The Miaodigou Age and “early China”

At the time of the Dongzhuang and Miaodigou Types of the Yangshao Culture, the archaeological cultures in most regions within present-day China formed for the first time into a cultural community with the Central Plains as the center. The new period during which this cultural community existed is known as the Miaodigou Age. Seen as a whole, the Miaodigou Age was formed under the influence of the powerful expansion of Dongzhuang and Miaodigou Types of Yangshao Culture around 4000 BCE, the completion of which marked the formation of the “Early Chinese Cultural Sphere” or the “Early China” in a cultural sense.