[SunkenCiv]

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2009-08/21/content_8596840.htm

More light shed on China’s ancient past

By Lin Shujuan (China Daily)

Updated: 2009-08-21 07:17

...Some are now even questioning the existence of a legendary Chinese dynasty, the Xia (about 2100 BC-1600 BC), according to a collection of news reports in today’s issue of the journal Science... Though boasting 5,000 years of civilization, the widely acknowledged beginning of the civilization with historical records could be dated to the Shang Dynasty (1600 BC-1100 BC), thanks to the discovery of oracle bones. With the inscriptions on the oracle bones, the earliest characters in China, archaeologists outlined what the society was like in the Shang Dynasty. But there are still 1,000 years unaccounted for in China’s 5,000-year civilization, making it essential for the archaeologists to find out what the pre-Shang society was like... Recent archaeological discoveries show that there were many advanced cultures in the valleys of several major rivers in China about 4,000 to 5,000 years ago.

[JoeProBono]

[muawiyah]

More and more complex ~ but finding different cultures in different parts of ancient China really isn’t a surprise.

[BIGLOOK]

IIRC from Chinese history classes, it was the Yellow Emperor who invented writing during the Neolithic Period in the Lung Shan area. But big deal since no one could read other than the shamans at that time; history was passed on through the oral tradition.

Even if there were the legendary emperors from the Neolithic period (and the Xia), there's still a 500 year gap in the timelines.