Early State Formation in China: Archaeological Evidence
From competing chiefdoms to territorial empire, c. 3300–206 BCE
Periods
Larger markers = greater documented scale, population, or political significance.
Sources: Li Liu & Xingcan Chen, The Archaeology of China (2012); Li Feng, Early China (2013); Li Liu, The Chinese Neolithic (2005); Li Feng, Bureaucracy and the State in Early China (2009); Zhao Dinxin, The Confucian-Legalist State (2015).