Erhlitou

the remains of a large Bronze Age settlement at the village of the same name in Yanshih District, Honan Province, China.

Excavations (1957 and 1960–64) uncovered three horizons. Among the finds were dwellings, pottery workshops, burials, and the remains of a monumental building on an earthen stylobate (about 100 × 100 m, second horizon). The discovery of fragments of crucibles and of ceramic casting molds and slag attests to the foundry production of bronze tools and weapons. Erhlit’outype settlements are found primarily in the western part of Honan Province and date to the period between the late Neolithic Lungshan culture and the middle Shang epoch (middle of the second millennium B.C). Some researchers ascribe the Erhlit’ou-type remains to the Hsia tribes; other researchers regard Erhlit’ou as the capital of the first Shang ruler, Ch’eng T’ang (c. 1600 B.C.).