Erlitou Culture and the Xia Dynasty: China's First State?

The Erlitou culture is an Early Bronze Age culture of the middle Yellow River valley in China, named after a village near Luoyang in Henan province, where a large city flourished between roughly 1900 and 1500 BC. Erlitou had palaces, planned roads, bronze foundries and the earliest cast bronze ritual vessels in China. Because it lies where and when traditional histories place the Xia, China’s first recorded dynasty, it sits at the centre of one of the great debates of Chinese archaeology.

Background: the Xia in tradition

Chinese historical tradition names three early dynasties: the Xia, the Shang and the Zhou. The Xia was said to have been founded by Yu the Great, a hero who tamed the floods, and to have ended with a cruel last king, Jie, overthrown by Tang, the founder of the Shang. The fullest account is in the Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian) of Sima Qian, written around 100 BC, which lists the Xia kings.

For a long time many scholars doubted these early records. That changed for the Shang after 1899, when inscribed Shang oracle bones confirmed the names of Shang kings. No comparable written evidence has ever been found for the Xia. The search for Xia therefore became a search for archaeological remains in the right place and period.

Discovery and excavation

In 1959 the historian Xu Xusheng surveyed western Henan specifically looking for sites associated with the Xia in ancient texts. Near the village of Erlitou in Yanshi county he found a large settlement, and excavations began the same year. They have continued, with breaks, ever since, led by the Institute of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Archaeologists divide the occupation into four phases, I to IV. The site covers about 300 hectares, and estimates of its population at its height range from about 18,000 to 30,000 people, making it by far the largest settlement of its time in the region.

The city: palaces, roads and workshops

The heart of Erlitou was a palace zone of about 11 hectares, enclosed in a rammed-earth wall discovered in the early 2000s. Rammed earth, made by pounding layers of soil between wooden boards, was the standard building technique of early Chinese cities. Within the enclosure stood large halls on raised platforms; Palace No. 1 alone occupied about a hectare, with a courtyard large enough for big ceremonies.

Around the palace zone ran a grid of wide roads, and in 2004 archaeologists found parallel ruts left by wheeled vehicles, the earliest known in China. South of the palace lay a bronze foundry of about one hectare and a workshop that made objects from turquoise. Residential areas, pottery kilns and cemeteries surrounded this core.

The first Chinese bronze vessels

Erlitou’s most important technical achievement was casting bronze vessels in moulds made of several clay sections, known as piece-mould casting. Its small wine vessels, especially the three-legged jue, are the earliest cast bronze ritual vessels known in China. This method, rather than hammering metal sheets as was common elsewhere, became the basis of the great bronze traditions of the Shang and Zhou.

Bronze objects were rare and found mainly in elite tombs, along with jades such as long blade-shaped zhang, bronze plaques inlaid with turquoise, and bronze bells. In 2002 a tomb yielded a dragon-shaped object made of more than 2,000 pieces of turquoise, about 70 centimetres long, laid on the body of the dead man. It is among the earliest known images of a dragon in Chinese art.

Society and power

The layout of Erlitou points to a strongly hierarchical society. The palace zone, the elite workshops and the richest burials were placed close together at the centre, suggesting that the rulers directly controlled the most valuable crafts. Ordinary houses, by contrast, were small semi-subterranean or ground-level dwellings.

Raw materials came from far away. Copper, tin and lead for bronze had to be brought from mining areas in the surrounding hills and beyond, and salt, turquoise and fine stone were also imported. Smaller settlements in the Yi and Luo river basins seem to have supplied the capital, forming a regional network that many archaeologists describe as an early state.

The Xia question

Most Chinese archaeologists identify Erlitou with the Xia, or at least with a late Xia capital. The scholar Zou Heng argued in 1980 that all four phases belonged to the Xia, while others have suggested that the last phase already belongs to the early Shang. A key piece of evidence is a walled town built about 6 kilometres away at Yanshi around 1600 BC in a different, Erligang, style, which many interpret as a Shang foundation established after the conquest of Erlitou.

Many scholars outside China, such as Sarah Allan and Robert Thorp, are more cautious. They point out that no writing has been found at Erlitou, apart from simple marks on pottery, so nothing on the site names its rulers or its state. Radiocarbon dating also complicates matters: newer dates place the main occupation at about 1750–1530 BC, shorter and later than the traditional Xia span of about 2070–1600 BC adopted by the Chinese Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project in 2000.

The archaeologist Xu Hong, who led excavations for many years, has proposed calling Erlitou “the earliest China” while leaving the question of its dynastic name open. The debate is partly about evidence and partly about method: whether later texts can be used to label prehistoric remains at all.

Myths and facts

A common claim is that Erlitou “proves” the Xia dynasty existed. In fact it proves that a powerful, centralised society existed in the Central Plains at about the right time; linking it to the name Xia still depends on later texts. Another misconception is that Erlitou was China’s first city. Earlier walled centres existed, such as Liangzhu in the Yangtze delta and Taosi in Shanxi, but Erlitou’s palace layout and bronze casting set the pattern followed by later dynasties.

Legacy

Erlitou’s influence spread far beyond its home. Its jade zhang blades and ritual objects appear across a wide area of China, suggesting the prestige of its culture. After its decline, the centre of power moved to Erligang-period cities such as Zhengzhou Shang City, which inherited and expanded its techniques.

In October 2019 the Erlitou Site Museum of the Xia Capital opened beside the excavations, reflecting the official Chinese view of the site. Research continues, and new finds of workshops, roads and burials are reported almost every year.

Timeline

• c. 1900–1750 BC: Early occupation of the Erlitou area (Phase I, dates debated).
• c. 1750–1530 BC: Main period of the city, with palaces, roads and bronze workshops (Phases II–IV, by recent radiocarbon dates).
• c. 1600 BC: Erligang-style walled town founded at nearby Yanshi; often linked to the Shang conquest.
• 1959: Xu Xusheng identifies the site during a survey for Xia remains; excavations begin.
• 1980: Zou Heng publishes his argument that Erlitou is a Xia site.
• 2000: The Xia–Shang–Zhou Chronology Project dates the Xia to about 2070–1600 BC.
• 2002: The turquoise dragon is excavated from an elite tomb.
• 2004: Wheel ruts and the palace-zone wall are reported.
• 2019: The Erlitou Site Museum of the Xia Capital opens.

Why it matters

Erlitou marks the moment when the Central Plains of China produced a true urban centre with palaces and bronze ritual vessels, the foundations of later Chinese kingship. Whether or not it was the Xia capital, it shows how states first took shape in East Asia and why the relationship between archaeology and ancient texts remains so debated.