ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref
Hongshan culture
“The Hongshan culture was a Neolithic culture in the Liao river basin in northeast China. Hongshan sites have been found in an area stretching from Inner Mongolia to Liaoning, and dated from about 4700 to 2900 BCE. In northeast China, Hongshan culture was preceded by Xinglongwa culture (6200–5400 BCE), Xinle culture (5300–4800 BCE), and Zhaobaogou culture, which may be contemporary with Xinle and a little later. Yangshao culture was in the larger area and contemporary with Hongshan culture. These two cultures interacted with each other.” ref
“A study by Yinqiu Cui et al. from 2013 found that 63% of the combined samples from various Hongshan archeological sites belonged to the subclade N1 (xN1a, N1c) of the paternal haplogroup N-M231 and calculated N to have been the predominant haplogroup in the region in the Neolithic period at 89%, its share gradually declining over time. Today this haplogroup is most common in Finland, the Baltic states, and among northern Siberian ethnicities, such as the Yakuts. Other paternal haplogroups identified in the study were C and O3a (O3a3), both of which predominate among the present-day inhabitants. Nelson et al. 2020 attempts to link the Hongshan culture to a “Transeurasian” linguistic context (see Altaic).” ref
“The archaeological site at Niuheliang is a unique ritual complex associated with the Hongshan culture. Excavators have discovered an underground temple complex—which included an altar—and also cairns in Niuheliang. The temple was constructed of stone platforms, with painted walls. Archaeologists have given it the name Goddess Temple due to the discovery of a clay female head with jade inlaid eyes. It was an underground structure, 1m deep. Included on its walls are mural paintings.” ref
Housed inside the Goddess Temple are clay figurines as large as three times the size of real-life humans.[6] The exceedingly large figurines are possibly deities, but for a religion not reflective in any other Chinese culture. The existence of complex trading networks and monumental architecture (such as pyramids and the Goddess Temple) point to the existence of a “chiefdom” in these prehistoric communities.” ref
“Painted pottery was also discovered within the temple. Over 60 nearby tombs have been unearthed, all constructed of stone and covered by stone mounds, frequently including jade artifacts. Cairns were discovered atop two nearby two hills, with either round or square stepped tombs, made of piled limestone. Entombed inside were sculptures of dragons and tortoises. It has been suggested that religious sacrifice might have been performed within the Hongshan culture.” ref
“Just as suggested by evidence found at early Yangshao culture sites, Hongshan culture sites also provide the earliest evidence for feng shui. The presence of both round and square shapes at Hongshan culture ceremonial centers suggests an early presence of the gaitian cosmography (“round heaven, square earth”). Early feng shui relied on astronomy to find correlations between humans and the universe.” ref
“Some Chinese archaeologists such as Guo Da-shun see the Hongshan culture as an important stage of early Chinese civilization. Whatever the linguistic affinity of the ancient denizens, Hongshan culture is believed to have exerted an influence on the development of early Chinese civilization. The culture also have contributed to the development of settlements in ancient Korea.” ref
5,200 years old Walled City Unearthed in Central China
“HUBEI PROVINCE, CHINA—Xinhua reports that a section of wall and a moat estimated to be 5,200 years old have been unearthed at the Fenghuangzui site in central China. “The discovery gave us a basic idea about the ancient city’s rise and demise,” said archaeologist Shan Siwei. The excavation also revealed the remains of houses, pits, ditches, tombs, and pottery. “Based on the construction style and unearthed items, we believe the site used to be a regional center in the past and also served important military functions,” Shan added.” ref
Remains of an ancient wall section, moat found in central China
“The remains were found in the Fenghuangzui site located in the city of Xiangyang, after more than seven months of excavation. Archaeologists believe the remains belong to several cultural phases of Chinese history ranging from 3,900 to 5,200 years old. The Fenghuangzui site is the site of a Neolithic city on a roughly square-shaped area measuring about 140,000 square meters. A joint archaeological team started excavation work at the site in August last year covering an area of more than 450 square meters. The excavation confirmed the existence of the ancient city walls and the moat, as well as their structure, said Shan Siwei, one of the leading archaeologists from the excavation team. “The discovery gave us a basic idea about the ancient city’s rise and demise.” In addition to the wall section and the moat, they also found remains of some houses, pits, ditches, tombs, coffins, and clays. “Based on the construction style and unearthed items, we believe the site used to be a regional center in the past and also served important military functions,” Shan added.” ref
“Xiangyang is located at a strategic site on the middle reaches of the Han River, and has witnessed several major battles in Chinese history. Xiangyang County was first established at the location of modern Xiangcheng in the early Western Han dynasty and the name had been used continuously for more than 2,000 years until the 20th century.” ref
“In the final years of Eastern Han dynasty, Xiangyang became the capital of Jing Province (ancient Jingzhou). The warlord Liu Biao governed his territory from here. Under Liu’s rule, Xiangyang became a major destination of the northern elite fleeing warfare in the Central Plain. In the Battle of Xiangyang in 191 AD, Sun Jian, who was a rival warlord and the father of Sun Quan, founder of Eastern Wu, was defeated and killed. The area passed to Liu Bei after Liu Biao’s death. Two decades later, Battle of Fancheng, one of the most important battles in late Han-Three Kingdoms period was fought here, resulting in Liu Bei‘s loss of Jingzhou.” ref
“During the early years of Jin dynasty, Xiangyang was on the frontier between Jin and Eastern Wu. Yang Hu, the commander in Xiangyang, was remembered for his policy of “border peace”. Cross-border commerce was allowed, and the pressure on the Jin army was greatly relieved. Eventually, Xiangyang accumulated sufficient supplies for 10 years, which played a key role in Jin’s conquest of Wu.” ref
“In Southern Song dynasty, after the Treaty of Shaoxing, Xiangyang became a garrison city on the northern frontier of Song. During Mongol conquest of the Song dynasty, Xiangyang together with Fancheng formed one of the greatest obstacles against the expansion of Mongol Empire. They were able to resist for six years before finally surrendering in the Siege of Xiangyang.” ref
“In 1796, Xiangyang was one of the centers of the White Lotus Rebellion against the Qing dynasty. Here, rebel leader Wang Cong’er successfully organized an rebel army of 50,000 and joined the main rebel forces in Sichuan. The revolt lasted for nearly 10 years and marked a turning point in the history of Qing dynasty. In 1950, Xiangyang and Fancheng were merged to form Xiangfan City. In the later 20th century, it became a major transport hub as Handan, Jiaoliu, and Xiangyu railways intersect in Fancheng. The city’s current boundaries were established in 1983 when Xiangyang Prefecture was incorporated into Xiangfan City. The city was renamed to Xiangyang in 2010.” ref
“Xiangyang has a latitude range of 31° 14’−32° 37′ N, or 154 km (96 mi), and longitude range of 110° 45’−113° 43′ E, or 220 km (137 mi), and is located on the middle reaches of the Hanshui, a major tributary of the Yangtze River. The urban area, however, has a latitude range of 31° 54’−32° 10′ N, or 29 km (18 mi), and longitude range of 112° 00’−112° 14′ E, or 21 km (13 mi). It borders Suizhou to the east, Jingmen and Yichang to the south, Shennongjia and Shiyan to the west, and Nanyang (Henan) to the north. Its administrative border has a total length of 1,332.8 km (828.2 mi).” ref
“Xiangyang has a monsoon-influenced, four-season humid subtropical climate (Köppen Cfa), with cold, damp (but comparatively dry), winters, and hot, humid summers. Xiangyang possesses large water energy resources whilst its mineral deposits include rutile, ilmenite, phosphorus, barite, coal, iron, aluminum, gold, manganese, nitre, and rock salt. The reserves of rutile and ilmenite rank highly in China.” ref
History of China
ANCIENT China
Neolithic c. 8500 – 2070 BCE
Xia c. 2070 – 1600 BCE
Shang c. 1600 – 1046 BCE
Zhou c. 1046 – 256 BCE
IMPERIAL China
Qin 221–207 BCE
Han 202 BCE – 220 CE
“The earliest known written records of the history of China date from as early as 1250 BCE, from the Shang dynasty (c. 1600–1046 BCE), during the king Wu Ding‘s reign, who was mentioned as the twenty-first Shang king by the same. Ancient historical texts such as the Book of Documents (early chapters, 11th century BCE), the Records of the Grand Historian (c. 100 BCE) and the Bamboo Annals (296 BCE) mention and describe a Xia dynasty (c. 2070–1600 BCE) before the Shang, but no writing is known from the period, and Shang writings do not indicate the existence of the Xia. The Shang ruled in the Yellow River valley, which is commonly held to be the cradle of Chinese civilization. However, Neolithic civilizations originated at various cultural centers along both the Yellow River and Yangtze River. These Yellow River and Yangtze civilizations arose millennia before the Shang. With thousands of years of continuous history, China is one of the world’s oldest civilizations and is regarded as one of the cradles of civilization.” ref
“The Zhou dynasty (1046–256 BCE) supplanted the Shang, and introduced the concept of the Mandate of Heaven to justify their rule. The central Zhou government began to weaken due to external and internal pressures in the 8th century BC, and the country eventually splintered into smaller states during the Spring and Autumn period. These states became independent and fought with one another in the following Warring States period. Much of traditional Chinese culture, literature, and philosophy first developed during those troubled times.” ref
“In 221 BCE, Qin Shi Huang conquered the various warring states and created for himself the title of Huangdi or “emperor” of the Qin, marking the beginning of imperial China. However, the oppressive government fell soon after his death, and was supplanted by the longer-lived Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE). Successive dynasties developed bureaucratic systems that enabled the emperor to control vast territories directly. In the 21 centuries from 206 BCE until CE 1912, routine administrative tasks were handled by a special elite of scholar-officials. Young men, well-versed in calligraphy, history, literature, and philosophy, were carefully selected through difficult government examinations. China’s last dynasty was the Qing (1644–1912), which was replaced by the Republic of China in 1912, and then in the mainland by the People’s Republic of China in 1949. The Republic of China retreated to Taiwan in 1949. Hong Kong and Macau transferred sovereignty to China in 1997 and 1999.” ref
“Chinese history has alternated between periods of political unity and peace, and periods of war and failed statehood—the most recent being the Chinese Civil War (1927–1949). China was occasionally dominated by steppe peoples, most of whom were eventually assimilated into the Han Chinese culture and population. Between eras of multiple kingdoms and warlordism, Chinese dynasties have ruled parts or all of China; in some eras control stretched as far as Xinjiang and Tibet, as at present. Traditional culture, and influences from other parts of Asia and the Western world (carried by waves of immigration, cultural assimilation, expansion, and foreign contact), form the basis of the modern culture of China.” ref
Neolithic China
List of Neolithic cultures of China
Further information: Yellow river civilization, Yangtze civilization, and Liao civilization
“The Neolithic age in China can be traced back to about 10,000 BCE The earliest evidence of cultivated rice, found by the Yangtze River, is carbon-dated to 8,000 years ago. Early evidence for proto-Chinese millet agriculture is radiocarbon-dated to about 7000 BCE. Farming gave rise to the Jiahu culture (7000 to 5800 BCE). At Damaidi in Ningxia, 3,172 cliff carvings dating to 6000–5000 BCE have been discovered, “featuring 8,453 individual characters such as the sun, moon, stars, gods, and scenes of hunting or grazing”. These pictographs are reputed to be similar to the earliest characters confirmed to be written Chinese.” ref
“Chinese proto-writing existed in Jiahu around 7000 BCE, Dadiwan from 5800-5400 BCE, Damaidi around 6000 BCE, and Banpo dating from the 5th millennium BCE. Some scholars have suggested that Jiahu symbols (7th millennium BCE) were the earliest Chinese writing system. Excavation of a Peiligang culture site in Xinzheng county, Henan, found a community that flourished in 5,500-4,900 BCE, with evidence of agriculture, constructed buildings, pottery, and burial of the dead. With agriculture came an increased population, the ability to store and redistribute crops, and the potential to support specialist craftsmen and administrators. In late Neolithic times, the Yellow River valley began to establish itself as a center of Yangshao culture (5000-3000 BCE), and the first villages were founded; the most archaeologically significant of these was found at Banpo, Xi’an. Later, Yangshao culture was superseded by the Longshan culture, which was also centered on the Yellow River from about 3000-2000 BCE.” ref
Bronze Age
See also: List of Bronze Age sites in China
“Bronze artifacts have been found at the Majiayao culture site (between 3100-2700 BCE). The Bronze Age is also represented at the Lower Xiajiadian culture (2200–1600 BCE) site in northeast China. Sanxingdui located in what is now Sichuan province is believed to be the site of a major ancient city, of a previously unknown Bronze Age culture (between 2000-1200 BCE). The site was first discovered in 1929 and then re-discovered in 1986. Chinese archaeologists have identified the Sanxingdui culture to be part of the ancient kingdom of Shu, linking the artifacts found at the site to its early legendary kings.” ref
“Ferrous metallurgy begins to appear in the late 6th century in the Yangzi Valley. A bronze tomahawk with a blade of meteoric iron excavated near the city of Gaocheng in Shijiazhuang (now Hebei province) has been dated to the 14th century BCE. For this reason, authors such as Liana Chua and Mark Elliott have used the term “Iron Age” by convention for the transitional period of c. 500-100 BCE, roughly corresponding to the Warring States period of Chinese historiography. An Iron Age culture of the Tibetan Plateau has tentatively been associated with the Zhang Zhung culture described in early Tibetan writings.” ref
Ancient China
Xia dynasty (2070 – 1600 BCE)
Main article: Xia dynasty
“The Xia dynasty of China (from c. 2070-1600 BC) is the first dynasty to be described in ancient historical records such as Sima Qian‘s Records of the Grand Historian and Bamboo Annals. The dynasty was considered mythical by historians until scientific excavations found early Bronze Age sites at Erlitou, Henan in 1959. With few clear records matching the Shang oracle bones, it remains unclear whether these sites are the remains of the Xia dynasty or of another culture from the same period. Excavations that overlap the alleged time period of the Xia indicate a type of culturally similar groupings of chiefdoms. Early markings from this period found on pottery and shells are thought to be ancestral to modern Chinese characters. According to ancient records, the dynasty ended around 1600 BCE as a consequence of the Battle of Mingtiao.” ref
Shang dynasty (1600 – 1046 BCE)
Main article: Shang dynasty
Further information: Chinese Bronze Age
“Archaeological findings providing evidence for the existence of the Shang dynasty, c. 1600–1046 BCE, are divided into two sets. The first set, from the earlier Shang period, comes from sources at Erligang, Zhengzhou, and Shangcheng. The second set, from the later Shang or Yin (殷) period, is at Anyang, in modern-day Henan, which has been confirmed as the last of the Shang’s nine capitals (c. 1300–1046 BCE). The findings at Anyang include the earliest written record of the Chinese so far discovered: inscriptions of divination records in ancient Chinese writing on the bones or shells of animals—the “oracle bones“, dating from around 1250 BCE.” ref
“A series of thirty-one kings reigned over the Shang dynasty. During their reign, according to the Records of the Grand Historian, the capital city was moved six times. The final (and most important) move was to Yin in around 1300 BCE which led to the dynasty’s golden age. The term Yin dynasty has been synonymous with the Shang dynasty in history, although it has lately been used to refer specifically to the latter half of the Shang dynasty. Chinese historians in later periods were accustomed to the notion of one dynasty succeeding another, but the political situation in early China was much more complicated. Hence, as some scholars of China suggest, the Xia and the Shang can refer to political entities that existed concurrently, just as the early Zhou existed at the same time as the Shang.” ref
“Although written records found at Anyang confirm the existence of the Shang dynasty, Western scholars are often hesitant to associate settlements that are contemporaneous with the Anyang settlement with the Shang dynasty. For example, archaeological findings at Sanxingdui suggest a technologically advanced civilization culturally unlike Anyang. The evidence is inconclusive in proving how far the Shang realm extended from Anyang. The leading hypothesis is that Anyang, ruled by the same Shang in the official history, coexisted and traded with numerous other culturally diverse settlements in the area that is now referred to as China proper.” ref
“The Zhou dynasty (1046 BCE to approximately 256 BCE) is the longest-lasting dynasty in Chinese history. By the end of the 2nd millennium BCE, the Zhou dynasty began to emerge in the Yellow River valley, overrunning the territory of the Shang. The Zhou appeared to have begun their rule under a semi-feudal system. The Zhou lived west of the Shang, and the Zhou leader was appointed Western Protector by the Shang. The ruler of the Zhou, King Wu, with the assistance of his brother, the Duke of Zhou, as regent, managed to defeat the Shang at the Battle of Muye.” ref
“The king of Zhou at this time invoked the concept of the Mandate of Heaven to legitimize his rule, a concept that was influential for almost every succeeding dynasty. Like Shangdi, Heaven (tian) ruled over all the other gods, and it decided who would rule China. It was believed that a ruler lost the Mandate of Heaven when natural disasters occurred in great number, and when, more realistically, the sovereign had apparently lost his concern for the people. In response, the royal house would be overthrown, and a new house would rule, having been granted the Mandate of Heaven. The Zhou initially moved their capital west to an area near modern Xi’an, on the Wei River, a tributary of the Yellow River, but they would preside over a series of expansions into the Yangtze River valley. This would be the first of many population migrations from north to south in Chinese history.” ref
Spring and Autumn period (722 – 476 BCE)
“In the 8th century BCE, power became decentralized during the Spring and Autumn period, named after the influential Spring and Autumn Annals. In this period, local military leaders used by the Zhou began to assert their power and vie for hegemony. The situation was aggravated by the invasion of other peoples from the northwest, such as the Qin, forcing the Zhou to move their capital east to Luoyang. This marks the second major phase of the Zhou dynasty: the Eastern Zhou. The Spring and Autumn period is marked by a falling apart of the central Zhou power. In each of the hundreds of states that eventually arose, local strongmen held most of the political power and continued their subservience to the Zhou kings in name only. Some local leaders even started using royal titles for themselves. China now consisted of hundreds of states, some of them only as large as a village with a fort.” ref
“As the era continued, larger and more powerful states annexed or claimed suzerainty over smaller ones. By the 6th century BCE, most small states had disappeared by being annexed and just a few large and powerful principalities dominated China. Some southern states, such as Chu and Wu, claimed independence from the Zhou, who undertook wars against some of them (Wu and Yue). Many new cities were established in this period and Chinese culture was slowly shaped.” ref
“Once all these powerful rulers had firmly established themselves within their respective dominions, the bloodshed focused more fully on interstate conflict in the Warring States period, which began when the three remaining élite families in the Jin state—Zhao, Wei, and Han—partitioned the state. Many famous individuals such as Laozi, Confucius, and Sun Tzu lived during this chaotic period.” ref
“The Hundred Schools of Thought of Chinese philosophy blossomed during this period, and such influential intellectual movements as Confucianism, Taoism, Legalism, and Mohism were founded, partly in response to the changing political world. The first two philosophical thoughts would have an enormous influence on Chinese culture.” ref
Warring States period (476 – 221 BCE)
Main article: Warring States period
“After further political consolidation, seven prominent states remained by the end of the 5th century BCE, and the years in which these few states battled each other are known as the Warring States period. Though there remained a nominal Zhou king until 256 BCE, he was largely a figurehead and held little real power.” ref
“Numerous developments were made during this period in culture and mathematics. Examples include an important literary achievement, the Zuo zhuan on the Spring and Autumn Annals, which summarizes the preceding Spring and Autumn period, and the bundle of 21 bamboo slips from the Tsinghua collection, which was invented during this period dated to 305 BCE, are the world’s earliest example of a two-digit decimal multiplication table, indicating that sophisticated commercial arithmetic was already established during this period.” ref
“As neighboring territories of these warring states, including areas of modern Sichuan and Liaoning, were annexed, they were governed under the new local administrative system of commandery and prefecture. This system had been in use since the Spring and Autumn period, and parts can still be seen in the modern system of Sheng and Xian (province and county). The final expansion in this period began during the reign of Ying Zheng, the king of Qin. His unification of the other six powers, and further annexations in the modern regions of Zhejiang, Fujian, Guangdong, and Guangxi in 214 BCE, enabled him to proclaim himself the First Emperor (Qin Shi Huang).” ref
Imperial China
“Empire of China” and “Chinese Empire” redirect here. For the empire founded by Yuan Shikai, see Empire of China (1915–1916).
See also: Political systems of Imperial China
“The Imperial China Period can be divided into three sub-periods: Early, Middle, and Late. Major events in the Early sub-period include the Qin unification of China and their replacement by the Han, the First Split followed by the Jin unification, and the loss of north China. The Middle sub-period was marked by the Sui unification and their supplementation by the Tang, the Second Split, and the Song unification. The Late sub-period included the Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties.” ref
Qin dynasty (221 – 206 BCE)
Main article: Qin dynasty
“Historians often refer to the period from the Qin dynasty to the end of the Qing dynasty as Imperial China. Though the unified reign of the First Qin Emperor lasted only 12 years, he managed to subdue great parts of what constitutes the core of the Han Chinese homeland and to unite them under a tightly centralized Legalist government seated at Xianyang (close to modern Xi’an). The doctrine of Legalism that guided the Qin emphasized strict adherence to a legal code and the absolute power of the emperor. This philosophy, while effective for expanding the empire in a military fashion, proved unworkable for governing it in peacetime. The Qin Emperor presided over the brutal silencing of political opposition, including the event known as the burning of books and burying of scholars. This would be the impetus behind the later Han synthesis incorporating the more moderate schools of political governance.” ref
“Major contributions of the Qin include the concept of a centralized government, and the unification and development of the legal code, the written language, measurement, and currency of China after the tribulations of the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods. Even something as basic as the length of axles for carts—which need to match ruts in the roads—had to be made uniform to ensure a viable trading system throughout the empire. Also as part of its centralization, the Qin connected the northern border walls of the states it defeated, making the first, though rough, version of the Great Wall of China.” ref
“The tribes of the north, collectively called the Wu Hu by the Qin, were free from Chinese rule during the majority of the dynasty. Prohibited from trading with Qin dynasty peasants, the Xiongnu tribe living in the Ordos region in northwest China often raided them instead, prompting the Qin to retaliate. After a military campaign led by General Meng Tian, the region was conquered in 215 BCE and agriculture was established; the peasants, however, were discontented and later revolted. The succeeding Han dynasty also expanded into the Ordos due to overpopulation, but depleted their resources in the process. Indeed, this was true of the dynasty’s borders in multiple directions; modern Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang, Tibet, Manchuria, and regions to the southeast were foreign to the Qin, and even areas over which they had military control were culturally distinct.” ref
“After Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s unnatural death due to the consumption of mercury pills, the Qin government drastically deteriorated and eventually capitulated in 207 BCE after the Qin capital was captured and sacked by rebels, which would ultimately lead to the establishment of a new dynasty of a unified China. Despite the short 15-year duration of the Qin dynasty, it was immensely influential on China and the structure of future Chinese dynasties.” ref
Han dynasty (206 BC – CE 220)
Main article: Han dynasty
Further information: History of the Han dynasty
“The Han dynasty was founded by Liu Bang, who emerged victorious in the Chu–Han Contention that followed the fall of the Qin dynasty. A golden age in Chinese history, the Han dynasty’s long period of stability and prosperity consolidated the foundation of China as a unified state under a central imperial bureaucracy, which was to last intermittently for most of the next two millennia. During the Han dynasty, territory of China was extended to most of the China proper and to areas far west. Confucianism was officially elevated to orthodox status and was to shape the subsequent Chinese civilization.” ref
“Art, culture, and science all advanced to unprecedented heights. With the profound and lasting impacts of this period of Chinese history, the dynasty name “Han” had been taken as the name of the Chinese people, now the dominant ethnic group in modern China, and had been commonly used to refer to Chinese language and written characters. The Han dynasty also saw many mathematical innovations being invented such as the method of Gaussian elimination which appeared in the Chinese mathematical text Chapter Eight Rectangular Arrays of The Nine Chapters on the Mathematical Art. Its use is illustrated in eighteen problems, with two to five equations. The first reference to the book by this title is dated to 179 CE, but parts of it were written as early as approximately 150 BCE, more than 1500 years before a European came up with the method in the 18th century.” ref
“After the initial laissez-faire policies of Emperors Wen and Jing, the ambitious Emperor Wu brought the empire to its zenith. To consolidate his power, Confucianism, which emphasizes stability and order in a well-structured society, was given exclusive patronage to be the guiding philosophical thoughts and moral principles of the empire. Imperial Universities were established to support its study and further development, while other schools of thought were discouraged.” ref
“Major military campaigns were launched to weaken the nomadic Xiongnu Empire, limiting their influence north of the Great Wall. Along with the diplomatic efforts led by Zhang Qian, the sphere of influence of the Han Empire extended to the states in the Tarim Basin, opened up the Silk Road that connected China to the west, stimulating bilateral trade and cultural exchange. To the south, various small kingdoms far beyond the Yangtze River Valley were formally incorporated into the empire.” ref
“Emperor Wu also dispatched a series of military campaigns against the Baiyue tribes. The Han annexed Minyue in 135 BCE and 111 BC, Nanyue in 111 BCE, and Dian in 109 BCE. Migration and military expeditions led to the cultural assimilation of the south. It also brought the Han into contact with kingdoms in Southeast Asia, introducing diplomacy and trade.” ref
“After Emperor Wu, the empire slipped into gradual stagnation and decline. Economically, the state treasury was strained by excessive campaigns and projects, while land acquisitions by elite families gradually drained the tax base. Various consort clans exerted increasing control over strings of incompetent emperors and eventually, the dynasty was briefly interrupted by the usurpation of Wang Mang.” ref
Xin dynasty
Main article: Xin dynasty
“In CE 9, the usurper Wang Mang claimed that the Mandate of Heaven called for the end of the Han dynasty and the rise of his own, and he founded the short-lived Xin dynasty. Wang Mang started an extensive program of land and other economic reforms, including the outlawing of slavery and land nationalization and redistribution. These programs, however, were never supported by the landholding families, because they favored the peasants. The instability of power brought about chaos, uprisings, and loss of territories. This was compounded by mass flooding of the Yellow River; silt buildup caused it to split into two channels and displaced large numbers of farmers. Wang Mang was eventually killed in Weiyang Palace by an enraged peasant mob in CE 23.” ref
Cishan culture
“The Cishan culture (6500–5000 BCE) was a Neolithic culture in northern China, on the eastern foothills of the Taihang Mountains. The Cishan culture was based on the farming of broomcorn millet, the cultivation of which on one site has been dated back 10,000 years. The people at Cishan also began to cultivate foxtail millet around 8700 years ago. However, these early dates have been questioned by some archaeologists due to sampling issues and lack of systematic surveying. There is also evidence that the Cishan people cultivated barley and, late in their history, a japonica variety of rice.” ref
“Common artifacts from the Cishan culture include stone grinders, stone sickles, and tripod pottery. The sickle blades feature fairly uniform serrations, which made the harvesting of grain easier. Cord markings, used as decorations on the pottery, were more common compared to neighboring cultures. Also, the Cishan potters created a broader variety of pottery forms such as basins, pot supports, serving stands, and drinking cups.” ref
“Since the culture shared many similarities with its southern neighbor, the Peiligang culture, both cultures were sometimes previously referred to together as the Cishan-Peiligang culture or Peiligang-Cishan culture. The Cishan culture also shared several similarities with its eastern neighbor, the Beixin culture. However, the contemporary consensus among archaeologists is that the Cishan people were members of a distinct culture that shared many characteristics with its neighbors. This culture has been linked to the origin of the Sino-Tibetan language family. ” ref
“Yangshao culture. along the Yellow River in China, dates to around 7,000-5,000 years old. Research indicates a common origin of the Sino-Tibetan languages with the Cishan, Yangshao, and/or the Majiayao cultures. Showing a large amount of knowledge transfer.” ref
Yangshao culture
“The Yangshao culture was a Neolithic culture that existed extensively along the Yellow River in China. It is dated from around 5000-3000 BCE. The culture is named after the Yangshao site, the first excavated site of this culture, which was discovered in 1921 in Yangshao town, Mianchi County, Henan Province by the Swedish geologist Johan Gunnar Andersson (1874–1960). The culture flourished mainly in the provinces of Henan, Shaanxi, and Shanxi. Recent research indicates a common origin of the Sino-Tibetan languages with the Cishan, Yangshao, and/or the Majiayao cultures.” ref
“The main food of the Yangshao people was millet, with some sites using foxtail millet and others proso millet, though some evidence of rice has been found. The exact nature of Yangshao agriculture, small-scale slash-and-burn cultivation versus intensive agriculture in permanent fields, is currently a matter of debate. Once the soil was exhausted, residents picked up their belongings, moved to new lands, and constructed new villages.
“However, Middle Yangshao settlements such as Jiangzhi contain raised-floor buildings that may have been used for the storage of surplus grains. Grinding stones for making flour were also found. The Yangshao people kept pigs and dogs. Sheep, goats, and cattle are found much more rarely. Much of their meat came from hunting and fishing with stone tools. Their stone tools were polished and highly specialized. They may also have practiced an early form of sericulture.” ref
“The Yangshao culture crafted pottery. Yangshao artisans created fine white, red, and black painted pottery with human facial, animal, and geometric designs. Unlike the later Longshan culture, the Yangshao culture did not use pottery wheels in pottery-making. Excavations found that children were buried in painted pottery jars. The Yangshao culture produced silk to a small degree and wove hemp. Men wore loin clothes and tied their hair in a top knot. Women wrapped a length of cloth around themselves and tied their hair in a bun.” ref
“Houses were built by digging a rounded rectangular pit a few feet deep. Then they were rammed, and a lattice of wattle was woven over it. Then it was plastered with mud. The floor was also rammed down. Next, a few short wattle poles would be placed around the top of the pit, and more wattle would be woven to it. It was plastered with mud, and a framework of poles would be placed to make a cone shape for the roof.” ref
“Poles would be added to support the roof. It was then thatched with millet stalks. There was little furniture; a shallow fireplace in the middle with a stool, a bench along the wall, and a bed of cloth. Food and items were placed or hung against the walls. A pen would be built outside for animals. Yangshao villages typically covered ten to fourteen acres and were composed of houses around a central square.” ref
“Although early reports suggested a matriarchal culture, others argue that it was a society in transition from matriarchy to patriarchy, while still others believe it to have been patriarchal. The debate hinges on differing interpretations of burial practices. The discovery of a dragon statue dating back to the fifth millennium BC in the Yangshao culture makes it the world’s oldest known dragon depiction, and the Han Chinese continue to worship dragons to this day.” ref
The Yangshao culture is conventionally divided into three phases:
· The early period or Banpo phase, c. 5000–4000 BCE) is represented by the Banpo, Jiangzhai, Beishouling, and Dadiwan sites in the Wei River valley in Shaanxi.” ref
· The middle period or Miaodigou phase, c. 4000–3500 BCE) saw an expansion of the culture in all directions, and the development of hierarchies of settlements in some areas, such as western Henan.” ref
· The late period (c. 3500–3000 BCE) saw a greater spread of settlement hierarchies. The first wall of rammed earth in China was built around the settlement of Xishan (25 ha) in central Henan (near modern Zhengzhou).” ref
The Majiayao culture (c. 3300–2000 BCE) to the west is now considered a separate culture that developed from the middle Yangshao culture through an intermediate Shilingxia phase.” ref
· List of Neolithic cultures of China
· Beifudi
Origin of Sino-Tibetan language family revealed to be from North China, around 7,200 years ago
“The Sino-Tibetan language family includes early literary languages, such as Chinese, Tibetan, and Burmese, and is represented by more than 400 modern languages spoken in China, India, Burma, and Nepal. It is one of the most diverse language families in the world, spoken by 1.4 billion speakers. Although the language family has been studied since the beginning of the 19th century, scholars’ knowledge of the origin of these languages is still severely limited. An interdisciplinary study published in PNAS, led by scientists of the Centre des Recherches Linguistiques sur l’Asie Orientale (Paris), the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History (Jena), and the Centre de Recherches en Mathématiques de la Décision (Paris), now sheds new light on the place and date of the origin of these languages. Based on a phylogenetic study of 50 ancient and modern Sino-Tibetan languages, the scholars conclude that the Sino-Tibetan languages originated among millet farmers, located in North China, around 7,200 years ago.” ref
“During the past 10,000 years, two of the world’s largest language families emerged, one in the west and one in the east of Eurasia. Together, these families account for nearly 60 percent of the world’s population: Indo-European (3.2 billion speakers), and Sino-Tibetan (1.4 billion). The Sino-Tibetan family comprises about 500 languages spoken across a wide geographic range, from the west coast of the Pacific to Nepal, India, and Pakistan. Speakers of these languages have played a major role in human prehistory, giving rise to early high cultures China, Tibet, Burma, and Nepal. However, while archaeogeneticists, phylogeneticists, and linguists have energetically discussed the origins of the Indo-European language family, the formation of Sino-Tibetan languages has previously received little attention.” ref
Evolutionary trees suggest that the language family originated about 7200 years ago
“Using powerful computational phylogenetic methods, the team inferred the most probable relationships between these languages and then estimated when these languages might have originated in the past. “We find clear evidence for seven major subgroups with a complex pattern of overlapping signals beyond that level,” says Simon J. Greenhill of the Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History. “Our estimates suggest that the ancestral language has arisen around 7,200 years ago.” ref
An agricultural analysis reveals the most likely origin and expansion scenario of the language family
“To further resolve the complex pathways of the evolution of the Sino-Tibetan languages, the authors looked at related words describing domesticates, because they may reveal how agricultural knowledge spread through the region. This agricultural analysis suggests an origin of the Sino-Tibetan family in Northern Chinese communities of millet farmers of the Neolithic cultures of late Cishan and early Yangshao. “The most likely expansion scenario of the languages involves an initial separation between an Eastern group, from which the Chinese dialects evolved, and a Western group, which is ancestral to the rest of the Sino-Tibetan languages,” summarizes Laurent Sagart of the Centre des Recherches Linguistiques sur l’Asie Orientale, co-first author of the study, who carried out the agricultural analysis.” ref
One of the world’s most diverse language families
“The Sino-Tibetan language family is one of the most diverse families in the world. It includes all of the different types of morphological systems, ranging from isolating languages, such as Chinese, Burmese, and Tujia, to polysynthetic languages, such as Gyalrongic and Kiranti languages,” explains Guillaume Jacques of the Centre des Recherches Linguistiques sur l’Asie Orientale, co-first author of the study. “While our knowledge of how to compare these languages linguistically is improving, important aspects of the development of their sound systems and their grammar remain poorly understood.” ref
Sino-Tibetan languages
“Sino-Tibetan, also known as Trans-Himalayan in a few sources, is a family of more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in number of native speakers. The vast majority of these are the 1.3 billion native speakers of Chinese languages. Other Sino-Tibetan languages with large numbers of speakers include Burmese (33 million) and the Tibetic languages (six million). Other languages of the family are spoken in the Himalayas, the Southeast Asian Massif, and the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau. Most of these have small speech communities in remote mountain areas, and as such are poorly documented.” ref
“Several low-level subgroups have been securely reconstructed, but reconstruction of a proto-language for the family as a whole is still at an early stage, so the higher-level structure of Sino-Tibetan remains unclear. Although the family is traditionally presented as divided into Sinitic (i.e. Chinese) and Tibeto-Burman branches, a common origin of the non-Sinitic languages has never been demonstrated. While Chinese linguists generally include Kra–Dai, and Hmong–Mien languages within Sino-Tibetan, most other linguists have excluded them since the 1940s. Several links to other language families have been proposed, but none has broad acceptance.” ref
“A genetic relationship between Chinese, Tibetan, Burmese, and other languages was first proposed in the early 19th century and is now broadly accepted. The initial focus on languages of civilizations with long literary traditions has been broadened to include less widely spoken languages, some of which have only recently, or never, been written. However, the reconstruction of the family is much less developed than for families such as Indo-European or Austroasiatic. Difficulties have included the great diversity of the languages, the lack of inflection in many of them, and the effects of language contact. In addition, many of the smaller languages are spoken in mountainous areas that are difficult to access, and are often also sensitive border zones.” ref
“Most of the current spread of Sino-Tibetan languages is the result of historical expansions of the three groups with the most speakers – Chinese, Burmese and Tibetic – replacing an unknown number of earlier languages. These groups also have the longest literary traditions of the family. The remaining languages are spoken in mountainous areas, along the southern slopes of the Himalayas, the Southeast Asian Massif, and the eastern edge of the Tibetan Plateau.” ref
“By far the largest branch are the Sinitic languages, with 1.3 billion speakers, most of whom live in the eastern half of China. The first records of Chinese are oracle bone inscriptions from c. 1200 BCE, when Old Chinese was spoken around the middle reaches of the Yellow River. Chinese has since expanded throughout China, forming a family whose diversity has been compared with the Romance languages. Diversity is greater in the rugged terrain of southeast China than in the North China Plain.” ref
“Burmese is the national language of Myanmar, and the first language of some 33 million people. Burmese speakers first entered the northern Irrawaddy basin from what is now western Yunnan in the early 9th century, when the Pyu city-states had been weakened by an invasion by Nanzhao. Other Burmish languages are still spoken in Dehong Prefecture in the far west of Yunnan. By the 11th century, their Pagan Kingdom had expanded over the whole basin. The oldest texts, such as the Myazedi inscription, date from the early 12th century.” ref
“The Tibetic languages are spoken by some 6 million people on the Tibetan Plateau and neighboring areas in the Himalayas and western Sichuan. They are descended from Old Tibetan, which was originally spoken in the Yarlung Valley before it was spread by the expansion of the Tibetan Empire in the 7th century. Although the empire collapsed in the 9th century, Classical Tibetan remained influential as the liturgical language of Tibetan Buddhism.” ref
“The remaining languages are spoken in upland areas. Southernmost are the Karen languages, spoken by 4 million people in the hill country along the Myanmar–Thailand border, with the greatest diversity in the Karen Hills, which are believed to be the homeland of the group. The highlands stretching from northeast India to northern Myanmar contain over 100 high-diverse Sino-Tibetan languages. Other Sino-Tibetan languages are found along the southern slopes of the Himalayas, southwest China and northern Thailand.” ref
“There have been a range of proposals for the Sino-Tibetan urheimat, reflecting the uncertainty about the classification of the family and its time depth. Three major hypotheses for the place and time of Sino-Tibetan unity have been presented:” ref
- “The most commonly cited hypothesis associates the family with Neolithic cultures of the upper and middle reaches of the Yellow River, such as the Yangshao culture (7000–5000 years ago) or the Majiayao culture (5300–4000 years ago), with an expansion driven by millet agriculture. This scenario is associated with a primary split between Sinitic and the rest, the Tibeto-Burman languages. For example, James Matisoff proposes a split around 6000 years ago, with Chinese-speakers settling along the Yellow River and other groups migrating south down the Yangtze, Mekong, Salween, and Brahmaputra rivers.” ref
- “George van Driem (2005) proposes that Sino-Tibetan originated in the Sichuan Basin before 9000 years years, with an early migration into northeast India, and a later migration north of the predecessors of Chinese and Tibetic.” ref
- “Roger Blench and Mark Post (2014) have proposed that the Sino-Tibetan homeland is Northeast India, the area of greatest diversity, around 9000 years ago. Roger Blench (2009) argues that agriculture cannot be reconstructed for Proto-Sino-Tibetan, and that the earliest speakers of Sino-Tibetan were not farmers but highly diverse foragers.” ref
“Zhang et al. (2019) performed a computational phylogenetic analysis of 109 Sino-Tibetan languages to suggest a Sino-Tibetan homeland in northern China near the Yellow River basin. The study further suggests that there was an initial major split between the Sinitic and Tibeto-Burman languages approximately 4,200 to 7,800 years ago (with an average of 5,900 years ago), associated with the Yangshao or Majiayao cultures. Sagart et al. (2019) also performed another phylogenetic analysis based on different data and methods to arrive at the same conclusions with respect to the homeland and divergence model, but proposed an earlier root age of approximately 7,200 years ago, associating its origin with millet farmers of the late Cishan and early Yangshao culture.” ref
“Yangshao culture. along the Yellow River in China, dates to around 7,000-5,000 years old. Research indicates a common origin of the Sino-Tibetan languages with the Cishan, Yangshao, and/or the Majiayao cultures. Showing a large amount of knowledge transfer. Sino-Tibetan, more than 400 languages, second only to Indo-European in native speakers.” ref, ref
Majiayao culture
“The Majiayao culture was a group of neolithic communities who lived primarily in the upper Yellow River region in eastern Gansu, eastern Qinghai, and northern Sichuan, China. The culture existed from 3300-2000 BCE. The Majiayao culture represents the first time that the upper Yellow River region was widely occupied by agricultural communities and it is famous for its painted pottery, which is regarded as a peak of pottery manufacturing at that time.” ref
“This culture developed from the middle Yangshao (Miaodigou) phase, through an intermediate Shilingxia phase. The culture is often divided into three phases: Majiayao (3300–2500 BCE), Banshan (2500–2300 BCE), and Machang (2300–2000 BCE). At the end of the 3rd millennium BCE, the Qijia culture succeeded the Majiayao culture at sites in three main geographic zones: eastern Gansu, central Gansu, and western Gansu/eastern Qinghai.” ref
Hemudu culture
“The Hemudu culture (5500-3300 BCE) was a Neolithic culture that flourished just south of the Hangzhou Bay in Jiangnan in modern Yuyao, Zhejiang, China. The culture may be divided into early and late phases, before and after 4000 BCE respectively. The site at Hemudu, 22 km northwest of Ningbo, was discovered in 1973. Hemudu sites were also discovered at Tianluoshan in Yuyao city, and on the islands of Zhoushan. Hemudu are said to have differed physically from inhabitants of the Yellow River sites to the north. Some authors propose that the Hemudu Culture was a source of the pre-Austronesian cultures.” ref
“Some scholars assert that the Hemudu culture co-existed with the Majiabang culture as two separate and distinct cultures, with cultural transmissions between the two.[citation needed] Other scholars group Hemudu in with Majiabang subtraditions. Two major floods caused the nearby Yaojiang River to change its course and inundated the soil with salt, forcing the people of Hemudu to abandon its settlements. The Hemudu people lived in long, stilt houses. Communal longhouses were also common in Hemudu sites, much like the ones found in modern-day Borneo.” ref
“The Hemudu culture was one of the earliest cultures to cultivate rice. Recent excavations at the Hemudu period site of Tianluoshan has demonstrated rice was undergoing evolutionary changes recognized as domestication. Most of the artifacts discovered at Hemudu consist of animal bones, exemplified by hoes made of shoulder bones used for cultivating rice. The culture also produced lacquer wood. A red lacquer wood bowl at the Zhejiang Museum is dated to 4000-5000 BCE. It is believed to be the earliest such object in the world.” ref
“The remains of various plants, including water caltrop, Nelumbo nucifera, acorns, melon, wild kiwifruit, blackberries, peach, the foxnut, or Gorgon euryale, and bottle gourd, were found at Hemudu and Tianluoshan. The Hemudu people likely domesticated pigs but practiced extensive hunting of deer and some wild water buffalo. Fishing was also carried out on a large scale, with a particular focus on crucian carp. The practices of fishing and hunting are evidenced by the remains of bone harpoons and bows and arrowheads. Music instruments, such as bone whistles and wooden drums, were also found at Hemudu. Artifact design by Hemudu inhabitants bears many resemblances to those of Insular Southeast Asia.” ref
“The culture produced a thick, porous pottery. This distinctive pottery was typically black and made with charcoal powder. Plant and geometric designs were commonly painted onto the pottery; the pottery was sometimes also cord-marked. The culture also produced carved jade ornaments, carved ivory artifacts, and small clay figurines.” ref
“Hemudu’s inhabitants worshiped a sun spirit as well as a fertility spirit. They also enacted shamanistic rituals to the sun and believed in bird totems. A belief in an afterlife and ghosts is thought to have been widespread as well. People were buried with their heads facing east or northeast and most had no burial objects. Infants were buried in urn-casket-style burials, while children and adults received earth-level burials. They did not have a definite communal burial ground, for the most part, but a clan communal burial ground has been found from the later period. Two groups in separate parts of this burial ground are thought to be two intermarrying clans. There were noticeably more burial goods in this communal burial ground.” ref
Dawenkou culture
“The Dawenkou culture was a Chinese Neolithic culture primarily located in the eastern province of Shandong, but also appearing in Anhui, Henan, and Jiangsu. The culture existed from 4100 to 2600 BCE, and co-existed with the Yangshao culture. Turquoise, jade, and ivory artifacts are commonly found at Dawenkou sites. The earliest examples of alligator drums appear at Dawenkou sites. Neolithic signs, perhaps related to subsequent scripts, such as those of the Shang Dynasty, have been found on Dawenkou pottery.” ref
“Archaeologists commonly divide the culture into three phases: the early phase (4100–3500 BCE), the middle phase (3500–3000 BCE), and the late phase (3000–2600 BCE). Based on the evidence from grave goods, the early phase was highly egalitarian. The phase is typified by the presence of individually designed, long-stemmed cups. Graves built with earthen ledges became increasingly common during the latter parts of the early phase. During the middle phase, grave goods began to emphasize quantity over diversity.” ref
“During the late phase, wooden coffins began to appear in Dawenkou burials. The culture became increasingly stratified, as some graves contained no grave goods while others contained a large quantity of grave goods. The type site at Dawenkou, located in Tai’an, Shandong, was excavated in 1959, 1974, and 1978. Only the middle layer at Dawenkou is associated with the Dawenkou culture, as the earliest layer corresponds to the Beixin culture and the latest layer corresponds to the early Shandong variant of the Longshan culture.” ref
“The term “chiefdom” seems to be appropriate in describing the political organization of the Dawenkou. A dominant kin group likely held sway over Dawenkou village sites, though power was most likely manifested through religious authority rather than coercion. Unlike the Beixin culture from which they descend, the people of the Dawenkou culture were noted for being engaged in violent conflict. Scholars suspect that they may have engaged in raids for land, crops, livestock, and prestigious goods.” ref
“The warm and wet climate of the Dawenkou area was suitable for a variety of crops, though they primarily farmed millet at most sites. Their production of millet was quite successful and storage containers have been found that could have contained up to 2000 kg of millet, once decomposition is accounted for, have been found. For some of the southern Dawenkou sites, rice was a more important crop, however, especially during the late Dawenkou period. Analysis done on human remains at Dawenkou sites in southern Shandong revealed that the diet of upper-class Dawenkou individuals consisted mainly of rice, while ordinary individuals ate primarily millet.” ref
“The Dawenkou people successfully domesticated chicken, dogs, pigs, and cattle, but no evidence of horse domestication was found. Pig remains are by far the most abundant, accounting for about 85% of the total, and are thought to be the most important domesticated animal. Pig remains were also found in Dawenkou burials also highlighting their importance. Seafood was also an important staple of the Dawenkou diet. Fish and various shellfish mounds have been found in the early periods indicating that they were important food sources.” ref
“Although these piles became less frequent in the later stages, seafood remained an important part of the diet. Dawenkou’s inhabitants were one of the earliest practitioners of trepanation in prehistoric China. A skull of a Dawenkou man dating to 3000 BCE was found with severe head injuries which appeared to have been remedied by this primitive surgery. Alligator hide drums have also been found in Dawenkou sites.” ref
“The Dawenkou interacted extensively with the Yangshao culture. “For two and a half millennia of its existence, the Dawenkou was, however, in a dynamic interchange with the Yangshao Culture, in which process of interaction it sometimes had the lead role, notably in generating Longshan. Scholars have also noted similarities between the Dawenkou and the Liangzhu culture as well as the related cultures of the Yantze River basin. According to some scholars, the Dawenkou culture may have a link with a pre-Austronesian language. Other researchers also note a similarity between Dawenkou inhabitants and modern Austronesian people in cultural practices such as tooth avulsion and architecture.” ref
“The physical similarity of the Jiahu people to the later Dawenkou (2600-4300 BCE) indicates that the Dawenkou might have descended from the Jiahu, following a slow migration along the middle and lower reaches of the Huai river and the Hanshui valley. Other scholars have also speculated that the Dawenkou originates in nearby regions to the south. The Dawenkou culture descends from the Beixin culture, but is deeply influenced by the northward expanding Longqiuzhuang culture located between the Yangtze and Huai rivers. The people of Dawenkou exhibited a primarily Sinodont dental pattern. The Dawenkou were also physically dissimilar to the neolithic inhabitants of Hemudu, Southern China, and Taiwan. DNA testing revealed that neolithic inhabitants of Shandong were closer to northern East Asians.” ref
Why was a splendid civilization created in all parts of China more than 5,000 years ago?
The truth is climate
Temperature can change the course of history, it can create the necessary conditions for the birth of civilization, and the fall of a civilization is also closely related to temperature. So today, let’s take a look at from the perspective of climate, in the early days of the birth of Chinese civilization, what influence and effect climate had on the evolution of civilization.
Before the establishment of the Xia Dynasty, a starry civilization appeared in China, the Yangshao and Longshan cultures in the middle and lower reaches of the Yellow River, the Qijia and Majiayao cultures in the upper reaches of the Yellow River, and the Liangzhu and Liangzhu cultures in the Yangtze River. Hemudu culture, the emergence of these cultures is not unrelated to the changes in the climate at that time.
5000 years ago, China experienced a relatively warm period, with rising temperatures and adequate precipitation, which laid the foundation for the development of Neolithic agriculture. The Chinese historical geography calls this period “Yangshao Warm Period”.
The Warm Time transition
“Between 5000 – 3000 years ago, was the period of transition from the Neolithic Age to a slave society, accompanied by it The temperature is rising, much warmer than many parts of China today.” ref
4,090-3,620 years ago, the Xia was the “first dynasty” in China.
“The Xia dynasty is the first dynasty in traditional Chinese historiography. According to tradition, the Xia dynasty was established by the legendary Yu the Great, after Shun, the last of the Five Emperors, gave the throne to him. In traditional historiography, the Xia was later succeeded by the Shang dynasty. There are no contemporaneous records of the Xia, and they are not mentioned in the oldest Chinese texts, since the earliest oracle bone inscriptions date from the late Shang period (13th century BCE). The earliest mentions occur in the oldest chapters of the Book of Documents, which report speeches from the early Western Zhou period, and are accepted by most scholars as dating from that time. These speeches justify the Zhou conquest of the Shang as the passing of the Mandate of Heaven, likening it to the succession of the Xia by the Shang.” ref
Evidence for early dispersal of domestic sheep into Central Asia
“The development and dispersal of agropastoralism transformed the cultural and ecological landscapes of the Old World, but little is known about when or how this process first impacted Central Asia. Here, we present archaeological and biomolecular evidence from Obishir V in southern Kyrgyzstan, establishing the presence of domesticated sheep by ca. 6,000 BCE. Zooarchaeological and collagen peptide mass fingerprinting show exploitation of Ovis and Capra, while cementum analysis of intact teeth implicates possible pastoral slaughter during the fall season. Most significantly, ancient DNA reveals these directly dated specimens as the domestic O. aries, within the genetic diversity of domesticated sheep lineages. Together, these results provide the earliest evidence for the use of livestock in the mountains of the Ferghana Valley, predating previous evidence by 3,000 years and suggesting that domestic animal economies reached the mountains of interior Central Asia far earlier than previously recognized.” ref
NEOLITHIC CHINA: BEFORE THE SHANG DYNASTY
Genitalia, Totems and Painted Pottery: New Ceramic Discoveries in Gansu and Surrounding Areas
Ancient China From the Neolithic Period to the Han Dynasty
Religion, Violence, and Emotion: Modes of Religiosity in the Neolithic and Bronze Age of Northern China
“This paper explores the development of religious traditions in the Neolithic and Bronze Age of northern China. It applies the cognitive anthropological theory of Divergent Modes of Religiosity (DMR) for the first time in this part of the world. DMR theory frames ritual behavior in two distinct modes, one that is more traumatic/emotional and occurs less frequently (imagistic rituals) and another that is more placid and occurs more frequently (doctrinal rituals). Various archaeological and historic sources indicate that violent imagistic rituals involving human sacrifice and feasting began deep in the Neolithic; but religion did not become more tame when societies entered the Bronze Age, as predicted by DMR theory. Instead, violent imagistic rituals continued and became arguably more brutal. The application of DMR theory here is a useful means to explore the challenging topic of religious violence and to reveal biases in the treatment of ritual and religion in Shang studies.” ref
Beginnings of Indian Astronomy with Reference to a Parallel Development in China
Kot Diji phase steatite button seal from Harappa
“Hypotheses of a Mesopotamian origin for the Vedic and Chinese star calendars are unfounded. The Yangshao culture burials discovered at Puyang in 1987 suggest that the beginnings of Chinese astronomy go back to the late fourth millennium. The instructive similarities between the Chinese and Indian luni-solar calendrical astronomy and cosmology therefore with great likelihood result from convergent parallel development and not from diffusion.” ref
“It is proposed that the first Indian stellar calendar, perhaps restricted to the quadrant stars, was created by Early Harappans around 3000 BCE, and that the heliacal rise of Aldebaran at vernal equinox marked the new year. The grid-pattern town of Rahman Dheri was oriented to the cardinal directions, defined by observing the place of the sunrise at the horizon throughout the year, and by geometrical means, as evidenced by the motif of intersecting circles. Early Harappan seals and painted pottery suggest that the sun and the center of the four directions symbolized royal power.” ref
Human evolutionary history in Eastern Eurasia using insights from ancient DNA
“Advances in ancient genomics are providing unprecedented insight into modern human history. Here, we review recent progress uncovering prehistoric populations in Eastern Eurasia based on ancient DNA studies from the Upper Pleistocene to the Holocene. Many ancient populations existed during the Upper Pleistocene of Eastern Eurasia—some with no substantial ancestry related to present-day populations, some with an affinity to East Asians, and some who contributed to Native Americans. By the Holocene, the genetic composition across East Asia greatly shifted, with several substantial migrations. Three are southward: an increase in northern East Asian-related ancestry in southern East Asia; movement of East Asian-related ancestry into Southeast Asia, mixing with Basal Asian ancestry; and movement of southern East Asian ancestry to islands of Southeast Asia and the Southwest Pacific through the expansion of Austronesians. We anticipate that additional ancient DNA will magnify our understanding of the genetic history in Eastern Eurasia.” ref
Maternal genetic structure in ancient Shandong between 9500 and 1800 years ago
“Archaeological and ancient DNA studies revealed that Shandong, a multi-culture center in northern coastal China, was home to ancient populations having ancestry related to both northern and southern East Asian populations. However, the limited temporal and geographical range of previous studies have been insufficient to describe the population history of this region in greater detail. Here, we report the analysis of 86 complete mitochondrial genomes from the remains of 9500 to 1800-year-old humans from 12 archaeological sites across Shandong. For samples older than 4600 years ago, we found haplogroups D4, D5, B4c1, and B5b2, which are observed in present-day northern and southern East Asians.” ref
“For samples younger than 4600 years ago, haplogroups C (C7a1 and C7b), M9 (M9a1), and F (F1a1, F2a, and F4a1) begin to appear, indicating changes in the Shandong maternal genetic structure starting from the beginning of the Longshan cultural period. Within Shandong, the genetic exchange is possible between the coastal and inland regions after 3100 tears ago. We also discovered the B5b2 lineage in Shandong populations, with the oldest Bianbian individual likely related to the ancestors of some East Asians and North Asians. By reconstructing a maternal genetic structure of Shandong populations, we provide greater resolution of the population dynamics of the northern coastal East Asia over the past nine thousand years.” ref
Ancient genomes from northern China suggest links between subsistence changes and human migration
“Northern China harbored the world’s earliest complex societies based on millet farming, in two major centers in the Yellow (YR) and West Liao (WLR) River basins. Until now, their genetic histories have remained largely unknown. Here we present 55 ancient genomes dating to 7500-1700 years ago from the YR, WLR, and Amur River (AR) regions. Contrary to the genetic stability in the AR, the YR and WLR genetic profiles substantially changed over time. The YR populations show a monotonic increase over time in their genetic affinity with present-day southern Chinese and Southeast Asians. In the WLR, intensification of farming in the Late Neolithic is correlated with increased YR affinity while the inclusion of a pastoral economy in the Bronze Age was correlated with increased AR affinity. Our results suggest a link between changes in subsistence strategy and human migration, and fuel the debate about archaeolinguistic signatures of past human migration.” ref
“China is one of the earliest independent centers in the world for the domestication of cereal crops, second only to the Near East, with the rainfed rice agriculture in the Yangtze River Basin in southern China, and dryland millet agriculture in northern China. Northern China represents a large geographic region that encompasses the Central Plain in the middle-to-lower Yellow River (YR) basin, the birthplace of the well-known YR civilization since the Neolithic period. However, northern China extends far beyond the Central Plain and includes several other major river systems in distinct ecoregions.” ref
“Especially, it is now well-received that the West Liao River (WLR) region in northeast China played a critical role distinct from the YR region in the adoption and spread of millet farming. Both foxtail (Setaria italica) and broomcorn millets (Panicum miliaceum) were first cultivated in the WLR and lower reaches of the YR basins since at least 6000 BCE. In the ensuing five millennia, millets domesticated in northern China spread across east Eurasia and beyond. Millets had served as one of the main staple foods in northeast Asia, particularly until the introduction of maize and sweet potato in the 16–17th centuries.” ref
“Both the YR and the WLR are known for rich archeological cultures that relied substantially on millet farming. By the Middle Neolithic (roughly 4000 BCE), complex societies with a substantial reliance on millet farming had developed in the WLR (Hongshan culture; 4500–3000 BCE) and in the YR (Yangshao culture; 5000–3000 BCE) basins. For example, excavations of Hongshan societies in the WLR yielded public ceremonial platforms with substantial offerings including numerous jade ornaments, among which the “Goddess Temple” at the Niuheliang site is the most famous. The establishment of the Middle Neolithic complex societies appears to have been associated with rapid population growth and cultural innovation, and may have been linked to the dispersal of two major language families, Sino-Tibetan from the YR and Transeurasian from the WLR, although some scholars debate the genealogical unity of the latter.” ref
“Compared with the YR region where crop cultivation already took the status of the dominant subsistence strategy by the Middle Neolithic, the level of reliance on crops in the WLR region has changed frequently in association with changes in climate and archeological culture. For example, paleobotanical and isotopic evidence suggests that the contribution of millets to the diet of the WLR people steadily increased from the Xinglongwa to Hongshan to Lower Xiajiadian (2200–1600 BCE) cultures, but was partially replaced by nomadic pastoralism in the subsequent Upper Xiajiadian culture (1000–600 BCE).” ref
“Although many archeologists associated this subsistence switch with a response to the climate change, it remains to be investigated whether substantial human migrations mediated these changes. The WLR region adjoins the Amur River (AR) region to the northeast, in which people continued to rely on hunting, fishing, and animal husbandry combined with some cultivation of millet, barley, and legumes into the historic era. Little is known to what extent contacts and interaction between YR and WLR societies affected the dispersal of millet farming over northern China and surrounding regions.” ref
“More generally, given the limited availability of ancient human genomes so far, prehistoric human migrations and contacts as well as their impact on present-day populations are still poorly understood in this region. Researchers, here, present the genetic analysis of 55 ancient human genomes from various archeological sites representative of major archeological cultures across northern China since the Middle Neolithic. By the spatiotemporal comparison of their genetic profiles, we provide an overview of past human migration and admixture events in this region and compare them with changes in subsistence strategy.” ref
Genetic grouping of ancient individuals from northern China
“Principal component analysis (PCA) of 2077 present-day Eurasian individuals in the “HumanOrigins” dataset shows that the ancient individuals from northern China are separated into distinct groups. The ancient individuals fall within present-day eastern Eurasians along PC1. Likewise, they also harbor derived alleles characteristic of present-day East Asians and associated with potentially adaptive phenotypes. However, they fall on different positions on PC2, which separates eastern Eurasians in a largely north-south manner (northern Siberian Nganasan at the top and Austronesian-speaking populations in Taiwan at the bottom).” ref
“Ancient individuals from this study form three big clusters, with AR individuals to the top, YR individuals to the bottom, and WLR individuals in between, which largely reflected their geographic origin. To focus on variation within East Asians, we then used a panel of nine present-day East Asian populations in the “1240k-Illumina” dataset which includes highland Tibetans in large numbers. The first two PCs separate Tungusic-speakers (e.g. Oroqen, Hezhen, Xibo), Tibetans, and lowland East Asian populations (e.g. Han and Tujia). Here fine-scaled clustering of ancient individuals, especially those from the YR and WLR, are more visible than in the Eurasian PCA. Unsupervised ADMIXTURE analysis shows a similar pattern that all ancient individuals harbor three ancestral components, and ancient individuals from the same river basins share similar genetic compositions, consistent with their PCA positions.” ref
Long-term genetic stability of AR populations
“In both the Eurasian and East Asian PCA, two early Neolithic hunter-gatherers (“AR_EN”) and three Iron Age individuals (“AR_Xianbei_IA”; second century CE; Xianbei context) from the Upper AR, and one Bronze Age WLR individual from a nomadic pastoralist context (“WLR_BA_o”) form a tight cluster that falls within the range of present-day AR populations, who are mostly Tungusic speakers. One individual (AR_IA) falls outside of the AR cluster and slightly shifted in PCA along PC1 towards the Mongolic-speakers, but this is likely an artifact due to his low coverage (×0.068) and a small amount of contamination (6.3 ± 6.4%; point estimate ± 1 standard error measure, s.e.m.). Ancient and present-day AR populations also show similar genetic profiles in ADMIXTURE analysis.” ref
“Between pairs of AR populations, ancients as well as present-day samples from the lower AR, we observe large outgroup-f3 statistics supporting their close genetic affinity. Furthermore, we formally confirm that they are largely cladal to each other. First, the nonsignificant statistic f4(AR1, AR2; X, Mbuti) statistics are nonsignificant (Z < 3) for most outgroup populations (X’s) except for the two present-day Siberian populations (Nganasan and Itelmen) who may have experienced historical genetic exchanges with the AR-related gene pools. Second, the qpWave analysis cannot tell pairs of AR populations apart in terms of their affinity to the outgroups.” ref
Although the AR populations do not show a substantial change over time regarding their affinity to populations outside the AR, a published test of the genetic continuity in the strictest sense32 rejects the hypothesis that the ancient AR populations in this study are the direct ancestor of the present-day ones (Supplementary Table 3B). This suggests a stratification within the AR gene pool and presumably gene flows between the AR populations during the formation of the present-day populations.
Temporal changes in the YR genetic profile
“Ancient YR individuals from the Central Plain area form a cluster distinct from the AR individuals in the PCA and likewise share a similar genetic profile in the ADMIXTURE analysis. However, we also observe small but significant differences between them: Late Neolithic Longshan individuals (“YR_LN”) are genetically closer to present-day populations from southern China and Southeast Asia (“SC–SEA”) than earlier Middle Neolithic Yangshao ones (“YR_MN”), measured by positive f4(YR_LN, YR_MN; X, Mbuti). This provides a genetic parallel to our observation of a significant increase of rice farming in middle and lower YR between Middle Neolithic Yangshao and Late Neolithic Longshan periods. We detect no further change in later Bronze/Iron Age individuals (“YR_LBIA”), shown by nonsignificant f4(YR_LN, YR_LBIA; X, Mbuti) (|Z| < 3).” ref
“Unlike the AR region, we do not find present-day populations that form a clade with YR_LBIA. Han Chinese, a dominant ethnic group currently residing in the Central Plain, clearly show extra affinity with SC–SEA populations (max |Z| = 10.3 s.e.m.). Tibeto-Burman-speaking Naxi from southwest China show much reduced but still significant differences from ancient YR populations (max |Z| = 4.0 s.e.m.). These results suggest a long-term genetic connection between YR populations across time but with an important axis of exogenous genetic contribution that may be related to the northward expansion of rice farming by population migrations from south China (e.g. Yangtze river).” ref
“Neolithic genomes from the region surrounding the Central Plain show that the YR genetic profile had a wide geographic distribution. Genomes from Middle Neolithic Inner Mongolia (“Miaozigou_MN”) and Late Neolithic Shanxi province (“Shimao_LN”), both located between the YR and WLR, are genetically similar to each other and to ancient YR populations. Late Neolithic individuals from the upper YR (“Upper_YR_LN”), who are associated with the Qijia culture, also show a similar pattern. We model these groups as a mixture of YR farmers and AR hunter-gatherers, with a majority ancestry (~80%) coming from the YR. Iron Age genomes from the upper YR region (“Upper_YR_IA”) show an even higher YR contribution, compatible with 100% YR ancestry (94.7 ± 5.3%).” ref
“Archeological studies suggest a pivotal role of the mid-altitude region at the northeastern fringe of the Tibetan plateau, where the Qijia culture was located, in the permanent human occupation of the plateau after around 1600 BCE. More broadly, recent linguistic studies favor a northern origin of Sino-Tibetan languages, suggesting the Yangshao culture as their likely origin. We explored genetic connections between present-day Sino-Tibetan and ancient YR populations using admixture modeling. Tibetans are modeled as a mixture of Sherpa and Upper_YR_LN, although other sources also work. This provides a likely local source for the admixture signals previously reported. Among the other Sino-Tibetan-speaking populations in our data set, Naxi and Yi are indistinguishable from YR_MN to our resolution, while Lahu, Tujia, and Han show a prevailing influence from a gene pool related to the SC–SEA populations. Our results are compatible with the above-mentioned linguistic and archeological scenarios, although we find other models also marginally work due to resolution of our genetic data.” ref
Correlated changes of genes and subsistence in WLR
“The WLR region, located between the YR and AR, shows frequent genetic changes over time. Middle Neolithic WLR individuals fall between the AR and YR clusters in the PCA: three belonging to the Hongshan culture (“WLR_MN”) are closer to the YR cluster while one from a nearby site (“HMMH_MN”) falls closer to the AR cluster. F4 statistics confirm that both groups are intermediate between AR and YR groups, represented by AR_EN and YR_MN, respectively. We adequately model both groups as a mixture of AR and YR groups, with higher AR contribution to HMMH_MN. Taking contemporaneous Miaozigou_MN from Inner Mongolia into account, we observe a sharp transition from a predominantly YR-related to an AR-related genetic profile within ~600 km distance during the Middle Neolithic. Linguistically, the WLR Basin has been associated with the origin of the Transeurasian language family and the mixture between AR and YR groups may find a correlate in the borrowing between Transeurasian linguistic subgroups and Sinitic ones, becoming more intensive from the Bronze Age onwards.” ref
“In addition to this genetic heterogeneity around the Middle Neolithic WLR, a temporal comparison within the WLR also shows an interesting pattern of genetic changes. First, Late Neolithic genomes associated with the Lower Xiajiadian culture (“WLR_LN”) overlap with the ancient YR cluster in the PCA and show less affinity to Siberian populations compared with WLR_MN. QpAdm modeling estimates a major YR contribution: 88 or 74% when AR_EN or WLR_MN is used as a secondary source, suggesting a substantial northward influx from a YR-related population between the Middle and Late Neolithic. Interestingly, the Bronze Age WLR individuals, associated with the Upper Xiajiadian culture (“WLR_BA”), again show a genetic change but to an opposite direction from the Middle-to-Late Neolithic, with one individual (“WLR_BA_o”) being indistinguishable from the ancient AR individuals. Compared with AR_EN, he has extra affinity with later AR individuals (“AR_Xianbei_IA”) and multiple present-day Tungusic-speaking populations.” ref
“Researchers speculate that this individual may signify a recent migration from an AR-related gene pool into the WLR. Indeed, the remaining two individuals (“WLR_BA”) are modeled as a mixture of WLR_LN and WLR_BA_o with 21 ± 7% contribution from the latter. A previous archeological study suggests that the Lower to Upper Xiajiadian transition was associated with a climatic change to a drier environment less favorable to millet farming and led to southward population migrations within the WLR region. Our results highlight the other side of the process: climate change made a pastoral economy more favorable and may have led to an influx of people already practicing it.” ref
“In this study, they present a large-scale survey of ancient genomes from northern China that covers many, although not all, major archeological cultures in the region. Especially, our study provides the first genomic look into people who lived in the earliest complex societies of northern China, i.e., Yangshao and Hongshan cultures in the YR and WLR, respectively. By providing genomic time series in these regions, we could detect genetic changes in each region over time and associate them with external genetic sources and with sociocultural and environmental changes.” ref
“In contrast to the long-term stability of the genetic profile of the AR populations who practiced limited food production, we observe frequent genetic changes in the two centers of complex millet-farming societies in northern China, the YR and WLR, over the last six millennia. The WLR genetic profile changes over time in close association with changes in subsistence strategy. More specifically, an increase in the reliance on millet farming between the Middle-to-Late Neolithic is associated with higher YR genetic affinity in the Late Neolithic WLR, while a partial switch to pastoralism in the Bronze Age Upper Xiajiadian culture is associated with lower YR affinity. In the Middle Neolithic, we observe a sharp transition from YR- to AR-related genetic profiles around the WLR. Such a spatial genetic heterogeneity may have persisted in the WLR during the Bronze and Iron Ages although our current data are not sufficient to test such a hypothesis.” ref
“The Middle-to-Late Neolithic genetic change in the YR also coincides with the intensification of rice farming in the Central Plain, which may provide another case of change in subsistence strategy via demic diffusion. We acknowledge that our current data set lacks ancient genomes from candidate source populations which may have brought rice farming into the Central Plain and call for archaeogenetic studies for them, especially Neolithic people from the Shandong and Lower Yangtze River regions. Future studies of ancient genomes across China, particularly the genomes of the first farmers will be critical to test the representativeness of the genomes reported in this study, to understand the genetic changes we detected at finer genetic, archeological, and geographic scales, and to test the evolutionary correlation between archeological cultures, languages, and genes.” ref
Investigating Holocene human population history in North Asia using ancient mitogenomes
“Archaeogenomic studies have largely elucidated human population history in West Eurasia during the Stone Age. However, despite being a broad geographical region of significant cultural and linguistic diversity, little is known about the population history in North Asia. We present complete mitochondrial genome sequences together with stable isotope data for 41 serially sampled ancient individuals from North Asia, dated between c.13,790-1,380 years ago extending from the Palaeolithic to the Iron Age.” ref
“Analyses of mitochondrial DNA sequences and haplogroup data of these individuals revealed the highest genetic affinity to present-day North Asian populations of the same geographical region suggesting a possible long-term maternal genetic continuity in the region. We observed a decrease in genetic diversity over time and a reduction of maternal effective population size (Ne) approximately seven thousand years ago. Coalescent simulations were consistent with genetic continuity between present-day individuals and individuals dating to 7,000 years ago, 4,800 years ago, or 3,000 years ago. Meanwhile, genetic differences observed between 7,000 – 3,000 years ago as well as between 4,800-3,000 years ago were inconsistent with genetic drift alone, suggesting gene flow into the region from distant gene pools or structures within the population. These results indicate that despite some level of continuity between ancient groups and present-day populations, the region exhibits a complex demographic history during the Holocene.” ref
“Recent ancient DNA studies have contributed to four major discoveries about the Holocene human population history in Eurasia: i. Gene flow from Near East through Europe during the Neolithization, ii. Genetic continuity between pre-Neolithic and Neolithic populations of Near East, iii. Increased mobility in West Eurasia during Bronze Age, and iv. Genetic continuity in East Asia during the Holocene. In contrast, the population history in North Asia has remained largely unknown with a limited number of published ancient genomes. Here we fill this archaeogenetic gap by examining complete mitochondrial genome sequences and presenting radiocarbon dates of 41 serially sampled ancient individuals from North Asia, corresponding to the three major administrative regions of the Russian Federation including Cis-Baikal (Irkutsk Oblast), Trans-Baikal (Republic of Buryatia and Zabaykalsky Krai) and Yakutia (Sakha Republic).” ref
“Archaeological data indicates an intensive and complex prehistory in North Asia. East Siberia has been inhabited since the early Paleolithic, as evidenced by sites with pebble industries. The first humans populating the region had West Eurasian origin. The Baikal region of Siberia has been occupied by humans since Middle Palaeolithic. The areas west (Cis-Baikal) and east (Trans-Baikal) of the Lake Baikal have been inhabited since the Palaeolithic and together with Yakutia exhibit a vast variety of prehistoric cultures, including the Neolithic and Bronze Age Kitoi and Glazkovo cultural entities. Both archaeological and genetic data have shown similarities between the cultures of Cis-/Trans-Baikal regions and Yakutia. The Neolithic in North Asia is not associated with sedentism and agriculture, but is characterized by the appearance of characteristic stone production techniques (i.e. polishing) and the presence of pottery of eastern origin. Until the Iron Age, the region was inhabited by foraging groups. The most important cultural shift in the region might be associated with the arrival of metal in the Bronze Age as well as the beginning of pastoralism in the Iron Age.” ref
“Researchers generated complete mitochondrial genome sequences of 41 ancient individuals with coverages between 12× and 357× (median = 60×) excavated from the Baikal and Yakutia regions in North Asia. 14 individuals were genetically identified as females and 27 were males. All libraries showed elevated frequencies of cytosine deamination at 5′ read termini. Point estimates of contamination ranged between 0–25% (95% CI of 0–35%) based on mitochondrial genetic variation. Bayesian mitochondrial contamination estimates ranged between 0–11%. Evaluating possible maternal kinship among individuals buried in the same location, we identified three potential maternal kinship cases in our dataset. These comprised a Late Neolithic triple burial (Haplogroup C4b, individuals yak022, yak023, and yak024) from Kamenka 2 (Kolyma river), a Bronze Age double burial (Haplogroup D4j, individuals irk071, irk072) from Mys Uyuga (Irkutsk Oblast), and two Late Neolithic individual burials from Kyordyughen, (Central Yakutia) (Haplogroup A12a, individuals N4a1 and N4b2).” ref
“Radiocarbon dating on osteological material from 37 of 41 individuals using accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) placed the material between c.13,790-1,380 years ago. To analyze the variation in the diet and subsistence practices of these individuals we examined the stable isotope values (δ13C and δ15N). Almost all individuals had elevated δ15N and lower δ13C values suggesting an aquatic diet, consistent with archaeological evidence supporting an important fresh-water fish consumption in the region. Mitochondrial DNA haplogroup- and sequence-based analyses reveal genetic similarities between ancient and modern North Asians.” ref
“Researchers identified 25 different mtDNA haplogroups across all individuals, belonging to the macro-haplogroups M, N, or R. These three non-African macro-haplogroups have been reported to have diverged around 60–65 years ago, and being carried to Southeast Asia by the first modern humans. Specifically, 38 individuals carried the East Eurasian mitochondrial haplogroups of A, C, D, F, G, and their sub-haplogroups. A Palaeolithic individual from Yakutia and a Bronze Age individual from Cis-Baikal carried the mitochondrial haplogroups R1 and R1b, respectively; which are sub-clades of the common West Eurasian macro-haplogroup R that was also observed in the Upper Paleolithic Ust’-Ishim.” ref
“As the Ust’ Ishim is from West Siberia, our result raises the possibility that the R haplogroup may have been distributed throughout North Asia. To assess the maternal genetic relationship with other ancient and present-day populations, we compiled two haplogroup frequency datasets by merging 41 ancient individuals with ancient and present-day individuals i. comprising full mitochondrial sequences (n = 291), and ii. comprising full mitochondrial sequences, mitochondrial HVRI (16059–16365) sequences, and haplogroup data (n = 1,780).” ref
“Haplogroup frequencies were calculated by grouping ancient North Asians into (a) a single group, (b) three spatial groups (Cis-Baikal (CISB, n = 23), Trans-Baikal (TRAB, n = 7), and Yakutia (YAK, n = 9)) and (c) three temporal groups (Early (n = 11, mean = 7,000 years ago), Middle (n = 16, mean = 4,800 years ago), and Late (n = 11, mean = 3,000 years ago)). This analysis revealed that the haplogroup distribution in ancient North Asians is similar to that of present-day populations of the same region. Principal component analysis (PCA) of the haplogroup frequency data based on full mitochondrial genome sequence dataset revealed that ancient individuals grouped as a single unit clustered with present-day populations of the same region, to the exclusion of other ancient groups. This was also observed when more population groups were included in the analysis and when ancient individuals were spatially or temporally grouped. This lack of distinction between ancient and present-day groups could, however, be resulted from relative homogeneity of the haplogroup variation amongst North Asian groups.” ref
“Since the haplogroup frequency-based analysis might be affected by the relatively low sample size of some populations, we further evaluated the genetic affinities between ancient North Asians and other populations based on the mitochondrial sequences. We calculated Slatkin’s linearized pairwise F ST on two datasets including ancient and present-day individuals i. with full mitochondrial sequences (n = 355) and ii. with HVRI sequences (n = 1,140) both merged with presented ancient individuals from North Asia. We observed low F ST between ancient and modern North Asian populations including Evenk, Nganasan, and Tubalar (Fst ≤ 0.05). MDS analysis based on F ST showed that the first dimension differentiated both the present-day and the ancient North Asians from other ancient groups. We observed consistent results even when more population groups were included in the analysis and when the ancient North Asian individuals were grouped into three different spatial populations.” ref
“Although highly dependent on sample size and thus prone to generalization, haplotype sharing analysis between three spatial groups and other modern and ancient populations revealed that the TRAB group shared most lineages with ancient Kazakh Altai (KA) and modern Nganasan (NGN). The CISB group shared most lineages with Tubalar, KA, and Early Bronze Age groups of Russia (BO), which might reflect the Siberian roots of BO, consistent with MDS based on F st. The YAK group shared most lineages with the CISB, BO, and Tubalar groups. These results showed that despite being from different sides of the Lake Baikal, the CISB and YAK groups shared most lineages with the Tubalar, and also both of them were to a certain degree affiliated to the BO of the Cis-Baikal region, thus, reflecting a shared common ancestry. Furthermore, the CISB and YAK groups share lineages supporting the hypothesis of a lasting continuity in this large geographical territory. However, the TRAB group may have a different legacy with affinities to ancient Kazakh Altai and modern Nganasan groups (that, actually, may have relocated from the Trans-Baikal region in times post-dating our sample).” ref
Assessing maternal genetic diversity and population size change and testing population continuity
“We calculated haplotype diversity using the dataset comprising full mitochondrial sequences and by grouping all individuals into a single population which reveals high maternal genetic diversity in the whole region (0.994 ± 0.007). Since the individuals were sampled from a large region and a long time period, we further evaluated the haplotype diversity in the spatial (CISB, TRAB, YAK) and in the temporal (Early, Middle, Late) groups. The range of haplotype diversity in the spatial groups (0.917–1, median = 0.992) was similar to that in the temporal groups (0.945–1, median = 0.992) (Mann-Whitney U-test p > 0.05). Although temporal grouping revealed that genetic variation decreased over time in the Lake Baikal and Yakutia regions (0.945–1, median = 0.992), diversity estimates for both spatial and temporal groups were not significantly lower than for the present-day populations in the region (0.964–1, median = 0.969) (Mann-Whitney U-test p > 0.05, assuming independence among populations).” ref
“We examined the maternal effective population size history in the region by employing Extended Bayesian Skyline Plot (EBSP) analysis using BEAST. EBSP analysis revealed an increasing maternal effective population size between 50,000–7,000 years ago followed by a decrease of approximately around 7,000 years ago. We formally tested population continuity using a total of 117 individuals (38 ancient and 79 present-day) with full mitochondrial genome sequences, by grouping the ancient individuals into three temporal groups based on their radiocarbon dates. Here we test the null hypothesis of continuity, specifically, that two diachronic populations we sampled belonged to a single resident population that diverged by genetic drift only.” ref
“To test this, we conducted population genetic simulations under different demographic scenarios, and asked whether the observed differentiation between three temporally-divided groups and present-day populations in the region can be explained by genetic drift within a given time interval, assuming an exponential growth model, and a wide range of population sizes. If most of the simulations yield smaller F ST than observed, we reject the null hypothesis, which is an indication of gene flow that caused differentiation in time between the two populations, or that the two populations sampled did not belong to the same regional population, i.e. population structure. When we compared Early vs. Middle, Early vs. present-day, Middle vs. present-day, and Late vs. present-day populations, genetic differentiation was found to be modest (F ST < 0.10, except for the Late vs. present-day comparison).” ref
“The 121,000 simulations conducted for each comparison frequently (>95%) yielded F ST values equal to or higher than those observed. We therefore cannot reject the null hypothesis that these diachronic samples derived from a single resident maternal gene pool in the region. However, in comparisons involving Early vs. Late, and Middle vs. Late populations, F ST was >0.15, and the simulations conducted rarely (<5%) yielded as large F ST values across all 11 × 11 demographic parameter combinations studied in each comparison (Although was not significant after multiple testing correction). Hence, differences between the Late population sample and both earlier and later-coming groups cannot be explained by genetic drift alone, and the Late population sample may not belong to the same residential population as the others.” ref
“Lake Baikal and Yakutia have a rich Holocene archaeological record allowing the investigation of population history, demographic events, and adaptation to the environment in North Asia. In this work, we present the stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen as well as mitochondrial genomes of 41 ancient individuals from the Lake Baikal and Yakutia belonging to the general chronological frame of the North Asian archaeological cultural complexes.” ref
“Dietary reconstruction through carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analysis provides important insights into subsistence strategies of human populations as well as their adaptation to the environment. In general, carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes of the skeletal samples from western, eastern, and northern shores of the Lake Baikal and from Yakutia revealed that protein source in the diet of those individuals was mainly based on aquatic resources, consistent with previous studies.” ref
“The variation in both the δ13C and δ15N values in the present study showed that there were differences in the amount of consumed aquatic resources, and probably also differences in the consumed fish species between the individuals and groups, especially between different geographical regions. For example, Yakutia individuals had the lightest δ13C values, which might indicate the consumption of open- and deep-water fish species. However, we observed that the range of δ13C values of the individuals from the region around the Lake Baikal included the shallow water as well as open-water fish species, which has been observed earlier.” ref
“Examination of the mitochondrial genomes led to the discovery of the West Eurasian R1 haplogroup in two individuals. This finding raised the possibility of a common distribution of this haplogroup during the Holocene in a large region of Asia. This was supported also by the presence of the mitochondrial haplogroup F1b (descending from R9) in Mesolithic and Early Neolithic Cis-Baikal individuals. The mitochondrial haplogroups F and R are widespread amongst modern southern and eastern Asian groups and the presence of R in Asia has been considered a remnant of the earliest human expansions in the continent.” ref
“Presence of the R1 haplogroup in the Palaeolithic individual from Yakutia supported the archaeological records pointing to the West Eurasian origin of the first humans in the region. Furthermore, the presence of East Eurasian mitochondrial haplogroups amongst the Neolithic individuals supported the eastern origin of pottery in the region. The observation of the haplotype sharing between the CISB and TRAB groups, and between the CISB and YAK groups might imply a possible regional maternal genetic continuity during the Holocene. Additionally, our population genetic simulations generally supported continuity, i.e. differentiation only due to genetic drift, within the last ten thousand years.” ref
“Two findings, however, were intriguing. One was the discovery of only weak support for a single regional population in comparisons between Early vs. Late as well as Middle vs. Late groups in the region. This may be explained by population structure, as the Late group comprised geographically very distant individuals, such as individuals from Krasnoyarsk Krai and Amur Oblast, not represented in the other diachronic groups. Another explanation for rejecting the null hypothesis of continuity between the Middle and Late (4,800–3,000 years ago) groups might be due to an interruption and the arrival of pastoralists at the beginning of the Iron Age between 3,670 to 2,760 years ago as suggested by the archaeological record. Thus, the introduction of the new lifeways, technologies, and material culture expressions might also here be associated to an increased mobility into the area.” ref
“The second point was the estimated reduction in maternal effective population size and haplotype diversity around 7,000 years ago. Intriguingly, climate modeling and radiocarbon dating studies suggest that climatic change and a collapse of the riverine ecosystems might have affected the human populations in Cis Baikal between 7,000–6,000 years ago in line with our results. This finding was further supported by archaeological studies pointing to a possible hiatus. Although our results provide a first glimpse into population structure and diversity in North Asia during the Holocene which link to trend in the archaeological record, complete genome sequences will provide a higher resolution of more complex demographic events in the region.” ref
Millet
“The various species called millet were initially domesticated in different parts of the world most notably East Asia, South Asia, West Africa, and East Africa. However, the domesticated varieties have often spread well beyond their initial area. Specialized archaeologists called palaeoethnobotanists, relying on data such as the relative abundance of charred grains found in archaeological sites, hypothesize that the cultivation of millets was of greater prevalence in prehistory than rice, especially in northern China and Korea. Millets also formed important parts of the prehistoric diet in Indian, Chinese Neolithic, and Korean Mumun societies.” ref
Millet Domestication in East Asia
“Proso millet (Panicum miliaceum) and foxtail millet (Setaria italica) were important crops beginning in the Early Neolithic of China. Some of the earliest evidence of millet cultivation in China was found at Cishan (north), where proso millet husk phytoliths and biomolecular components have been identified around 10,300–8,700 years ago in storage pits along with remains of pit-houses, pottery, and stone tools related to millet cultivation. Evidence at Cishan for foxtail millet dates back to around 8,700 years ago. The oldest evidence of noodles in China were made from these two varieties of millet in a 4,000-year-old earthenware bowl containing well-preserved noodles found at the Lajia archaeological site in north China.” ref
“Palaeoethnobotanists have found evidence of the cultivation of millet in the Korean Peninsula dating to the Middle Jeulmun pottery period (around 3500–2000 BCE). Millet continued to be an important element in the intensive, multicropping agriculture of the Mumun pottery period (about 1500–300 BCE) in Korea. Millets and their wild ancestors, such as barnyard grass and panic grass, were also cultivated in Japan during the Jōmon period some time after 4000 BCE. Chinese myths attribute the domestication of millet to Shennong, a legendary Emperor of China, and Hou Ji, whose name means Lord Millet.” ref
Millet Domestication in the Indian Subcontinent
“Little millet (Panicum sumatrense) is believed to have been domesticated around 5000 before present in India subcontinent and Kodo millet (Paspalum scrobiculatum) around 3700 before present, also in Indian subcontinent. Various millets have been mentioned in some of the Yajurveda texts, identifying foxtail millet (priyaṅgu), Barnyard millet (aṇu) and black finger millet (śyāmāka), indicating that millet cultivation was happening around 1200 BCE in India.” ref
Millet Domestication in West Africa
“Pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum) was definitely domesticated in Africa by 3500 before present, though 8000 before present is thought likely. Early evidence includes finds at Birimi in West Africa with the earliest at Dhar Tichitt in Mauritania. Pearl millet was domesticated in the Sahel region of West Africa, where its wild ancestors are found. Evidence for the cultivation of pearl millet in Mali dates back to 2500 BCE, and pearl millet is found in the Indian subcontinent by 2300 BCE.” ref
Millet Domestication in East Africa
“Finger millet is originally native to the highlands of East Africa and was domesticated before the third millennium BCE. Its cultivation had spread to South India by 1800 BCE.” ref
Spreading of Millet
“The cultivation of common millet as the earliest dry crop in East Asia has been attributed to its resistance to drought, and this has been suggested to have aided its spread. Asian varieties of millet made their way from China to the Black Sea region of Europe by 5000 BCE. Millet was growing wild in Greece as early as 3000 BCE, and bulk storage containers for millet have been found from the Late Bronze Age in Macedonia and northern Greece. Hesiod describes that “the beards grow round the millet, which men sow in summer.” And millet is listed along with wheat in the third century BCE by Theophrastus in his “Enquiry into Plants”.” ref
“Pearl millet is one of the two major crops in the semiarid, impoverished, less fertile agriculture regions of Africa and southeast Asia. Millets are not only adapted to poor, droughty, and infertile soils, but they are also more reliable under these conditions than most other grain crops. This has, in part, made millet production popular, particularly in countries surrounding the Sahara in western Africa.” ref
“Millets, however, do respond to high fertility and moisture. On a per-hectare basis, millet grain production can be 2–4 times higher with use of irrigation and soil supplements. Improved breeds of millet with enhanced disease resistance and can significantly increase farm yield. There has been cooperation between poor countries to improve millet yields. For example, ‘Okashana 1’, a variety developed in India from a natural-growing millet variety in Burkina Faso, doubled yields.” ref
“This breed was selected for trials in Zimbabwe. “From there it was taken to Namibia, where it was released in 1990 and enthusiastically adopted by farmers. ‘Okashana 1’ became the most popular variety in Namibia, the only non-Sahelian country where pearl millet—locally known as mahangu—is the dominant food staple for consumers. ‘Okashana 1’ was then introduced to Chad. The breed has significantly enhanced yields in Mauritania and Benin.” ref
“In India, various alcoholic beverages are produced from millets. Millet is also the base ingredient for the distilled liquor rakshi.” ref
“Finger millet is predicted to have been domesticated in Uganda and the Ethiopian Highlands. Proso millet was likely domesticated on the Loess Plateau, China. Japanese barnyard millet was likely domesticated in Japan or Eastern Asia. It has been suggested that the Indian barnyard millet was domesticated at multiple sites across its current cultivation range in India. Predicted sites of domestication of foxtail millet and little millet, respectively, on the North China Plain and in India. Kodo millet may have been domesticated at multiple sites across its current range of cultivation in India.” ref
Origin of ethnic groups, linguistic families, and civilizations in China viewed from the Y chromosome
“East Asia, geographically extending to the Pamir Plateau in the west, to the Himalayan Mountains in the southwest, to Lake Baikal in the north, and to the South China Sea in the south, harbors a variety of people, cultures, and languages. To reconstruct the natural history of East Asians is a mission of multiple disciplines, including genetics, archaeology, linguistics, and ethnology. Geneticists confirm the recent African origin of modern East Asians. Anatomically modern humans arose in Africa and immigrated into East Asia via a southern route approximately 50,000 years ago. Following the end of the Last Glacial Maximum approximately 12,000 years ago, rice and millet were domesticated in the south and north of East Asia, respectively, which allowed human populations to expand and linguistic families and ethnic groups to develop.” ref
“These Neolithic populations produced a strong relationship between the present genetic structures and linguistic families. The expansion of the Hongshan people from northeastern China relocated most of the ethnic populations on a large scale approximately 5300 years ago. Most of the ethnic groups migrated to remote regions, producing genetic structure differences between the edge and center of East Asia. In central China, pronounced population admixture occurred and accelerated over time, which subsequently formed the Han Chinese population and eventually the Chinese civilization. Population migration between the north and the south throughout history has left a smooth gradient in north–south changes in genetic structure. Observation of the process of shaping the genetic structure of East Asians may help in understanding the global natural history of modern humans.” ref
Agricultural origins in North China pushed back to the Pleistocene–Holocene boundary
“Two grains, common (proso or broomcorn) millet (Panicum miliaceum) and foxtail millet (Setaria italica), were fundamental to the development of agricultural societies that eventually evolved into the first urban societies of China between 4500-3800 years ago. Today, these grains are important mainly in parts of Russia, South Asia, and East Asia. How, when, and in what settings these millets initially evolved is not well known. One hypothesis holds that common millet was domesticated rapidly in the central Wei river basin shortly after ca. 8000 years ago. Another hypothesis proposes that common millet was domesticated in the Northeast China Liao river basin around the same time.” ref
“In reality, archaeological data have simply not been adequate to resolve the issues surrounding the domestication of millet and the development of the first agricultural communities in North China. Complicating the problem, common millet is also present in Europe ca. 8000–7500 years ago, so this timing opens the possibility that the crop was domesticated more than once. Otherwise, its origins must predate 8000 years ago. The Early Holocene Cishan site in North China is one of several sites considered key to understanding millet domestication and the origin of dry-land agriculture in China, yet the dating and identity of the crops recovered there have never been adequately documented.” ref
“The study published in this issue of PNAS revisits Cishan, located on a terrace on the western edge of the North China Plain ≈9 km from where the Nanming river emerges from the Taihang mountains. Two outstanding issues regarding the early archaeological record of millet at Cishan first reported nearly 30 years ago, their dating and identification, are resolved in the new study.” ref
“Cishan, a Neolithic village at least 400 m square, has an exceptionally-rich pottery, stone, plant, and animal bone assemblage. The pottery consists of plates, bowls, and pots decorated by cord-wrapped paddle and incising/trailing; none of it is painted. No specific precursors are known. The houses and pits are divided into 2 occupations, periods I and II. Excavations revealed 476 pits, among which 376 are rectangular in plan view. Some of the large, oval pits are houses. Most of the pits belong to period II. Many of these characteristics are still unique to the Cishan culture but it was the large quantity of silicified millet remnants in 88 of the pits, nearly 80% from period I, that was so surprising.” ref
“When the millet was first exposed, it decomposed rapidly, leaving some grains that were too fragile to be recovered and the tough chaff whose cells are composed mainly of silica. At first, the grain was thought to be foxtail millet (S. italica) but details of the morphology were never reported and the identification has not been universally accepted. The age of the site was also surprising considering its complexity: ≈8000 years ago. Archaeologists were uncertain how long the site was occupied, if the millet was as old as the charcoal that provided the radiocarbon dates, or if, indeed, the site was as old as they surmised. Lu et al. report that some of the pits are at least 2,000 years older than previously thought and the plant remains are composed primarily of common millet rather than foxtail millet.” ref
“To make an incontrovertible case for the age and association of crops, archaeologists require secure dating, well-documented identifications, and proper documentation of the context from which the dates and the crops were obtained. Lu et al. obtained 46 new samples of plant remains and 9 accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) radiocarbon dates directly on the millet. Two of the AMS dates are younger and 7 are older than the non-AMS radiocarbon dates on charcoal from the original excavations. The structure and contents of the site appear to be consistent with the extended chronology.” ref
“Archaeologists suspected that the site has a longer history, and in 2008 Lu et al.’s team reviewed the stratigraphy at Cishan and learned that the opening of pit CS-I was just at the bottom of the Holocene soil layer, while the mouth of the younger CS-II pit was excavated into slightly shallower Holocene soil. The stratigraphy structures of the site appear to be consistent with the extended chronology (Lu et al., personal communication). Three of the older dates extend the occupation to 10,400–10,100 years ago. The dates also show for the first time that the community spanned a period of ≈3,000 years (ca. 10,400-7500 years ago).” ref
“How were the crops identified? The remains are extremely fragmentary, being the remnants of chaff. Identification is relatively straightforward when the actual grains are present but in this case, Lu et al. needed some ingenuity to identify the specimens. They used 3 techniques to clarify that broomcorn millet was the only crop in period I and the primary crop in period II. A small quantity of foxtail millet is present in period II, indicating that it was a later addition to the crop assemblage and was not a significant crop there. The first identification method, an examination of the epidermal cells of the husks, involved measuring the amplitude of the undulations of the long cells and statistically testing for significant differences. The measurements have a bimodal distribution, indicating that, indeed, the epidermal cell measurements form 2 clusters, 1 for common millet and 1 for foxtail millet.” ref
“Furthermore, the morphology of silica bodies (phytoliths) in chaff epidermal cells have been used to distinguish plant taxa and evaluate their domesticated status. In a related study Lu et al. demonstrate that phytoliths can, indeed, distinguish foxtail and broomcorn millet. The phytoliths are consistent with the identifications based on epidermal cell morphology. Furthermore, the analysis adds to the understanding of the sophisticated storage at Cishan. Leaves of a wild grass, Phragmites australis, along with millet chaff, were layered on the bottom of the pits. Finally, to alleviate any potential doubt that the majority of the Cishan millet is broomcorn millet, Lu et al. sought biomarkers that could distinguish the millets. They discovered that 5 biomarkers distinguish broomcorn and foxtail millet. The biomarker analysis confirms the common millet identification.” ref
“Why are the new Cishan site data significant? Understanding developments in North China has been frustrated by the seemingly sudden appearance of millet production ca. 8000–7500 years ago in an area ≈1,000 km east–west (Yuezhang to Dadiwan) and the same distance north–south (Xinglonggou to Peiligang). Cishan now has the oldest clear evidence for a significant degree of food production in China instead of being one of several sites in North China where millet suddenly appeared over an exceptionally large area. Furthermore, the 3,000-year occupation by a food-producing community is a longevity rivaled elsewhere at the time only by sites such as Abu Hureyra in Syria.” ref
“Researchers still do not know how continuous the occupation was, but even if Cishan was occupied intermittently, it was still clearly an important location for early hunter–gatherer–fisher–farmers. Cishan represents an extremely successful adaptation to an area bounded on the west by mountains and the loess plateau and situated in a riverine habitat that provided a rich array of resources that included at least 23 species of mammals, tortoise, birds, fish, and shellfish. The location likely mitigated some of the effects of the early occupation period that was cooler and drier than it was after 8700 years ago. However, rhesus monkey and masked civet were hunted and are evidence that the climate was warmer than it was in the late 1900s, but it is possible that these animals are associated with period II. Plant exploitation and anthropogenic habitats must have been extremely important at Cishan but neither has been thoroughly investigated.” ref
Cishan now has the oldest clear evidence for a significant degree of food production in China.
“The events at Cishan for the first time place the timing of agricultural origins in North China at the Pleistocene–Holocene transition, similar to its timing in Southwest Asia, Mexico, and South America. How the circumstances of agricultural developments compare are still open to question. Despite the relatively continuous Upper Palaeolithic through Neolithic record in Southwest Asia the earliest stages of agriculture there are not yet clear. What we do know is that the shift to agriculture is evident only by the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (10,500–8200 years ago), the earliest dates of which correspond to the oldest dates at Cishan.” ref
“However, in contrast to Southwest Asia, pottery had developed in China long before obvious traces of agriculture, villages, and storage pits. In South America some of the oldest traces of agriculture date between 11,000 and 6000 years ago. Mexican agricultural origins appear not to be associated with villages or pottery. A key exception to agriculture appearing during the Pleistocene–Holocene transition is eastern North America where native plants were being domesticated between 5000-3800 years ago. However, like many other regions, the setting was relatively resource-rich; populations were not struggling for food. Cishan adds another variant to the comparative mix of developmental puzzles that are the origins of agriculture.” ref
“The study indicates that we still do not have quality data pertaining to the onset of millet domestication and agriculture in North China because food production was already established by 10,400–10,100 years ago at Cishan. If our understanding of Cishan is being significantly revised, what about the other Early Neolithic sites in North China reported in the 1970s and 1980s? An issue that is still unresolved is foxtail millet domestication. The new data are consistent with other reports that it developed later than broomcorn millet, but we still need to be careful about Cishan because so few of the plant remains have been examined.” ref
“Researchers may yet learn that other pits contained more foxtail millet or other crops. Furthermore, so few plant remains assemblages have been recovered from the period between 10,000-7500 years ago in North China that we may still learn that the 2 millets were domesticated independently. Crop complexes may form well after individual taxa were separately domesticated. We still await a comprehensive study of subsistence and human–environment interaction at Cishan but with this new study the development of agriculture in North China is becoming clearer.” ref
Jiaohe ruins
“Jiaohe or Yarkhoto is a ruined city in the Yarnaz Valley, 10 km west of the city of Turpan in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, China. It was the capital of the Tocharian kingdom of Jushi. It is a natural fortress located atop a steep cliff on a leaf-shaped plateau between two deep river valleys, and was an important stop along the Silk Road. From 108 BC to 450 AD Jiaohe was the capital of the Anterior Jushi Kingdom.” ref
“It was an important site along the Silk Road trade route leading west, and was adjacent to the Korla and Karasahr kingdoms to the west. From 450 CE until 640 CE it became Jiao prefecture in the Tang Dynasty, and in 640 CE it was made the seat of the new Jiaohe County. From 640 CE until 658 CE it was also the seat of the Protector General of the Western Regions, the highest-level military post of a Chinese military commander posted in the west. Since the beginning of the 9th century, it had become Jiaohe prefecture of the Uyghur Khaganate, until their kingdom was conquered by the Kyrgyz soon after in the year 840. Yarkhoto was also built on a plateau and this plateau is 30m high.” ref
“The city was built on a large islet (1650 m in length, 300 m wide at its widest point) in the middle of a river which formed natural defenses, which would explain why the city lacked any sort of walls. Instead, steep cliffs more than 30 meters high on all sides of the river acted as natural walls. The layout of the city had eastern and western residential districts, while the northern district was reserved for Buddhist sites of temples and stupas. Along with this, there are notable graveyards and the ruins of a large government office in the southern part of the eastern district. It had a population of 7,000 according to Tang dynasty records. It was finally abandoned after its destruction during an invasion by the Mongols led by Genghis Khan in the 13th century.” ref
“The ruins were visited by the archaeologist and explorer Aurel Stein, who described “a maze of ruined dwellings and shrines carved out for the most part from the loess soil”, but complained that a combination of local farmers’ use of the soil and government interference in his activities prevented examination. The site was partially excavated in the 1950s and has been protected by the PRC government since 1961. There are now attempts to protect this site and other Silk Road city ruins.” ref
“The origins and evolution of war and politics in ancient China (Legendary, Xia [Hsia], Shang, and Western Zhou [Chou] periods), from ca. 2700 to 722 BCE or 4,722-2,744 years ago. The main findings are as follows: (1) warfare in China began, at the latest, by 2193 BCE (first historical Chinese civil war) or 2146 BCE (first interstate war), more than 4,000 years ago, and has continued unabated; (2) warfare patterns varied significantly across periods but in measurable ways, similar to earlier long-range findings for other regions; (3) warfare onsets increased across periods, particularly during the Zhou period, reaching a peak frequency of approximately 10% of the modern world frequency (1816-1980 CE); (4) war onset was mostly inhibited (opposite of contagious), symptomatic of stability and restraint; and (5) the highest stability occurred during the Shang epoch and the lowest during the Xia and Western Zhou periods. The results support the comparative, universal properties of warfare, both cross-polity, and cross-temporally.” ref
“In ancient China warfare was a means for one region to gain ascendancy over another, for the state to expand and protect its frontiers, and for usurpers to replace an existing dynasty of rulers. With armies consisting of tens of thousands of soldiers in the first millennium BCE and then hundreds of thousands in the first millennium CE, warfare became more technologically advanced and ever more destructive. Chariots gave way to cavalry, bows to crossbows and, eventually, artillery stones to gunpowder bombs. The Chinese intelligentsia may have frowned upon warfare and those who engaged in it and there were notable periods of relative peace but, as in most other ancient societies, for ordinary people it was difficult to escape the insatiable demands of war: either fight or die, be conscripted or enslaved, win somebody else’s possessions or lose all of one’s own.” ref
“The Chinese bronze age saw a great deal of military competition between city-rulers eager to grab the riches of their neighbours, and there is no doubt that success in this endeavour legitimised reigns and increased the welfare of the victors and their people. Those who did not fight had their possessions taken, their dwellings destroyed and were usually either enslaved or killed. Indeed, much of China’s history thereafter involves wars between one state or another but it is also true that warfare was perhaps a little less glorified in ancient China than it was in other ancient societies. The absence of a glorification of war in China was largely due to the Confucian philosophy and its accompanying literature which stressed the importance of other matters of civil life. Military treatises were written but, otherwise, stirring tales of derring-do in battle and martial themes, in general, are all rarer in Chinese mythology, literature and art than in contemporary western cultures, for example.” ref
“Even such famous works as Sun-Tzu’s The Art of War (5th century BCE) warned that, “No country has ever profited from protracted warfare.” Generals and ambitious officers studied and memorised the literature on how to win at war but starting from the very top with the emperor, warfare was very often a policy of last resort. The Han Dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE) was notable for its expansion, as were some Tang Dynasty emperors (618-907 CE) but, in the main, a strategy of paying off neighbours with vast tributes of silver and silk, along with a parallel exportation of “civilising” culture was seen as the best way to defend imperial China’s borders. Then, if war ultimately proved unavoidable, it was better to recruit foreign troops to get on with it.” ref
Dynasties in Chinese History
“Dynasties in Chinese history, or Chinese dynasties, were hereditary monarchical regimes that ruled over China during much of its history. From the inauguration of dynastic rule by Yu the Great in circa 2070 BCE or 4,092 years ago to the abdication of the Xuantong Emperor on 12 February 1912 in the wake of the Xinhai Revolution, China was ruled by a series of successive dynasties. Dynasties of China were not limited to those established by ethnic Han—the dominant Chinese ethnic group—and its predecessor, the Huaxia tribal confederation, but also included those founded by non-Han peoples. Dividing Chinese history into periods ruled by dynasties is a convenient method of periodization. Accordingly, a dynasty may be used to delimit the era during which a family reigned, as well as to describe events, trends, personalities, artistic compositions, and artifacts of that period.” ref
“For example, porcelain made during the Ming dynasty may be referred to as “Ming porcelain”. The word “dynasty” is usually omitted when making such adjectival references. The longest-reigning orthodox dynasty of China was the Zhou dynasty, ruling for a total length of 789 years, albeit it is divided into the Western Zhou and the Eastern Zhou in Chinese historiography, and its power was drastically reduced during the latter part of its rule. The largest orthodox Chinese dynasty in terms of territorial size was either the Yuan dynasty or the Qing dynasty, depending on the historical source. Chinese dynasties often referred to themselves as “Tiāncháo” (天朝; “Celestial Dynasty” or “Heavenly Dynasty”). As a form of respect and subordination, Chinese tributary states referred to Chinese dynasties as “Tiāncháo Shàngguó” (天朝上國; “Celestial Dynasty of the Exalted State”) or “Tiāncháo Dàguó” (天朝大國; “Celestial Dynasty of the Great State”).” ref
“As the founder of China’s first orthodox dynasty, the Xia dynasty, Yu the Great is conventionally regarded as the inaugurator of dynastic rule in China. In the Chinese dynastic system, sovereign rulers theoretically possessed absolute power and private ownership of the realm, even though in practice their actual power was dependent on numerous factors. By tradition, the Chinese throne was inherited exclusively by members of the male line, but there were numerous cases whereby the consort kins came to possess de facto power at the expense of the monarchs. This concept, known as jiā tiānxià (家天下; “All under Heaven belongs to the ruling family”), was in contrast to the pre-Xia notion of gōng tiānxià (公天下; “All under Heaven belongs to the public”) whereby leadership succession was non-hereditary.” ref
Slavery in China
“Slavery in China has taken various forms throughout history. Slavery was abolished as a legally recognized institution, including in a 1909 law, fully enacted in 1910, although the practice continued until at least 1949. The Chinese term for slave (nuli) can also be roughly translated into ‘debtor’, ‘dependent’, or ‘subject’. Slaves in China were a very small part of the population and could include war prisoners, kidnapping victims, or people who had been sold. In Chinese society, slaves were grouped under a category of people known as the jianmin, which means “base” or “mean”. Direct equivalents of chattel slavery did not exist in ancient China. During the Shang dynasty and Zhou dynasty, slaves generally consisted of war captives or criminals, although peasants lived in a similar condition of perpetual servitude and were unable to leave their land or own it. Some people deliberately became slaves to escape imperial taxation, but they were still considered to be higher in status than traditional slaves, and inhabited a position somewhere between a slave and a commoner. From the Qin dynasty to Tang dynasty, slavery expanded beyond criminals and war captives. The Qin used large scale slave labor for public works such as land reclamation, road construction, and canal building. Slavery declined during the economic boom of the Song dynasty in the 12th century.” ref
“The Shang dynasty engaged in frequent raids of surrounding states, obtaining captives who would be killed in ritual sacrifices. Scholars disagree as to whether these victims were also used as a source of slave labor. The Warring States period (475–221 BCE) saw a decline in slavery from previous centuries, although it was still widespread during the period. Since the introduction of private ownership of land in the state of Lu in 594 BCE, which brought a system of taxation on private land, and saw the emergence of a system of landlords and peasants, the system of slavery began to later decline over the following centuries, as other states followed suit. The Qin dynasty (221–206 BCE) confiscated property and enslaved families as punishment. Large numbers of slaves were used by the Qin government to construct large-scale infrastructure projects, including road building, canal construction, and land reclamation. Slave labor was quite extensive during this period. Beginning with the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE), one of Emperor Gao‘s first acts was to manumit agricultural workers enslaved during the Warring States period, although domestic servants retained their status. The Han Dynasty promulgated laws to limit the possession of slaves: each king or duke was allowed a maximum of 200 slaves, an imperial princess was allowed a maximum of 100 slaves, other officials were limited to 30 slaves each. Men punished with castration during the Han dynasty were also used as slave labor. Deriving from earlier Legalist laws, the Han dynasty set in place rules penalizing criminals doing three years of hard labor or sentenced to castration by having their families seized and kept as property by the government.” ref
Eunuchs in China
“A eunuch is a man who has been castrated. Throughout history, castration often served a specific social function. The earliest records for intentional castration to produce eunuchs are from the Sumerian city of Lagash in the 2nd millennium BCE. Over the millennia since, they have performed a wide variety of functions in many different cultures: courtiers or equivalent domestics, for espionage or clandestine operations, castrato singers, concubines, or sexual partners, religious specialists, soldiers, royal guards, government officials, and guardians of women or harem servants. Eunuchs would usually be servants or slaves who had been castrated to make them less threatening servants of a royal court where physical access to the ruler could wield great influence.” ref
“Eunuchs, or ‘non-men’ as they could be known, first appeared in the royal courts of ancient pre-imperial Chinese states where they were employed as servants in the inner chambers of the palace.” ref
“In China, castration included removal of the penis as well as the testicles (see emasculation). Both organs were cut off with a knife at the same time. Eunuchs have existed in China since about 146 CE during the reign of Emperor Huan of Han, and were common as civil servants by the time of the Qin dynasty. From those ancient times until the Sui dynasty, castration was both a traditional punishment (one of the Five Punishments) and a means of gaining employment in the Imperial service. Certain eunuchs gained immense power that occasionally superseded that of even the Grand Secretaries such as the Ming dynasty official Zheng He. Self-castration was a common practice, although it was not always performed completely, which led to it being made illegal. It is said that the justification for the employment of eunuchs as high-ranking civil servants was that, since they were incapable of having children, they would not be tempted to seize power and start a dynasty. In many cases, eunuchs were considered more reliable than the scholar-officials.” ref
“They were more or less slaves and were usually acquired as children from border territories, especially those to the south. Castrated and brought to serve the royal household, they had no real means of altering their lives. Eunuchs were regarded as the most trustworthy of servants because they could neither seduce women of the household or father children which might form a dynasty to rival that of the sitting emperor’s. Eunuchs were powerful political players in ancient Chinese government. Originating as trusted slaves in the royal household they were ambitious to use their favoured position to gain political power.” ref
“As a symbolic assignment of heavenly authority to the palace system, a constellation of stars was designated as the Emperor’s, and, to the west of it, four stars were identified as his “eunuchs.” The tension between eunuchs in the service of the emperor and virtuous Confucian officials is a familiar theme in Chinese history. In his History of Government, Samuel Finer points out that reality was not always that clear-cut. There were instances of very capable eunuchs who were valuable advisers to their emperor, and the resistance of the “virtuous” officials often stemmed from jealousy on their part. Ray Huang argues that in reality, eunuchs represented the personal will of the Emperor, while the officials represented the alternative political will of the bureaucracy. The clash between them would thus have been a clash of ideologies or political agenda. The number of eunuchs in Imperial employ fell to 470 by 1912, with the eunuch system being abolished on November 5, 1924. The last Imperial eunuch, Sun Yaoting, died in December 1996.” ref
Animism: Respecting the Living World by Graham Harvey
“How have human cultures engaged with and thought about animals, plants, rocks, clouds, and other elements in their natural surroundings? Do animals and other natural objects have a spirit or soul? What is their relationship to humans? In this new study, Graham Harvey explores current and past animistic beliefs and practices of Native Americans, Maori, Aboriginal Australians, and eco-pagans. He considers the varieties of animism found in these cultures as well as their shared desire to live respectfully within larger natural communities. Drawing on his extensive casework, Harvey also considers the linguistic, performative, ecological, and activist implications of these different animisms.” ref
My thoughts on Religion Evolution with external links for more info:
- (Pre-Animism Africa mainly, but also Europe, and Asia at least 300,000 years ago), (Pre-Animism – Oxford Dictionaries)
- (Animism Africa around 100,000 years ago), (Animism – Britannica.com)
- (Totemism Europe around 50,000 years ago), (Totemism – Anthropology)
- (Shamanism Siberia around 30,000 years ago), (Shamanism – Britannica.com)
- (Paganism Turkey around 12,000 years ago), (Paganism – BBC Religion)
- (Progressed Organized Religion “Institutional Religion” Egypt around 5,000 years ago), (Ancient Egyptian Religion – Britannica.com)
- (CURRENT “World” RELIGIONS after 4,000 years ago) (Origin of Major Religions – Sacred Texts)
- (Early Atheistic Doubting at least by 2,600 years ago) (History of Atheism – Wikipedia)
“Religion is an Evolved Product” and Yes, Religion is Like Fear Given Wings…
Atheists talk about gods and religions for the same reason doctors talk about cancer, they are looking for a cure, or a firefighter talks about fires because they burn people and they care to stop them. We atheists too often feel a need to help the victims of mental slavery, held in the bondage that is the false beliefs of gods and the conspiracy theories of reality found in religions.
Understanding Religion Evolution:
- Pre-Animism (at least 300,000 years ago)
- Animism (Africa: 100,000 years ago)
- Totemism (Europe: 50,000 years ago)
- Shamanism (Siberia: 30,000 years ago)
- Paganism (Turkey: 12,000 years ago)
- Progressed organized religion (Egypt: 5,000 years ago), (Egypt, the First Dynasty 5,150 years ago)
- CURRENT “World” RELIGIONS (after 4,000 years ago)
- Early Atheistic Doubting (at least by 2,600 years ago)
“An Archaeological/Anthropological Understanding of Religion Evolution”
It seems ancient peoples had to survived amazing threats in a “dangerous universe (by superstition perceived as good and evil),” and human “immorality or imperfection of the soul” which was thought to affect the still living, leading to ancestor worship. This ancestor worship presumably led to the belief in supernatural beings, and then some of these were turned into the belief in gods. This feeble myth called gods were just a human conceived “made from nothing into something over and over, changing, again and again, taking on more as they evolve, all the while they are thought to be special,” but it is just supernatural animistic spirit-belief perceived as sacred.
Quick Evolution of Religion?
Pre-Animism (at least 300,000 years ago) pre-religion is a beginning that evolves into later Animism. So, Religion as we think of it, to me, all starts in a general way with Animism (Africa: 100,000 years ago) (theoretical belief in supernatural powers/spirits), then this is physically expressed in or with Totemism (Europe: 50,000 years ago) (theoretical belief in mythical relationship with powers/spirits through a totem item), which then enlists a full-time specific person to do this worship and believed interacting Shamanism (Siberia/Russia: 30,000 years ago) (theoretical belief in access and influence with spirits through ritual), and then there is the further employment of myths and gods added to all the above giving you Paganism (Turkey: 12,000 years ago) (often a lot more nature-based than most current top world religions, thus hinting to their close link to more ancient religious thinking it stems from). My hypothesis is expressed with an explanation of the building of a theatrical house (modern religions development). Progressed organized religion (Egypt: 5,000 years ago) with CURRENT “World” RELIGIONS (after 4,000 years ago).
Historically, in large city-state societies (such as Egypt or Iraq) starting around 5,000 years ago culminated to make religion something kind of new, a sociocultural-governmental-religious monarchy, where all or at least many of the people of such large city-state societies seem familiar with and committed to the existence of “religion” as the integrated life identity package of control dynamics with a fixed closed magical doctrine, but this juggernaut integrated religion identity package of Dogmatic-Propaganda certainly did not exist or if developed to an extent it was highly limited in most smaller prehistoric societies as they seem to lack most of the strong control dynamics with a fixed closed magical doctrine (magical beliefs could be at times be added or removed). Many people just want to see developed religious dynamics everywhere even if it is not. Instead, all that is found is largely fragments until the domestication of religion.
Religions, as we think of them today, are a new fad, even if they go back to around 6,000 years in the timeline of human existence, this amounts to almost nothing when seen in the long slow evolution of religion at least around 70,000 years ago with one of the oldest ritual worship. Stone Snake of South Africa: “first human worship” 70,000 years ago. This message of how religion and gods among them are clearly a man-made thing that was developed slowly as it was invented and then implemented peace by peace discrediting them all. Which seems to be a simple point some are just not grasping how devastating to any claims of truth when we can see the lie clearly in the archeological sites.
I wish people fought as hard for the actual values as they fight for the group/clan names political or otherwise they think support values. Every amount spent on war is theft to children in need of food or the homeless kept from shelter.
Here are several of my blog posts on history:
- To Find Truth You Must First Look
- (Magdalenian/Iberomaurusian) Connections to the First Paganists of the early Neolithic Near East Dating from around 17,000 to 12,000 Years Ago
- Natufians: an Ancient People at the Origins of Agriculture and Sedentary Life
- Possible Clan Leader/Special “MALE” Ancestor Totem Poles At Least 13,500 years ago?
- Jewish People with DNA at least 13,200 years old, Judaism, and the Origins of Some of its Ideas
- Baltic Reindeer Hunters: Swiderian, Lyngby, Ahrensburgian, and Krasnosillya cultures 12,020 to 11,020 years ago are evidence of powerful migratory waves during the last 13,000 years and a genetic link to Saami and the Finno-Ugric peoples.
- The Rise of Inequality: patriarchy and state hierarchy inequality
- Fertile Crescent 12,500 – 9,500 Years Ago: fertility and death cult belief system?
- 12,400 – 11,700 Years Ago – Kortik Tepe (Turkey) Pre/early-Agriculture Cultic Ritualism
- Ritualistic Bird Symbolism at Gobekli Tepe and its “Ancestor Cult”
- Male-Homosexual (female-like) / Trans-woman (female) Seated Figurine from Gobekli Tepe
- Could a 12,000-year-old Bull Geoglyph at Göbekli Tepe relate to older Bull and Female Art 25,000 years ago and Later Goddess and the Bull cults like Catal Huyuk?
- Sedentism and the Creation of goddesses around 12,000 years ago as well as male gods after 7,000 years ago.
- Alcohol, where Agriculture and Religion Become one? Such as Gobekli Tepe’s Ritualistic use of Grain as Food and Ritual Drink
- Neolithic Ritual Sites with T-Pillars and other Cultic Pillars
- Paganism: Goddesses around 12,000 years ago then Male Gods after 7,000 years ago
- First Patriarchy: Split of Women’s Status around 12,000 years ago & First Hierarchy: fall of Women’s Status around 5,000 years ago.
- Natufians: an Ancient People at the Origins of Agriculture and Sedentary Life
- J DNA and the Spread of Agricultural Religion (paganism)
- Paganism: an approximately 12,000-year-old belief system
- Paganism 12,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Pre-Capitalism)
- Shaman burial in Israel 12,000 years ago and the Shamanism Phenomena
- Need to Mythicized: gods and goddesses
- 12,000 – 7,000 Years Ago – Paleo-Indian Culture (The Americas)
- 12,000 – 2,000 Years Ago – Indigenous-Scandinavians (Nordic)
- Norse did not wear helmets with horns?
- Pre-Pottery Neolithic Skull Cult around 11,500 to 8,400 Years Ago?
- 10,400 – 10,100 Years Ago, in Turkey the Nevail Cori Religious Settlement
- 9,000-6,500 Years Old Submerged Pre-Pottery/Pottery Neolithic Ritual Settlements off Israel’s Coast
- Catal Huyuk “first religious designed city” around 9,500 to 7,700 years ago (Turkey)
- Cultic Hunting at Catal Huyuk “first religious designed city”
- Special Items and Art as well as Special Elite Burials at Catal Huyuk
- New Rituals and Violence with the appearance of Pottery and People?
- Haplogroup N and its related Uralic Languages and Cultures
- Ainu people, Sámi people, Native Americans, the Ancient North Eurasians, and Paganistic-Shamanism with Totemism
- Ideas, Technology and People from Turkey, Europe, to China and Back again 9,000 to 5,000 years ago?
- First Pottery of Europe and the Related Cultures
- 9,000 years old Neolithic Artifacts Judean Desert and Hills Israel
- 9,000-7,000 years-old Sex and Death Rituals: Cult Sites in Israel, Jordan, and the Sinai
- 9,000-8500 year old Horned Female shaman Bad Dürrenberg Germany
- Neolithic Jewelry and the Spread of Farming in Europe Emerging out of West Turkey
- 8,600-year-old Tortoise Shells in Neolithic graves in central China have Early Writing and Shamanism
- Swing of the Mace: the rise of Elite, Forced Authority, and Inequality begin to Emerge 8,500 years ago?
- Migrations and Changing Europeans Beginning around 8,000 Years Ago
- My “Steppe-Anatolian-Kurgan hypothesis” 8,000/7,000 years ago
- Around 8,000-year-old Shared Idea of the Mistress of Animals, “Ritual” Motif
- Pre-Columbian Red-Paint (red ochre) Maritime Archaic Culture 8,000-3,000 years ago
- 7,522-6,522 years ago Linear Pottery culture which I think relates to Arcane Capitalism’s origins
- Arcane Capitalism: Primitive socialism, Primitive capital, Private ownership, Means of production, Market capitalism, Class discrimination, and Petite bourgeoisie (smaller capitalists)
- 7,500-4,750 years old Ritualistic Cucuteni-Trypillian culture of Moldova, Romania, and Ukraine
- Roots of a changing early society 7,200-6,700 years ago Jordan and Israel
- Agriculture religion (Paganism) with farming reached Britain between about 7,000 to 6,500 or so years ago and seemingly expressed in things like Western Europe’s Long Barrows
- My Thoughts on Possible Migrations of “R” DNA and Proto-Indo-European?
- “Millet” Spreading from China 7,022 years ago to Europe and related Language may have Spread with it leading to Proto-Indo-European
- Proto-Indo-European (PIE), ancestor of Indo-European languages: DNA, Society, Language, and Mythology
- The Dnieper–Donets culture and Asian varieties of Millet from China to the Black Sea region of Europe by 7,022 years ago
- Kurgan 6,000 years ago/dolmens 7,000 years ago: funeral, ritual, and other?
- 7,020 to 6,020-year-old Proto-Indo-European Homeland of Urheimat or proposed home of their Language and Religion
- Ancient Megaliths: Kurgan, Ziggurat, Pyramid, Menhir, Trilithon, Dolman, Kromlech, and Kromlech of Trilithons
- The Mytheme of Ancient North Eurasian Sacred-Dog belief and similar motifs are found in Indo-European, Native American, and Siberian comparative mythology
- Elite Power Accumulation: Ancient Trade, Tokens, Writing, Wealth, Merchants, and Priest-Kings
- Sacred Mounds, Mountains, Kurgans, and Pyramids may hold deep connections?
- Between 7,000-5,000 Years ago, rise of unequal hierarchy elite, leading to a “birth of the State” or worship of power, strong new sexism, oppression of non-elites, and the fall of Women’s equal status
- Paganism 7,000-5,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Capitalism) (World War 0) Elite & their slaves
- Hell and Underworld mythologies starting maybe as far back as 7,000 to 5,000 years ago with the Proto-Indo-Europeans?
- The First Expression of the Male God around 7,000 years ago?
- White (light complexion skin) Bigotry and Sexism started 7,000 years ago?
- Around 7,000-year-old Shared Idea of the Divine Bird (Tutelary and/or Trickster spirit/deity), “Ritual” Motif
- Nekhbet an Ancient Egyptian Vulture Goddess and Tutelary Deity
- 6,720 to 4,920 years old Ritualistic Hongshan Culture of Inner Mongolia with 5,000-year-old Pyramid Mounds and Temples
- First proto-king in the Balkans, Varna culture around 6,500 years ago?
- 6,500–5,800 years ago in Israel Late Chalcolithic (Copper Age) Period in the Southern Levant Seems to Express Northern Levant Migrations, Cultural and Religious Transfer
- KING OF BEASTS: Master of Animals “Ritual” Motif, around 6,000 years old or older…
- Around 6000-year-old Shared Idea of the Solid Wheel & the Spoked Wheel-Shaped Ritual Motif
- “The Ghassulian Star,” a mysterious 6,000-year-old mural from Jordan; a Proto-Star of Ishtar, Star of Inanna or Star of Venus?
- Religious/Ritual Ideas, including goddesses and gods as well as ritual mounds or pyramids from Northeastern Asia at least 6,000 years old, seemingly filtering to Iran, Iraq, the Mediterranean, Europe, Egypt, and the Americas?
- Maykop (5,720–5,020 years ago) Caucasus region Bronze Age culture-related to Copper Age farmers from the south, influenced by the Ubaid period and Leyla-Tepe culture, as well as influencing the Kura-Araxes culture
- 5-600-year-old Tomb, Mummy, and First Bearded Male Figurine in a Grave
- Kura-Araxes Cultural 5,520 to 4,470 years old DNA traces to the Canaanites, Arabs, and Jews
- Minoan/Cretan (Keftiu) Civilization and Religion around 5,520 to 3,120 years ago
- Evolution Of Science at least by 5,500 years ago
- 5,500 Years old birth of the State, the rise of Hierarchy, and the fall of Women’s status
- “Jiroft culture” 5,100 – 4,200 years ago and the History of Iran
- Stonehenge: Paganistic Burial and Astrological Ritual Complex, England (5,100-3,600 years ago)
- Around 5,000-year-old Shared Idea of the “Tree of Life” Ritual Motif
- Complex rituals for elite, seen from China to Egypt, at least by 5,000 years ago
- Around 5,000 years ago: “Birth of the State” where Religion gets Military Power and Influence
- The Center of the World “Axis Mundi” and/or “Sacred Mountains” Mythology Could Relate to the Altai Mountains, Heart of the Steppe
- Progressed organized religion starts, an approximately 5,000-year-old belief system
- China’s Civilization between 5,000-3,000 years ago, was a time of war and class struggle, violent transition from free clans to a Slave or Elite society
- Origin of Logics is Naturalistic Observation at least by around 5,000 years ago.
- Paganism 5,000 years old: progressed organized religion and the state: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Kings and the Rise of the State)
- Ziggurats (multi-platform temples: 4,900 years old) to Pyramids (multi-platform tombs: 4,700 years old)
- Did a 4,520–4,420-year-old Volcano In Turkey Inspire the Bible God?
- Finland’s Horned Shaman and Pre-Horned-God at least 4,500 years ago?
- 4,000-year-Old Dolmens in Israel: A Connected Dolmen Religious Phenomenon?
- Creation myths: From chaos, Ex nihilo, Earth-diver, Emergence, World egg, and World parent
- Bronze Age “Ritual” connections of the Bell Beaker culture with the Corded Ware/Single Grave culture, which were related to the Yamnaya culture and Proto-Indo-European Languages/Religions
- Low Gods (Earth/ Tutelary deity), High Gods (Sky/Supreme deity), and Moralistic Gods (Deity enforcement/divine order)
- The exchange of people, ideas, and material-culture including, to me, the new god (Sky Father) and goddess (Earth Mother) religion between the Cucuteni-Trypillians and others which is then spread far and wide
- Koryaks: Indigenous People of the Russian Far East and Big Raven myths also found in Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, and other Indigenous People of North America
- 42 Principles Of Maat (Egyptian Goddess of the justice) around 4,400 years ago, 2000 Years Before Ten Commandments
- “Happy Easter” Well Happy Eostre/Ishter
- 4,320-3,820 years old “Shimao” (North China) site with Totemistic-Shamanistic Paganism and a Stepped Pyramid
- 4,250 to 3,400 Year old Stonehenge from Russia: Arkaim?
- 4,100-year-old beaker with medicinal & flowering plants in a grave of a woman in Scotland
- Early European Farmer ancestry, Kelif el Boroud people with the Cardial Ware culture, and the Bell Beaker culture Paganists too, spread into North Africa, then to the Canary Islands off West Africa
- Flood Accounts: Gilgamesh epic (4,100 years ago) Noah in Genesis (2,600 years ago)
- Paganism 4,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (First Moralistic gods, then the Origin time of Monotheism)
- When was the beginning: TIMELINE OF CURRENT RELIGIONS, which start around 4,000 years ago.
- Early Religions Thought to Express Proto-Monotheistic Systems around 4,000 years ago
- Kultepe? An archaeological site with a 4,000 years old women’s rights document.
- Single God Religions (Monotheism) = “Man-o-theism” started around 4,000 years ago with the Great Sky Spirit/God Tiān (天)?
- Confucianism’s Tiān (Shangdi god 4,000 years old): Supernaturalism, Pantheism or Theism?
- Yes, Your Male God is Ridiculous
- Mythology, a Lunar Deity is a Goddess or God of the Moon
- Sacred Land, Hills, and Mountains: Sami Mythology (Paganistic Shamanism)
- Horse Worship/Sacrifice: mythical union of Ruling Elite/Kingship and the Horse
- The Amorite/Amurru people’s God Amurru “Lord of the Steppe”, relates to the Origins of the Bible God?
- Bronze Age Exotic Trade Routes Spread Quite Far as well as Spread Religious Ideas with Them
- Sami and the Northern Indigenous Peoples Landscape, Language, and its Connection to Religion
- Prototype of Ancient Analemmatic Sundials around 3,900-3,150 years ago and a Possible Solar Connection to gods?
- Judaism is around 3,450 or 3,250 years old. (“Paleo-Hebrew” 3,000 years ago and Torah 2,500 years ago)
- The Weakening of Ancient Trade and the Strengthening of Religions around 3000 years ago?
- Are you aware that there are religions that worship women gods, explain now religion tears women down?
- Animistic, Totemistic, and Paganistic Superstition Origins of bible god and the bible’s Religion.
- Myths and Folklore: “Trickster gods and goddesses”
- Jews, Judaism, and the Origins of Some of its Ideas
- An Old Branch of Religion Still Giving Fruit: Sacred Trees
- Dating the BIBLE: naming names and telling times (written less than 3,000 years ago, provable to 2,200 years ago)
- Did a Volcano Inspire the bible god?
- The Amorite/Amurru people’s God Amurru “Lord of the Steppe”, relates to the Origins of the Bible God?
- Dené–Yeniseian language, Old Copper Complex, and Pre-Columbian Mound Builders?
- No “dinosaurs and humans didn’t exist together just because some think they are in the bible itself”
- Sacred Shit and Sacred Animals?
- Everyone Killed in the Bible Flood? “Nephilim” (giants)?
- Hey, Damien dude, I have a question for you regarding “the bible” Exodus.
- Archaeology Disproves the Bible
- Bible Battle, Just More, Bible Babble
- The Jericho Conquest lie?
- Canaanites and Israelites?
- Accurate Account on how did Christianity Began?
- Let’s talk about Christianity.
- So the 10 commandments isn’t anything to go by either right?
- Misinformed christian
- Debunking Jesus?
- Paulism vs Jesus
- Ok, you seem confused so let’s talk about Buddhism.
- Unacknowledged Buddhism: Gods, Savior, Demons, Rebirth, Heavens, Hells, and Terrorism
- His Foolishness The Dalai Lama
- Yin and Yang is sexist with an ORIGIN around 2,300 years ago?
- I Believe Archaeology, not Myths & Why Not, as the Religious Myths Already Violate Reason!
- Archaeological, Scientific, & Philosophic evidence shows the god myth is man-made nonsense.
- Aquatic Ape Theory/Hypothesis? As Always, Just Pseudoscience.
- Ancient Aliens Conspiracy Theorists are Pseudohistorians
- The Pseudohistoric and Pseudoscientific claims about “Bakoni Ruins” of South Africa
- Why do people think Religion is much more than supernaturalism and superstitionism?
- Religion is an Evolved Product
- Was the Value of Ancient Women Different?
- 1000 to 1100 CE, human sacrifice Cahokia Mounds a pre-Columbian Native American site
- Feminist atheists as far back as the 1800s?
- Promoting Religion as Real is Mentally Harmful to a Flourishing Humanity
- Screw All Religions and Their Toxic lies, they are all fraud
- Forget Religions’ Unfounded Myths, I Have Substantiated “Archaeology Facts.”
- Religion Dispersal throughout the World
- I Hate Religion Just as I Hate all Pseudoscience
- Exposing Scientology, Eckankar, Wicca and Other Nonsense?
- Main deity or religious belief systems
- Quit Trying to Invent Your God From the Scraps of Science.
- Archaeological, Scientific, & Philosophic evidence shows the god myth is man-made nonsense.
- Ancient Alien Conspiracy Theorists: Misunderstanding, Rhetoric, Misinformation, Fabrications, and Lies
- Misinformation, Distortion, and Pseudoscience in Talking with a Christian Creationist
- Judging the Lack of Goodness in Gods, Even the Norse God Odin
- Challenging the Belief in God-like Aliens and Gods in General
- A Challenge to Christian use of Torture Devices?
- Yes, Hinduism is a Religion
- Trump is One of the Most Reactionary Forces of Far-right Christian Extremism
- Was the Bull Head a Symbol of God? Yes!
- Primate Death Rituals
- Christian – “God and Christianity are objectively true”
- Australopithecus afarensis Death Ritual?
- You Claim Global Warming is a Hoax?
- Doubter of Science and Defamer of Atheists?
- I think that sounds like the Bible?
- History of the Antifa (“anti-fascist”) Movements
- Indianapolis Anti-Blasphemy Laws #Free Soheil Rally
- Damien, you repeat the golden rule in so many forms then you say religion is dogmatic?
- Science is a Trustable Methodology whereas Faith is not Trustable at all!
- Was I ever a believer, before I was an atheist?
- Atheists rise in reason
- Mistrust of science?
- Open to Talking About the Definition of ‘God’? But first, we address Faith.
- ‘United Monarchy’ full of splendor and power – Saul, David, and Solomon? Most likely not.
- Is there EXODUS ARCHAEOLOGY? The short answer is “no.”
- Lacking Proof of Bigfoots, Unicorns, and Gods is Just a Lack of Research?
- Religion and Politics: Faith Beliefs vs. Rational Thinking
- Hammer of Truth that lying pig RELIGION: challenged by an archaeologist
- “The Hammer of Truth” -ontology question- What do You Mean by That?
- Navigation of a bad argument: Ad Hominem vs. Attack
- Why is it Often Claimed that Gods have a Gender?
- Why are basically all monotheistic religions ones that have a male god?
- Shifting through the Claims in support of Faith
- Dear Mr. AtHope, The 20th Century is an Indictment of Secularism and a Failed Atheist Century
- An Understanding of the Worldwide Statistics and Dynamics of Terrorist Incidents and Suicide Attacks
- Intoxication and Evolution? Addressing and Assessing the “Stoned Ape” or “Drunken Monkey” Theories as Catalysts in Human Evolution
- Sacred Menstrual cloth? Inanna’s knot, Isis knot, and maybe Ma’at’s feather?
- Damien, why don’t the Hebrews accept the bible stories?
- Dealing with a Troll and Arguing Over Word Meaning
- Knowledge without Belief? Justified beliefs or disbeliefs worthy of Knowledge?
- Afrocentrism and African Religions
- Crecganford @crecganford offers history & stories of the people, places, gods, & culture
- Empiricism-Denier?
I am not an academic. I am a revolutionary that teaches in public, in places like social media, and in the streets. I am not a leader by some title given but from my commanding leadership style of simply to start teaching everywhere to everyone, all manner of positive education.
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Low Gods “Earth” or Tutelary deity and High Gods “Sky” or Supreme deity
“An Earth goddess is a deification of the Earth. Earth goddesses are often associated with the “chthonic” deities of the underworld. Ki and Ninhursag are Mesopotamian earth goddesses. In Greek mythology, the Earth is personified as Gaia, corresponding to Roman Terra, Indic Prithvi/Bhūmi, etc. traced to an “Earth Mother” complementary to the “Sky Father” in Proto-Indo-European religion. Egyptian mythology exceptionally has a sky goddess and an Earth god.” ref
“A mother goddess is a goddess who represents or is a personification of nature, motherhood, fertility, creation, destruction or who embodies the bounty of the Earth. When equated with the Earth or the natural world, such goddesses are sometimes referred to as Mother Earth or as the Earth Mother. In some religious traditions or movements, Heavenly Mother (also referred to as Mother in Heaven or Sky Mother) is the wife or feminine counterpart of the Sky father or God the Father.” ref
“Any masculine sky god is often also king of the gods, taking the position of patriarch within a pantheon. Such king gods are collectively categorized as “sky father” deities, with a polarity between sky and earth often being expressed by pairing a “sky father” god with an “earth mother” goddess (pairings of a sky mother with an earth father are less frequent). A main sky goddess is often the queen of the gods and may be an air/sky goddess in her own right, though she usually has other functions as well with “sky” not being her main. In antiquity, several sky goddesses in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Near East were called Queen of Heaven. Neopagans often apply it with impunity to sky goddesses from other regions who were never associated with the term historically. The sky often has important religious significance. Many religions, both polytheistic and monotheistic, have deities associated with the sky.” ref
“In comparative mythology, sky father is a term for a recurring concept in polytheistic religions of a sky god who is addressed as a “father”, often the father of a pantheon and is often either a reigning or former King of the Gods. The concept of “sky father” may also be taken to include Sun gods with similar characteristics, such as Ra. The concept is complementary to an “earth mother“. “Sky Father” is a direct translation of the Vedic Dyaus Pita, etymologically descended from the same Proto-Indo-European deity name as the Greek Zeûs Pater and Roman Jupiter and Germanic Týr, Tir or Tiwaz, all of which are reflexes of the same Proto-Indo-European deity’s name, *Dyēus Ph₂tḗr. While there are numerous parallels adduced from outside of Indo-European mythology, there are exceptions (e.g. In Egyptian mythology, Nut is the sky mother and Geb is the earth father).” ref
Tutelary deity
“A tutelary (also tutelar) is a deity or spirit who is a guardian, patron, or protector of a particular place, geographic feature, person, lineage, nation, culture, or occupation. The etymology of “tutelary” expresses the concept of safety and thus of guardianship. In late Greek and Roman religion, one type of tutelary deity, the genius, functions as the personal deity or daimon of an individual from birth to death. Another form of personal tutelary spirit is the familiar spirit of European folklore.” ref
“A tutelary (also tutelar) in Korean shamanism, jangseung and sotdae were placed at the edge of villages to frighten off demons. They were also worshiped as deities. Seonangshin is the patron deity of the village in Korean tradition and was believed to embody the Seonangdang. In Philippine animism, Diwata or Lambana are deities or spirits that inhabit sacred places like mountains and mounds and serve as guardians. Such as: Maria Makiling is the deity who guards Mt. Makiling and Maria Cacao and Maria Sinukuan. In Shinto, the spirits, or kami, which give life to human bodies come from nature and return to it after death. Ancestors are therefore themselves tutelaries to be worshiped. And similarly, Native American beliefs such as Tonás, tutelary animal spirit among the Zapotec and Totems, familial or clan spirits among the Ojibwe, can be animals.” ref
“A tutelary (also tutelar) in Austronesian beliefs such as: Atua (gods and spirits of the Polynesian peoples such as the Māori or the Hawaiians), Hanitu (Bunun of Taiwan‘s term for spirit), Hyang (Kawi, Sundanese, Javanese, and Balinese Supreme Being, in ancient Java and Bali mythology and this spiritual entity, can be either divine or ancestral), Kaitiaki (New Zealand Māori term used for the concept of guardianship, for the sky, the sea, and the land), Kawas (mythology) (divided into 6 groups: gods, ancestors, souls of the living, spirits of living things, spirits of lifeless objects, and ghosts), Tiki (Māori mythology, Tiki is the first man created by either Tūmatauenga or Tāne and represents deified ancestors found in most Polynesian cultures). ” ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref, ref
Mesopotamian Tutelary Deities can be seen as ones related to City-States
“Historical city-states included Sumerian cities such as Uruk and Ur; Ancient Egyptian city-states, such as Thebes and Memphis; the Phoenician cities (such as Tyre and Sidon); the five Philistine city-states; the Berber city-states of the Garamantes; the city-states of ancient Greece (the poleis such as Athens, Sparta, Thebes, and Corinth); the Roman Republic (which grew from a city-state into a vast empire); the Italian city-states from the Middle Ages to the early modern period, such as Florence, Siena, Ferrara, Milan (which as they grew in power began to dominate neighboring cities) and Genoa and Venice, which became powerful thalassocracies; the Mayan and other cultures of pre-Columbian Mesoamerica (including cities such as Chichen Itza, Tikal, Copán and Monte Albán); the central Asian cities along the Silk Road; the city-states of the Swahili coast; Ragusa; states of the medieval Russian lands such as Novgorod and Pskov; and many others.” ref
“The Uruk period (ca. 4000 to 3100 BCE; also known as Protoliterate period) of Mesopotamia, named after the Sumerian city of Uruk, this period saw the emergence of urban life in Mesopotamia and the Sumerian civilization. City-States like Uruk and others had a patron tutelary City Deity along with a Priest-King.” ref
“Chinese folk religion, both past, and present, includes myriad tutelary deities. Exceptional individuals, highly cultivated sages, and prominent ancestors can be deified and honored after death. Lord Guan is the patron of military personnel and police, while Mazu is the patron of fishermen and sailors. Such as Tu Di Gong (Earth Deity) is the tutelary deity of a locality, and each individual locality has its own Earth Deity and Cheng Huang Gong (City God) is the guardian deity of an individual city, worshipped by local officials and locals since imperial times.” ref
“A tutelary (also tutelar) in Hinduism, personal tutelary deities are known as ishta-devata, while family tutelary deities are known as Kuladevata. Gramadevata are guardian deities of villages. Devas can also be seen as tutelary. Shiva is the patron of yogis and renunciants. City goddesses include: Mumbadevi (Mumbai), Sachchika (Osian); Kuladevis include: Ambika (Porwad), and Mahalakshmi. In NorthEast India Meitei mythology and religion (Sanamahism) of Manipur, there are various types of tutelary deities, among which Lam Lais are the most predominant ones. Tibetan Buddhism has Yidam as a tutelary deity. Dakini is the patron of those who seek knowledge.” ref
“A tutelary (also tutelar) The Greeks also thought deities guarded specific places: for instance, Athena was the patron goddess of the city of Athens. Socrates spoke of hearing the voice of his personal spirit or daimonion:
You have often heard me speak of an oracle or sign which comes to me … . This sign I have had ever since I was a child. The sign is a voice which comes to me and always forbids me to do something which I am going to do, but never commands me to do anything, and this is what stands in the way of my being a politician.” ref
“Tutelary deities who guard and preserve a place or a person are fundamental to ancient Roman religion. The tutelary deity of a man was his Genius, that of a woman her Juno. In the Imperial era, the Genius of the Emperor was a focus of Imperial cult. An emperor might also adopt a major deity as his personal patron or tutelary, as Augustus did Apollo. Precedents for claiming the personal protection of a deity were established in the Republican era, when for instance the Roman dictator Sulla advertised the goddess Victory as his tutelary by holding public games (ludi) in her honor.” ref
“Each town or city had one or more tutelary deities, whose protection was considered particularly vital in time of war and siege. Rome itself was protected by a goddess whose name was to be kept ritually secret on pain of death (for a supposed case, see Quintus Valerius Soranus). The Capitoline Triad of Juno, Jupiter, and Minerva were also tutelaries of Rome. The Italic towns had their own tutelary deities. Juno often had this function, as at the Latin town of Lanuvium and the Etruscan city of Veii, and was often housed in an especially grand temple on the arx (citadel) or other prominent or central location. The tutelary deity of Praeneste was Fortuna, whose oracle was renowned.” ref
“The Roman ritual of evocatio was premised on the belief that a town could be made vulnerable to military defeat if the power of its tutelary deity were diverted outside the city, perhaps by the offer of superior cult at Rome. The depiction of some goddesses such as the Magna Mater (Great Mother, or Cybele) as “tower-crowned” represents their capacity to preserve the city. A town in the provinces might adopt a deity from within the Roman religious sphere to serve as its guardian, or syncretize its own tutelary with such; for instance, a community within the civitas of the Remi in Gaul adopted Apollo as its tutelary, and at the capital of the Remi (present-day Rheims), the tutelary was Mars Camulus.” ref
Household deity (a kind of or related to a Tutelary deity)
“A household deity is a deity or spirit that protects the home, looking after the entire household or certain key members. It has been a common belief in paganism as well as in folklore across many parts of the world. Household deities fit into two types; firstly, a specific deity – typically a goddess – often referred to as a hearth goddess or domestic goddess who is associated with the home and hearth, such as the ancient Greek Hestia.” ref
“The second type of household deities are those that are not one singular deity, but a type, or species of animistic deity, who usually have lesser powers than major deities. This type was common in the religions of antiquity, such as the Lares of ancient Roman religion, the Gashin of Korean shamanism, and Cofgodas of Anglo-Saxon paganism. These survived Christianisation as fairy-like creatures existing in folklore, such as the Anglo-Scottish Brownie and Slavic Domovoy.” ref
“Household deities were usually worshipped not in temples but in the home, where they would be represented by small idols (such as the teraphim of the Bible, often translated as “household gods” in Genesis 31:19 for example), amulets, paintings, or reliefs. They could also be found on domestic objects, such as cosmetic articles in the case of Tawaret. The more prosperous houses might have a small shrine to the household god(s); the lararium served this purpose in the case of the Romans. The gods would be treated as members of the family and invited to join in meals, or be given offerings of food and drink.” ref
“In many religions, both ancient and modern, a god would preside over the home. Certain species, or types, of household deities, existed. An example of this was the Roman Lares. Many European cultures retained house spirits into the modern period. Some examples of these include:
- Brownie (Scotland and England) or Hob (England) / Kobold (Germany) / Goblin / Hobgoblin
- Domovoy (Slavic)
- Nisse (Norwegian or Danish) / Tomte (Swedish) / Tonttu (Finnish)
- Húsvættir (Norse)” ref
“Although the cosmic status of household deities was not as lofty as that of the Twelve Olympians or the Aesir, they were also jealous of their dignity and also had to be appeased with shrines and offerings, however humble. Because of their immediacy they had arguably more influence on the day-to-day affairs of men than the remote gods did. Vestiges of their worship persisted long after Christianity and other major religions extirpated nearly every trace of the major pagan pantheons. Elements of the practice can be seen even today, with Christian accretions, where statues to various saints (such as St. Francis) protect gardens and grottos. Even the gargoyles found on older churches, could be viewed as guardians partitioning a sacred space.” ref
“For centuries, Christianity fought a mop-up war against these lingering minor pagan deities, but they proved tenacious. For example, Martin Luther‘s Tischreden have numerous – quite serious – references to dealing with kobolds. Eventually, rationalism and the Industrial Revolution threatened to erase most of these minor deities, until the advent of romantic nationalism rehabilitated them and embellished them into objects of literary curiosity in the 19th century. Since the 20th century this literature has been mined for characters for role-playing games, video games, and other fantasy personae, not infrequently invested with invented traits and hierarchies somewhat different from their mythological and folkloric roots.” ref
“In contradistinction to both Herbert Spencer and Edward Burnett Tylor, who defended theories of animistic origins of ancestor worship, Émile Durkheim saw its origin in totemism. In reality, this distinction is somewhat academic, since totemism may be regarded as a particularized manifestation of animism, and something of a synthesis of the two positions was attempted by Sigmund Freud. In Freud’s Totem and Taboo, both totem and taboo are outward expressions or manifestations of the same psychological tendency, a concept which is complementary to, or which rather reconciles, the apparent conflict. Freud preferred to emphasize the psychoanalytic implications of the reification of metaphysical forces, but with particular emphasis on its familial nature. This emphasis underscores, rather than weakens, the ancestral component.” ref
“William Edward Hearn, a noted classicist, and jurist, traced the origin of domestic deities from the earliest stages as an expression of animism, a belief system thought to have existed also in the neolithic, and the forerunner of Indo-European religion. In his analysis of the Indo-European household, in Chapter II “The House Spirit”, Section 1, he states:
The belief which guided the conduct of our forefathers was … the spirit rule of dead ancestors.” ref
“In Section 2 he proceeds to elaborate:
It is thus certain that the worship of deceased ancestors is a vera causa, and not a mere hypothesis. …
In the other European nations, the Slavs, the Teutons, and the Kelts, the House Spirit appears with no less distinctness. … [T]he existence of that worship does not admit of doubt. … The House Spirits had a multitude of other names which it is needless here to enumerate, but all of which are more or less expressive of their friendly relations with man. … In [England] … [h]e is the Brownie. … In Scotland this same Brownie is well known. He is usually described as attached to particular families, with whom he has been known to reside for centuries, threshing the corn, cleaning the house, and performing similar household tasks. His favorite gratification was milk and honey.” ref
Hinduism around 3,700 to 3,500 years old. ref
Judaism around 3,450 or 3,250 years old. (The first writing in the bible was “Paleo-Hebrew” dated to around 3,000 years ago Khirbet Qeiyafa is the site of an ancient fortress city overlooking the Elah Valley. And many believe the religious Jewish texts were completed around 2,500) ref, ref
Judaism is around 3,450 or 3,250 years old. (“Paleo-Hebrew” 3,000 years ago and Torah 2,500 years ago)
“Judaism is an Abrahamic, its roots as an organized religion in the Middle East during the Bronze Age. Some scholars argue that modern Judaism evolved from Yahwism, the religion of ancient Israel and Judah, by the late 6th century BCE, and is thus considered to be one of the oldest monotheistic religions.” ref
“Yahwism is the name given by modern scholars to the religion of ancient Israel, essentially polytheistic, with a plethora of gods and goddesses. Heading the pantheon was Yahweh, the national god of the Israelite kingdoms of Israel and Judah, with his consort, the goddess Asherah; below them were second-tier gods and goddesses such as Baal, Shamash, Yarikh, Mot, and Astarte, all of whom had their own priests and prophets and numbered royalty among their devotees, and a third and fourth tier of minor divine beings, including the mal’ak, the messengers of the higher gods, who in later times became the angels of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Yahweh, however, was not the ‘original’ god of Israel “Isra-El”; it is El, the head of the Canaanite pantheon, whose name forms the basis of the name “Israel”, and none of the Old Testament patriarchs, the tribes of Israel, the Judges, or the earliest monarchs, have a Yahwistic theophoric name (i.e., one incorporating the name of Yahweh).” ref
“El is a Northwest Semitic word meaning “god” or “deity“, or referring (as a proper name) to any one of multiple major ancient Near Eastern deities. A rarer form, ‘ila, represents the predicate form in Old Akkadian and in Amorite. The word is derived from the Proto-Semitic *ʔil-, meaning “god”. Specific deities known as ‘El or ‘Il include the supreme god of the ancient Canaanite religion and the supreme god of East Semitic speakers in Mesopotamia’s Early Dynastic Period. ʼĒl is listed at the head of many pantheons. In some Canaanite and Ugaritic sources, ʼĒl played a role as father of the gods, of creation, or both. For example, in the Ugaritic texts, ʾil mlk is understood to mean “ʼĒl the King” but ʾil hd as “the god Hadad“. The Semitic root ʾlh (Arabic ʾilāh, Aramaic ʾAlāh, ʾElāh, Hebrew ʾelōah) may be ʾl with a parasitic h, and ʾl may be an abbreviated form of ʾlh. In Ugaritic the plural form meaning “gods” is ʾilhm, equivalent to Hebrew ʾelōhîm “powers”. In the Hebrew texts this word is interpreted as being semantically singular for “god” by biblical commentators. However the documentary hypothesis for the Old Testament (corresponds to the Jewish Torah) developed originally in the 1870s, identifies these that different authors – the Jahwist, Elohist, Deuteronomist, and the Priestly source – were responsible for editing stories from a polytheistic religion into those of a monotheistic religion. Inconsistencies that arise between monotheism and polytheism in the texts are reflective of this hypothesis.” ref
Jainism around 2,599 – 2,527 years old. ref
Confucianism around 2,600 – 2,551 years old. ref
Buddhism around 2,563/2,480 – 2,483/2,400 years old. ref
Christianity around 2,o00 years old. ref
Shinto around 1,305 years old. ref
Islam around 1407–1385 years old. ref
Knowledge to Ponder:
Stars/Astrology:
- Possibly, around 30,000 years ago (in simpler form) to 6,000 years ago, Stars/Astrology are connected to Ancestors, Spirit Animals, and Deities.
- The star also seems to be a possible proto-star for Star of Ishtar, Star of Inanna, or Star of Venus.
- Around 7,000 to 6,000 years ago, Star Constellations/Astrology have connections to the “Kurgan phenomenon” of below-ground “mound” stone/wood burial structures and “Dolmen phenomenon” of above-ground stone burial structures.
- Around 6,500–5,800 years ago, The Northern Levant migrations into Jordon and Israel in the Southern Levant brought new cultural and religious transfer from Turkey and Iran.
- “The Ghassulian Star,” a mysterious 6,000-year-old mural from Jordan may have connections to the European paganstic kurgan/dolmens phenomenon.
“Astrology is a range of divinatory practices, recognized as pseudoscientific since the 18th century, that claim to discern information about human affairs and terrestrial events by studying the apparent positions of celestial objects. Different cultures have employed forms of astrology since at least the 2nd millennium BCE, these practices having originated in calendrical systems used to predict seasonal shifts and to interpret celestial cycles as signs of divine communications. Most, if not all, cultures have attached importance to what they observed in the sky, and some—such as the Hindus, Chinese, and the Maya—developed elaborate systems for predicting terrestrial events from celestial observations. Western astrology, one of the oldest astrological systems still in use, can trace its roots to 19th–17th century BCE Mesopotamia, from where it spread to Ancient Greece, Rome, the Islamicate world and eventually Central and Western Europe. Contemporary Western astrology is often associated with systems of horoscopes that purport to explain aspects of a person’s personality and predict significant events in their lives based on the positions of celestial objects; the majority of professional astrologers rely on such systems.” ref
Around 5,500 years ago, Science evolves, The first evidence of science was 5,500 years ago and was demonstrated by a body of empirical, theoretical, and practical knowledge about the natural world. ref
Around 5,000 years ago, Origin of Logics is a Naturalistic Observation (principles of valid reasoning, inference, & demonstration) ref
Around 4,150 to 4,000 years ago: The earliest surviving versions of the Sumerian Epic of Gilgamesh, which was originally titled “He who Saw the Deep” (Sha naqba īmuru) or “Surpassing All Other Kings” (Shūtur eli sharrī) were written. ref
Hinduism:
- 3,700 years ago or so, the oldest of the Hindu Vedas (scriptures), the Rig Veda was composed.
- 3,500 years ago or so, the Vedic Age began in India after the collapse of the Indus Valley Civilization.
Judaism:
- around 3,000 years ago, the first writing in the bible was “Paleo-Hebrew”
- around 2,500 years ago, many believe the religious Jewish texts were completed
Myths: The bible inspired religion is not just one religion or one myth but a grouping of several religions and myths
- Around 3,450 or 3,250 years ago, according to legend, is the traditionally accepted period in which the Israelite lawgiver, Moses, provided the Ten Commandments.
- Around 2,500 to 2,400 years ago, a collection of ancient religious writings by the Israelites based primarily upon the Hebrew Bible, Tanakh, or Old Testament is the first part of Christianity’s bible.
- Around 2,400 years ago, the most accepted hypothesis is that the canon was formed in stages, first the Pentateuch (Torah).
- Around 2,140 to 2,116 years ago, the Prophets was written during the Hasmonean dynasty, and finally the remaining books.
- Christians traditionally divide the Old Testament into four sections:
- The first five books or Pentateuch (Torah).
- The proposed history books telling the history of the Israelites from their conquest of Canaan to their defeat and exile in Babylon.
- The poetic and proposed “Wisdom books” dealing, in various forms, with questions of good and evil in the world.
- The books of the biblical prophets, warning of the consequences of turning away from God:
- Henotheism:
- Exodus 20:23 “You shall not make other gods besides Me (not saying there are no other gods just not to worship them); gods of silver or gods of gold, you shall not make for yourselves.”
- Polytheism:
- Judges 10:6 “Then the sons of Israel again did evil in the sight of the LORD, served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the sons of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines; thus they forsook the LORD and did not serve Him.”
- 1 Corinthians 8:5 “For even if there are so-called gods whether in heaven or on earth, as indeed there are many gods and many lords.”
- Monotheism:
- Isaiah 43:10 “You are my witnesses,” declares the LORD, “and my servant whom I have chosen, so that you may know and believe me and understand that I am he. Before me no god was formed, nor will there be one after me.
Around 2,570 to 2,270 Years Ago, there is a confirmation of atheistic doubting as well as atheistic thinking, mainly by Greek philosophers. However, doubting gods is likely as old as the invention of gods and should destroy the thinking that belief in god(s) is the “default belief”. The Greek word is apistos (a “not” and pistos “faithful,”), thus not faithful or faithless because one is unpersuaded and unconvinced by a god(s) claim. Short Definition: unbelieving, unbeliever, or unbelief.
Expressions of Atheistic Thinking:
- Around 2,600 years ago, Ajita Kesakambali, ancient Indian philosopher, who is the first known proponent of Indian materialism. ref
- Around 2,535 to 2,475 years ago, Heraclitus, Greek pre-Socratic philosopher, a native of the Greek city Ephesus, Ionia, on the coast of Anatolia, also known as Asia Minor or modern Turkey. ref
- Around 2,500 to 2,400 years ago, according to The Story of Civilization book series certain African pygmy tribes have no identifiable gods, spirits, or religious beliefs or rituals, and even what burials accrue are without ceremony. ref
- Around 2,490 to 2,430 years ago, Empedocles, Greek pre-Socratic philosopher and a citizen of Agrigentum, a Greek city in Sicily. ref
- Around 2,460 to 2,370 years ago, Democritus, Greek pre-Socratic philosopher considered to be the “father of modern science” possibly had some disbelief amounting to atheism. ref
- Around 2,399 years ago or so, Socrates, a famous Greek philosopher was tried for sinfulness by teaching doubt of state gods. ref
- Around 2,341 to 2,270 years ago, Epicurus, a Greek philosopher known for composing atheistic critics and famously stated, “Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him god?” ref
This last expression by Epicurus, seems to be an expression of Axiological Atheism. To understand and utilize value or actually possess “Value Conscious/Consciousness” to both give a strong moral “axiological” argument (the problem of evil) as well as use it to fortify humanism and positive ethical persuasion of human helping and care responsibilities. Because value-blindness gives rise to sociopathic/psychopathic evil.
While hallucinogens are associated with shamanism, it is alcohol that is associated with paganism.
The Atheist-Humanist-Leftist Revolutionaries Shows in the prehistory series:
Show two: Pre-animism 300,000 years old and animism 100,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”
Show tree: Totemism 50,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”
Show four: Shamanism 30,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”
Show five: Paganism 12,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”
Show six: Emergence of hierarchy, sexism, slavery, and the new male god dominance: Paganism 7,000-5,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Capitalism) (World War 0) Elite and their slaves!
Prehistory: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” the division of labor, power, rights, and recourses: VIDEO
Pre-animism 300,000 years old and animism 100,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”: VIDEO
Totemism 50,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”: VIDEO
Shamanism 30,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism”: VIDEO
Paganism 12,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Pre-Capitalism): VIDEO
Paganism 7,000-5,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Capitalism) (World War 0) Elite and their slaves: VIEDO
Paganism 5,000 years old: progressed organized religion and the state: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (Kings and the Rise of the State): VIEDO
Paganism 4,000 years old: related to “Anarchism and Socialism” (First Moralistic gods, then the Origin time of Monotheism): VIEDO
I do not hate simply because I challenge and expose myths or lies any more than others being thought of as loving simply because of the protection and hiding from challenge their favored myths or lies.
The truth is best championed in the sunlight of challenge.
An archaeologist once said to me “Damien religion and culture are very different”
My response, So are you saying that was always that way, such as would you say Native Americans’ cultures are separate from their religions? And do you think it always was the way you believe?
I had said that religion was a cultural product. That is still how I see it and there are other archaeologists that think close to me as well. Gods too are the myths of cultures that did not understand science or the world around them, seeing magic/supernatural everywhere.
I personally think there is a goddess and not enough evidence to support a male god at Çatalhöyük but if there was both a male and female god and goddess then I know the kind of gods they were like Proto-Indo-European mythology.
This series idea was addressed in, Anarchist Teaching as Free Public Education or Free Education in the Public: VIDEO
Our 12 video series: Organized Oppression: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of power (9,000-4,000 years ago), is adapted from: The Complete and Concise History of the Sumerians and Early Bronze Age Mesopotamia (7000-2000 BC): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szFjxmY7jQA by “History with Cy“
Show #1: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Samarra, Halaf, Ubaid)
Show #2: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Eridu “Tell Abu Shahrain”)
Show #3: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Uruk and the First Cities)
Show #4: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (First Kings)
Show #5: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Early Dynastic Period)
Show #6: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (King/Ruler Lugalzagesi)
Show #7: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Sargon and Akkadian Rule)
Show #9: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Gudea of Lagash and Utu-hegal)
Show #12: Mesopotamian State Force and the Politics of Power (Aftermath and Legacy of Sumer)
The “Atheist-Humanist-Leftist Revolutionaries”
Cory Johnston ☭ Ⓐ Atheist Leftist @Skepticallefty & I (Damien Marie AtHope) @AthopeMarie (my YouTube & related blog) are working jointly in atheist, antitheist, antireligionist, antifascist, anarchist, socialist, and humanist endeavors in our videos together, generally, every other Saturday.
Why Does Power Bring Responsibility?
Think, how often is it the powerless that start wars, oppress others, or commit genocide? So, I guess the question is to us all, to ask, how can power not carry responsibility in a humanity concept? I know I see the deep ethical responsibility that if there is power their must be a humanistic responsibility of ethical and empathic stewardship of that power. Will I be brave enough to be kind? Will I possess enough courage to be compassionate? Will my valor reach its height of empathy? I as everyone, earns our justified respect by our actions, that are good, ethical, just, protecting, and kind. Do I have enough self-respect to put my love for humanity’s flushing, over being brought down by some of its bad actors? May we all be the ones doing good actions in the world, to help human flourishing.
I create the world I want to live in, striving for flourishing. Which is not a place but a positive potential involvement and promotion; a life of humanist goal precision. To master oneself, also means mastering positive prosocial behaviors needed for human flourishing. I may have lost a god myth as an atheist, but I am happy to tell you, my friend, it is exactly because of that, leaving the mental terrorizer, god belief, that I truly regained my connected ethical as well as kind humanity.
Cory and I will talk about prehistory and theism, addressing the relevance to atheism, anarchism, and socialism.
At the same time as the rise of the male god, 7,000 years ago, there was also the very time there was the rise of violence, war, and clans to kingdoms, then empires, then states. It is all connected back to 7,000 years ago, and it moved across the world.
Cory Johnston: https://damienmarieathope.com/2021/04/cory-johnston-mind-of-a-skeptical-leftist/?v=32aec8db952d
The Mind of a Skeptical Leftist (YouTube)
Cory Johnston: Mind of a Skeptical Leftist @Skepticallefty
The Mind of a Skeptical Leftist By Cory Johnston: “Promoting critical thinking, social justice, and left-wing politics by covering current events and talking to a variety of people. Cory Johnston has been thoughtfully talking to people and attempting to promote critical thinking, social justice, and left-wing politics.” http://anchor.fm/skepticalleft
Cory needs our support. We rise by helping each other.
Cory Johnston ☭ Ⓐ @Skepticallefty Evidence-based atheist leftist (he/him) Producer, host, and co-host of 4 podcasts @skeptarchy @skpoliticspod and @AthopeMarie
Damien Marie AtHope (“At Hope”) Axiological Atheist, Anti-theist, Anti-religionist, Secular Humanist. Rationalist, Writer, Artist, Poet, Philosopher, Advocate, Activist, Psychology, and Armchair Archaeology/Anthropology/Historian.
Damien is interested in: Freedom, Liberty, Justice, Equality, Ethics, Humanism, Science, Atheism, Antiteism, Antireligionism, Ignosticism, Left-Libertarianism, Anarchism, Socialism, Mutualism, Axiology, Metaphysics, LGBTQI, Philosophy, Advocacy, Activism, Mental Health, Psychology, Archaeology, Social Work, Sexual Rights, Marriage Rights, Woman’s Rights, Gender Rights, Child Rights, Secular Rights, Race Equality, Ageism/Disability Equality, Etc. And a far-leftist, “Anarcho-Humanist.”
I am not a good fit in the atheist movement that is mostly pro-capitalist, I am anti-capitalist. Mostly pro-skeptic, I am a rationalist not valuing skepticism. Mostly pro-agnostic, I am anti-agnostic. Mostly limited to anti-Abrahamic religions, I am an anti-religionist.
To me, the “male god” seems to have either emerged or become prominent around 7,000 years ago, whereas the now favored monotheism “male god” is more like 4,000 years ago or so. To me, the “female goddess” seems to have either emerged or become prominent around 11,000-10,000 years ago or so, losing the majority of its once prominence around 2,000 years ago due largely to the now favored monotheism “male god” that grow in prominence after 4,000 years ago or so.
My Thought on the Evolution of Gods?
Animal protector deities from old totems/spirit animal beliefs come first to me, 13,000/12,000 years ago, then women as deities 11,000/10,000 years ago, then male gods around 7,000/8,000 years ago. Moralistic gods around 5,000/4,000 years ago, and monotheistic gods around 4,000/3,000 years ago.
Damien Marie AtHope (Said as “At” “Hope”)/(Autodidact Polymath but not good at math):
Axiological Atheist, Anti-theist, Anti-religionist, Secular Humanist, Rationalist, Writer, Artist, Jeweler, Poet, “autodidact” Philosopher, schooled in Psychology, and “autodidact” Armchair Archaeology/Anthropology/Pre-Historian (Knowledgeable in the range of: 1 million to 5,000/4,000 years ago). I am an anarchist socialist politically. Reasons for or Types of Atheism
My Website, My Blog, & Short-writing or Quotes, My YouTube, Twitter: @AthopeMarie, and My Email: damien.marie.athope@gmail.com