ABSTRACT
Longshan settlements with a similar material culture extended eastward to the sea and southward into the Yangzi Valley and the south coast. & e traditional Chinese texts give the names of + ve pre-Xia “emperors” who are recognizable as mythological culture heroes, credited with the “inventions” of + re, agriculture, animal domestication, calendrics, writing, and = ood control. & e last of these, the great Yu, is said to have founded the Xia dynasty, which may tentatively be dated 2000-1600 b.c.e. , but we know almost nothing more about it. & e earliest texts we have were written down many centuries later.
