Shimao: the Prehistoric Pioneer of Rising States in Northern China

Summary

In ancient China, a number of ethnic groups and polities rose and declined in northern China. The competition and wars between these frontier polities and Central-Plain dynasties occurred frequently in Chinese history. A series of new archaeological discoveries in recent years have revealed that Shimao was the first state-level society emerging in northern China. The Shimao social group was mainly distributed in the Ordos region, where the social complexity experienced a leaping development in late prehistory, and this social evolutionary trajectory is very different from the Central Plain. The rising of the Shimao state started a new model of social development for the following history in northern China. This paper will discuss the background and process of the rise of the Shimao state, and compare some similar phenomena in history.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• From Foragers to Frontiers: Recent Research on the Archaeology of the Ordos Region, China   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15271