The Erlitou Site in Yanshi, Henan Province

The Erlitou Site, as the earliest known large-scale capital city of the Bronze Age in East Asia, is considered the birthplace of the Chinese bronze ritual system, and the founding place of the core political system, identity recognition and cultural thought of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties and even the entire ancient China, which discovered by Mr. Xu Xusheng in 1959.

After more than six decades of excavation, it has been confirmed that the Erlitou Site is the historic remains of a meticulously planned and well-laid-out kingdom capital. The existing area of the site is about 300 hectares, which is divided into a central area and a general activity area. Many systematic achievements are unprecedented. For instance, the palace system shown by the large-scale rammed earth foundation site, the hierarchical tomb system represented by the noble’s tombs, and the ritual vessel system represented by the jade ritual vessels clusters, the earliest bronze ritual vessel clusters in China, and the turquoise dragon-shaped vessels and other relics. They all show that the court ritual system and the rites and music system representing the developed degree of ancient Chinese political civilization have been established. The Erlitou Culture, with the Erlitou Site as its core, is the earliest “core culture” in East Asia, the earliest monarchy state of wide-area, the “core and leader of the overall process of Chinese civilization”, and the key link in the empirical evidence of the long history of Chinese civilization of more than 5,000 years.

The Erlitou Culture not only symbolized a new kingdom era in ancient Chinese history but also laid the most important and direct foundation for later highly developed and prosperous bronze rites and music civilizations and kingdom civilizations during the Shang and Zhou dynasties. Along with the civilizations of the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the Erlitou Culture also constituted the mainstream of the development of early Chinese civilization and established the basic characteristics of Chinese civilization. The Erlitou Site likely serves as the capital city of the Xia Dynasty and the Erlitou culture belongs to the culture of the Xia Dynasty, which is the most important starting point and yardstick for exploring the origin of Chinese civilization.