Dawenkou Culture and Social Complexity in Neolithic China

Introduction: Rethinking the Origins of Chinese Civilization

This paper focuses on the burial assemblages of the Dawenkou site in Shandong Province, Northern China, and revolves around the central argument that these burial sites present convincing evidence of emerging social complexity. A second aim is to demonstrate that the Dawenkou culture played a major role in the broader emergence of complexity during the Neolithic Chinese period.

Until recently, archaeologists believed that Chinese civilization began in the center of China, around the Yellow River valley, and eventually migrated outward from there. However, new discoveries have revealed a far more complex picture of Neolithic China. It is now more widely accepted that China developed from multiple cultures in different regions rather than through a single or dual cultural evolution. "As in other parts of the world, the Neolithic period was marked by the development of agriculture, including both the cultivation of plants and the domestication of livestock, as well as the development of pottery and textiles. Permanent settlements became possible, paving the way for more complex societies" (Neolithic China). This paper also examines the customs and rituals associated with the burial assemblages and provides insight into items discovered within the tombs at the Dawenkou site. Finally, it presents interpretations and speculation about what the discovered items reveal about ancient Northern Chinese Neolithic cultures and where future archaeological discoveries may lead.

Neolithic China: Environment, Agriculture, and Regional Cultures

The Neolithic period has been characterized as a time when settled agricultural communities coexisted alongside communities that continued the migratory patterns of hunting and gathering. "The largest concentration of agriculture was below the southern bend of the Yellow River and millet was the main crop" (Neolithic China).

There is convincing evidence of discovered Neolithic settlements dated to around 4000 BC. Some archaeologists believe the true beginning of China's Neolithic period may have started around 12,000 BC and lasted until approximately 2000 BC. China during the Neolithic period looked very different from how we know it today. "It was much wetter, with most of Northern China being lakes and marshes and central China covered in an enormous lake. The climate was warm and moist, rather than the colder, arid China of today. The mountains were well forested and there was a variety of animals" (Neolithic China).

Multiple cultures have been identified in the region during this time period:

• Yangshao culture (5000–3000 BC)
• Dawenkou culture (4300–2500 BC)
• Longshan culture (2500–2000 BC)
• Hongshan culture in northeastern China
• Liangzhu culture in the lower Yangzi River delta
• Shijiahe culture in the middle Yangzi River basin

There is substantial evidence that Neolithic peoples were displaying a unique societal complexity as early as 5000 BC. "We may assume that since the Neolithic cultures and their remains are distributed over such an expansive region, distinct regional or local differences and different cultural characters are bound to exist, and that at the same time they are most likely to contain many elements of influence that came from primitive cultures in the heartland of the Northeast and the coastal region of the Southeast; they thus reflect the historical lineage of the region and its characteristic of being a place where many different ethnic groups had gathered and settled" (Guldin). It has also been discovered that jade and silk production were already significant parts of the economic life of the Neolithic era.

The process for creating silk — feeding silkworms mulberry leaves and later boiling the cocoons to extract the fiber — is the same process used in modern China today. During the later Neolithic period, polished stone implements were developed. "There can be little doubt that the use of and appreciation for the tonalities and lustrous qualities of jade evolved from a selective process within a highly developed lithic industry" (Thorp and Vinograd). Pottery was also in use during the period. Although evidence suggests it was not intended for everyday use, Neolithic cultural groups were already decorating their works artistically.

As noted, the environment was damper and more heavily forested than today. Neolithic cultures maintained dwellings in clusters, which suggests that family units were an important part of daily life. "Archaeologists have employed the term 'Neolithic' to characterize archaeological cultures that made stone tools by grinding or polishing. The regular shapes and smooth surfaces of such tools are readily recognized. Indeed, polished stone celts (axes) first led J. G. Andersson to investigate the Yangshao site, the namesake for the Yangshao or 'Painted Pottery' Culture, in 1912" (Thorp and Vinograd). Other indicators of social complexity include the domestication of animals such as pigs and dogs.

The Dawenkou Culture: Settlement, Politics, and Social Change

The Dawenkou culture continues to be an excellent source of new insights into the history of China and, more broadly, of humanity. Well over one hundred Dawenkou burial sites and tombs have been discovered and unearthed. "The Dawenkou culture (4300–2500 BC), based in present-day Shandong Province, overlapped in time with the Yangshao culture and can be considered one of the precursors of the Longshan" (Neolithic Tomb at Dawenkou).

During the Dawenkou culture's florescence, notable changes began to appear in the structure of community dependence and social complexity. "As intravillage differences emerged, a pattern of mutually dependent larger and smaller settlements developed, changing the preexisting simple geographic relationship of political control" (Liu Li). In other words, early Dawenkou communities were based on small, largely self-sufficient villages. By the Longshan era, archaeological evidence shows that Dawenkou communities began transitioning toward a more politically centralized, hub-and-spoke system. This arrangement likely created strong interdependence among settlements — with larger centers providing political stability while surrounding communities specialized in food and resource production. "Thus, while the major centers would create a bureaucratic system with a specialized class devoted to the handling and control of information, the smaller centers and villages were made to specialize in food and resource production, losing their political and economic independence in the process" (Dematte).

Population growth also appears to have accelerated toward the end of the Dawenkou period. "Surveys in Shandong Province indicate that, compared to Dawenkou times, by the start of the Longshan period, village densities had almost quadrupled. In the county of Shouguang, for example, only 14 Dawenkou sites were discovered compared to 51 Longshan sites. In the southern part of the county, in the Sunjiaji village area, 47 sites were discovered in an area of approximately 77 km², a density of one village per 1.68 km². In certain areas, the concentration rivals that of today" (Dematte).

Conclusion: The Dawenkou Legacy in Neolithic China

In conclusion, this paper focused on the burial assemblages of the Dawenkou site in Shandong Province, Northern China. Until the most recent discoveries in the Shandong region, scholars believed that China developed from two distinct cultures. New discoveries have provided fresh insights into the development of the Chinese people. The emerging consensus is that there were many sites throughout China, each of which developed its own culture, and that these various cultures did interact — through trade and other relationships.

There is more than sufficient evidence that these burial sites, numbering well over one hundred, represent genuine social complexity. There is also legitimate proof that the Dawenkou culture played a major role in the emerging complexity of the Neolithic Chinese period. The research supports a clear conclusion: the Dawenkou culture, and the Neolithic period as a whole, demonstrate the existence of a sophisticated sociological presence in ancient China — one that laid the groundwork for the civilizations that followed.

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