Banpo
Encyclopedia
Xi'an
Xi'an is the capital of the Shaanxi province, and a sub-provincial city in the People's Republic of China. One of the oldest cities in China, with more than 3,100 years of history, the city was known as Chang'an before the Ming Dynasty...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
. It contains the remains of several well organized Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
settlements dating from 5600 - 6700 BP
Before Present
Before Present years is a time scale used in archaeology, geology, and other scientific disciplines to specify when events in the past occurred. Because the "present" time changes, standard practice is to use AD 1950 as the origin of the age scale, reflecting the fact that radiocarbon...
according to radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 to estimate the age of carbon-bearing materials up to about 58,000 to 62,000 years. Raw, i.e. uncalibrated, radiocarbon ages are usually reported in radiocarbon years "Before Present" ,...
. It is a large area of 5-6 hectares and surrounded by a ditch, probably a defensive moat, five or six metres wide. The houses were circular, built of mud and wood with overhanging thatched roofs. They sat on low foundations. There appears to be communal burial areas.
Banpo is the type site
Type site
In archaeology a type site is a site that is considered the model of a particular archaeological culture...
associated with Yangshao Culture
Yangshao culture
The Yangshao culture was a Neolithic culture that existed extensively along the central Yellow River in China. The Yangshao culture is dated from around 5000 BC to 3000 BC. The culture is named after Yangshao, the first excavated representative village of this culture, which was discovered in 1921...
. Archaeological sites with similarities to the first phase at Banpo are considered to be part of the “ Banpo phase” (7th millennium BCE) of the Yangshao culture. Banpo was excavated from 1954 to 1957 and covers an area of around 50,000 square metres.
The settlement was surrounded by a moat
Moat
A moat is a deep, broad ditch, either dry or filled with water, that surrounds a castle, other building or town, historically to provide it with a preliminary line of defence. In some places moats evolved into more extensive water defences, including natural or artificial lakes, dams and sluices...
, with the graves and pottery kiln
Kiln
A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, or oven, in which a controlled temperature regime is produced. Uses include the hardening, burning or drying of materials...
s located outside of the moat perimeter. Many of the houses were semisubterranean with the floor typically a metre below the ground surface. The houses were supported by timber poles and had steeply pitched thatched roofs.
According to the Marxist paradigm of archaeology
Marxist historiography
Marxist or historical materialist historiography is a school of historiography influenced by Marxism. The chief tenets of Marxist historiography are the centrality of social class and economic constraints in determining historical outcomes....
that was prevalent in the People's Republic of China
People's Republic of China
China , officially the People's Republic of China , is the most populous country in the world, with over 1.3 billion citizens. Located in East Asia, the country covers approximately 9.6 million square kilometres...
during the time of the excavation of the site, Banpo was considered to be a matriarchal
Matriarchy
A matriarchy is a society in which females, especially mothers, have the central roles of political leadership and moral authority. It is also sometimes called a gynocratic or gynocentric society....
society; however, new research contradicts this claim, and the Marxist paradigm is gradually being phased out in modern Chinese archaeological research. Currently, little can be said of the religious or political structure from these ruins from the archeological evidence.
The site is now home to the Xi'an Banpo Museum
Xi'an Banpo Museum
The Xi'an Banpo Museum is a museum in Xi'an, Shaanxi, China. The museum houses artifacts from the archaeological site of Banpo. The museum gives access to the excavated buildings, has a collection of artifacts from the site, and also has several reconstructed houses designed to resemble the...
, built in 1957 to preserve the archaeological collection.
See also
- AurignacianAurignacianThe Aurignacian culture is an archaeological culture of the Upper Palaeolithic, located in Europe and southwest Asia. It lasted broadly within the period from ca. 45,000 to 35,000 years ago in terms of conventional radiocarbon dating, or between ca. 47,000 and 41,000 years ago in terms of the most...
- MagdalenianMagdalenianThe Magdalenian , refers to one of the later cultures of the Upper Paleolithic in western Europe, dating from around 17,000 BP to 9,000 BP...
- Banpo symbolsBanpo SymbolsThe Banpo Symbols is a name sometimes given to the 27 markings on prehistoric artifacts found in Banpo in Shaanxi, related to the Yangshao culture...
- SanxingduiSanxingduiSanxingdui is the name of an archaeological site and its deduced culture in China, now believed to be the site of an ancient Chinese city. The previously unknown Bronze Age culture was re-discovered in 1987 when archaeologists excavated remarkable artifacts, that radiocarbon dating dated as being...
- Cishan cultureCishan cultureThe Cishan culture was a Neolithic Yellow River culture in northern China, based primarily around southern Hebei. The Cishan culture was based on millet farming, the cultivation of which on one site has been dated back 10,000 years...
磁山文化 - NanzhuangtouNanzhuangtouNanzhuangtou 12600-11300 BCE was a Neolithic Yellow River site near Lake Baiyangdian in Xushui County, Hebei, China. The site was discovered under a peat bog. Over forty-seven pieces of pottery were discovered at the site, making Nanzhuangtou the site of the oldest pottery yet discovered in...
南山頭遺址