Shixia culture (Guangdong, China) as transitional period from Neolithic to Bronze Age: new data

The article provides an overview of the main results of Shixia Culture studies mostly in the recent two decades. Numerous tripods (with pot-, cauldron- and dish-shaped bodies) and vessels with ring foot, often perforated, have been defined as the main cultural characteristics. Polished shouldered hoes, stepped spades and adzes belong to the category ofstone tools distributed south of the Yangtze. Many of jade products (cong regalia, round axes) were made after the Liangzhu culture pattern, from where the technology of such thing manufacture was also borrowed. Secondary burial with the grave inventory, which destroyed the primary set, is a notable feature of the funeral rite. The bronze implements possibly borrowed from the Wucheng culture are attributed to the late Shixia stage. Nevertheless, the difference in dates between early and late stages of Shixia culture is quiet short, the finds demonstrate cultural homogeneity. Flood rice farming prevailed in agriculture, and both early- (japonica) and late-ripening (indica) rice were grown. The radiocarbon dates covered the epoch within III millennium BC, which corresponds to the transition from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age in Chinese archaeology; and Shixia culture should be attributed to this period. The Yanshanzhai is a new site of the Shixia culture explored in recentyears. During the excavations, only a third of the entire area was uncovered. Since such objects as a public building, fragment of a water pipe (or drain), ceramic kilns have already been excavated, it looks like a promising site, where s settlement with a developed social structure and an adjacent cemetery with territorial division of burials according to size and wealth of inventory will be found.