Archaeological culture · c. 4300–2600 BCE
Dawenkou culture
The Dawenkou culture lived mainly in Shandong, with sites in Anhui, Henan and Jiangsu, at the same time as Yangshao to the west. Graves grew increasingly unequal, some filled with jade, turquoise and ivory, and the earliest alligator-skin drums.
Signs carved on some large jars are sometimes compared with later Chinese characters. Dawenkou developed into the Shandong Longshan culture.
See Dawenkou culture on the map in 4300 BCE
- On the map
- 4300–2600 BCE
How we know
No writing existed; a few signs carved on pots may be related to later scripts, but they are not writing, and sites are dated by radiocarbon.