As promised, here are a few items I found concerning this week’s podcast episode that might help you better understand the wheres and whats of our proceedings.
First, here is China as its provinces are divided today, with the two confusing provinces Shanxi and Shaanxi marked:
A map of the nine provinces declared by Yu the Great:
Emperor Yu in the flesh… er… silk:
Comparing the Xia Dynasty to the Erlitou Civilization:
The Nine Copper Cauldrons of Yu, Jiu Ding (note, the originals were lost at the end of the Warring States Period. These are examples of replacements constructed in the Zhou Dynasty):
The History of China 
Any way to make the picture of the 9 provinces bigger?
Updated with a much better – and huger – map!
So if the Erlitou culture is the best candidate for the Xia, how does the Longshan culture to the west fit in? The ancestors of the Shang and/or Zhou dynasties, perhaps?
That could very well be. It’s all, f course, rather conjectural. But as I (think I) mentioned in the episode, the modern understanding tends toward the Xia, Shang, and Zhou having been contemporaneously extant, rather than successional… so it’s entirely possible that such cultures as the Longshan finds could have, in fact, been the rudiments of the Shang or Zhou 🙂
If provinces were divided by areas which remained at least one mountain above the water during the flood, what are the mountains in Yan, Yu, Yang provinces? Others are pretty clear from the map.
Great podcast! Why I have discovered it so late?!
In the words of Rick Sanchez: “The answer is *don’t think about it!!*”
But you’re not late at all! You’re right on time 😉