Introduction to the Daxi Culture

The Daxi Culture represents one of the most significant Neolithic cultures in China’s middle Yangtze River region. Named after the Daxi site in Wushan County (originally part of Sichuan Province, now under Chongqing Municipality), this culture flourished between approximately 4500-3300 BCE across an area spanning modern Hunan, Hubei, and Chongqing. The culture’s discovery and subsequent research have provided archaeologists with crucial insights into early agricultural societies in southern China.

Discovery and Research History

The story of Daxi Culture’s discovery begins in the 1920s when the American Museum of Natural History’s Central Asian Expedition first investigated the Daxi site between 1925-1926. The team collected stone tools and pottery fragments, recognizing the site’s archaeological significance. However, it wasn’t until the 1950s that systematic excavations began to reveal the full importance of this culture.

In 1958, the Sichuan Yangtze River Three Gorges Reservoir Cultural Relics Survey Team identified Daxi as a key excavation site. The following year, two major excavations conducted by the Sichuan Yangtze River Basin Cultural Relics Protection Committee unearthed numerous Neolithic tombs and artifacts, revealing a previously unknown cultural complex. Concurrent surveys by the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Archaeology in the Xiling Gorge area found similar remains at sites like Yangjiawan in Yichang and Chaotianzui in Zigui.

By the early 1970s, archaeologists began referring to this cultural complex as the Daxi Culture, with the Daxi site as its representative. Subsequent excavations in 1975 by the Sichuan Provincial Museum provided even richer materials that helped firmly establish the culture’s characteristics.

Geographic Distribution and Key Sites

The Daxi Culture spanned a vast area from the Qutang Gorge in the west to Wuhan in the east, reaching the Dongting Lake region in the south and the southern foothills of the Jingshan and Dahong Mountains in the north. The culture’s core area was concentrated in the western Jianghan Plain, where the flat terrain, warm humid climate, and dense network of rivers and lakes provided ideal living conditions.

Hundreds of Daxi Culture sites have been identified, with several standing out for their archaeological importance:

1. Daxi Site (Chongqing Wushan): Located on the southern bank of the Yangtze River, this 15,000 square meter site has yielded 207 tombs and numerous distinctive pottery, stone, jade, bone, and shell artifacts across multiple excavations.

2. Zhongbao Island Site (Hubei Yichang): This 3,000 square meter island site contained four distinct Daxi cultural layers along with later Qujialing Culture remains, producing over 1,000 artifacts – the largest Daxi artifact collection from any single site.

3. Guanmiaoshan Site (Hubei Zhijiang): Covering 30,000 square meters, this site revealed well-preserved red-burned earth house foundations – the first such Daxi architectural remains discovered. The stratigraphic sequence showing Daxi, Qujialing, and Shijiahe cultures in succession provides crucial chronological evidence.

4. Chengtoushan Site (Hunan Lixian): This remarkable site features China’s earliest known walled settlement dating to the early Daxi period (around 4000 BCE). The circular city with its moat, sacrificial altars, pottery workshops, and rice paddies represents a major breakthrough in understanding early urbanism.

5. Tangjiagang Site (Hunan Anxiang): Notable for its exquisite white pottery with stamped designs, this site has provided important insights into the Daxi Culture’s southern variants.

Cultural Characteristics and Artifacts

The material culture of the Daxi people reveals a sophisticated Neolithic society with distinct artistic and technological traditions:

Pottery: Daxi ceramics were predominantly red (including sandy, clay, and plant-tempered varieties), though black, gray, and occasional white wares also appeared. Early phases featured coarse plant-tempered red ware, while later periods saw increased gray and black pottery. Surface treatments included red slip (often creating “red outside, black inside” vessels), stamped designs, and painted decoration.

The pottery forms were diverse, including:
– Round-bottomed fu cauldrons
– Tripod ding vessels
– Stemmed dou plates
– Ring-footed pans
– High-necked guan jars
– Stemmed bowls
– Single-handled cups
– Tube-shaped bottles

Particularly noteworthy are the culture’s thin-walled painted pottery (some walls just 1-2mm thick) and white pottery with intricate stamped designs showing remarkable craftsmanship.

Stone Tools: Both chipped and polished stone tools were used, with the latter dominating. Common types included:
– Rectangular axes (the most numerous tool)
– Shouldered adzes (in southern areas)
– Spades (some perforated)
– Chisels (distinctive “gui” shaped forms)
– Arrowheads
– Net sinkers

The Honghuatao site yielded an impressive “king of stone axes” measuring 43.1cm long and weighing 7.25kg.

Jade and Bone Objects: While jade objects were small ornaments (pendants, rings, beads), they demonstrate advanced lapidary skills in cutting, polishing, drilling, and finishing. Bone tools included awls, arrowheads, needles, and spindle whorls.

Subsistence Economy

The Daxi economy was based on rice agriculture, with evidence found at nearly all sites:
– Pottery tempered with rice husks
– Burned earth house materials containing rice impressions
– Thick layers of carbonized rice husks (up to several decimeters at Guihuashu)
– The Chengtoushan rice paddies – the world’s oldest known irrigated fields (c. 4000 BCE)

Hunting and fishing remained important, especially in the Three Gorges area where fish bones and hunting tools abound. Domesticated animals included pigs, dogs, and possibly cattle.

Craft production reached impressive levels:
– Pottery firing temperatures ranged 600-880°C
– Some vessels reached 76cm in diameter
– White pottery and thin-walled painted wares show exceptional skill
– Jade working employed cutting, drilling, and polishing techniques

Social Organization and Beliefs

Burial practices reveal insights into Daxi society:
– Nearly 1,000 tombs excavated across multiple sites
– Primary extended and flexed burials (some tightly flexed suggesting binding)
– Grave goods include pottery (often ritually broken), tools, and ornaments
– Some special burials feature fish placed on bodies or in mouths
– Children buried in urn coffins or small pits

Evidence suggests emerging social differentiation:
– Early tombs show little wealth variation
– Later periods see marked differences in grave goods (some with over 20 items)
– About 5% of later burials contain significantly more wealth

The Chengtoushan sacrificial altar (200+ sq m) with its associated pits containing ash, pottery, and animal bones points to complex ritual practices. The rich burial M678 at this site (with 30+ vessels and jade ornaments) may represent an elite individual.

Regional Variants and Chronology

Scholars debate the Daxi Culture’s internal divisions, but two main regional variants are recognized:

1. Guanmiaoshan Type (Northern): Centered in western Hubei, featuring:
– Predominantly red pottery with rope patterns
– Abundant painted pottery
– Numerous rectangular stone axes
– Distinctive gui-shaped chisels

2. Tangjiagang Type (Southern): Focused around Dongting Lake, characterized by:
– More black and white pottery
– Elaborate stamped designs on white pottery
– Smaller stone tool assemblages
– Shouldered stone adzes

Radiocarbon dates place the culture between approximately 4500-3300 BCE, lasting about 1,200 years. The chronology is generally divided into early, middle, and late phases based on pottery changes.

Architecture and Settlement Patterns

Daxi settlements show careful planning:
– Sites often located on river terraces or mounds
– Houses were square or rectangular surface structures with:
– Burned earth floors and walls (for waterproofing)
– Posthole construction (often bamboo frames)
– Central hearths
– Some with surrounding “aprons” of burned earth
– The 35 sq m House F22 at Guanmiaoshan had 16 postholes and clear activity areas
– Later periods saw multi-room structures emerge

The walled settlement at Chengtoushan (founded c. 4000 BCE) represents a major development:
– Circular plan about 325m in diameter
– 4 gates
– Internal roads and platforms
– Associated rice paddies with irrigation systems

Relations with Other Cultures

The Daxi Culture shows complex interactions:
– Origins traced to local predecessors like the Chengbeixi and Zaoshixiaceng cultures
– Strong connections with the subsequent Qujialing Culture (though some scholars see them as contemporaneous)
– Influences from and to Yangshao Culture in the north
– Jade traditions possibly linked to lower Yangtze cultures
– Impacts reaching as far as the Pearl River Delta

Conclusion and Legacy

The Daxi Culture represents a crucial stage in the Neolithic development of China’s middle Yangtze region. Its sophisticated rice agriculture, craft specialization, emerging social complexity, and early urbanism at sites like Chengtoushan mark it as a foundational culture for later Chinese civilizations. The culture’s artistic achievements in pottery, its adaptation to diverse environments across the Yangtze basin, and its interactions with neighboring traditions make it essential for understanding China’s prehistoric past. Ongoing research continues to reveal new insights into this pivotal culture that bridged early Neolithic villages and the complex societies of the late Neolithic period.