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The Hongshan culture (p=Hóngshān wénhuà) was a Neolithic culture in the Xiliao River basin in northeast China. Hongshan sites have been found in an area stretching from Inner Mongolia to Liaoning, and dated from about 4700 to 2900 BC. Timeline posted by National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
The culture is named after (p=Hóngshān hòu), a site in Hongshan District, Chifeng. The site was discovered by the Japanese archaeologist Torii Ryūzō in 1908 and extensively excavated in 1935 by Kōsaku Hamada and Mizuno Seiichi.Hamada, Kosaku and Mizuno Seiichi. "Chifeng Hongshanhou," Archaeologia Orientalis, ser. A, No. 6. Far-Eastern Archaeology Society of Japan, (1938).
The Yangshao culture of the Yellow River existed contemporaneously with the Hongshan culture (see map). These two cultures interacted with each other.
Hongshan culture was succeeded by the Lower Xiajiadian culture (2200–1600 BC), which was replaced by a different Upper Xiajiadian culture (1000-600 BC) with a shift from farming to pastoral nomadism, likely due to climate change. In the historical period, the West Liao basin was mainly populated by nomads.
Nelson et al. 2020 attempts to link the Hongshan culture to a "Transeurasian" (Altaic) linguistic context. According to a study on genetic distance measurements from a large scale genetic study from 2021 titled 'Genomic insights into the formation of human populations in East Asia', hunter-gatherers of Mongolia and the Amur Basin have ancestry shared by Mongolic and Tungusic language speakers, but they did not carry West Liao River farmer ancestry, contradicting the Transeurasian hypothesis proposed by Martine Robbeets et al. that the expansion of West Liao River farmers spread these proto-languages.
A 2020 study discovered substantial genetic changes in the West Liao River region over time. An increase in the reliance on millet farming between the Middle-to-Late Neolithic is associated with higher genetic affinity to the Yellow River basin (generally associated with speakers of the Sino-Tibetan languages), while a partial switch to pastoralism in the Bronze Age Upper Xiajiadian culture is associated with a decrease in this genetic affinity. After the Late Neolithic, there was a sharp transition from Yellow River to Amur-related genetic profiles (generally associated with speakers of Tungusic languages) around the West Liao River. This increase in Amur River affinity corresponds with the transition to a pastoral economy during the Bronze Age.
A 2021 study found that Yellow River millet farmers from the modern-day provinces of Henan and Shandong had played an important role in the formation of Hongshan people or their descendants via both inland and coastal northward migration routes.
A 2025 study found that Hongshan populations inherited genetic contributions from three main sources: Ancient Northeast Asians (ANA), Neolithic Yellow River farmers (NYR), and Shandong hunter-gatherers (Shandong_HG). The ANA-related ancestry likely came from the earlier local Zhaobaogou culture, while the NYR-related ancestry was associated with the Yangshao culture and may have been introduced indirectly by Middle Neolithic farmers from the Dawenkou culture migrating northward from Shandong. These Dawenkou-related farmers carried about 40% ancestry from an early Neolithic Shandong hunter-gatherer lineage and about 60% from a Yangshao-related lineage. Thus, the study’s authors argue that Hongshan populations should be modeled as a mixture of Dawenkou-related and ANA-related ancestries.
Excavators have discovered an underground temple complex—which included an altar—and also in Niuheliang. The temple was constructed of stone platforms, with painted walls. Archaeologists have given it the name " Goddess Temple" (p=nüshenmiao) due to the discovery of a clay female head with jade inlaid eyes.Please refer to Niuheliang. It was an underground structure, 1m deep. Included on its walls are mural paintings. Housed inside the Goddess Temple are clay as large as three times the size of real-life humans. The exceedingly large figurines are possibly Deity, but for a religion not reflective in any other Chinese culture. Article by National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
The existence of complex trading networks and monumental architecture (such as is an example. and the Goddess Temple) point to the existence of a "chiefdom"[1] University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Regional Lifeways and Cultural Remains in the Northern Corridor: Chifeng International Collaborative Archaeological Research Project. Cited references: Drennan 1995; and Earle 1987, 1997. in these prehistory communities.
Painted pottery was also discovered within the temple. Over 60 nearby tombs have been unearthed, all constructed of stone and covered by stone mounds, frequently including jade artifacts. Exhibition Brochure, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC.
were discovered atop two nearby hills, with either round or square stepped tombs, made of piled limestone. Entombed inside were sculptures of Chinese dragon and .
It has been suggested that religious sacrifice might have been performed within the Hongshan culture.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow">[2] Sarah M. Nelson, Rachel A. Matson, Rachel M. Roberts, Chris Rock and Robert E. Stencel: Archaeoastronomical Evidence for Wuism at the Hongshan Site of Niuheliang, 2006.
Early feng shui relied on astronomy to find correlations between humans and the universe.Sun, X. (2000) Crossing the Boundaries between Heaven and Man: Astronomy in Ancient China. In H. Selin (ed.), Astronomy Across Cultures: The History of Non-Western Astronomy. 423–454. Kluwer Academic.
Some Chinese archaeologists such as Guo Dashun see the Hongshan culture as an important stage of early Chinese civilization.Guo, Da-Shun 1995. Hongshan and related cultures. In: The archaeology of Northeast China: beyond the Great Wall. Nelson, Sarah M. ed. 21–64. London and New York: Routledge.[4] Roger Blench(2004), Stratification in the peopling of China: how far does the linguistic evidence match genetics and archaeology? p.9 Whatever the linguistic affinity of the ancient denizens, Hongshan culture is believed to have exerted an influence on the development of early Chinese civilization.Kwang-chih Chang and Sarah Allan, The Formation of Chinese Civilization: An Archaeological Perspective, p. 65 Guo believes that Hongshan had a mature system of ancestral worship, which remained important in throughout all of Chinese history.
According to Sarah M. Nelson, Neolithic Northeast China developed an indigenous agricultural society, which planted millet, buckwheat, echinochloa, and rice. While influenced by ideas beyond the region, "it is doubtful, however, that large-scale migrations of nomadic horse-riders can account for the archaeological sites." There is considerable kinship between jades of Hongshan and the Shang dynasty, while jars from the succeeding Lower Xiajiadian culture are linked to Shang designs of bronze vessels. The ceremonial structures of Hongshan are possibly ancestral to the heaven and earth altars of Chinese emperors. The culture may have also contributed to the development of settlements in ancient Korea.[5] Keith Pratt(2006), Everlasting Flower, p.30.
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