DISCOVERING ANCIENT CE uman ancestors lived in what is now China at least four hundred thousand years ago Archaeologists have dug up tools and other objects in the Beijing area that were used by people in the Stone Age Other proof of prehistoric civilizations has been found through out China The bones of human ancestors and early modern humans have been discovered along with the remains of artifacts the items they made These pieces include tools carved from stone and animal bones Evidence suggests that early people in China knew how to make and use fire Modernexcavations give us a look into prehistoric China a great civilization whose mysteries have been revealed through artifacts and other archaeo logical finds In addition most of the period known as ancient China roughly 2000 BCE to 221 CE is documented in written records Artifacts reveal to us when the people of ancient China started to live in settled groups at first mainly near the Huang He or Yellow River Eventually those settled groups formed communities Dynasties or royal families began to rule over these communities The story of ancient China is defined by the his tory emperors culture and traditions of its various dynasties By relating the details behind China's early dynastic empires this book opens a portal to one of antiquity's most important
OD CTION Heilongjiang Site or tomb of Neolithic Age Other objects of Neolithic Age Guxiangtun o Bronze Age site MONGOLIA Iron Age site Xiaokulun Shaguоtun o Iron Age tomb a Beileimiao Huai an Qingshuihe Zhoukoudian Chenfan Shuidongou Hebei Shanxi Qinghai Hu Koko Nor Gansu Xiaotun Anyang iangcheng Chengziyai Lanzhou Dingcun Yellow Yangshao Guide Zhengzhou Sea Dal Henan Doujitai O Chaoyi II Luoyang Banpocun Majiayao Shaanxi Hubei Yazhou Zhejiang Ziyang Jiading o Jia Poyang Hu Sichuan Dongting Dongsunba S Hu Qingjiang E Guilin Yunnan Guangzhou Canton Taiwan Guangxi Backan Zhuangzu South China Sea Gulf of Tonkin Hainan The principal settlements of ancient China were located along the country's major rivers the Yangtze and the Huang He
O CHAPTER ONE THE EARLY DYNASTIES The first dynasty in ancient China was the Xia However the Xia kings who reportedly ruled from about 2070 to 1600 BCE are mentioned only in legends They may not have actually existed According to legend the founder of the Xia dynasty was Yu the Great Yu was credited with draining the waters of a great flood and introducing irrigation to ancient China His contributions made him a lord of the harvest Tradition gives the names of the dynasty s successive rulers ending with Jie Jie is said to have fallen in love with a beautiful but evil woman who acted cruelly The story says that the outraged people rose up in rebellion Tradition tells that the leader of this rebellion Zi Lü became the first ruler of the next great dynasty the Shang The Shang Dynasty Until the 1920s many experts believed that the Shang dynasty might also be a legend like the Xia
TION UAE This sculpture in Chongqing China shows Yu the Great center ridding the land of floodwaters archaeologists discovered many artifacts that helped prove the dynasty's existence These artifacts include bones and shells carved with Chinese characters Thanks to these interesting finds the Shang dynasty is the first recorded Chinese dynasty for which there is both written and archaeolog ical evidence The Shang created one of the
