The legendary Emperor Yao and the ancient Chinese city of Taosi:
A Thread
A Thread
From about 3000 - 1900 BC a late Neolithic culture flourished along the middle and lower Yellow River valleys. This was the Longshan Culture, famous for its polished black pottery. They grew foxtail millet, rice, raised pigs and domesticated the silkworm.
During the last phase of the culture a fascinating urban area developed in the Linfen Basin, bounded by mountain ranges. This was Taosi, a three tiered hierarchical settlement surrounded by an enormous rammed-clay enclosure.
The internal area was around 280 ha with another central earth wall enclosure, likely the elite section of the settlement used for a secondary residential and ceremonial purposes.
The cemetery was vast, covering around 30k square metres with over 1,500 burials. Nine males in particular were buried in mural covered rooms, with jade, crocodile skin instruments and other exotic objects, signifying elite status.
Taosi would be interesting enough but two discoveries put it into a category of its own: the earliest east Asian astronomical observatory and potentially the earliest known metal objects in China.
In a separate enclosure a semi circular arrangement of square columns is almost certainly a well designed solar observatory. Astronomers are relatively confident the pillars mark out solstices and equinoxes
A copper bell and several arsenical bronze objects were recovered from Late Taosi cemetaries. Since there is no sign of metallurgical works nor corresponding metal grave goods elsewhere this points to Taosi trading or receiving gifts from elsewhere.
The end of Taosi (1900 BC) seems to have been violent, with skeletal remains, disturbed elite graves, the destruction of the rammed-clay enclosure walls and the conversion of the palatial area to a craft workshop all pointing to major disturbances.
Chinese archaeologists have linked Taosi to a number of legendary figures, including Emperor Yao. Yao Dian (Document of Yao) in Shang Shu (Book of Ancient Time), and Wudibenji (Records for the Five Kings) in Shiji (Historic Records) record Yao as instituting astronomical reforms
These conform well with the observatory at Taosi, as well as the reported rebellion which ended the power of the city. Western archaeologists are skeptical of linking Yao to Taosi, but I think it deserves the benefit of the doubt.
The use of historical documents can lead to fascinating interpretations, such as this paper proposing that an underground structure in Taosi was an ice storage room based on later reports.
This is a preliminary thread on Taosi, I'm slowly making inroads into the literature. In particular the early metalwork is v curious given that bronze working doesn't appear again until the later Erlitou period.
Clearly the Late Neolithic period on the Yellow River was full of rising and falling proto states, powerful but unable to project this further than their immediate surroundings. Hopefully in later threads I'll explore the origins of the different early Chinese states.
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