“Unlike the Neolithic farming communities, Erlitou was socially-stratified. At the lowest level was a peasant class that worked the land and provided a labor force for overlord building projects. Above them was an artisan class, principally metal-workers, who created bronze weapons and ceremonial objects. On top of everybody else were the ruling elites. The city at its height may have contained twenty thousand inhabitants.”
Griffin wheeled about to gaze at the surrounding farmland. “So, all of this was urban at one time.”
“Yes,” Jun agreed. “The peasant dwellings would have been placed outside the main enclosure but quite close to the farmland. Here in Erlitou, we see how the infiltration which began on such a small scale in the northwestern provinces intensified until it resulted in a rigid social hierarchy with overlords at the top and the indigenous farmers on the bottom.”
“I’m sure traditional Chinese historians might disagree,” Griffin countered.
Jun nodded philosophically. “I’m sure they would, but they would be wrong nonetheless.”
“That’s my hunch too,” Cassie warily agreed. “But what proof do you have that everything here wasn’t home-grown?”
Jun took a seat on the wall and indicated the others should join him. “There are objects and inventions discovered at Erlitou which have no native antecedents.”
“Such as?” Griffin prompted.
“The wheel.” As usual, Rou only spoke up when everybody had forgotten her presence. Cassie noticed that although the girl was seated right next to her grandfather, she hadn’t whispered the information into his ear. The pythia considered this to be a sign of progress.
The trove keeper expanded on Rou’s comment. “Here at Erlitou, archaeologists discovered the first set of wheel tracks found anywhere in China. Wheeled vehicles of any kind had not been seen before. These particular tracks may have been made by war chariots. Of course, traditional lore says that the war chariot was invented by an advisor to the first Xia emperor.”
“Except that we know steppe nomads had been using them for a few thousand years,” Cassie noted.
“That is correct,” Jun affirmed. “Also, it goes without saying that if the Xia invented a war chariot, they would need horses to pull it.”
“Steppe horses,” Rou piped up. Her voice had grown a fraction less hesitant.
The others deliberately made no remark.
“Another oddity was the discovery of a turquoise dragon found in one of the excavated graves here.”
“That doesn’t strike me as too strange,” Cassie objected. “Dragons are practically an international symbol of China.”
“Yes, but did they originate here?” Jun smiled playfully. “Steppe mythology contains references to dragons going back thousands of years. Yet in China, dragons don’t appear as a symbol of power until the one found at Erlitou. One might even argue that the pig-dragon figurines found at Hongshan might have been imported from the west. At the very least, their mythology might have been. The items I’ve mentioned aren’t the only indicator of an overlord presence in Erlitou. Bronze-making techniques used by the Qijia Culture northwest of here are identical to those found among tribes in central Asia. Of course, the Xia refined those techniques.”
“But I’m sure the original impetus to make bronze weaponry came from outside the country,” the scrivener speculated.
Rou was gazing off into the distance, seemingly lost in thought. “So many things that don’t belong here.” Although she said the words aloud, she seemed unconscious of that fact.
“That is very true.” Jun encouraged her. “We’ve already spoken at length about metalcraft, wheeled transport, and horses but there are other foreign items—sheep, cattle, barley, and even wheat. The excavation here revealed four-thousand-year-old wheat seeds. Wheat cultivation originated in central Asia. There is no form of the grain that is indigenous to China, yet the Xia cultivated it in these very fields.”
“Speaking of things that don’t belong here,” Cassie said, “the overall sense I got was of order and control in Erlitou. Lots of rules and lots of punishments for breaking the rules. That sort of thing comes straight out of the overlord playbook.”
“I don’t suppose as you were forming impressions of this place, you came across any hint of our Minoan friends, did you?” Griffin regarded Cassie hopefully.
“Sorry, nothing even vaguely Minoan flashed across my radar.”
Both Jun and Rou seemed crestfallen at the news.
“I am very sorry,” the trove keeper said. “It appears we brought you here for no reason.”
Cassie shrugged matter-of-factly. “At least we can check off another spot where the Minoans weren’t.” She smiled to try to cheer up their guides.
Rou seemed particularly distressed. She rose to her feet and paced back and forth before the retaining wall. Then she swung about to face her ancestor. “Grandfather, we must take them to Anyang.” She sounded downright decisive for a change.
Jun gazed at her in baffled amusement at her vehemence. “Yes, no doubt we should.”
“Anyang?” Griffin asked.
The trove keeper took a moment to let his eyes wander over the excavation site. “If Erlitou merely whispers of the overlords, Anyang shouts their exploits in blood.”
Chapter 17—Flight to Suburbia
It was about three in the afternoon when Leroy Hunt parked half a block away from the farmhouse in the sticks. It had taken him all morning to play out the farce of driving to the airport for his imaginary flight to Buffalo. He’d seen a car tailing him from his apartment to O’Hare, but it didn’t follow him into the parking garage. Leroy assumed his tail would report that the cowboy was on his way out of town. That suited him fine. Just as an added precaution, he
