02 · SITE · EARLY BRONZE AGE

Erlitou

A rammed earth enclosure changes the scale

Erlitou had palatial buildings, streets and workshops before the development of Anyang.

Museum documentation · free public access, no account required.

Specific historical recreation of A rammed earth enclosure changes the scale, Erlitou, Yanshi/Luoyang, Henan, China, c. 1900–1500 BCE — **DECLARED VISUAL RECONSTRUCTION · EXISTING EDITORIAL RESOURCE · TRACEKEEPERS**
Generated reconstruction · Declared visual hypothesis
Declared visual reconstruction for museographic context; it is not a photograph of the original nor documentary evidence.

History and context

Erlitou preserves rammed-earth palace architecture, roads and workshops of the Early Bronze Age. The site shows concentration of resources and specialisation before the rise of Anyang.

The word 'Xia capital' appears in museums and debates, but the display retains the archaeological name. There are no contemporary texts that allow identifying Erlitou indisputably with the traditional Xia dynasty.

Large rammed-earth courtyards, accesses and delimited paths organised a central district. Turquoise, bronze and bone workshops concentrated nearby, although their institutional relationships are debated.

The preservation consists of foundations and post-hole negatives, not complete wooden palaces. Any elevation is a reconstruction based on traces.

Evidence and interpretation

Documented fact: Erlitou is a major Early Bronze Age site with monumental architecture and metallurgical production. Interpretation and caution: The secure identification of Erlitou as the Xia capital is debated; it must be formulated as a hypothesis, not as a fact. Documented expansion: Erlitou reached great extent and preserves enclosures with courtyard buildings interpreted as palace-temple. Expanded interpretation and caution: There is no contemporary text naming the site Xia, its king or the exact function of each courtyard.

Catalogue facts

Narrative date: c. 1900–1500 BCE
Location: Erlitou, Yanshi/Luoyang, Henan, China
Material: Rammed earth, wood, pottery and bronze
Context: Early urban centre
Curatorial reading: The documented fact and its interpretation appear separately in the evidence block.
Location: Yanshi, Henan
Material: Rammed earth and wooden structures
Documentary coverage: 3 museum, heritage, primary corpus or research sources for this stop.

A closer look

About 1 min to read · 1 section. Further reading and sources · free access. Editorial review recorded: September 5, 2026.

The capital needed roads to other regions

The workshops and buildings of Erlitou depended on materials that did not all come from its immediate surroundings. Research on southern East Asia links its growth to supply networks for stone, turquoise and other resources, and examines the distribution of ceramics towards the Han and Huai basins. These indications allow us to follow circulation corridors without assuming that every place with a similar object obeyed the same ruler. The monumentality of the centre therefore had an external dimension: connecting supplier regions.

Research · Cambridge University Press · Institutions and Environment in Ancient Southern East Asia (3000 BCE to 300 CE)Access recorded: September 5, 2026.

Location and territory

LOCATED SITE

Erlitou · ChinaSettlement marker of Erlitou

Sources and references

Expand this information and consult its sources

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