POPULATION AND SETTLEMENT

The earliest fossils and tools to be found in China date back to about
1.9 million years ago. Archaeologists believe that these ancient artifacts
belonged to a group of people dubbed the Homo erectus which translates to
upright man. Over the years, archaeologists have found Homo erectus
skulls everywhere from Pakistan to Longupo, China. This shows clear
evidence that Homo erectus originally travelled into East Asia and spread
into other regions as time went on. Over time, the Homo erectus started repopulating with another group of people called Homo sapiens which
translates to wise man in Latin. Skulls have been found from about 200,000
years ago that show anatomical traits of both the Homo erectus and the
Homo sapiens. These people were believed to have relied on scavenging as
the earlier hominids had done.
Next came the Archaic Homo sapiens. Their fossils started appearing at
numerous sites all over China roughly 125,000 to 40,000 years ago.
Archaeologists dubbed this time period the Middle Paleolithic period. Sadly,
there have been very few fossils and artifacts recovered from this time
period so it is hard to gather a lot of valid information about this group of
people. After the Middle Paleolithic period early traces of anatomically
modern human beings started popping up in the Late or Upper Paleolithic
period which was about 40,000 to 12,000 years ago. This group of people
showed increased sophistication in stone-working and tool making. In fact, a
site in Shuidonggou in Northwest China proves that the tools were becoming
more advanced. Instead of simply just being a prepared stone core with
struck- off blades the tools now had a sense of standard tool types. A site in
Xiachuan shows the advancement of intensive food collecting and
preparation. It found evidence of tools such as pestles, scrapers, millstones,
saws, grindstones, and reaping hooks (page 1). There is also a site at the
Zhoujoudian Upper Cave near Beijing that shows evidence of intentional
burials. These burials showed that these people liked the idea of adorning
since they would wear necklaces.

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The next group of people to pass through China were known as the
Postglacial Foragers. The Postglacial Foragers are very important to the
history of China because they were among the first to start cultivating plants
and domesticating animals. The Postglacial Foragers seemed to rely on
hunting and fishing. In fact, archaeologists have found wooden fish traps
made out of strips and remains of mammoths, rhinoceroses and water
buffalo. They also started creating more complex tools by combining stone
with other materials, like wood bone (page 1). These people also were
among the first to stay in one place for extended periods of time. After the
Postglacial Foragers time period came the Neolithic Period. This is the time
period that was well-known for their ceramics, polished stone tools,
permanent settlements, signs of craft specialization and the rise of
agriculture (pg. 1). The people that lived during this time period lived in pithouses that had storage pits attached. They also developed various different
bone tools and rollers for grinding grain. Most of the domesticated animals
during this time were pigs and dogs.
After the Neolithic Period came the Yangshao Culture. Research has
shown that there were probably multiple different regional cultures back
then, not just one group of people. The people during this time period started
practicing slash-and-burn agriculture which, according to dictionary.com is a
method of agriculture used in the tropics, in which forest vegetation is felled
and burned, the land is cropped for a few years, then the forest is allowed to
reinvade. They continued to cultivate rice, gather wild plants, and hunt wild
animals like elephants and rhinos. They also made pottery, wove baskets,
sewed and lived in permanent villages. They also started creating
graveyards. The people buried in these graveyards were among the
wealthier citizens of China and had a higher social status.
Then came the Longshan Culture, which started approximately around
1928. The people of this time period made great progress in raising animals
along with domesticating sheep and cattle. Even though the earlier farmers
shifted their ways and started using the slash-and-burn methods, the

POPULATION AND SETTLEMENT

Longshan Culture stuck to traditional ways and stayed in one place. Their
population began to grow so they started growing food crops outside of their
normal boundaries. This group of people relate to the theory in Guns, Germs,
and Steel since they expanded their crops and started domesticating
different animals. By expanding they were slowly becoming used to the
different diseases thrown their way so they were able to continue to expand
their population further. The Longshan people were also famous for their
black pottery turned on a wheel. They were also well-known for their strong
walls made of compacted earth. According to the Human Journey, this
suggested warfare on a different scale than the raids and vendettas of
hunters and gardeners (pg. 2). In this time period, the oracle of bones also
came to be. This is where ox scalps and tortoise shells were set of fire in a
ceremony. Specialists would then find answers to prominent questions in the
amount of cracks formed in the bones.
Last but not least came the Age of Kingship about 4,000 years ago.
This is where the Xia Dynasty introduced the Sage Kings. They created all of
the fundamental arts of civilization, from hunting and fishing to mathematics
and writing they ruled by winning the allegiance of the people through their
virtue and knowledge (pg. 2). They no longer passed their power down to
their biological descendants but instead passed it to the most qualified. The
earliest stage in Chinese history is dubbed the Shang Dynasty. This time
period had warriors that used bronze weapons and elaborate objects instead
of tools made of bone. During this period, many people were captured in war
and forced into slavery. The few records that remain show that the
aristocrats believed that they were mediators between Heaven and the
human realm (pg. 2).

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References
Early Settlements. (n.d.) Retrieved January 23, 2017, from
http://www.humanjourney.us/china2.html
Slash-and-burn. (n.d.) Retrieved January 23, 2017, from
http://www.dictionary.com/browse/slash-and-burn
Homo erectus. (n.d.) Retrieved January 23, 2017, from
https.//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_erectus
Homo sapiens. (n.d.) Retrieved January 23, 2017, from
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homo_sapiens