Chinese Civilisation Older Than Thought

New findings have shown that Chinese civilisation may have much older roots than thought.

A study published in the journal ‘Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences’ has found evidence of a process of rapid desertification in China, 6,500 years ago. Lush areas transformed into arid desert, driving early Chinese people of the Hongshan culture into hitherto unpopulated areas.

The Hongshan culture predates the Xia Dynasty, the first Chinese dynasty described in chronicles, by 2,400 years. As the Hongshan existed so early, it could reveal that the root of Chinese civilisation is thousands of years older than previously thought.