Place · site
Erlitou culture
The Erlitou culture was an early Bronze Age society of the Yellow River valley, named after its type site near Yanshi in the Luoyang basin of Henan, and dated roughly 1900–1500 BCE. Its centre had palace compounds on rammed-earth platforms, foundries producing the earliest Chinese bronze ritual vessels, and turquoise and jade workshops. Many Chinese scholars identify it with the Xia dynasty of tradition, though without inscriptions this cannot be proved.
Mentioned in 1 state history
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Cite this entry
- APA
- The Epoch Institute. (2026). Erlitou culture. In The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/erlitou-culture
- MLA
- “Erlitou culture.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia, The Epoch Institute, 2026, https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/erlitou-culture. Accessed .
- Chicago
- The Epoch Institute. “Erlitou culture.” The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. 2026. https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/erlitou-culture.
- Harvard
- The Epoch Institute (2026) ‘Erlitou culture’, The Epoch Institute Encyclopedia. Available at: https://the-epoch-institute.org/encyclopedia/erlitou-culture (Accessed: ).
Last reviewed October 2026Random entry ↻