Around 5000 BCE people settled in fixed communities. Agriculture based on rice and millet arose; towns and cities emerged, wattle and daub houses were built. Distinctive forms of Neolithic pottery identified different cultures. Death, burial and ancestral veneration became an important part of the early culture. Carving in Jade or nephrite indicates the sophistication of this early culture.
Chinese history is generally divided into dynasties. According to Ancient Chinese legends the first dynasty occurred during the Neolithic period and it was called the Xia c.2200-1700 BCE. Western scholars consider ‘Xia’ to be a mythical dynasty when the great king Yu the great tamed China’s great rivers and the other mythical heroes introduced the necessities of life such as clothing, housing, agriculture and writing. In China it is a matter of prestige to include this dynasty as the first even though no material evidence has been discovered to show that this culture was longer that other civilizations such as Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia and India.