 Zhukaigou culture is a reputed progenitor of the Ordos bronze culture and accordingly a first "Northern Zone" culture, extending to northern and central Inner Mongolia, northern Shaanxi, and northern Shanxi, with the Ordos region at its center.Transition to metalworking is dated to around the end of the third millennium BCE, at the same time was attained a higher level in the ceramic.Zhukaigou culture lasted to c. 1500 BCE.