Settlement Patterns, Chiefdom Variability, and the Development of Early States in North China

Abstract

In the third millennium B.C., the Longshan culture in the Central Plains of northern China was the crucial matrix in which the first states evolved from the basis of earlier Neolithic societies. By adopting the theoretical concept of the chiefdom and by employing the methods of settlement archaeology, especially regional settlement hierarchy and rank-size analysis, this paper introduces a new approach to research on the Longshan culture and to inquiring about the development of the early states in China. Three models of regional settlement pattern correlating to different types of chiefdom systems are identified. These are: (1) the centripetal regional system in circumscribed regions representing the most complex chiefdom organizations, (2) the centrifugal regional system in semi-circumscribed regions indicating less integrated chiefdom organization, and (3) the decentralized regional system in noncircumscribed regions implying competing and the least complex chiefdom organizations. Both external and internal factors, including geographical condition, climatic fluctuation, Yellow River's changing course, population movement, and intergroup conflict, played important roles in the development of complex societies in the Longshan culture. As in many cultures in other parts of the world, the early states in China emerged from a system of competing chiefdoms, which was characterized by intensive intergroup conflict and frequent shifting of political centers. However, what is unusual about the Chinese case is the fact that the earliest states did not develop from the most complex of the chiefdom organizations, but from the least complex chiefdom systems then existing there.