| # | As north China moved towards civilization between 3000 and 2000 BC | there were signs of increasing social control and evidence of violence; defended settlements appeared | accompanied by very thin black-polished Longshan-style pottery.
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| 1 | Tall drinking cups | offering bowls on high stands and three-legged bowls are very characteristic forms in this pottery: they may well have been used in religious ceremonies involving sacrificial offerings of wine | prefiguring later Shang practices. |
| 2 | Another religious activity that was taken up and developed in later times was scapulimancy | where the shoulder blades of animals and tortoise shells were deliberately cracked by fire | the resulting lines being interpreted as good or bad omens. |
| 3 | The site of Longshan itself is on the Shandong peninsula | and the Longshan culture spread out from the east coast of China to supplant the Yangshao culture further west. The settlements of Longshan communities were occupied for longer than those of the early farmers | supported by well-established agriculture. |
| 4 | Longshan craftspeople produced beautiful jade objects. The adzes they used testify to sophisticated carpentry | whose products have long since perished. The Longshan and related cultures brought a new cultural unity to much of China | and are often regarded as the foundations of Chinese civilization.
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