power and Prehistory, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Nichols, D. L., and Charlton, T. H. (1997). The Archaeology of City-States: Cross-Cultural Approaches, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC.
Pauketat, T. R. (2007). Chiefdoms and Other Archaeological Delusions, AltaMira Press, Lanham, MD.
Paynter, R. (1989). The archaeology of equality and inequality. Annual Review of Anthropology 18: 369–399.
Pei, A. (2004). Liyang pingyuan shiqian juluo xingtai de yanjiu yu sikao (Analysis of prehistoric settlement patterns on the Liyang Plain). In Jilin Daxue Bianjiang Kaogu Yanjiu Zhongxin (eds.), Qingzhu Zhang Zhongpei Xiansheng Qishisui Lunwenji (A Collection of Essays in Celebration of Mr. Zhang Zhong Pei’s 70th), Kexue Chubanshe, Beijing, pp. 192–242
Peregrine, P. N. (2001). Cross-cultural comparative approaches in archaeology. Annual Review of Anthropology 30: 1–18.
Peterson, C. E. (2006). Unpacking corporate/network: A comparison of three prehistoric Chinese chiefdom trajectories in evaluation of the dual-processual model. M.A. thesis, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA.
Peterson, C. E., and Drennan, R. D. (2011). Methods for delineating community patterns. In Chifeng International Collaborative Archaeological Project (ed.), Settlement Patterns in the Chifeng Region, Center for Comparative Archaeology, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, pp. 80–87.
Peterson, C. E., and Shelach, G. (2010). The evolution of early Yangshao Period village organization in the middle reaches of northern China’s Yellow River valley. In Bandy, M. S., and Fox, J. R. (eds.), Becoming Villagers: Comparing Early Village Societies, Amerind Foundation and University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp. 246–276.
Peterson, C. E., and Shelach, G. (2012). Jiangzhai: Social and economic organization of a Middle Neolithic Chinese village. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 31: 265–301.
Qiao, Y. (2007). Development of complex societies in the Yiluo region: A GIS based population and agricultural area analysis. Bulletin of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association 27: 61–75.
Ren, S. (1998). Zhongguo shiqian chengzhi kaocha (Examination of walled sites in prehistoric China). Kaogu 1998(1): 1–16.
Service, E. R. (1975). Origins of the State and Civilization: The Process of Cultural Evolution, Norton, New York.
Shao, W. (2000). The Longshan period and incipient Chinese civilization. Journal of East Asian Archaeology 2(1): 195–226.
Shaughnessy, E. L. (2009). Chronologies of ancient China: A critique of the ‘Xia-Shang-Zhou chronology project. In Ho Wing-chung, C. (ed.), Windows on the Chinese World: Reflections by Five Historians, Lexington Books, Lanham, MD, pp. 15–28.
Shelach, G. (2004). Marxist and post-Marxist paradigms for the Neolithic. In Linduff, K. M., and Sun Yan (eds.), Gender and Chinese Archaeology, AltaMira Press, Walnut Creek, CA, pp. 11–27.
Shelach, G., Raphael, K., and Jaffe, Y. Y. (2011). Sanzuodian: The structure, function and social significance of the earliest stone fortified sites in China. Antiquity 85: 11–26.
Shelach, G., and Teng, M. (2013). Earlier Neolithic economic and social systems of the Liao River region, Northeast China. In Underhill, A. (ed.), A Companion to Chinese Archaeology, Blackwell, Oxford, pp. 37–54.
Shen, K., Crossley, J. N., and Lun, A. W. (1999). The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art: Companion and Commentary, Oxford University Press, Oxford.
Smith, A. T. (2003). The Political Landscape: Constellations of Authority in Early Complex Polities, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Smith, M. E. (2004). The archaeology of ancient state economies. Annual Review of Anthropology 33: 73–102.
Smith, M. E. (ed.) (2012). The Comparative Archaeology of Complex Societies, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Smith, M. L. (2003). Introduction: The social construction of ancient cities. In Smith, M. L. (ed.), The Social Construction of Ancient Cities, Smithsonian institution Press, Washington, DC, pp. 1–36.
Smith, M. L. (2005). Networks, territories, and the cartography of ancient states. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 95: 832–849.
Stahl, A. B. (1993). Concepts of time and approaches to analogical reasoning in historical perspective. American Antiquity 58: 235–260.
Stanley, D. J., Chen, Z., and Song, J. (1999). Inundation, sea-level rise and transition from Neolithic to Bronze Age cultures, Yangtze delta, China. Geoarchaeology 14: 15–26.
Stein, G. J. (1998). Heterogeneity, power, and political economy: Some current research issues in the archaeology of Old World complex societies. Journal of Archaeological Research 6: 1–44.
Stein, G. J. (2001). Understanding ancient state societies in the Old World. In Feinman, G. M., and Price, D. T. (eds.), Archaeology at the Millennium, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Press, New York, pp. 353–379.
Thorp, R. L. (1991). Erlitou and the search for the Xia. Early China 16: 1–38.
Thorp, R. L. (2006). China in the Early Bronze Age: Shang Civilization, University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia.
Tong, E. (1995). Thirty years of Chinese archaeology (1949-1979). In Kohl, P. L., and Fawcett, C. P. (eds.), Nationalism, Politics, and the Practice of Archaeology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 177–197.
Trigger, B. G. (1998). Sociocultural Evolution: Calculation and Contingency, Blackwell Publishers, Oxford.
Trigger, B. G. (1999). Shang political organization: A comparative approach. Journal of East Asian Archaeology 1: 43–62.
Trigger, B. G. (2003). Understanding Early Civilizations: A Comparative Study, Cambridge University Press, New York.
Underhill, A. P. (2002). Craft Production and Social Change in Northern China, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York.
Underhill, A. P., Feinman, G. M., Nicholas, L. M., Fang, H., Luan, F., Yu, H., and Cai, F. (2008). Changes in regional settlement patterns and the development of complex societies in southeastern Shandong, China. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 27: 1–29.
Watson, B. (trans. and ed.) (1993). Records of the Grand Historian of China, by Sima Qian, Columbia University Press, NewYork.
Wolf, E. R. (1982). Europe and the People Without History, University of California Press, Berkeley.
Wright, H. T. (1977). Recent research on the origin of the state. Annual Review of Anthropology 6: 379–397.
Xu, H. (2009). Zuizao de Zhonggou (Earliest China), Kexue Chubanshe, Beijing.
Xu, X. (1959). 1959 nianxia Yuxi diaocha “Xiaxu” de chubu baogao (Preliminary report of the surveys in the ruins of Xia in 1959). Kaogu 1959(11): 592–600.
Xu, Y. (2009) Yunan diqu Erlitou shiqi yicun de xiangguan wenti shixi (A study of problems related to cultural remains of the Erlitou period in the southern Yunan region. Huaxia Kaogu 2009(2): 80–92.
Yates, R. D. (1997). The city-state in ancient China. In Nichols, D. L., and Charlton, T. H. (eds.), The Archaeology of City-States: Cross-Cultural Approaches, Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, pp. 71–90.
Yoffee, N. (2005). Myths of the Archaic State: Evolution of the Earliest Cities, States, and Civilizations, Cambridge University Press, New York.
Yu, S., Cheng, Z., Jian, S., and Qu, W. (2000). Role of climate in the rise and fall of Neolithic cultures on the Yangtze delta. Boreas 29: 157–165
Yuan, G., and Zeng, X. (2004) Lun Zhengzhou Shangcheng neicheng he waicheng de guanxi (Relationship between the inner walls and outer walls at the Zhengzhou Shang city). Kaogu 2004(3): 59–67.
Zhang, X., Chou, S., Cai, L., Bo, G., Wang, J., and Zhong, J. (2007). Xinzhai – Erlitou – Erligang wenhua kaogu niandai xulie de jianli yu wanshan (Improving the Xinzhai Erlitou and Erligang cultures’ relative chronologies). Kaogu 2007(1): 74–89.
Zhang, Z. (2000). Zhongguo gudai wenming xingcheng de kaoguxue yanjiu (An archaeological study of the formation of Chinese civilization). Gugong Bowuyuan Yuankan 2002(2): 5–27.
Zhang, Z. (2005). The Yangshao period: Prosperity and the transformation of prehistoric society. In Chang K.-C. (ed.), The Formation of Chinese Civilization: An Archaeological Perspective, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, pp. 43–83.
Zhongguo Shehui Kexueyuan Kaogu Yanjiusuo (1999). Yanshi Erlitou 1959 Nian – 1978 Nian Kaogu Fajue Baogao (Archaeology Report on the Excavations of the Years 1959-1978 at Erlitou, Yanshi), Zhongguo Dabaike Quanzhu Chubanshe, Beijing.
Zhongguo Shehui Kexueyuan Kaogu Yanjiusuo (2003). Zhongguo Kaoguxue: Xia Shang Juan, (Chinese Archaeology: Xia and Shang Volume), Zhongguo Shehui Kexue Chubanshe, Beijing.
Zhongguo Shehui Kexueyuan Kaogu Yanjiusuo (2010). Zhongguo Kaoguxue: Xinshiqi Shidai Juan (Chinese Archaeology: Neolithic Volume), Zhongguo Shehui Kexue Chubanshe, Beijing.
Zhongguo Shehui Kexueyuan Kaogu Yanjiusuo Shanxidui, Shanxisheng Kaogu Yanjiu, and Linfen Shi Wenwuju (2004). Shanxi Xiangfen xian Taosi chengzhi jixi qu daxing jianzhujizhi 2003 nian fajue jianbao (Report on the 2003 excavations of a large building foundation in the Taosi city ritual area, Xiangfen County, Shanxi Province). Kaogu 2004(7): 9–24.
Zhongguo Shehui Kexueyuan Kaogu Yanjiusuo Shanxidui, Shanxisheng Kaogu Yanjiu, and Linfen Shi Wenwuju (2005). Shanxi Xiangfen Taosi chengzhi 2002 nian fajue baogao (Excavation report for the 2002 season at the Taosi site, Xiangfen County, Shanxi Province). Kaogu Xuabao 2005(3): 307–346.
Zhongguo Shehui Kexueyuan Kaogu Yanjiusuo Shanxidui, Shanxisheng Kaogu Yanjiu, and Linfen Shi Wenwuju (2007). Shanxi Xiangfen xian Taosi zhongqi chengzhi daxing jianzhu II FJT1 jizhi 2004-2005 nian fajue jianbao (Excavations of the foundations of the large building IIFJT1 in the middle period of the Taoxi site, Xiangfen County, Shanxi Province). Kaogu 2007(4): 3–25.
Zhongmei Rizhao Diqu Lianhe Kaogu Dui (2012). Lu Dongnan Yanhai Diqu Xitong Kaogu Diaocha Baogao (Archaeological Report of the Regional Systematic Survey in Southeast Shandong), Wenwu Chubanshe, Beijing.
Bibliography of recent literature
Allan S. (2007). Erlitou and the formation of Chinese civilization: Toward a new paradigm. Journal of Asian studies 66: 461–497.
Barnes, G. L. (1999). China, Korea and Japan: The Rise of Civilization in East Asia, Thames and Hudson, London.
Chen, Z. (2004). From exclusive Xia to inclusive Zhu-Xia: The conceptualization of Chinese identity in early China. Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society 14(3): 185–205.
Dematte, P. (1999). Longshan-era urbanism: The role of cities in predynastic China. Asian Perspectives 2(38): 119–153.
Drennan, R. D., and Peterson, C. E. (2006). Patterned variation in prehistoric chiefdoms. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103: 3960–3967.
Flannery, K. V. (1999). Process and agency in early state formation. Cambridge Archaeological Journal 9(1): 3–21.
Keightley, D. N. (2000). The Ancestral Landscape: Time, Space, and Community in Late Shang China (ca. 1250-1045 BC), Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley.
Loewe, M., and Shaughnessy, E. (1999). The Cambridge History of Ancient China, From the Origins of Civilization to 221 BC, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Pankeiner, D. W. (2009). The Xiangfen, Taosi site: A Chinese Neolithic observatory? In Vaiškunas, J. (ed.), Archaeologia Baltica: Astronomy and Cosmology in Folk Traditions and Cultural Heritage, University of Klaipeda Press, Klaipeda, pp. 141–148.
Shao, W. (2000). The Longshan period and incipient Chinese civilization. Journal of East Asian Archaeology 1: 195–226.
Shelach, G. (2009). Prehistoric Societies on the Northern Frontiers of China: Archaeological Perspectives on Identity Formation and Economic Change during the First Millennium BCE, Equinox, London.
Smith, A. T. (2011). Archaeologies of sovereignty. Annual Review of Anthropology 40: 415–432.
Spencer, C. S. (2010). Territorial expansion and primary state formation. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107: 7119–7126.
Stark, M. T. (2006). Archaeology of Asia, Blackwell, Malden, MA.
Trigger, B. G. (2003). Understanding Early Civilizations: A Comparative Study, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.
Underhill, A. P., and Fang, H. (2004). Early state economic systems in China. In Feinman, G. M., and Nicholas, L. M. (eds.), Archaeological Perspectives on Political Economies, University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, pp. 129–144.
Underhill, A. P., and Habu, J. (2006). Early communities in East Asia: Economic and sociopolitical organization at the local and regional levels. In Stark, M. T. (ed.), Archaeology of Asia, Wiley-Blackwell, Malden, MA, pp. 121–148.
Wright, H. T. (2006). Early state dynamics as political experiment. Journal of Anthropological Research 62: 305–319.
Xu, P., Chang, K.-C., and Allan, S. (2002). The Formation of Chinese Civilization: An Archaeological Perspective, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.
Yao, A. (2010). Recent developments in the archaeology of southwestern China. Journal of Archaeological Research 18: 203–239.
Yan, X. (2004). New Perspectives on China’s Past: Twentieth-Century Chinese Archaeology, Yale University Press, New Haven, CT.
Acknowledgments
We thank Gary Feinman and Linda Nicholas as well as the anonymous reviewers for providing insightful comments on the article and helping us make it approachable for a wider audience.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Shelach, G., Jaffe, Y. The Earliest States in China: A Long-term Trajectory Approach. J Archaeol Res 22, 327–364 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-014-9074-8
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10814-014-9074-8