Daxi culture

The Daxi culture was a Neolithic culture centered in the Three Gorges region around the middle Yangtze, China. The culture ranged from western Hubei to eastern Sichuan and the Pearl River Delta. The site at Daxi, located in the Qutang Gorge around Wushan, Chongqing, was discovered by Nels C. Nelson in the 1920s.

Material culture

Daxi sites are typified by the presence of dou, white pan, and red pottery. The Daxi people cultivated rice extensively. Daxi sites were some of the earliest in China to show evidence of moats and walled settlements.
The Daxi culture showed evidence of cultural interactions with the Yangtze River Delta region. The white pan artefacts from the culture were discovered at several Yangtze River Delta sites, including the type site of the Majiabang culture. Conversely, jade artefacts at Daxi sites show possible influence from the Yangtze River Delta region. The Daxi culture was followed by the Qujialing culture.

People of Daxi

Remains at Daxi were found to possess a high frequency of the Y-chromosome haplogroup O3d-M7, which was not found at other prehistoric sites in China. Huang et al. found that the most common Y-chromosome haplogroup among many Hmongic-speaking ethnic groups is O2a2a2a1a2a1a2-N5, with a frequency of 47.1% among the Guangxi Miao. This might indicate that the people of Daxi were the ancestors of Hmong–Mien speakers, who subsequently migrated to the southwest.