The Liao Civilization or Liao River Civilization (Chinese: 遼河文明), named after the Liao River, is an ancient Chinese civilization that originated in the Liao basin. It is thought to have formed in about 6,200 BC. This civilization was discovered when Ryuzo Torii, a Japanese archaeologist, discovered the Hongshan culture in 1908.
Culture
Large-scale pit-type houses, graves and temples with altars were excavated. It is thought that the Liao civilization may have been "a country" of the prehistoric age.[1]
A model of the feng shui were excavated from remains of the Hongshan culture.[2] Ball products such as the jade which made the precursors of Chinese dragon were discovered in remains of Xinglongwa culture. In addition, the oldest pit-comb ware and Liaoning bronze dagger (biwa form bronze sword) were excavated.
Since it was contemporaneous with the Yellow River civilization and Yangtze civilization, it is thought to have influenced ancient Chinese culture.
Environment
This region was thought to have been desert for the past 1 million years. However, a 2015 study found that the region once featured rich aquatic resources and deep lakes and forests that existed from 12,000 years ago to 4,000 years ago. It was changed into desert by climate change which began approximately 4,200 years ago.[3] Therefore, people of the Hongshan culture may have emigrated to the Yellow River in the south approximately 4,000 years ago and later influenced Chinese culture.[4]
People
The most ancient populations of the West Liao River valley exhibited a high frequency of Haplogroup N-M231 (often seen in Uralic peoples and Yakuts). It was observed at a rate of 60-100% with an average of 71%. Individuals at the Liao civilization were assigned into five different Y sub-haplogroups using diagnostic single nucleotide polymorphisms, namely N1 (xN1a, N1c), N1c, C/C3e, O3a (O3a3) and O3a3c. Ancient samples of the Jinggouzi site situated to the northwest of the Liao civilization were assigned to Haplogroup C-M217. Northern nomads from Jinggouzi might have entered the West Liao River valley but these Jinggouzi people (closely related to Xianbei and Oroqen)[5] were culturally and genetically distinct from the original people of the West Liao River valley who carried the characteristic Haplogroup N-M231 lineage. The Haplogroup O-M122 that was observed among Liao individuals is believed to have spread to the Liao civilization from the Yellow River civilization in the southwest. This lineage is most commonly associated with speakers of Sino-Tibetan languages (such as the Han Chinese).[6] However, its frequency only began to rise in the Bronze Age and the ancient Liao River population was different from the Yellow River population. This means the Liao civilization was occupied by a diverse sequence of human cultures that were originally distinct from both the farming populations of the Yellow River and the nomads of the Eurasian steppe.[7]
List of cultures
- Xinglongwa culture, about 6200 - 5400 BC
- Xinle culture, about 5200 - 4800 BC
- Zhaobaogou culture, about 5400 - 4500 BC
- Hongshan culture, about 4700 - 2900 BC
- Lower Xiajiadian culture, about 2000 - 1500 BC
- Upper Xiajiadian culture about 1100 - 500 BC
See also
References
- ^ University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Regional Lifeways and Cultural Remains in the Northern Corridor: Chifeng International Collaborative Archaeological Research Project. Cited references: Drennan 1995; and Earle 1987, 1997.
- ^ [1] Sarah M. Nelson, Rachel A. Matson, Rachel M. Roberts, Chris Rock and Robert E. Stencel: Archaeoastronomical Evidence for Wuism at the Hongshan Site of Niuheliang, 2006.
- ^ Yang, Xiaoping; Scuderi, Louis A.; Wang, Xulong; Scuderi, Louis J.; Zhang, Deguo; Li, Hongwei; Forman, Steven; Xu, Qinghai; Wang, Ruichang (2015-01-20). "Groundwater sapping as the cause of irreversible desertification of Hunshandake Sandy Lands, Inner Mongolia, northern China". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 112 (3): 702–706. Bibcode:2015PNAS..112..702Y. doi:10.1073/pnas.1418090112. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 4311860. PMID 25561539.
- ^ New Thoughts on the Impact of Climate Change in Neolithic China Archaeology誌解説記事
- ^ Wang, Haijing; Chen, Lu; Ge, Binwen; Zhang, Ye; Zhu, Hong; Zhou, Hui (2012). "Genetic data suggests that the Jinggouzi people are associated with the Donghu, an ancient nomadic group of North China". Human Biology. 84 (4): 365–378. ISSN 1534-6617. PMID 23249313.
- ^ Wang, Chuan-Chao; Yan, Shi; Qin, Zhen-Dong; Lu, Yan; Ding, Qi-Liang; Wei, Lan-Hai; Li, Shi-Lin; Yang, Ya-Jun; Jin, Li; Li, Hui (2013). "Late Neolithic expansion of ancient Chinese revealed by Y chromosome haplogroup O3a1c-002611". Journal of Systematics and Evolution. 51 (3): 280–286. doi:10.1111/j.1759-6831.2012.00244.x. ISSN 1759-6831.
- ^ Cui, Yinqiu; Li, Hongjie; Ning, Chao; Zhang, Ye; Chen, Lu; Zhao, Xin; Hagelberg, Erika; Zhou, Hui (2013-09-30). "Y Chromosome analysis of prehistoric human populations in the West Liao River Valley, Northeast China". BMC Evolutionary Biology. 13 (1): 216. doi:10.1186/1471-2148-13-216. ISSN 1471-2148. PMC 3850526. PMID 24079706.
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