High Level Overview of Chinese History: Bronze Age I
During the Bronze Age in China, writing was still rare but becoming much more common as the period progressed. Cultures continued to live near the Yellow and Yangtze Rivers and we have the beginnings of what is recognized as 'earliest China', when the earliest structures of much of Chinese history begin to take shape. The Bronze Age covers the times of the earliest dynasties and the first struggles between various clans for control of the nascent civilization.
By Guss - Own work, after Li Liu, Archaeology in China, p.214, Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=32701410
The oldest known culture of the Bronze Age is the Majiayao culture, which started as Neolithic communities along the Yellow River that began about 3300 BCE and continued through about 2000 BCE. They became well known for their painted pottery, which is considered to be the 'peak of pottery manufacturing at the time'. They are also 'associated with the expansion of early Sino-Tibetan peoples during the Neolithic'. As the climate continued to warm from the Last Glacial Period into the Middle Holocene, crops flourished, leading to population growth.
By The original uploader was Gruschke at German Wikipedia. - Transferred from de.wikipedia to Commons., CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=7686306 , By Miguel Hermoso Cuesta - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=37104118 , By Miguel Hermoso Cuesta - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=41067304 , and By User:Captmondo - Own work (photo), CC BY 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4549831
Majiayao pottery is known for it's painted decorations that flowed through several phases, with designs painted in black and red. The Majiayao phase of pottery, from about 3200-2700 BCE, featured 'sweeping parallel lines and dots' in black. The Banshan phase, from about 2700-2300 BCE, focused on 'curvilinear designs using both black and red paints'. From about 2300-2000 BCE, the Manchang phase was less well finished than the preceding two, though the designs were similar, and overlaps with a time when there were 'interactions between hunter-gatherers in the Qinghai region and the westward expansion of agricultural Yangshao people'.
By Prof. Gary Lee Todd, 2011-09-02. CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=31469658
The Majiayao people created the some of the oldest known bronze objects in China, with the oldest linked to their culture being a knife that dates to about 2900-2740 BCE. From this beginning, metallurgy spread through the Yellow River region, especially in the middle and lower parts through the rest of the 3rd millennium BCE. They likely learned metallurgy from the Afansievo culture, who lived in the southern part of Siberia from about 3300-2500 BCE, possibly with the Qijia culture, who lived in the upper Yellow River region from about 2400-1600 BCE, acting as an intermediary since their territory bridged the two cultures.
As the climate helped the Majiayao culture to flourish, it was likely the climate also brought about their downfall. Recent studies suggest that from about 3830-2900 BCE was particularly wet in the area, allowing the Majiayao to flourish, and that from about 2900-2700 BCE, there was a drought in the area, resulting in decline and people moving eastward and likely explains the lower quality pottery of the later period.
