Longshan culture in the context of "Erlitou culture"

Yellow River civilization, Huanghe civilization or Huanghe Valley civilization (Chinese: 黃河文明), Hwan‐huou civilization is an ancient Chinese civilization that prospered in the middle and lower basin of the Yellow River. Agriculture was started in the flood plain of the Yellow River, and before long, through flood control and the irrigation of the Yellow River, cities were developed and political power found reinforcement. One of the "four major civilizations of the ancient world", it is often included in textbooks of East Asian history, but the idea of including only the Yellow River civilization as one of the four biggest ancient civilizations has become outdated as a result of the discovery of other early cultures in China, such as the Yangtze and Liao civilizations. The area saw the Yangshao and Longshan cultures of the Neolithic era and developed into the bronze ware culture of the Shang and Zhou dynasties.

China has been the source of many innovations, scientific discoveries and inventions. This includes the Four Great Inventions: papermaking, the compass, gunpowder, and early printing (both woodblock and movable type). The list below contains these and other inventions in ancient and modern China attested by archaeological or historical evidence, including prehistoric inventions of Neolithic and early Bronze Age China.

The historical region now known as China experienced a history involving mechanics, hydraulics and mathematics applied to horology, metallurgy, astronomy, agriculture, engineering, music theory, craftsmanship, naval architecture and warfare. Use of the plow during the Neolithic period Longshan culture (c. 3000 – c. 2000 BC) allowed for high agricultural production yields and rise of Chinese civilization during the Shang dynasty (c. 1600 – c. 1050 BC). Later inventions such as the multiple-tube seed drill and the heavy moldboard iron plow enabled China to sustain a much larger population through improvements in agricultural output.

China has been the source of many innovations, scientific discoveries and inventions. Below is an alphabetical list of inventions and discoveries made by Neolithic cultures of China and those of its prehistorical early Bronze Age before the palatial civilization of the Shang dynasty (c. 1650 – c. 1050 BC). These include the Bronze Age Erlitou culture and the semi-legendary Xia dynasty that, unlike the Shang, is not yet confirmed to have existed with evidence of contemporary texts.

The contemporaneous Peiligang and Pengtoushan cultures represent the oldest Neolithic cultures of China and were formed around 7000 BC. Some of the first inventions of Neolithic China include semilunar and rectangular stone knives, stone hoes and spades, the cultivation of millet and the soybean, the refinement of sericulture, rice cultivation, the creation of pottery with cord-mat-basket designs, the creation of pottery vessels and pottery steamers and the development of ceremonial vessels and scapulimancy for purposes of divination. The British sinologist Francesca Bray argues that the domestication of the ox and buffalo during the Longshan culture (c. 3000 – c. 2000 BC) period, the absence of Longshan-era irrigation or high-yield crops, full evidence of Longshan cultivation of dry-land cereal crops which gave high yields "only when the soil was carefully cultivated," suggest that the plow was known at least by the Longshan culture period and explains the high agricultural production yields which allowed the rise of Chinese civilization during the Shang dynasty. Later inventions such as the multiple-tube seed drill and the heavy moldboard iron plow enabled China to sustain a much larger population through greater improvements in agricultural output.

A jue (Chinese: 爵; Wade–Giles: chüeh) is a type of ancient Chinese ritual bronze vessel used to serve warm wine during ancestor-worship ceremonies. It takes the form of an ovoid body supported by three splayed triangular legs, with a long curved spout (liu 流) on one side and a counterbalancing flange (wei 尾) on the other. Many examples have one or two loop handles (pan 鋬) on the side and two column-shaped protuberances (zhu 柱) on the top of the vessel, which were probably used to enable the vessel to be lifted using leather straps. They are often ornately decorated with taotie decorations representing mythical beasts. They are in effect a small Chinese equivalent of the ewer. The name jue is not original, but derives from the Shuowen Jiezi, a dictionary of the 2nd century AD.

The vessel originated in Neolithic times as a pottery ware associated with the Longshan culture, between about 2500-2000 BC. During the Shang and Zhou dynasties of Bronze Age China, it became one of a number of designs of Chinese ritual bronzes. Pottery and lead copies continued to be made and used as grave goods or spirit utensils (mingqi). Most jue (like other Chinese bronzes) were created by casting molten metal in pottery moulds, but one jue appears to have been made using the much earlier method of hammering sheet metal that might have been introduced from western Asia, where bronze metallurgy is believed to have been developed 2,000 years before it appeared in China.

The Shandong Museum (Chinese: 山东博物馆; pinyin: Shāndōng Bówùguǎn) is the principal museum of Shandong Province. It is located in the City of Jinan, Shandong, China. It is one of the largest museums in the country.

The Shandong Museum occupies a building with 82,900 square meters of space and houses a collection of more than 210,000 historical artifacts. Highlights of the historical collection include relics from the Neolithic Dawenkou and Longshan cultures, bronze artifacts from the Shang and Zhou dynasties, stone carvings from the Han dynasty, and paintings from the Ming and Qing dynasties. The natural history section features fossils from Shanwang and a fossil skeleton of Shantungosaurus.

36°44′8.88″N 117°21′14.94″E / 36.7358000°N 117.3541500°E / 36.7358000; 117.3541500

Chengziya, also spelled Chengziyai, is a Chinese archaeological site and the location of the first discovery of the Neolithic Longshan culture in 1928. The discovery of the Longshan culture at Chengziya was a significant step towards understanding the origins of Chinese civilization. To date, Chengziya is the second largest known prehistorical settlement after Shimao. The site is located in Shandong province, about 25 kilometres (16 mi) to the east of the provincial capital Jinan. It is protected and made accessible by the Chengziya Ruins Museum (Chinese: 城子崖遗址博物馆; pinyin: Chéngzǐyá Yízhǐ Bówùguǎn).

Taosi (Chinese: 陶寺; pinyin: Táosì) is an archaeological site in Xiangfen County, Linfen, southwestern Shanxi province, northern China. Taosi is considered to be part of the late phase of the Longshan culture in southern Shanxi, also known as the Taosi phase (2300 BC to 1900 BC).