Transcript Slide 1

Yellow R.
Yangtze R.
SE Asia
East Asia:
millets, rice, pigs, chickens, yak,
water buffalo, dog, humped
cattle (Zebu), and others
Orange = millet
Blue = rice
Transition to Agriculture in the
Yellow River: Millet
• Hunter-gatherer sites until 9,500 BP when
denticulate tools with sheen from
harvesting grasses, such as wild green
foxtail millet
• Nanzhuangtou (12,500-9,500 BP)
– Small sample of pot sherds
– Grinding stone
– Possibly domestic pig bones (earliest in
central China) and dog
Cishan
• 1976-78 excavations revealed two Neolithic layers
dating to 8000-6700 BP
• 8 ha (20 acre) open site, suggesting population in
the low hundreds or more
• Small, semi-subterranean round houses
• Hundreds of pits likely for storage of grains,
including domesticated millet, and gathered plants
• Domesticated dogs and pigs predominate but also
included fish, shellfish, turtles, deer, monkey, wild
pig, and birds, including early domesticated chicken
Lu H et al. PNAS 2009;106:7367-7372
Peiligang Culture, 8500-6500 BP
• Between 1977 and 1979, two hectare site of
Peiligang composed of a dwelling area and a
graveyard.
• Most houses are semi-subterranean buildings,
with kitchen areas and kiln-fired pottery (like
Cishan site)
• 116 burials arranged into three clusters that
might be clan groups
• Like Cishan site, many polished stone spades
and other agricultural tools
Peiligang Culture
• Over 70 sites have been
identified associated with
the Peiligang culture.
• Likely egalitarian: sociopolitical organization
based on age, gender,
and achievement.
• Cultivation of millet and
raising pigs.
• Early Neolithic pottery.
• Jiahu among earliest
Peiligang sites.
Jiahu
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Three distinct phases: oldest from 9000 to 8600 BC;
middle from 6600 to 6200 BC; and last from 6200 to
5800 BC. Early phase is unique, but latter two are
affiliated with Peiligang culture;
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Cultivated millet and rice. Millet cultivation common in
Peiligang culture, rice cultivation is unique at Jiahu;
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Over 300 burials accompanied by offerings:
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Playable tonal flutes;
Some of the oldest Neolithic pottery;
Chemical analysis on jars yielded evidence of alcohol
fermented from rice, honey and hawthorn (feasting?);
Markings on tortoise shells (9) and bone (2): protowriting? Some of the markings are similar to characters
common to later societies along the Yellow River.
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Houli, Lower Yellow River
• Houli culture, 6500-5500 BC
• Round/square, semi-subterranean houses
• Domesticated dogs and pigs
• Evidence of early rice cultivation in the Yellow
River basin from carbonized rice.
Dadiwan, Western Yellow River
• Basic similarities in pottery (cord marked), architecture (round
houses), and site plan (scattered dwellings) with other “preYangshao” Neolithic complexes of the Yellow River (Cishan,
Peiligang, and Houli);
• Dadiwan site: pre-Yangshao farming communities begin ca. 59005300 BC (some carbonized millet) followed by later Neolithic
Yangshao village ca. 4500-2900 BC.
Yangshao Culture, ca. 5000 BC
Large Agricultural Villages
Banbo (Ban-po-ts'un)
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5,000-4,000 BC, Banpo was a permanent village of about 500 people
Remains of 45 houses, 2 stables, more than 200 cellars, 6 kilns, and about 250
graves.
Round and square houses made with thatch over wood beams; floors were sunk up
to a meter into the ground with a central hearth. Food was stored in underground pits.
Trench around complex both for protection and for drainage.
Large meeting hall in the center of the village and a place for central storage (ritual
feasting?).
Some of the pottery items have marks scratched on them that may anticipate writing.
Specialized pots for drinking, storage, cooking, and burial.
Jiangzhai settlement (Shi 2001:62)
One of the few Yangshao settlements extensively excavated.
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Dawenkou culture (4300-2500 BC), lower Yellow River, overlapped in time with
Yangshao culture; precursor of Longshan (discussed in later class).
Over 100 tombs in rectangular pit-graves, most oriented with head toward the
east; many bodies with deer teeth in their hands.
Late Dawenkou culture shows more social differentiation than earlier cultures
along Yellow River. Most tombs had 10-20 objects, some had only one or two,
and the richest burials had 50 or more (up to 180+).
In the larger tombs coffins were placed inside wooden chambers. Larger
graves with more goods separated from those with less.
Differences interpreted as evidence of rank?
Neolithic Cultures of China
Yellow River
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6500–4500 BC: Peiligang, middle Yellow River
6300-5500 BC: Houli, lower Yellow River
5900–5300 BC: Dadiwan, mid-upper Yellow R.
5000–3000 BC: Yangshao, middleYellow River
4500-2400 BC: Dawenko, lower Yellow River
Yangzi River
• 6500–5000 BC: Pengtoushan, middle Yangzi R.
• 5000–4000 BC: Hemudu, lower Yangzi River
• 4500–3300 BC: Daxi (3 Gorges) middle Yangzi
Transition from Wild to
Cultivated Rice, 8000-6000 BC
• Chinese Late Paleolithic cave sites such as Yuchan are
rich in terrestrial and aquatic fauna, including deer, boar,
birds, tortoises, fish, and various small mammals.
• Rice phytoliths and husks have been identified at several
cave sites (Xianrendong, Diaotonghuan, and Yuchan)
suggest an incipient stage of cultivation.
• These plant remains and early pottery suggest that
caves are predecessors of the early Holocene open-air
Neolithic villages found in the alluvial plain of the Yangzi
River (Pengtoushan Culture).
See Boaretto et al. (2009), PNAS
Archaeological sites with evidence of early plant or animal domestication:
(1) Dadiwan. (2) Baijia. (3) Jiahu. (4) Peiligang. (5) Cishan. (6) Yuezhuang.
(7) Nanzhuangtou. (8) Xinglongwa. (9) Diaotonghuan/Xianrendong. (10) Kuahuqiao.
(Barton et al. (2009) PNAS)
Yuchan Cave,
Hunan Province
• Late Paleolithic foragers' camp.
Dates range from 21,000 to
13,800 cal BP (19-11,800 BC)
• Pottery ranges between 18,300
and 15,430 cal BP, earliest
evidence for pottery making in
China (world?).
• Charcoal closely associated
with potsherds dated to 16,700–
15,850 cal BP and organic
residue from ceramic to 17,750–
16,900 cal BP
Boaretto et al. (2009), PNAS
Pengtoushan, 7500-6100 BC
• Pengtoushan culture, roughly contemporaneous with Peiligang
culture to north.
• Primary examples: Pengtoushan site and the later Bashidang site
(7000-6000 BC).
• Pengtoushan site is among earliest permanently settled villages in
China.
• It was excavated in 1988, but difficult to date accurately, with a large
variability in dates ranging from 9000 BC to 5500 BC.
• Excavations revealed four houses and 19 burials, some with grave
goods, including cord-marked pots;
• One large house and several small ones may show institutional
social inequality (rank).
• Analysis of rice residues C14 dated to 8200-7800 BC show possible
early that domesticated rice; size of the Pengtoushan rice was larger
than the size of naturally-occurring wild rice.
• Although not found at Pengtoushan, rice-cultivating tools were found
at Bashidang (7000-6000 BC), a large site (3 ha/7.5 acres), with
early domesticated rice and possible raised houses.
Daxi, Middle Yangzi
• The Daxi culture (5000 BC3000 BC), middle Yangtze
River, China (Three Gorges
Dam).
• Daxi sites are typified by the
presence of cylindrical
bottles, white pan plates, and
red pottery.
• Daxi people cultivated rice
extensively.
• Daxi sites were some of the
earliest in China to show
evidence of moats and walled
settlements.
Hemudu, Lower Yangzi
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5,000-3,000 BC
Bovid shoulder blade spades
Wooden oars, net sinkers, fishing spears
Whales and sharks
Advanced weaving technology
Population of many hundreds to low thousands
• Nearby Shangshan site provides possible
evidence of early domesticated rice, with
permanent houses and ceramics (tempered with
rice husks): 9400-8400 BC
Hemudu: large, stout,
elevated houses
(23x7m)
terraces
Intensification of
wet rice agriculture
paddies
From hoes to animal power
FOOD, FOOD, AND MORE FOOD: INTENSIVE AGRICULTURE IS/WAS
ECONOMIC BASE OF VIRTUALLY ALL MAJOR CIVILIZATIONS
Map Source: Higham's
The Bronze Age of
Southeast Asia (1996)
Rice Agriculture
Ban Non Wat
Southeast Asia
• Spirit Cave (9,000-5500 BC), NW Thailand; (Hoabinhian huntergatherers); exploitation of wide variety of wild plants, many that
are later domesticated (by 5,500 BC ceramics and possible
early domesticates)
• Non Nok Tha, Ban Kao, Ban Non Wat; early evidence of
established rice agricultural villages, ca. 2,300-1750 BC in SE
Asia
Spirit Cave
Ban Non Wat, by 1750 BC
domestic pigs and rice;
Interaction between intrusive
farmers and local foragers
Charles Higham
Bronze age burials
Neolithic cemetery (1500-1450 BC)
Ban Non Wat,
635 burials
(1750 BC – AD 250)
Khok Phanom Di, Thailand
• 2000-1500 BC: five mortuary phases:
• 1-2 settled marine foragers, followed
by rice cultivation (3-4), and then (5)
return to marine foraging, with burials
laid out in family groups (lineages)
and several “fabulously wealthy”
burials
• Interaction between coastal foragers
and inland rice farmers (established
upstream by 2000 BC)
• Sedentism, Agriculture, and Rank
The “Princess”:
100,000 shell beads, shell disks,
bangle, ear ornaments, and
supurb pottery and tools
Early Jomon Ceramics (Japan)
Jomon Culture: Coastal Sedentary Hunter-Fisher-Gathers, 14,000 to 300 BC,
sites drowned in many areas (not Japan).
Very early pottery.
Followed by intrusive rice farmers (Yayoi), with larger settled communities, such as
Itazuke, which was 100x80 m with moat.