Category:Shang period

The Shang period (商代, c. 1600–1046 BCE) represents the emergence of a fully developed Bronze Age state in northern China. Archaeological evidence from sites such as Zhengzhou and Anyang demonstrates a complex sociopolitical structure supported by centralized ritual authority, stratified elite hierarchy, and managed craft production systems. The Shang court exercised control over agricultural territories, labor organization, and resource extraction networks that extended across the Yellow River basin.

Material culture during the Shang period is defined by:

• Bronze ritual vessels produced through piece-mold casting techniques
• The formalization of ancestral cult practices
• The earliest known corpus of inscribed oracle bones (甲骨文), documenting divination and state administration
• Specialized workshops for jade carving, bone-working, textile weaving, and ceramic production

Ceramic manufacture in the Shang period included:

• High-fired gray stonewares with wheel-assisted forming
• Standardized vessel types associated with ritual and domestic functions
• Kiln organization that reflects early craft specialization

Although bronze vessels dominate the archaeological record of elite ritual practice, ceramics served essential roles in daily storage, preparation, and funerary provisioning. Ceramic typologies from this period illustrate the emergence of regulated forms and proportional systems that would continue into the Zhou dynasty.

The Shang period is foundational for the development of Chinese ritual, writing, political hierarchy, and workshop-based craft production. Its bronze and ceramic traditions established formal languages of shape, proportion, and symbolic function that remained influential throughout the subsequent history of Chinese material culture.