Longshan culture

Longshan culture, which thrived from roughly 3000 BCE to 2000 BCE in the North China Plain, was an important Neolithic culture in China, representing important shifts from the Yangshao culture (c. 5000-3000 BCE) and others which preceded it.

Namely, archaeological excavations of Longshan sites have revealed (1) walls of rammed earth built around settlements, presumably for defense from hostile outsiders, and thus indicating greater separation of groups or clans, and possibly a state of war between them, and (2) a broader range of differences in burials, indicating the development of greater social stratification, in which elites were buried in grander graves with more wealth, and others in simpler graves with fewer or lesser grave goods.

References

• Conrad Schirokauer, et al, A Brief History of Chinese and Japanese Civilizations, Fourth Edition, Cengage Learning (2012), 6-7.