The problem of interaction between China and Central Asia in the Bronze Age (according to material culture)

The Bronze Age in China is important for studying the contacts between China and neighboring nations. This period allows clearly considering the formation of autochthonous cultures of these regions or identifying the features of contacts. If we assume that the culture of this period is autochthonous in China, we should expect that archaeologists can find traces of a gradual evolutionary development from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age. However, these traces have not been found yet. During the study, the role of Central Asia and Siberia in the process of the genesis of the Shang culture becomes apparent. By the beginning of the 2nd millennium BC the cultures of the Bronze Age already dominated in much of Eurasia from Europe to Minusinskaya hollow. China was dominated by the Neolithic culture then. The Bronze culture Shang appears in China in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. It is possible that bronze was invented outside and then adopted in China. Another example of the penetration of new elements into the material culture of China is the appearance of chariots, horses as draft animals, their equipment, weapons of chariot fighters in the Yin time. Chariots were used for the first time in the 14th - 12th centuries BC in China. They appeared suddenly and they did not have any preceding local forms of wheeled transport. At the same time bridle sets as well as the way to control and harness horses are similar in the Middle East and in the Mediterranean centers of ancient civilizations. Therefore, we can assume that China learned about chariot from its neighbors. The complex of weapons is also a possible reliable means to determine the direction and number of contacts. Along with the chariot in China in the era of Shang there appeared many advanced types of bronze weapons - knives, axes, etc. The study of Yin bronze weapons showed that it dates back to the types of bronze products in Central Asia, Siberia, and other regions of Eurasia. In addition, the study of bronze knives of Karasuk type that had previously been considered as a result of Chinese influence in Siberia showed that the effect was contrariwise. So the modern science data give reason to believe that in the process of genesis of the bronze culture and civilization the contacts and relations with other nations played a significant role in forming of culture in the Yin period. Archaeological evidence suggests that these contacts were quite complicated. Finds from the monuments studied in Gansu Province indicate that this area was a transfer zone of infiltration of cultural achievements from the Central region into the Southern area. An example is the "animal style" in art. The contacts through Gansu continued in the Late Bronze Age - Early Iron Age.

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