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The first Neolithic urban center on China's north Loess Plateau: The rise and fall of Shimao
Abstract
Our recent interdisciplinary investigations have revealed an unexpected prehistorical complex settlement system developed in the north Loess Plateau, a region previously regarded as the frontier of Chinese civilization. Many of the settlements are stone fortifications built on hilltops, and the primary center was a massive (> 400 ha) stone walled site at Shimao in Shaanxi (ca. 2300–1800 cal. BCE). Shimao was composed of a central palatial terrace surrounded by two layers of stone enclosures. The settlement was built as a sophisticated defensive system, consisting of baffled gates, gate towers, bastions, and corner towers. Shimao was a regional political and ritual center, evidenced by the discoveries of human sacrifice performed prior to the construction of the fortification, large quantities of jades (some embedded in the stone walls), bronze metallurgy, a main gate decorated with polychrome murals, and walls furnished with anthropomorphic stone carvings. Elites were buried with elaborate jade and bronze/copper items, part of an assemblage of prestige and exotic goods obtained from distant areas. The discovery of Shimao revealed a unique trajectory to urbanism in China. Parallel to the Neolithic complex societies established by agriculturalists in other parts of China, Shimao played a central role in the spiritual and political world among agro-pastoralists of the north Loess Plateau region.
... It was not only one of the most crucial and largest settlement centers of the NLP but also in northern China. The presence of numerous exquisite jade artifacts, large stone statues, bronze ware, bone and pottery indicates that it was likely served as a civilized center with political, economic, and religious functions [29,30]. ...
... To further demonstrate the environmental disparities related to social hierarchy, the paper focused on the Tuwei River Basin, where the largest site, Shimao, is located. The precise geographic locations of ten walled cites of this area were obtained from published sources [29]. Subsequently, we compared the environmental variables of Shimao with those of the middle and small walled sites. ...
... The recently excavated Shimao site has uncovered a highly advanced city center in the NLP, previously considered a fringe region of Chinese civilization [29,30]. The emergence of the first civilizations often took place in areas with favorable geography for intensive agriculture [40][41][42]. ...
On the North Loess Plateau of China, city civilization, social complexity, and stratification emerged during the Longshan period (3000-2000BCE). Based on Geographic Information System (GIS) analysis and archaeological predictive model, we conducted a comparative analysis of environmental characteristics between sites and non-sites, ordinary and walled city sites, as well as large and smaller city sites. Initially, we developed a Binary Logistic Regression (BLR) model to predict the locations of archaeological sites from this period. Our findings indicate a high predictive accuracy of the model, demonstrating a clear environmental preference by the people of the Longshan Period. The presence or absence of the site was found to be influenced by various factors, including temperature, elevation, river distance, and precipitation. Furthermore, we discovered that walled cities had higher environmental requirements compared to ordinary sites. Terrain and land use played a more significant role in shaping prehistoric cities than climate. Lastly, the landscape in the Shimao site, which served as a most crucial and largest settlement centers on the North Loess Plateau (NLP), resembled that of other minor walled cities. Due to its abundant grassland, Shimao relied more on animal husbandry rather than agriculture. The combination of agriculture and animal husbandry has promoted the urbanization processes.
... However, the recent discoveries at the site of Shimao (110.337659°E, 38.571955°N), is forcing archaeologists to reconsider how an early social complexity emerged and developed around Shimao in such an environmentally fragile hilly area on the northern Loess Plateau, which is often considered as a cultural periphery, bordering the Eurasian Steppes (Jaang et al. 2018;Sun et al. 2018;Guo et al. 2020;Campbell et al. 2021; see Figure 1: 18 and Figure 2). While there has been some new work that describes the size, chronology and material culture of Shimao (Sun et al. , 2020aJaang et al. 2018;Rawson 2017), archaeologists still know remarkably little about the agricultural strategies that supported this emergent urban population and the subsequent social transformations. ...
... Previous studies have suggested that the spread of millet-based agricultural food production supported large-scaled population growth in the northern part of China from the middle Neolithic period to the early Bronze Age . Sun et al. (2018) also reported that more than 4000 archaeological sites have been found in the study area of the loess highland in Shaanxi Province of China. Although this observation is preliminary and likely to be revised through full analysis (Jaffe et al. 2020), the large number of sites belonging to the Longshan period (4500-3700 BP) to some extent, suggests that the size of the population of the Shimao area had potentially expanded from the late Yangshao (5000-4500 BP) to the late Longshan-Erlitou period (4200-3700 BP). ...
... Figure 7. Bar charts of animal MNI (minimum number of identified individuals) percentage from sites around Shimao during 5000-4500 BP and 4200-3700 BP (Hu and Sun 2005;Hu, Zhang, and Yuan 2008;Guo 2017;Huang 1996; more information is detailed in Supplementary Table 5). Sun et al. 2013Sun et al. , 2018Sun et al. , 2020aSun et al. , 2020bSun 2020). ...
Renewed excavations at Shimao, the largest stone walled urban site in northern China dating to around 4200–3700 BP, have focused on Shimao’s unusual architecture and material culture, but there remains much to be known about the subsistence system and agricultural strategies the inhabitants employed around this site. In this paper we provide new archaeobotanical and isotopic evidence for the agricultural systems and strategies that supported Shimao and nearby sites, from 5000 to 3000 BP. Our data show that the system gradually shifted from one based on common millet as the main staple—requiring a high level of labour-input—to a system dependent on extensive cultivation of foxtail millet, which is better suited to dryland cultivation in colder environments. We argue that this shift in cultivation coincided with regional climate change, and helped sustain early Bronze Age state societies, which fuelled the rapid emergence of social complexity in the semi-arid and arid area of the northern Loess Plateau from 4200 to 3000 BP.
... As the largest sociopolitical and ritual center in the region, Shimao is considered the earliest city in the north Loess Plateau (Sun et al., 2018a). The site (430 ha in area), initially surveyed in 1976 and systematically excavated since 2012, comprises a central palatial terrace (Huangchengtai 皇城台), an inner enclosure, and an outer enclosure, all built mainly of stone. ...
... Within the soil deposits of Huanzipan, over 40,000 artifacts have been recoveredincluding ceramic vessels and figurines, bone needles, oracle bones, stone tools, cowry shells, jades, bronze artifacts, Jew's harps, as well as murals, textile, and lacquer remainspossibly representing disposal from the palatial areas on top of Huangchengtai (Sun et al., 2017). Distinctively, stone carvings with zoomorphic, anthropomorphic, and geometric motifs were found at Huangchengtai, suggesting it served as a venue for ritual activities, among other functions (Dai, 1977;Jaang et al., 2018;Sun et al., 2020aSun et al., , 2020bSun et al., , 2018aSun et al., , 2013. ...
... All the material remains recovered at Shimao reflect diverse socioeconomic and ritual activities in a political center. Taken together with other archaeological data from the region, we can observe the development of sociopolitical landscapes in the process of urbanization in the Shimao region, which was characterized by population aggregation and interactions, material exchange, and inter-group conflicts (Sun et al., 2018a). In this increasingly hierarchical and competitive social world, feasting activities involving alcoholic beverages could not only have helped to facilitate sociopolitical relationships among different groups within the Shimao society, but also served as an opportunity for communications and social interactions between peoples in Shimao and other regions, who were engaged in interregional social networks. ...
Alcoholic beverages were used in ancient rituals and feasting, often to embody elite status and power, to mark communal activities, or simply for everyday consumption. Scholars have traditionally interpreted pitchers, a common pottery vessel type in late Neolithic China, as specialized alcohol serving vessels. However, little research has been done to characterize the true use of these vessels through scientific analysis of excavated materials from the middle Yellow River region. In this study, by analyzing microbotanical residues on ten pitchers, two cups, three lids, and one storage jar from the Shimao site (ca. 4300–3800 cal. BP), one of the earliest urban centers in late Neolithic north China, we discover remains of a beer brewed using a malting method. The main ingredients include millet, Triticeae, rice, lily, snake gourd root, Zingiberaceae root (ginger or turmeric), and beans. The pitchers may have been used for serving and heating the fermented beverages. This result not only reveals for the first time the production and consumption of alcoholic beverages in the late Neolithic Loess Plateau, but also highlights the interplay among feasting activities, social hierarchies, and interregional interactions in the process of early urbanization in this region.
... The recently discovered site of Shimao in the loess highlands of Shaanxi province at the edge of the Ordos desert was a massive, 400-ha walled center atop a regional settlement hierarchy that included hundreds if not thousands of smaller sites (Z. Sun 2016; Z. Sun et al. 2018), the larger of which were also walled. It was, in fact, the largest known site of its time in East Asia and, some would argue, the largest and most expansive polity (Jaang et al. 2018; but see Jaffe et al. in press). ...
... Regional survey suggests that there was an increase in the number of sites in the area over the course of the third millennium BC and more than 70 stone-walled sites have been discovered thus far (Z. Sun et al. 2018). Although research in this area is still at an early stage, one interpretation for the rise of Shimao is through a process of peerpolity conflict and increasing concentration of power in ever larger dominant centers (Z. ...
... Although research in this area is still at an early stage, one interpretation for the rise of Shimao is through a process of peerpolity conflict and increasing concentration of power in ever larger dominant centers (Z. Sun 2016; Z. Sun et al. 2018). Z. ...
In this article we argue that several of the dominant narratives concerning the political economy of the Chinese Bronze Age are in need of major revision, including its chronological divisions and assumptions of unilineal development. Instead, we argue that for many parts of China, the Bronze Age should begin in the third millennium BC and that there was significant political economic heterogeneity both within and between regions. Focusing on the issues of centralization and commercialization, we argue that, in spite of the tendency in the Chinese archaeological literature to equate complexity with centralization and hierarchy and to posit top-down redistributive economic models, there is little evidence of such institutions. To the contrary, our survey of nearly 2000 years of development turns up significant investment in public goods, especially before the Anyang period, as well as ample evidence of horizontal exchange and increasing commercialization.
... The social context comes from the increasingly connected nature of the societies on the Chinese Loess Plateau. The social transitions which occurred between the Neolithic to Bronze Age in the Longshan Period have often www.nature.com/scientificreports/ in social interaction between settlements and regions 33,34 . Major centers on the Loess Plateau, such as Qiaocun, as well as Lushanmao (about 60 hectares) and Shimao (more than 100 hectares, about 460 km from Qiaocun, Fig. 1B), were involved in an active network of the social communication. ...
... Stone moulds for bronze casting, small bronzes, and the aforementioned jades were also found. This can be taken as evidence of the ritual ceremonies, feasting, on-site craft productions (bone needle making and bronze casting), and perhaps inter-community exchange 34 . We suggest that the tile-roofed houses served as a hub for these communal activities. ...
The origins of composite tiles, one of the oldest forms of roofing, are still unclear. This study is based on a set of over 5000 clay tile fragments excavated from a single context in the Qiaocun site on the Chinese Loess Plateau, dated to ~ 2400–2200 BCE (Early Longshan Period). By combining morphological measurement statistics, 3D modeling, computer-based simulations, and reference to historical and archaeological records, we reconstruct the earliest known composite-tile roofing techniques and demonstrate that tile production was under a low-level standardization, with manual control forming a key agent during the roofing process. The quantitative study of the composite roof tiles from Qiaocun was then placed in its archaeological context and compared with other sites on the Loess Plateau. It was found that tile-roofed buildings were, by necessity, community projects. Such structures served as nodes in larger social communication networks; additionally, their appearance was linked to intensified social complexity in public affairs during the Longshan Period. The invention of clay tiles was associated with the inception of thick rammed-earth walls which had sufficient strength to serve as load-bearing structures for heavy tiled roofs. The roof tiles excavated from Qiaocun site indicate that the Loess Plateau was a key center for the origin and spread of composite tiles and related roofing and construction methods, suggesting a Longshan–Western Zhou tradition of roofing techniques in East Asia.
... In addition, the people of the city faced the high risk of war due to its geographical location, which was another important reason for the abandonment of the city. There are many archaeological sites available around the world, and many of them are caused by geomorphological processes such as erosion and landform evolution [42][43][44][45] . Thus, the idea of using archaeological city ruins as evidence can also be used for landform evolution modelling in other places. ...
... Thus, the idea of using archaeological city ruins as evidence can also be used for landform evolution modelling in other places. For instance, the ancient city Shimao in the loess area was also destroyed by gully erosion 42 , the ancient city Loulan in the desert area of China was badly damaged due to wind erosion and sand accumulation over thousands of years 43 , the ancient city Pompeii in the Campania region of Italy was buried by volcanoes erupting 44 , and historical cities were damaged by avalanches and outburst floods in glacial landform areas 45 . Therefore, at these archaeological sites, the rise and fall of urban civilisation are closely related to the geomorphological process. ...
The history of changes in the Earth’s surface can be investigated by numerical modelling of landform evolution. However, such models rely on evidence which is often removed through erosion or other surface processes. Here, we use archaeological observations from the remains of Wucheng City in Shanxi, China, which was built on a loess area during the Neolithic period, to reconstruct the paleo-surface of the area and inform a landform evolution model. We identify differences between the present-day and paleo-land surface which suggest the topography was previously much less rugged. We find that period of heightened erosion rate in the early Holocene coincides with the period of increased rainfall, suggesting climate was the primary control on landform evolution during this time. We conclude that paleo-surface observations taken from archaeological sites, as demonstrated by this study, are valuable tools to inform landform evolution models in other regions where evidence is limited. The palaeo-topography around the ruins of ancient Wucheng City, China suggests erosion rate during the Holocene was largely driven by changes in precipitation, and shows how archaeological evidence can inform landform evolution models.
... These changes include notably the expansion of settlements and population growth (e. g., Liu and Chen, 2012), the movement of crops and livestock (e.g., Cai et al., 2011;Flad et al., 2010), and the increasingly pronounced social stratification at both large-scale and medium-scale sites with growing regional conflicts (e.g., He, 2013;Sun et al., 2018). As have been illustrated by many studies, such changes greatly stimulated economic intensification, rapid urbanization and large-scale landscape modification (e.g., He, 2018;Owlett et al., 2018). ...
... Being discovered in the 1980s, the Guchengzhai site ( Fig. 1) is one of the largest late-Neolithic walled sites that supports the aforementioned polygenesis of hydro-social power on the Central Plains. The climatic background and geomorphological condition upon which the walled site was built, and the technological innovations and socio-economic institution that sustained its large-scale hydraulic undertaking profoundly differed from those of other Neolithic walled sites in the Yangtze River and Southern Inner Mongolia (e.g., the Liangzhu City and the Shimao stone walled sites, respectively, Liu et al., 2017;Sun et al., 2018). We synthesize the excavation and geoarchaeological data from Guchengzhai, with an emphasis on multi-proxy environmental data from the excavated moat, and discuss the relationship between the environment and organization of water management at the site. ...
The emergence of many late-Neolithic and early Bronze-Age walled sites on China's Central Plains coincided with some prominent Holocene climate events. Recent excavation and geoarchaeological investigation at one of the largest walled sites of Guchengzhai provide important data to examine some of the questions concerning the long-term relationship between the formation of aquatic landscape and social evolution in late prehistoric Central Plains. We collected fine-grained paleo-environmental and archaeological evidence from a range of on- and off-site contexts to reconstruct the late-Holocene paleo-environment surrounding the walled site, and examine the construction, maintenance and abandonment processes of its large-size moat. Our results show that there existed many small-to-large-sized waterbodies during the late Holocene, which, together with local rivers, were the main source of water to the site. The Guchengzhai population was drawn to the low-lying land near the river and other waterbodies with an optimal hydrological condition. During its use, the moat might have been linked to the nearby wetlands and/or rivers. The hydrological regime was dominated by gentle but relatively sediment-laden flow, being punctuated by several high-energy flood events. The sedimentation of light yellowish silt and sand with some anthropogenic inclusions during the use of the moat gave way to a quick siltation with the deposition of rich organic matter when the moat ceased to function as a main channel for water flow, although other land-use activities such as fire (land clearance?) continued to occur in the vicinity. The reconstructed ‘life-history’ of the moat demonstrates the increasingly acute challenge facing the growing population living at Guchengzhai as the climate was becoming drier. The construction and operation of the moat signified technological innovations and intensified water management at Guchengzhai, which led to the formation of distinctive aquatic landscape that featured large-scale hydraulic infrastructures in a hydrologically optimal environment. We contend that such was a common characteristic or trend shared by many contemporary or later-period walled sites on the Central Plains.
... In general, the history of Chinese wall construction originated from the Neolithic period, which has lasted for thousands of years. It can be traced back to the newly discovered Shimao city that was ascertained to be a late Neolithic culture site in the 1970s Sun et al. 2018). After entering the society of civilization from Xia Dynasty to the Warring state period, the Chinese wall has developed from its original simple state to the city wall system. ...
... According to the field investigation, the castles in Qinghai Province have some architectural forms common in the city wall construction in early China, like Shimao city and Great Wall in other dynasties (Huang 2016;Guo and Sun 2018;Sun et al. 2018), containing the wall, gate, barbican, gate tower, turret, bastion, the outer city, and the moat (Fig. 5). The gate and barbican are defense installations set in the inlet and outlet of castles, which are the vulnerable spot. ...
The Ming Great Wall distributed in Qinghai Province is a significant part of the Great Wall, which is the most world-renowned heritage site in China. However, compared to the Great Wall sections in other provinces, this section has not been systematically researched due to the later complete investigation and not enough attention paid from the public. It is of importance to study the Ming Great Wall Military Defense System (M-GWMDS), as it is the premise and foundation for further systematic researches about the Ming Great Wall. To supplement and improve the whole M-GWMDS in China, the authors researched the M-GWMDS in Qinghai Province from a new perspective, namely the castle-based military settlement. By consulting and summarizing related literature, the architectural features and military functions of castles have been clarified. After that, the castle-based military settlement in Qinghai Province was further analyzed, including its spatial distribution, troops deployment, three defense districts, and the reachable domain of troops. Finally, the authors explored to comprehensively research the military defense system, which contains four elements, i.e., the Great Wall mainline, military settlements, beacon tower system, and the relay system. Such components have made up a close network to defense, attack, and transfer vital information/staff with practical cooperation, which revealed the scientificity and practicability of Chinese ancient military thoughts. This study is helpful to enrich the systematic research on the Ming Great Wall and meaningful to expand the analysis of local history and ethnology of Qinghai Province.
... They comprise a large jar, often rounded, on three short hollow legs (known as a sanzuweng 三足甕); a wide mouthed tubular container (dakouzun 大口尊); and a cooking vessel (li 鬲) with three separate, bulging lobes (Tian and Han 2003) (Fig. 16). The site at Shimao was only recently discovered (Sun et al. 2018). Somewhat earlier in Fig. 15 Examples of a prone burial at Zhukaigou, and one with northern-type knives, Inner Mongolia. ...
... 2300-1800 BC), displays impressive and extensive stone construction, with a key element being the ritual burial of human skulls. This seems to prefigure the depositions of victims at Anyang (Sun et al. 2018). ...
In place of the traditional view that raids and invasion from the north introduced new weapons and chariots to the Shang (c. 1200 BC), we argue that archaeological evidence illustrates the presence of several regional groups at or near the late Shang centre, Anyang. Here we review burial practices at Anyang dating to the late second millennium BC, and describe a substantial group of prone burials that reflect a ritual practice contrasting with that of the predominant Shang elite. Such burials occur at all social levels, from victims of sacrifice to death attendants, and include members of lower and higher elites. Particularly conspicuous are chariot drivers in some chariot pits. An elite-level link with chariots is confirmed by the burial of a military leader in tomb M54 at Huayuanzhuang at Anyang, with tools that match exactly those of chariot drivers. Given that prone burial is known to the north, in the Mongolian region that provided chariots and horses to the Shang, a route can be traced eastwards and southwards, down the Yellow River, and then through mountain basins to Anyang. Our inference is that a group originally from outside the Central Plains can be identified in these distinctive burials. This marks a first step towards understanding the heterogeneity in the central population of the late Shang.
... More recently, sites from regions beyond the traditional zones of the development of Chinese civilization have begun to shed new light on the formation of states and complex political entities (Xu 2014). The site of Shimao, rediscovered in 2012 in northern Shaanxi province, has revealed massive stone structures and walls encompassing an area of 400 ha (Sun et al. 2017). Impressive guard towers, jade blades, and large public structures represent just some of the extraordinary nds at Shimao. ...
... To achieve these goals, researchers have utilized isotope analysis of human remains, pottery, and ivory objects in conjunction with paleopathology of infectious diseases. For instance, the place of origin is inferred from the oxygen and strontium isotope ratios of tooth enamel, especially in scattered human remains and those recovered from unique circumstances such as human sacrifice in burial and skull accumulations (Sun et al., 2018). These scattered human remains have not attracted much attention in previous studies because they do not provide information on sex, age, or social background reflected in their burial. ...
... Yangtze River Valley are considered to have experienced urbanization as well [8][9][10][11][12][13][14]. Research on the rain-fed agricultural zone of the Yellow River Valley also portrays a picture of early urbanism almost simultaneous with that of the south [15][16][17][18]. However, in the middle part of Eurasia, where the history of agriculture is relatively shorter [19], the onset of urbanism has often been overlooked. ...
Urbanization is one of the milestones in the development of human society. Many regions in the southern parts of ‘the old world’ demonstrating an early emergence of agriculture also witnessed the flourishing of some of the earliest cities. Recent, yet still sparse, archaeological evidence appears to indicate a relatively later time for early urbanism in central Eurasia. However, given its vital geographic location and cultural nexus between East and West, more attention should be paid to the sedentary communities and their cities in oases amid the vast droughty desert, particularly in light of the rapidly increasing number of publications on early pastoralism and related communication routes along mountain chains and rivers. This study reveals the trajectory of urbanization and its role in the establishment of an exchange network in Xinjiang’s oasis region via reconstruction of the chronological sequence of the local societal history of the Baiyang River Basin along the southern piedmont of the Eastern Tianshan Mountains. A thorough archaeological investigation and refined radiocarbon dating programme was carried out and coupled with information from historical documentation within a Bayesian statistical framework. The results indicate three pulses of local urbanization during: the Early Iron Age, Tang–Yuan period, and Qing Dynasty, respectively. Combining this with evidence from other parts of Xinjiang, we re-evaluate the role of oasis urbanism in the promotion of trans-regional exchange.
... To date, the most archaeologically well-attested location of human sacrifice during this period is the Neolithic megasite of Shimao (2300-1800 BCE), located in the Ordos region of northern Shaanxi Province. So far, ten pits containing between one and 24 human skulls that have evidence of perimortem sharp-force trauma and burning have been found below the initial construction layer (Sun et al., 2018). Evidence of human sacrifice based on mortuary practices, rather than osteological analysis, has also been reported from Bronze Age sites associated with the Siwa (1900-1500 BCE) and Xindian (1500-1000 BCE) material cultures (Shelach-Lavi, 2015). ...
Human sacrifice was practiced in many Neolithic and Bronze Age societies. This chapter seeks to explore the complex relationships between violence, power and societal organization during the Bronze Age by presenting skeletal evidence of human sacrifice from a cemetery site located in Mogou (磨沟), Lintan County, Gansu Province, China, a site associated with the Qijia material culture complex. Here we present an assessment of the skeletal remains of an adult male with evidence of perimortem sharp force injuries to the upper thoracic region of the spine who was buried in a tomb shaft. The sharp-force injuries present on this individual, as well as the burial location and postmortem treatment, suggest that this individual was likely a victim of human sacrifice. The placement of a sacrificial victim within the tomb shaft suggests that sacrifices were made to honor the deceased buried within the tomb, thus establishing a clear hierarchical relationship between those buried within and those placed outside. This suggests that human sacrifice was employed as a culturally-sanctioned mechanism to establish group identity as well as to create and maintain social organization. The findings of this study advance our understanding of the social structure and ritual practices performed at the Mogou site and pave the way for continuing research on the mortuary traditions within the Qijia cultural horizon.
... Built during the Longshan period (3,000-2,000 BCE), the inner oval enclosure covers ca. 210 ha, surrounded by a stone wall 5,700 m long, 2.5 m wide, and 5 m high on average (Sun et al., 2018). In the inner and outer enclosures, baffled gates and other defensive systems such as bastions and corner towers have been identified (Fig. 79). ...
... The Longshan culture (ca. 3000-2000/1900 BCE) developed a diversified subsistence strategy, with agriculture as the main focus and animal husbandry as a supplement [25]. Farmland is the foundation and product of agricultural activities; however, there is currently no clear understanding of the distribution pattern of cultivated land in the region. ...
The distribution of cultivated land in prehistoric times was primarily influenced by natural conditions and population density. This article presents a case study on modern cultivated land simulation to analyze the potential impact of variable selection and validation data accuracy on model precision. Additionally, methods were explored to enhance the accuracy of prehistoric cultivated land simulation. Seven natural variables and one settlement density variable were selected to simulate the distribution of cultivated land based on a Binary Logistic Regression model. The simulated results were then compared with real land use data from 1985, which are commonly used as validation data for prehistoric farmland reconstruction. The findings revealed that all eight selected parameters could explain the distribution of cultivated land in the research area, with annual precipitation being the most influential factor. The initial prediction accuracy was relatively low at 65.8%, with a Kappa coefficient of 0.316. Several factors were identified as affecting the prediction accuracy. Firstly, the scale effect diminished the impact of the slope and elevation on cultivated land distribution, and errors were introduced in the method used to calculate the distance from residential areas. Secondly, the loess hilly area in the southeastern part of the research area overpredicted cultivated land due to insufficient data on actual residential land demand. Lastly, strong human activity since the 1950s has altered the natural distribution of cultivated land, resulting in poor consistency ratings. To address these issues, a batch modification method was employed to correct the 1985 data. The validation of the prediction model using the corrected data demonstrated a significant improvement in accuracy. Therefore, it is recommended to use the revised 1985 land use data for verifying prehistoric cultivated land simulation in the region. However, further research is required to mitigate the impact of the first two errors.
... Jade zhang blades, yues and knives found in Xiajin burials strongly resemble those of the highland Longshan groups (Deng 2017;Wang & Yang 2018) and a copper bell, unearthed at the Taosi site and the earliest example of a multi-cast copper artefact in the Central Plain (Hwang 2014), is compositionally and morphologically similar to artefacts from Shimao and Xichengyi sites (Wu 2018). Two of the females from Xiajin with low δ 18 O values may have come from inland areas, such as northern Shaanxi, Gansu and Qinghai; evidence of smelting and numerous bronze artefacts dating to c. 2000 BC have been recovered from these areas (Gansu 2014;Sun et al. 2018). Just as female cross-regional migration may have aided the spread of metal technologies across central Europe, female exogamy in the Longshan period may have been an important medium for the spread of metallurgy from the north-west region to the Central Plains. ...
The late third-millennium BC Longshan period was a crucial time for state formation in central China. During these centuries, long-distance networks expanded and shared material culture and then cultural practices spread across wider areas precipitating social and ideological developments that presaged the rise of states and cities on the Central Plain. In this research, the authors use multiple (strontium, oxygen and carbon) isotope analyses from the dental enamel of 67 individuals buried at the Xiajin cemetery, Shanxi Province. The results indicate significant long-distance migration among females during the Longshan period, which the authors interpret as evidence of exogamous marriage for political alliance-building—a phenomenon found more widely across Eurasia at the start of the Bronze Age.
... It further supported the view that the Sanxingdui people preferred green nephrite for ritual artefacts rather than white quartzite or marble, although the latter are more common in nearby. In fact, nephrite is widely distributed in China with a use history of almost 10,000 years [31], the preference for nephrite widely existed in China since the Neolithic [32][33][34][35][36]. In the Bronze Age, the nephrite artefacts played key roles in elite life [37,38]. ...
Characterized by various materials, types and patterns, ancient jade is a unique symbol of Chinese civilization. However, crucial information can be jeopardized by the sudden exposure during excavations, and abundant jade artefacts were stored without scientific identification in the archaeological context. Sanxingdui site was an essential center of a complex society in the Chengdu Plain in Bronze Age China. During the new excavation in Sanxingdui sacrificial area (pit K3–K8) since 2019, cabins have been used for better site conservation, providing ideal conditions for on-site study. Employing portable devices, on-site non-destructive analysis were conducted inside pit K8. The results of Raman and XRF show that the raw material is nephrite, indicating the consistency of jade material preference with the majority of Sanxingdui jade from pit K1–K2 and the majority of prehistoric jade as well. Evidence of mineral thermal phase transition from tremolite to diopside was found on the zao chisel and proved the existence of jade burning related to the sacrificial activities. The Fe content in the surrounding soil led to the red and orange colors on the jade surfaces and the neutral environment helped retaining of the original texture and natural luster of the nephrite. Based on the geometric morphometric database, the jade zhang forked blade was quantitatively recognized as the most typical zhang type only found in Sanxingdui. It is demonstrated that the non-destructive analysis is efficient to characterize the ancient jade and makes it possible to construct the database of all the jade artefacts on site, providing the basis of solving larger-scale archaeological problems that are not necessarily bounded by geographical regions or time periods.
... The Huangchengtai platform-elsewhere referred to as King's Palatial Terrace , Pyramid Palace Center (Jaang et al., 2018), Mound of Royal City (Guo et al., 2020), or Central Palatial Terrace -was located at the center of the inner enclosure of the Shimao site. It was the central focus of the region under Shimao's influence Sun et al., 2018): the platform, about 8 ha on the top surface, was surrounded by parapet stone walls with multiple stairs; a rammed-earth building foundation (1500 m 2 ) and a square pond complex (300 m 2 ) were revealed on the top of Huangchengtai; the 2016 excavations revealed over 40,000 artifacts possibly representing disposal from the palatial areas of Huangchengtai; discoveries of stone carvings with zoomorphic, anthropomorphic, and geometric motifs indicate that ritual activity took place at Huangchengtai. In terms of the formation of the Shimao site, Huangchengtai was built first, then enclosed by stone walls to form the inner town (Neicheng, with a walled area of 210 ha), and eventually followed by the outer town (Waicheng, with a walled area of 190 ha), suggesting urban development over time (Shaanxi et al., 2013;Sun et al., 2017). ...
Ceramic raptors were unearthed at the site of Shimao (2300–1800 BCE), a 425-ha walled settlement on the Loess Plateau in northern Shaanxi, China. Bird-shaped figures of similar size and age are rare in prehistoric East Asia. For the first time, the present paper conducted a compositional study on the Shimao ceramic raptors using a non-invasive handheld X-ray fluorescence (hhXRF) analyzer. The hhXRF data were compared with those of Shimao utilitarian vessels and local clays to investigate the production of these artifacts. Multivariate statistical analyses of the compositional data suggest that the ceramic raptors are primarily similar to utilitarian pottery in chemical composition but the source(s) of the clay for making them do not match those of the sampled soils. Three subgroups of the ceramic raptors are recognizable by their body color and characteristics of the exterior surface, and they demonstrate compositional variability possibly suggesting different sources of the clay. In addition, calcium-rich whitish substances are inferred as residues of a white paint intentionally applied during the production or use of ceramic raptors. Based on a discussion of archaeometric and archaeological evidence, we propose that the Shimao ceramic raptors were manufactured by multiple production units and meant to mimic a specific, culturally significant bird species (eagles). We also speculate that they were displayed during special events at restricted locales and were intentionally (even ritually) discarded after use. It is possible that the ceramic raptors constituted a part of the political landscape shaped by the Shimao elites, who possessed authority and power on a regional scale.
... Humans primarily engaged in hunting and only secondarily raised omnivorous livestock (pigs, chickens, dogs) during 6000e4000 BP in the YLA and GQR, while the opposite pattern persisted in the contemporaneous CP ( Fig. 5a and b). Although cattle, sheep, and goats were introduced to northern China during the late 5th Millennium BP and were utilized in some areas, such as Taosi and Shimao (Brunson et al., 2016;Sun et al., 2018), they were not important livestock in Late Neolithic China. Limited zooarchaeological data suggest that humans preferred to raise pigs and dogs in Sichuan and hunt wild animals in Yunnan during 5000e4000 BP (Figs. 4b and 5b). ...
The emergence and intensification of the trans-Eurasian exchange during the Late Neolithic and Bronze Ages profoundly influenced human lifestyles, notably in the arc and the Central Plains. Though the exchange was critical to socioeconomic development, humans adopting livelihood strategies in varying ways depending on geography and social pressures remains unclear. Stable C and N isotopic analysis is the primary approach to study paleodiet—an important insight into ancient human livelihoods. Unfortunately, isotopic data are largely absent in China's Yunnan Province—a component of the arc—especially in the periods prior to 3000 BP. Here, we report the earliest and direct evidence of human diets in Yunnan during the Holocene, as shown by stable C and N isotopes and radiocarbon dates from human and animal bones unearthed from the Baiyangcun site. Integrating our data with archaeobotanical and zooarchaeological data from the Late Neolithic and Bronze Ages throughout the arc and Central Plains, we found that humans heavily relied on C3 foods in Yunnan during 4800–4600 BP and ∼3800–3300 BP and millet remains (C4) found in both periods were probably used for feeding other livestock and/or ritual practices rather than as staple food for humans. We also detected asynchronous transformation of human livelihoods across different regions during 4000–2200 BP, when wheat, barley, and herbivorous livestock were generally utilized in China. These exotic crops and livestock were adopted as necessary subsistence during 4000–3000 BP and became the dominant livelihood during 3000–2200 BP in the Gansu-Qinghai region. However, these practices were auxiliary strategies in Yunnan and the Central Plains during 4000–3000 BP and displayed a significant degree of spatial variation during 3000–2200 BP. We propose that the difference in livelihood transformation in these regions is largely a result of the physical features of crops and livestock, local natural environment, terrain, human survival pressures associated with climate change and population fluctuation.
... It is characterized by a continental monsoon climate with an average annual precipitation of 400 mm (Table 1), and most of the plateau is located in a semiarid zone, based on the aridity index . Because the loess is highly fertile and easy to cultivate , early Chinese agriculture and civilization developed around the LP beginning in the Neolithic era (Barton et al., 2009;Sun et al., 2018). However, due to the anthropic impacts affecting the area for thousands of years, the LP has suffered from soil erosion, land degradation, natural disasters, and extreme poverty . ...
Addressing the sustainability challenges that humanity is facing in the Anthropocene requires the coupling of human and natural systems, rather than their separate treatment. To help understand the dynamics of a coupled human and natural system (CHANS) and support the design of policies and measures that promote sustainability, we propose a conceptual cascade framework of “pattern–process–service–sustainability”, which is characterized by coupling landscape patterns and ecological processes, linking ecological processes to ecosystem services, and promoting social–ecological sustainability. The use of this framework is illustrated by a review of CHANS research experience in China's Loess Plateau (LP), a well-known region for its historically severe soil erosion and successful ecological restoration achieved in recent decades. Ecological restoration in the LP has greatly increased its vegetation coverage and controlled its soil erosion. However, some accompanied issues, like soil drying in some areas due to the introduction of exotic plant species and the mismanagement of planted vegetation and water use conflicts between vegetation and humans caused by the trade-off between carbon sequestration and water supply, have started to threaten the long-term sustainability of the LP. Based on a comprehensive understanding of CHANS dynamics, the social–ecological sustainability of the LP can be improved through enhancing water and food security, implementing basin-wide governance, maintaining ecological restoration achievements, and promoting rural livelihood transition. The research experience accumulated on the LP offers examples of the application of the pattern–process–service–sustainability framework. Future research using this framework should especially focus on the integrated research of multiple processes; the cascades of ecosystem structure, function, services, and human well-being; the feedback mechanisms of human and natural systems; and the data and models for sustainability.
... Besides these finds of copper minerals in South China, the earliest known metal objects in East Asia are all found in North China. Some of the 36 Guo, J. et al. 2018;2019. 37 Some of the earliest ceramics in West Asia are figurines which were put into fire, probably during ritual ceremonies. ...
It has long been known that leaded bronze, an alloy consisting primarily of copper with the addition of tin and lead, was widely used in early China, starting from around the second millennium BC. The additional lead distinguishes this metal from common bronze, the copper-tin binary alloy, used by most other Early Metal Age civilisations in Eurasia. The reasons behind the use of leaded bronze have not been fully examined in previous literature.
In this thesis, the discussion of metallurgical technologies and the studies on material properties are combined with four case studies of early metal-using communities to reinvestigate the use of leaded bronze in early China. With this approach, the thesis challenges the wide held notion that lead was consciously added by the craftspeople, mainly to facilitate the casting. Instead, I argue that the widespread of leaded bronze objects was mainly due to both the socio-economic concerns in making bronze ritual vessels in Central China and the recycling and reuse of the metals by other communities around Central China. Moreover, the seemingly common use of leaded bronze does not reflect a uniform acceptance of a single set of knowledge and know-how. Rather, people in different communities responded differently to this new material and chose to engage it in different ways.
This study on leaded bronze provides us with a new perspective to recognise the complexity and diversity of technology and material culture in early Chinese communities. Meanwhile, through the active discussion on the theoretical frameworks and research methods for archaeometallurgy and material culture studies, I also suggest approaches which may be useful in future studies of early metallurgy and other craft production.
... Climate deterioration in the EASM-dominated area would have affected the balance of the environment, resources, and population, pushing ancient people in EHL to the west, where the climate was improving. For example, the decline of the Hongshan culture [43] in EHL, as well as the prosperity of the Shimao site [69,70], the first Neolithic urban centre on China's north Loess Plateau in WHL, occurred during the period of climate deterioration in the EASM-dominated area. In addition, the millet and wheat/barley agricultural system achieved unprecedented development in WHL due to the improved climate condition beginning in the middle to late Holocene [71]. ...
How various peoples crossed geographical barriers, were affected by climate change and human-made technologies comprise some of the most interesting quandaries in the history of cultures. This paper considers the Hu line, which is a major boundary between population centres and different environments in China. The boundary became evident approximately 11,400 years ago; however, evidence suggests that people crossed through at 5200, 3800, and 2800 cal a BP, facilitating the increases of the trans-Eurasian exchange. The timings of the crossings correspond to the weakening of the East Asian summer monsoon that triggers seesaw changes of precipitation in western and eastern China. This analysis demonstrates that climate change on a millennial-to-centennial scale can have a profound influence on population distribution with long-term consequences.
... The prosperity of the Majiayao (3300 to 2000 BCE) and Qijia cultures (2300 to 1600 BCE) in the Gansu-Qinghai region (40)(41)(42)(43) may also be associated with contemporary favorable regional climate conditions. In the northern and southern Loess Plateau, two large-scale Neolithic urban centers, Shimao (2300 to 1800 BCE) and Taosi (2300 to 1900 BCE), flourished (44,45). Both centers were abandoned after 1800 BCE, perhaps partly as a result of the rapid regime shift from a wet to a dry climate in the second-millennium BCE (considering the radiocarbon dating uncertainty of the archaeological material). ...
Significance
The variability of the Asian summer monsoon (ASM) is important for the functioning of ecological and societal systems at regional to continental scales, but the long-term evolution and interannual variability of this system is not well understood. Here, we present a stable isotope–based reconstruction of ASM variability covering 4680 BCE to 2011 CE. Superimposed on a gradual drying trend, a rapid drop in mean annual precipitation (>40%) toward persistently drier conditions occurred in ∼1675 BCE. This megadrought caused regional forest deterioration and enhanced aeolian activity affecting Chinese ecosystems. We argue that this abrupt aridification starting ∼2000 BCE triggered waves of human migration and societal transformation in northern China, which contributed to the alteration of spatial pattern of ancient civilizations.
... Gianna Ayala et al. (2017) reconstructed the alluvial landscape of Neolithic Çatalhoyük, central southern Turkey. Sun et al. (2017) reported the settlement structure of Neolithic Shimao which was believed as a regional political and ritual center on China's north Loess Plateau. Wu et al. (2019) and Storozum et al. (2020)'s work examines the "city on top of a city' phenomenon at Kaifeng from a geoarcheological perspective. ...
Buried underneath modern Zhengzhou city in Henan Province, China, lies the archeological remains of one of the ancient capital cities of the Shang dynasty (1766 – 1122 BCE). Although it is likely that people planned this Shang capital city according to the demands of the surrounding environment, there is no clear relationship between the current environment, such as the hydrology and topography, and the ancient city’s layout. To better understand the relationship between planning principles used during the Shang dynasty and the nearby environment at Zhengzhou, we measured and sampled stratigraphic exposures at excavation locations throughout Zhengzhou. Through these excavations we obtained both absolute and relative chronological data from each culture layer, enabling us to use geospatial interpolation and analysis methods to reconstruct the ancient landscape. The results show that ancient city’s different activity areas had a close relationship with their environmental context. For example, the Shang dynasty palace was located on high ground and workshops were located down below along the courses of ancient rivers. In conclusion, we argue that research that merges geomorphology and archeology is a necessary prerequisite for understanding the development of urban areas.
... At Liangzhu, the palace district was constructed subsequent to population aggregation around 3000 B.C. (Liu, Wang and Chen 2015). Contemporaneous with Taosi, Shimao city (2300-1800 B.C.) on the north Loess Plateau also had a palace district and exhibited a similar degree of social hierarchy (Jaang et al. 2018;Liu, Wang, Chen et al. 2017;Sun et al. 2018). ...
... At Liangzhu, the palace district was constructed subsequent to population aggregation around 3000 B.C. (Liu, Wang and Chen 2015). Contemporaneous with Taosi, Shimao city (2300-1800 B.C.) on the north Loess Plateau also had a palace district and exhibited a similar degree of social hierarchy (Jaang et al. 2018;Liu, Wang, Chen et al. 2017;Sun et al. 2018). ...
Settlement relocation occurred repeatedly throughout global human history, often resulting in significant sociopolitical and economic changes. Historical records document the use of settlement relocation as a strategy for social engineering in China no later than the late Shang dynasty (1250–1046 B.C.). We employ placemaking theory to examine social changes associated with population movements to Taosi (2300–1900 B.C.) and Erlitou (1750–1520 B.C.) and the processes of urban construction concomitant to the movements at each site. Furthermore, we employ structuration theory to interpret the process of political knowledge building as concerns settlement relocation and social engineering. Based on our assessment of settlement histories, divisions of space, burial patterns, and community formation, we conclude that the use ofsettlement relocation as political strategy was formulated during the Taosi and Erlitou eras, and that it was intentionally implemented for political reform by Phase II of Erlitou. KEYWORDS: placemaking theory, structuration theory, social transformation, Chinese archaeology, settlement archaeology, urbanization.
... On the archaeological side of things, the linkage of Shimao's eventual decline to climate change, while plausible, is at best a preliminary correlation given its location, albeit one that seems to have nothing to do with a putative 4.2 ka BP event. With archaeological work in its infancy at the site (Jaang et al., 2018;Owlett et al., 2018;Sun et al., 2018), we currently understand little about Shimao's food production regime and therefore are in no position to model the impact of temperature and rainfall changes on it (even if we knew what they were). Eventually, factors such as anthropogenic impacts on the environment through deforestation and over-grazing need to be incorporated. ...
Issues surrounding the difficult task of correlating archaeological and climatic trajectories are directly impacting the study of human-environmental interaction in Ancient China. We have chosen to focus on the 4.2 ka BP event due to the widespread belief in recent Chinese archaeological publications that it brought about the collapse of Neolithic cultures in multiple regions of China. Following a literature review concerning the many issues surrounding the reconstruction of the 4.2 ka BP event in East Asia, we present three short case studies from the Lower Yangzi, the Shaanxi loess plateau, and the Central Plains detailing a number of problems with Chinese archaeological attempts at using climate change as a causal mechanism for sociopolitical change. We then focus on a common but highly problematic methodology—the growing use of archaeological data compiled in the Atlas of Chinese Cultural Relics to correlate with climate proxies in order to generate linear, causal models explaining sociopolitical collapse. We follow with an example from Northeast China, where work from the past three decades has provided ample data with which to begin answering these questions in a more productive manner, and end with a set of suggestions for archaeologists and climate scientists going forward.
... These systems were made possible through the integration of both West and East Asian crop and animal domesticates. These flexible agro-pastoral systems also diffused east of Xinjiang, such as at the Shimao Site (4300-3800 cal BP) (Sun et al., 2018) in the northern semi-arid and arid Loess Plateau, where millet-based agriculture, pig, sheep/goat and cattle raising were re-organized into a new type of subsistence pattern, sustaining the development of large walled urban cities. ...
Exploring ancient socio-economic adaptation is a basic issue of human-environment interaction. Xinjiang in northwest China is a region of high geographic diversity. Past human adaptations to this arid marginal area is a current focus of research interest but still lacks in-depth study. This article presents data from the Wupu Cemetery, located in the extremely arid Hami Basin in the eastern Tianshan Mountains. Archaeobotanical analysis is used to reconstruct the local environment niche and the subsistence economy of inhabitants. Radiocarbon dating results indicate the cemetery was occupied between 3000 and 2400 cal BP, during the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age. In total 16 species of the plant remains are identified, including four cereal crops, foxtail millet ( Setaria italica), broomcorn millet ( Panicum miliaceum), naked barley ( Hordeum vulgare var. coeleste), wheat ( Triticum aestivum) and 12 wild types. The riparian plant Populus euphratica and aquatic plant Typha sp. indicate inhabitants lived in an oasis near the cemetery. Environmental interpretation of this data compares well with other seven sites in arid southern Xinjiang. In addition to faunal remains from the site, it is assumed that a flexible system of multi-crop farming and herding was the subsistence pattern around Wupu. This system was widespread across Inner Asia and appears to have played a central role in adapting to different marginal environments during the Bronze Age and Iron Age.
... These changes are not only evident in emerging commercial production of luxury goods in the ERTZ. Recent excavations of Shimao (Sun et al., 2018), a fortified urban centre on the Ordos Plateau, reveal large-scale movement and accumulation of exotic goods and a regional craft production capable of servicing an elite social class between 2300 and 1800 BC. These developments correspond with a second wave of advance in the spread of pastoralist economy and culture arid East Asia, represented in the southern Gobi Desert by what have been noted (Janz, 2012) as subtle shifts in material culture and land-use. ...
Recent research on the origins of domesticated herd animals and bronze metallurgy in China suggests that the Ejiin gol in western China was a primary conduit of trade between northern pastoralists and southern agriculturalists (Jaang, 2015). It is within the context of long-distance trade in luxury goods that we see the shift from isolated populations of pastoralists in the mountains of western Mongolia to the widespread adoption of pastoralist cultural traditions. Based on evidence of interaction between Gobi Desert groups and agrarian villages to the south, we see this desert region as the geographic core of cultural transformations among indigenous populations, and at the forefront of a third stage of advance in the spread of East Asian pastoralism. Evidence presented here for increased trade in luxury goods at the beginning of the second millennium BC, when production was at its height, combined with the rapid pace of transformations in burial culture during the mid-second millennium BC suggests that the movement of goods held extreme significance for the spread of pastoralism. Therefore, the role that Gobi Desert groups played in the formation of early trade networks is vital for understanding the spread of pastoralism in Mongolia. Here, we present new evidence for stone bead production and dairying in the Gobi Desert, and discuss the full range of evidence for the role of Gobi Desert groups in emerging long-distance trade networks.
This article explores the manner in which the Eurasian metallurgical tradition was transformed into an indigenous tradition on the Chinese Central Plains. It argues that the association of luminosity with the divine has a cognitive foundation, which accounts for the use translucent stones and shiny metals, including copper, bronze, silver, and gold as mediums for religious artifacts throughout the world. In China, this association was the primary impetus for the development of an indigenous metallurgy based on a piece-mold and coring technology. Although the technology ultimately concentrated on the production of ritual vessels, it was first developed at Yanshi Erlitou 偃師二里頭 for the production of clapper-bells (ling 鈴), which had similar round hollow bodies.
We further explore the history of clapper-bells, arguing that they were a development of a Central Plains tradition dating back to the Yangshao 仰韶 period (5000–3000 b.c.e.). We argue that their religious significance at Erlitou lay in the previously unheard sound produced when the two luminous substances, jade and bronze, struck against one another. Thus, religious interlocutors at Erlitou used them to contact the ancestral spirits. Later, in the Yinxu 殷墟 period of the Shang Dynasty (ca. 1300–1050 b.c.e.), bronze clapper-bells were worn by dogs buried in tombs. We propose that their role there was a development of the earlier one; that is, they were used to contact the occupant's ancestral spirits as he was guided by the dog in the underworld.
This Element provides an overview of food and foodways in Ancient China, from the earliest humans (~500k BP) up to its historical beginnings: the foundation of the Zhou dynasty (at the start of the 1st millennium BCE). While textual data provides insights on food and diet during China's historical periods, archaeological data is the main source for studying the deep past and reconstructing what people ate, how they ate and with whom they ate it. This Element introduces the plants and animals that formed the building blocks of ancient diets and cuisines, as well as how they created localized lifeways and unifying constructs across ancient China. Foodways, how food was grown, prepared and consumed, was central in the development of differing social, economic and political realities, as it shaped ritual and burial practices, differentiated ethnic groups, solidified community ties and deepened or assuaged social inequalities.
Around 15,000 years ago, almost all humans lived in small mobile foraging bands. By about 5,000 years ago, the first city-states had appeared. This radical transformation in human society laid the foundations for the modern world. We use economic logic and archaeological evidence to explain six key elements in this revolution: sedentism, agriculture, inequality, warfare, cities, and states. In our approach the ultimate cause of these events was climate change. We show how shifts in climate interacted with geography to drive technological innovation and population growth. The accumulation of population at especially rich locations led to creation of group property rights over land, stratification into elite and commoner classes, and warfare over land among rival elites. This set the stage for urbanization based on manufacturing or military defense and for elite-controlled states based on taxation. Our closing chapter shows how these developments eventually resulted in contemporary global civilization.
The purpose of the study is to compare the structural and semantic elements of the two ancient cultures of painted pottery—Yangshao and Trypillia. A comparative and analytical method was used. The study has established the similarity of these two cultures. The number of similarities between the two cultures cannot be explained exclusively by the similarity of the worldviews of ancient grain growers, but also by the cultural exchange between geographically distant territories. These data can serve as a basis for further comparisons of different cultures and help a wide range of experts: historians, archaeologists, geographers, and culturologists.
This article builds on recent archaeological theorizing about early complex societies to analyze the political anthropology of Neolithic and Bronze Age China in a culture-specific trajectory over the longue durée. Synthesizing the latest archaeological discoveries, I show that a series of successive declines, beginning around 2000 BC, took place throughout lowland China. This put an end to the lowland states of the Longshan period (2400–1900 BC) and provided the context for the constitution of the Erlitou secondary state (1900–1500 BC). Following the shift in “archaic states” studies from identifying “what” to investigating “how,” I focus on the strategies, institutions, and relations that undergirded and sustained the Erlitou secondary state. I explore how heterogeneous lowland populations were reorganized after collapse, how a new collective identity was created through ritual and religious performance at the household level at Erlitou, and how Erlitou’s ideologies, political system, and economic network were shaped by the upland polities and societies. Through a series of innovative practices, the Erlitou secondary state did not replicate the preceding Longshan states but instead pioneered a sociopolitical order that was repeatedly reenacted and referred to as a source of legitimacy in successive Bronze Age Central Plains polities.
The Shimao (石峁) site, located in northeastern Shaanxi Province, is the focus of some of the most exciting work being done in
Chinese archaeology today. Since 2012, the site has been included several times in the list of the most important discoveries of Chinese
archaeology and was even selected by the first Shanghai Archaeology Forum as one of the top 10 archaeological discoveries in the
world. Because of its unique nature and the exemplary work being done by its excavators, Shimao could have formed the basis of a
new focus on systematic fieldwork and rigorous model building. Instead, the excavation of Shimao has been subsumed in traditional
narratives that have supported linear views of history and thrown focus especially on its relationship to the emergence of dynastic
China in the Central Plains. We will argue here, rather, that another approach would be to see the Shimao center as the core of a
regional trajectory that is parallel, but not necessarily tied, to the developments in the Central Plains.
Numerosos académicos han señalado las diferencias entre la tradición arqueológica china y otras tradiciones arqueológicas alrededor del mundo. Estas diferencias son el resultado del desarrollo único de la arqueología en China, sus objetivos particulares y su cercana relación con el Estado chino. La Edad del Jade, una propuesta desarrollada al final de los años ochenta y los noventa del siglo XX, es el resultado de la tradición arqueológica china. Este artículo explora las características de la arqueología china y el desarrollo del concepto de la Edad del Jade como consecuencia directa de la misma, desde sus supuestos orígenes en los textos de la dinastía Han hasta su resurrección a finales del siglo pasado, enfatizando su correspondencia con los objetivos y los métodos generales de la arqueología china.
Where do Chinese gender norms come from and how did they culturally evolve through time? This question receives ample debate in the context of Warring States, pre-Imperial, and Imperial China. Many archaeologists and interdisciplinary scholars contend that earliest China treated its women relatively well. This paper’s interdisciplinary examination of bioarchaeological evidence from Neolithic and pre-Imperial sources synthesizes new information to enrich this debate. Discussed are studies of sex-linked DNA drawn from human remains, sex ratio data from burials, and indicators of diet quality including isotopic studies of nitrogen and carbon as well as dental pathologies. The paper focuses on data drawn from polities within the phylocultural cultural trunk leading to Imperial China. Evidence indicates that women in pre-Imperial China were treated less well than in other early societies. Comparative lessons about the cultural evolution of Chinese gender norms in the context of norms in other early civilizations are drawn.
Over the last decade, excavations at the late Neolithic to early Bronze Age site of Shimao in northern Shaanxi Province have transformed our understanding of the archaeology of early China. What was previously seen as an area that was peripheral to the development of early dynastic centers in northern China is now being heralded by some scholars as a precursor of Chinese civilization. However, despite incredible finds of large-scale stone architecture, bronze working, thousands of jade artifacts, and elaborate stone carvings, our overall understanding of the economic and political organization of the inhabitants of Shimao is still very limited. In this study we examine the most common artifact class at the site, pottery, using petrographic analysis, in order to explore production methods as well as potential production organization and exchange. As our results demonstrate, most of the pottery used at Shimao was likely produced locally, potentially by multiple production groups at or near the site, but the ceramics were not particularly standardized in regard to paste recipes. These results likely reflect that ceramic production was not tightly controlled or formalized, but instead took place in local households or workshops, much like ceramic production in many other parts of northern China at the time.
Limited comparative data from different regions has hampered understanding of variation in the development of urbanism during the late Neolithic period of China. This paper evaluates excavation remains from large, Longshan period sites regarded as cities in the Haidai or eastern seaboard area of northern China, highlighting the site of Liangchengzhen (LCZ). We identify differences in construction features, internal settlement organization, and patterns of expansion. At LCZ, moats were especially important for the organization of space. The Liangchengzhen excavations reveal residential patterns not recognized at other Longshan sites, including shared prepared surfaces between structures and construction features likely designed to enhance privacy. We describe the abundant evidence for production of ground stone tools, including assessment of the wide variety of raw materials (local, extra-local, non-local) represented among the lithic production debris and finished tools. We conclude that there was diversification and intensification of lithic production over time. We infer that a large area at Liangchengzhen was devoted to lithic production, with other economic activities focused elsewhere as the settlement expanded in size. Future research should compare the nature of lithic production and consumption at large and small sites on a regional basis to evaluate our hypothesis that incipient market exchange was a factor in the urbanization process in the LCZ area of southeastern Shandong.
Studies on the interactions between humans and their environment during prehistory have become increasingly popular in recent years. This study focused on the subsistence strategies and environmental significance of Neolithic humans using information derived from archaeological discoveries in the Mu Us Desert, China. The results showed that the earliest Neolithic humans appeared in the Mu Us Desert region in the middle Holocene during expansion of the Yangshao culture, and reached this remote area of northwestern China around 7.0 ka before present (BP). The large number and sizes of the registered 527 archaeological sites indicated that the culture was prosperous during the Longshan culture period (4.8 ka BP-3.9 ka BP), whereas it showed a decline during the later Bronze Age. Data based on examination of 37 excavated sites in the Mu Us Desert indicated that the rise and fall of the cultures were closely linked with changes in subsistence strategies, which included possible subsistence behaviors, agriculture, animal husbandry, hunting and fishing. Data collected for the typical stone/bone tools and animal remains suggested settled agriculture was dominant in the Yangshao culture whereas the Longshan culture practiced mixed animal husbandry and hunting, which facilitated a prosperous society. In addition, changes in the numbers and positions of archaeological sites over time as well as the proportion of animal remains and stone/bone tools reflected an obvious decline in culture and human activity during the Bronze Age. The variation and adaptation in subsistence behavior during the Neolithic were mainly triggered by the development of prehistoric society and culture, as well as by the relatively optimum climate condition during the Holocene Megathermal. The results of this study may offer insights in the long-term effects of human societies and the potential feedbacks on prehistorical subsistence strategies.
The Neolithic to Bronze Age transition ( c . 5000–3500 BP) saw dramatic socio-economic developments in ancient China. Complex polities emerged in many regions, only to decline and collapse by the end of the period. In the Central Plains area, however, these centuries laid the foundations for China's first dynasties. This article presents zooarchaeological, palaeobotanical and isotopic research from key sites of the Central Plains spanning the period c . 5000–3500 BP. The results demonstrate that, contrary to narratives of the climate-induced collapse of these polities, Central Plains agricultural regimes intensified and diversified during the Neolithic to Bronze Age transition.
Over the past several thousand years, arid and semiarid China has experienced a series of asynchronous desertification events in its semiarid sandy and desert regions, but the precise identification of the driving forces of such events has remained elusive. In this paper we identify two rapid desertification events (RDEs) at ~4.6 ± 0.2 ka BP and ~3.3 ± 0.2 ka BP from the JJ Profile, located in the eastern Mu Us Sandy Lands. These RDEs appear to have occurred immediately following periods marked by persistently frequent and intense fires. We argue that such fire patterns, directly linked to an uncontrolled human use of vegetation as fuel, played a key role in accelerating RDEs by ensuring that the land surface was degraded beyond the threshold required for rapid desertification. This would suggest that the future use of a massive and sustained ecological program of vegetation rehabilitation should reduce the risk of destructive fire.
Based on comprehensive analysis of the stratigraphic age, ancient ruins distribution, pollen analysis nearby Sarah Wusu River and archaeological information, ancient literature about this river, combined with field investigation, the authors found that the geomorphology hydrologic situation, vegetation, desertification and human activities have changed a lot on both sides of Sarah Wusu River since the Tang Dynasty. These changes are the results of both downcutting and climate change of Sarah Wusu River. The deep valley of Sarah Wusu River began to form after mid and late Tang Dynasty, and there were few lakes with almost no human activities before that time. The downcutting of Sarah Wusu River formed wetlands environment on it's both sides in the Song and Yuan Dynasties which was suitable for the lush pastoral economy, resulting in prosperity of human activities. After the Yuan Dynasty, the depth of the river was too deep, causing the deterioration of the hydrological conditions. Along with climate change and human activities, it led to decline of environment and human activities. It was also an important reason for the desertification event in late Ming Dynasty.
The brain site of perceptual learning has been frequently debated. Recent psychophysical evidence for complete learning transfer to new retinal locations and orientations/directions suggests that perceptual learning may mainly occur in high-level brain areas. Contradictorily, ERP C1 changes associated with perceptual learning are cited as evidence for training-induced plasticity in the early visual cortex. However, C1 can be top-down modulated, which suggests the possibility that C1 changes may result from top-down modulation of the early visual cortex by high-level perceptual learning. To single out the potential top-down impact, we trained observers with a peripheral orientation discrimination task and measured C1 changes at an untrained diagonal quadrant location where learning transfer was previously known to be significant. Our assumption was that any C1 changes at this untrained location would indicate top-down modulation of the early visual cortex, rather than plasticity in the early visual cortex. The expected learning transfer was indeed accompanied with significant C1 changes. Moreover, C1 changes were absent in an untrained shape discrimination task with the same stimuli. We conclude that ERP C1 can be top-down modulated in a task-specific manner by high-level perceptual learning, so that C1 changes may not necessarily indicate plasticity in the early visual cortex. Moreover, learning transfer and associated C1 changes may indicate that learning-based top-down modulation can be remapped to early visual cortical neurons at untrained locations to enable learning transfer.
Urban centers have inner and outer landscapes whose physical remains can be read as the materialization of social, political, economic, and ritual interactions. Inner landscapes are manifested in architecture and spatial organizations that configure relationships on the basis of economic status, ethnicity, occupation, age grade, and gender within the city. Outer landscapes are composed of the hinterlands on which urban centers depend for resources, including agricultural products and in-migrating laborers who seek economic and social opportunities. Urban-based elites reach deep into the countryside not only as a matter of political control, but also for investment of centralized resources into infrastructure such as canals, roads, and territorial borders. The monumental and household configurations of cities, expressed both at the heart of urban centers and in their countrysides, enable a distinct phenomenology of interaction mapped into daily experiences.
Sample size and power determination is the first step in the experimental design of a successful study. Sample size and power calculation is required for applications for National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding. Sample size and power calculation is well established for traditional biological studies such as mouse model, genome wide association study (GWAS), and microarray studies. Recent developments in high-throughput sequencing technology have allowed RNAseq to replace microarray as the technology of choice for high-throughput gene expression profiling. However, the sample size and power analysis of RNAseq technology is an underdeveloped area. Here, we present RNAseqPS, an advanced online RNAseq power and sample size calculation tool based on the Poisson and negative binomial distributions. RNAseqPS was built using the Shiny package in R. It provides an interactive graphical user interface that allows the users to easily conduct sample size and power analysis for RNAseq experimental design. RNAseqPS can be accessed directly at http://cqs.mc.vanderbilt.edu/shiny/RNAseqPS/.
The authors present new research on the Chifeng area of north-eastern China where they have been studying the remains of a society of the second millennium BC. This northern region, which saw the introduction of agriculture at the same time as the Yellow River basin experienced a brief and intensive period of fortification in the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age: natural ridges above the valleys were ringed with double stone walls and semicircular towers enclosing clusters of round houses with yards. Using large-scale survey and analysis of the structures at the key site of Sanzuodian, they place this phenomenon in its cultural and social context.
Convincing evidence has demonstrated the association of thyroid-stimulating hormone receptor (TSHR) with Graves' disease (GD) in the Chinese Han population.
The aim of this study was to identify the causal variants for GD in the region encompassing TSHR by a refining association study.
GD patients (1,536) and 1,516 sex-matched controls were recruited in the first stage, and an additional 3,832 GD patients and 3,426 sex-matched controls were recruited in the replication stage. Genotyping was performed using Illumina Human660-Quad BeadChips or TaqMan® single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) Genotyping Assays and the Fluidigm EP1 platform.
When the results of regression analysis for 74 genotyped SNPs and 922 imputed SNPs in the first-stage cohort were combined, rs179243 and rs3783949 were the probable susceptibility SNPs associated with GD in TSHR. Eleven SNPs, including rs179243 and rs3783949, were selected to further refine the association in the replication study. Finally, rs12101261 and rs179243 were confirmed as independent GD susceptibility variants in the replication and combined populations. Further, we also found that the rate of persistent TSHR autoantibody positivity (pTRAb+) is significantly higher in the GD patients with the susceptible genotypes rs12101261 or rs179243 than in the GD patients carrying the protective genotypes, after the GD patients had been treated for more than 1 year.
These findings indicate that rs12101261 and rs179243 are the possible causal SNPs for GD susceptibility in the TSHR gene and could serve as genetic markers to predict the outcome of pTRAb+ in GD patients.
Archaeological research on monumentality, early urbanism, and emergent statehood in Southeast Asia and Vietnam has grown dramatically in recent years, and our understanding of social evolution in Southeast Asia has moved beyond traditional models of Sinicization and Indianization. Although many researchers recognize the significance of the historic and classical states of the first and second millennia AD, the seeds of statehood and urbanism can be seen in a moated settlement pattern during the first millennium BC. The largest in this category of Iron Age settlements, the heavily fortified Co Loa site in Vietnam’s Red River Valley, is emblematic of a tradition of settlements marked by earthworks and moat systems. The scale and extent of Co Loa’s massive earthen rampart system, involving a complex construction enterprise, reflect planning and implementation by a highly centralized, multigenerational, and institutionalized authority. Dating to the last centuries BC, Co Loa represents one of the earlier ancient state-level societies in Vietnam and the wider Southeast Asian region. Ultimately, the durability of Co Loa’s institutions of power and governance is suggested by the nature of its rampart system and construction process, and a package of variables contributed to emergent complexity. In particular, the presence of a monumental system of defensive works, combined with other archaeological markers for intraregional competition and violence, underscores the potential role of warfare and physical coercion in the course of political centralization.
Questions relating to state emergence in China are often intertwined with the origins of early dynasties. This subject involves many disciplines , including archaeology, history, and anthropology, and scholars from these fields often employ different definitions for states/ civilization, use various approaches, and address diverse issues. This article intends to provide an overview of major archaeological findings, approaches, interpretations, and debates on certain issues. Controversial questions include whether some of late Neolithic polities can be considered early states, and whether ancient textual accounts can be used to guide archaeological interpretations. It may not be possible in the near future to alter the historiographically determined approach, which pervades Chinese archaeology, but social-archaeology methods for investigating the political-economic system on regional and interregional scales have proven productive.
Luminescence dating of the fluvial and lacustrine sediments from the Sala Us River valley at the south edge of the Mu Us Desert, central Inner Mongolia, is reported. The study region lies in the northwestern marginal zone of the east Asian summer monsoon and is sensitive to climate change. The dating results combined with environmental proxies indicate that the Holocene Climate Optimum period, took place from 8.5 to 5 ka ago and was marked by lake development. After ~5 ka ago, the region became arid, as inferred from lake regression and fluvial activity. Deposition of fluvial sediments lasted from ~5 ka to ~2 ka ago. At about 2 ka ago, incision of the Sala Us River was initiated into the underlying sediments, with a down-cutting rate of ~3–4 cm/yr. Since 2 ka ago, human activities also played an important role in causing environmental change in the region.
A 5.3 m lake core was drilled in Baahar Nuur Lake in the Ordos Plateau, and measurements of mean grain size, organic δ
13C (δ
13Corg), organic carbon content (TOC), C/N, carbonate content, carbonate δ
13C (δ
13Ccar) and δ
18O (δ
18Ocar) were conducted for retrieving the Holocene chronosequence of climatic changes based on 15 AMS 14C dates. The record documented four major stages of climate change in the Ordos Plateau: (IV) a cold and dry condition before ∼7.65 14C ka BP; (III) a warm and humid stage between ∼7.65 and ∼5.40 ka BP; (II) a generally drier and cooler climate since ∼5.40 ka BP with two humid events occurring from ∼4.70 to ∼4.60 ka BP and from ∼4.20 to ∼3.70 ka BP, and (I) a dry climate characterized by complete desiccation of the lake after 3.70 ka BP. Stage III can be further divided into three sub-stages: (IIIa) a warm and humid episode from ∼7.65 to ∼6.70 ka BP, (IIIb) a warm and relatively dry episode from ∼6.70 to ∼6.20 ka BP, and (IIIc) the magthermal and maghumid episode of the Holocene from ∼6.20 to ∼5.40 ka BP.
(Translator's Note: This article originally appeared in Kaogu Xuebao 1981.3: 269-284, and is translated with the author's permission.)
I. The appearance of metal is a very important event in human history, marking the start of an age. From the patriarchal clan communes of the late Neolithic period to the slave society of the Bronze Age, there was a great change in the relationship between social development and production. As a result, the origin and development of metal-working is one of the important issues in archaeological research (p. 269).
Early in the Shang dynasty, China had already advanced into slave society, and its brilliant bronze culture is an outstanding phenomenon in the history of the ancient world. Shang civilization evolved from Longshan foundations, and there is ample archaeological proof of the close relationship between the two. But from what origins did Shang bronze arise? Before the Shang, was there an aeneolithic period in which copper was used? These questions have not yet been satisfactorily answered. Since 1949 the new discoveries of copper objects and of bronze objects belonging to an early period have contributed important clues to the solution of these problems.
The mortuary data from the Longshan culture provide crucial information for understanding the process of socio-political change from non-stratified to stratified societies in late Neolithic China. This article identifies the variables in Longshan burials that can be correlated with social rank, and then studies four Longshan burial sites (Taosi, Chengzi, Yinjiacheng, and Zhufeng) in two steps. The first step is to classify the evidence for determining burial rank; the second step is to analyze intra-cemetery spatial patterns through time, including the location of graves within a site, the distribution of differently ranked graves and spatial relationships between graves and associated features (houses and pits), the diachronic changes observed in a site, and the depositional practices relating to ritual activities. The results of these analyses suggest that kinship-based Longshan communities were internally and externally stratified in their social structure; that this social stratification was ideologically legitimized by ritual activities that emphasized ancestor worship; and that their society was politically reinforced by an elite exchange network of high status goods at both regional and interregional levels. These social, political, and religious relationships formed the foundation for the development of civilization in prehistoric North China.
The study was to clarify the events of monsoon climate recorded by the palaeovegetation, using the results of pollen analysis, organic carbon δ 13C, together with high-resolution 14C dating in the desert-loess transition zone for the last 13 ka BP. The palaeovegetation went though in the order of 9 periods viz.: Desert-grassland, steppe, semi-desert, humid-grassland, desert, sparse-wood-grassland, desert-grassland, grassland, and desert grassland. The semi-desert, humid-grassland, and desert corresponded with the Younger Dryas events of cold-dry, cool-humid, and cold-dry climate after the end of the last glaciation. The optimum of the Holocene and other humid period between 4.5 - 3.5 ka BP were of high significance in research area.
This book explores the roles of agricultural development and advancing social complexity in the processes of state formation in China. Over a period of about 10, 000 years, it follows evolutionary trajectories of society from the last Paleolithic hunting-gathering groups, through Neolithic farming villages, and on to the Bronze Age Shang dynasty in the latter half of the second millennium BC. Li Liu and Xingcan Chen demonstrate that sociopolitical evolution was multicentric and shaped by inter-polity factionalism and competition, as well as by the many material technologies introduced from other parts of the world. The book illustrates how ancient Chinese societies were transformed during this period from simple to complex, tribal to urban, and preliterate to literate.
This year, as it seems every year, news comes from China of another spectacular archaeological discovery. What is the framework of ideas and research that studies these treasures? And how does the special character of Chinese history, with its long, near-continuous record of dynasties, written sources and encyclopaedic texts, give archaeology a different place, whether higher or lower, among the other historical and social sciences?
The Hujiayu Cu deposit, representative of the “HuBi-type” Cu deposits in the Zhongtiao Mountains district in the southern edge of the North China Craton, is primarily hosted in graphite-bearing schists and carbonate rocks. The ore minerals comprise mainly chalcopyrite, with minor sphalerite, siegenite [(Co, Ni)3S4], and clausthalite [Pb(S,Se)]. The gangue minerals are mainly quartz and dolomite, with minor albite. Four fluid inclusion types were recognized in the chalcopyrite-pyrite-dolomite-quartz veins, including CO2-rich inclusions (type I), low-salinity, liquid-dominated, biphase aqueous inclusions (type II), solid-bearing aqueous inclusions (type III), and solid-bearing aqueous-carbonic inclusions (type IV). Type I inclusion can be further divided into two sub-types, i.e., monophase CO2 inclusions (type Ia) and biphase CO2-rich inclusions (with a visible aqueous phase), and type III inclusion is divided into a subtype with a halite daughter mineral (type IIIa) and a subtype with multiple solids (type IIIb). Various fluid inclusion assemblages (FIAs) were identified through petrographic observations, and were classified into four groups. The group-1 FIA, consisting of monophase CO2 inclusions (type Ia), homogenized into the liquid phase in a large range of temperatures from −1 to 28°C, suggesting post-entrapment modification. The group-2 FIA consists of type Ib, IIIb and IV inclusions, and is interpreted to reflect fluid immiscibility. The group-3 FIA comprises type II and IIIa inclusions, and the group-4 FIA consists of type II inclusions with consistent phase ratios. The group-1 and group-2 FIAs are interpreted to be entrapped during mineralization, whereas group-3 and group-4 FIAs probably represent the post-mineralization fluids. The solid CO2 melting temperatures range from −60.6 to 56.6° C and from −66.0 to −63.4° C for type Ia and type IV inclusions, respectively. The homogenization temperatures for type II inclusions range from 132 to 170°C for group-3 FIAs and 115 to 219°C for group-4 FIAs. The halite melting temperatures range from 530 to 562°C for type IIIb and IV inclusions, whereas those for type IIIa inclusions range from 198 to 398°C. Laser Raman and SEM-EDS results show that the gas species in fluid inclusions are mainly CO2 with minor CH4, and the solids are dominated by calcite and halite. The calcite in the hosting marble and dolomite in the hydrothermal veins have δ13CV-PDB values of −1.2 to 1.2‰ and −1.2 to −6.3‰, and δ18OV-SMOW values of 14.0 to 20.8 ‰ and 13.2 to 14.3 ‰, respectively. The fluid inclusion and carbon-oxygen isotope data suggest that the ore-forming fluids were probably derived from metamorphic fluids, which had reacted with organic matter in sedimentary rocks or graphite and undergone phase separation at 1.4–1.8 kbar and 230–240°C, after peak metamorphism. It is proposed that the Hujiayu Cu deposit consists of two mineralization stages. The early stage mineralization, characterized by disseminated and veinlet copper sulfides, probably took place in an environment similar to sediment-hosted stratiform copper mineralization. Ore minerals formed in this precursor mineralization stage were remobilized and enriched in the late metamorphic hydrothermal stage, leading to the formation of thick quartz–dolomite–sulfides veins.
After describing the history of research at Taosi and regional settlement pattern data, this chapter outlines the internal settlement organization at Taosi during the early and middle periods. The city of Taosi was occupied during three periods of the Taosi culture: early, middle, late. The abundant remains from the Taosi site and Taosi culture reveal the development of a state society in the middle Yellow river valley during the Longshan period. The regional survey data demonstrate that the settlement at Taosi was a regional capital supported by smaller settlements. Excavations at some smaller sites revealed the likelihood of specialized economic activities that must have been controlled by the state. Fieldwork revealed many important remains from the early- and middle-period cities at Taosi, including a palace area and royal cemetery. The important ritual remains from the middle period include an observatory that must have played a major role in state affairs.
On the basis of a review of major researchachievementsover the past ten years, this paper discusses some challenging issues in current studies of ancient Chinese metallurgy, with a focus on the beginnings of bronze metallurgy in China, regional bronze technologies during the Shang dynasty, early developments of iron technology, emergence of lost-wax casting technology, manufacturing techniques of gold objects, and Qin metallurgy. It will also offer some observations on future directions for the study of ancient Chinese metallurgy.
Systematic analysis of the Rb and Sr contents and Rb/Sr ratios in different lithological units of the palaeosol-aeolian sequence in the southeastern Mu Us Desert revealed that the Rb/Sr ratio is an accurate proxy for past East Asian summer monsoonal strength and moisture change. A lower Sr content and a higher Rb/Sr ratio, chemical index of alteration (CIA), and clay and organic matter (OM) content in the palaeosol are coincident with stronger Asian summer monsoons and increased precipitation, whereas a higher Sr content and a lower Rb/Sr ratio, CIA, and clay and OM content correspond to a dry climate with weaker summer monsoonal strength. Based on these results, the history of Holocene moisture changes was reconstructed as follows: the moisture was lower before 7.5 ka and approached an optimal climate between 7.5 ka and 4.6 ka, afterwards, the climate tended to be dry. Additionally, six millennial-scale dry events were recorded at the times of ∼7.5 ka, 7.0–6.8 ka, 6.6–5.7 ka, 4.6–4.1 ka, 3.7–3.5 ka, and 3.3–2.5 ka, which were very accordant with cold phases evidenced by ice cores and deep-sea deposits in the low and high latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. These were also coincident with weaker Asian summer monsoonal intervals revealed by stalagmites within the dating uncertainties, probably implying a prominent synchronism of Holocene millennial-scale climate changes in the Mu Us Desert and global climate changes.
The problem of historical desertification of the Mu Us desert, northern China has been paid considerable attention during the past several decades. Through the analysis of stratigraphic evidence, historical records and archaeological discoveries, this paper studied the problem using a multidisciplinary approach. The results show that two phases of serious desertification occurred during the last two millennia, one is during the mid-to-late Tang dynasty (about A.D. 800) and the other during the late Ming dynasty (about A.D. 1500–1600). Further investigation of the cause of each phase of desertification demonstrates that the former phase of desertification is closely related to abrupt climate change occurring in the mid-eighth century, but the latter, which started during the Ming dynasty and stopped at late 1980s, is not consistent with climatic causation. Therefore, we suggest that human activities contributed to the development of the latter phase of desertification.
This article discusses several universal features of fortifications and distinguishes those features that are unequivocally
military in function. The evidence adduced includes the features of known historic fortifications, relevant prescriptions
by ancient military authors, and geometry. The archaeologically visible features that are universally used in military defenses
are V-sectioned ditches, “defended” (especially baffled) gates, and bastions. It is also noted that ritual, ceremonial, or
any other peaceful activities conducted within an enclosure having these architectural features does not preclude its obvious
military function.
'The Urban Revolution' by V. Gordon Childe (Town Planning Review, 1950) is one of the most heavily cited papers ever published by an archaeologist. The intellectual context and influence of Childe's paper are examined here. Childe was the first to synthesise archaeological data with respect to the concept of urbanism, and the first to recognise the radical social transformation that came with the earliest cities and states. This paper traces the influence of his ideas and shows their relevance to studies of ancient urbanism today. Although Childe's treatment of urban planning was brief, his ideas presaged current research into ancient urban planning. The paper ends with a call for renewed interaction between scholars of ancient and modern urbanism.
In the present study, nuclear transferred embryos (NTEs) were reconstructed by using pig fetal fibroblasts as donors and in vitro matured oocytes as recipients. The effects of G418 selection on donor cells, duration of IVM of prepubertal gilt oocytes and oxygen tension in IVM of oocytes were investigated. The results were as follows: (i) When G418 selected cells expressing GFP were used as donors, the cleavage rate of NTEs decreased drastically in comparison to NTEs derived from donors without antibiotic selection (47.5% vs. 71.6%, p < 0.05). For the blastocyst rate, no significant difference was observed between two groups (10% vs. 10.4%, p > 0.05). (ii) The rate of nuclear maturation of oocytes increased significantly when IVM duration time was extended from 36 to 42 h (83.6% vs. 96.7%, p < 0.05). However, no statistical difference was observed between NTEs derived from oocytes of 36 h IVM group and NTEs from oocytes of 42 h IVM group in the rates of cleavage (59.3% vs. 73.6%, p > 0.05) and blastocyst formation (9.3% vs. 13.2%, p > 0.05); (iii) no significant difference was observed between NTEs reconstructed from oocytes matured under lower oxygen (7% O2) tension and NTEs derived from oocytes matured under higher oxygen tension (20% O2) in cleavage rate (70.6% vs. 67.1%, p > 0.05) and blastocyst rate (11.8% vs. 12.3%, p > 0.05). These results suggest that: (i) G418 selection does not have a significant effect on cleavage rate of NTEs expressing GFP. (ii) Nuclear maturation is greatly improved by prolonging IVM duration from 36 to 42 h, while no significant differences were observed for developmental potential of transgenic embryos. Thus IVM 42 h is the better choice in order to obtain maximum number of M II oocytes as recipients. (iii) Lower oxygen tension and higher oxygen tension in IVM have no significant effect on development of cloned embryos.
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