Archaeological culture · c. 7000–5000 BCE
Peiligang culture
The Peiligang culture of central Henan, around the Yi-Luo valley and beyond, includes more than 100 sites. Its people farmed millet, raised pigs, hunted and fished, and made some of the oldest pottery in northern China.
Villages had separate cemeteries, and graves show few differences in wealth. Its best-known site, Jiahu, produced bone flutes and signs on tortoise shells.
See Peiligang culture on the map in 7000 BCE
- On the map
- 7000–5000 BCE
How we know
No writing existed; signs scratched on shells at Jiahu are debated, but most scholars do not count them as writing.