A term coined to describe Neolithic cultures that supposedly evolved out of the final stage of the Yangshao (see Miaodigou); spread to the east coast of China, there forming the east-coast Neolithic (see Longshan, sense 2); and in Henan, Shaanxi, and Gansu evolved into the Longshan cultures of those regions (see Longshan, sense 3). The assumption that all the Neolithic cultures of the east coast were late offshoots of the Yangshao tradition constitutes the so-called nuclear theory, which has been abandoned since the publication of radiocarbon dates from east-coast sites (see Longshan, sense 3). The term lungshanoid embodies the assumptions of the nuclear theory and should probably be avoided.
The Macmillan dictionary of archaeology, Ruth D. Whitehouse, 1983Copied