The initial process of Neolithization in China

The Late Paleolithic Age in East Asia maintained a cultural pattern of microlithic toolkits in the north and pebble-tool assemblages in the south. After the Last Glacial Maximum, various new cultural elements related to the Neolithic Age began to emerge. Pottery appeared on both sides of the Nanling Mountains about 20,000 years ago, as well as in Northeast Asia about 16,000 years ago. Other innovations such as floor-standing grinding tools (milling stone slabs and grinders), ground stone tools, fixed building facilities, etc., made their appearances later. These new technologies were combined with the ecological resources in different regions, resulting in the formation of societies with varied economic and cultural characteristics. In Northeast China, this trend led to the development of sedentary settlements with pottery and a hunting-fishing culture. Eastern-North China saw the emergence of a hunting-gathering culture with pottery, while western and northwest North China developed a non-pottery, hunting-gathering culture. In South China, the combination of these technologies resulted in the development of sedentary settlements with pottery and a focus on fishing. The earliest of these economies can be described as a fishing-hunting-gathering economy, which relied on freshwater aquatic resources and small mammals. This economy was prominent in both South and Northeast China. In Northeast China particularly, people created varieties of pottery, and they used axes and adzes as tools for constructing houses, trenches, and pits of residential, defense, and storage facilities. The Donghulin Culture in northern North China and the Shangshan Culture in the Qiantang River Basin were among the first to adopt agriculture. The associated locations were unfavorable for a lifestyle relying on aquatic animal resources, and accordingly the people here developed ways to emphasize the use of herbaceous and gramineous food resources. As a result, dry farming and rice farming practices emerged. Over the next thousand years, Neolithic agricultural culture spread rapidly throughout the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River and eastern North China. It later expanded to the western and northwest regions of North China, gradually replacing the highly mobile, non-pottery hunting-gathering culture in these areas.