China’s First Cities

Abstract

It was in the Yellow River Valley that the Chinese civilization came into being. Here, especially in the Zhongyuan or Central Plain region---that is the area around the middle course of the Yellow River (Figure 1)---the first dynasties mentioned in early historical sources had their area of geographical distribution. Recent archaeological studies carried out in this region were able to identify a local sequence evolving directly from the Henan Longshan Culture (2600--2000 B.C.), into the Erlitou Culture, the latter being supposed to include the remains of the semi-legendary Xia (approximately 21st to 17th centuries B.C.), China's first recorded dynasty and perhaps also its earliest state formation.