Southern China at the Dawn of the Bronze Age

The Erligang civilization arose in the Yellow River valley around the middle of the second millennium BC. Shortly thereafter, its distinctive elite material culture spread to a large part of China’s Central Plain, in the south reaching as far as the banks of the Yangzi River. The Erligang culture is perhaps best known for a large-scale bronze industry of remarkable artistic and technological sophistication. This talk will explore the connections between the Erligang bronze industry and the earliest bronze using civilizations of southern China.