Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-42gr6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-19T05:46:31.927Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Environment and culture change in Neolithic Southeast China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Tianlong Jiao*
Affiliation:
*Department of Anthropology, Bishop Museum, 1525 Bernice Street, Honolulu, Hawaii 96817, USA

Extract

How did the Neolithic begin and develop in Southeast China? The author uses a highly detailed sequence of changes in sea-level, climate and vegetation to provide the back-drop – and some explanations – for the distinctive maritime community of the Taiwan Strait, whose descendants are thought to have colonised the Pacific.

Type
Research
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bellwood, P. 1997. Prehistory of the Indo-Malaysian Archipelago. Revised edition. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bellwood, P. 2002. Farmers, foragers, languages, genes: the genesis of agricultural societies, in Bellwood, P. & Renfrew, C. (ed.) Examining the farming/language dispersal hypothesis: 1730. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Chang, K. C. 1969. Fengpitou, Tapenkeng, and the Prehistory of Taiwan. Yale University Publication in Anthropology 73. New Haven (CT): Yale University.Google Scholar
Bellwood, P. 1995. Taiwan Strait archaeology and proto-Austronesian. Austronesian Studies Relating to Taiwan: 161183. Taipei, Taiwan.Google Scholar
Chang, K. C. & Goodenough, W.H.. 1996. Archaeology of southeastern China and its bearing on the Austronesian homeland, in Goodenough, W.H. (ed.) Prehistoric Settlement of the Pacific: 2835. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.Google Scholar
Chen, Y. G. & Liu, T.K.. 1996. Sea level changes in the last several thousand years, Penghu Islands, Taiwan Strait. Quaternary Research 45: 254–62.Google Scholar
Diamond, J. & Bellwood, P.. 2003. Farmers and their languages: the first expansions. Science 300: 597603.Google Scholar
FPM (Fujian Provincial Museum). 1976. Minhou tanshishan yizhi di liu ci faue baogao (Report of the sixth excavation of the Tanshishan site in Minhou). Kaogu xuebao 1: 83120.Google Scholar
FPM (Fujian Provincial Museum) 1984. Minhou xitou yizhi di er ci fajue baogao (Report of the second excavation of Xitou site in Minhou). Kaogu Xuebao: 459500.Google Scholar
Guo, Z., Jiao, T., Rolett, B., Liu, J., Fan, X. & Lin, G.. 2005. Tracking Neolithic interactions in Southeast China: evidence from stone adze geochemistry. Geoarchaeology 20: 765–76.Google Scholar
Huang, Y. et al. 1995. Quaternary coastline evolution in the north of South China Sea. Tropical Geomorphology 16 (2): 121.Google Scholar
Huang, Y. & Jiao, T.. in press. Fujian xiapu xian huangguashan yizhi de lusheng dongwu yihai (Terrestrial animal bones from the Huangguashan site, Xiapu County, Fujian). Symposium to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Sackler Museum of Peking University.Google Scholar
Huang, Z. et al. 1987. Sea-level changes along the coastal area of south China since the Late Pleistocene, in Qin Yunshan & Zhao Songling (ed.) Late Quaternary sea-level changes: proceedings of the International Symposium on Sea-Level Changes held in Qingdao and Yantai, China, Oct. 7-14, 1986: 142–54. Beijing: China Ocean Press.Google Scholar
Jiao, T. 2004. The Neolithic Cultures in Southeast China and the search for an Austronesian Homeland, in Victor Paz (ed.) Southeast Asian Archaeology: Wilhelm G. Solheim II Festschrift: 565–88. Quezon City: University of the Philippines Press.Google Scholar
Jiao, T., Fan, X. & Lin, G.. 2004. An Archaeological Investigation of the Damaoshan site, Fujian Province, China. Chinese Archaeology 4: 7681.Google Scholar
Lin, G. 1993. Fujian jingnei shiqian wenhua de jiben tedian ji quxi leixing (The basic features and regional variants of prehistoric cultures in Fujian). Fujian Lishi wenhua yu bowuguan xue yanjiu. Fuzhou: Fujian jiaoyu chubanshe: 6988.Google Scholar
Lin, G., Jiao, T. & Fan, X.. 2004. Fujian xiapu hunaguashan yizhi de di er ci fajue (The second excavation of the Huangguashan site, Xiapu, Fujian). Fujian wenbo: 3: 118.Google Scholar
Peng, F. et al. 1984. Data on lowest sea-level of east China in late Pleistocene. Science in China (Series B) 27: 865–76.Google Scholar
Rolett, B., Chen, W.-C. & Sinton, J.. 2000. Taiwan, Neolithic seafaring and Austronesian origins. Antiquity 74: 5461.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rolett, B., Jiao, T. & Lin, G.. 2002. Early seafaring in the Taiwan Strait and the search for Austronesian origins. Journal of East Asian Archaeology 4 (1-4): 307–19.Google Scholar
Shi, Y. et al. 1992. Basic features of climate and environmental during the Holocene megathermal in China, in Shi, Y. (ed.) The Climates and Environments of the Holocene Megathermal in China: 128. Beijing: China Ocean Press.Google Scholar
Sung, W. 1980. you kaoguxue kan Taiwan (An archaeological perspective on Taiwan), in Chen, C.L. et al. (ed.) Zhongguo de Taiwan: 93220. Taipei: Zhongyang Wenwu Gongyingshe.Google Scholar
Tang, L. et al. 1996a. Changjiang zhong xia you ji qi yi nan diqu 10000 nian lai qihou bianhua xulie tantao (Analysis of the climate changes in the Middle and Lower Reaches of the Yangzi River and Southern China since 10 000 BP), in Shi, Y. & Zhang, P. (ed.) Zhongguo lishi qihou bianhua (The History of Climate Changes in China): 108–58. Shandong Science Technology Press.Google Scholar
Tang, L., Shen, C., Yu, G. & Han, H.. 1996b. Zhongguo dongnan bu quanxinshi zhibei bianhua dashi (General trend of the flora changes in southeast China in Holocene), in Shi, Y. & Zhang, P. (ed.) Zhongguo lishi qihou bianhua (The History of Climate Changes in China): 104–07. Shandong Science Technology Press.Google Scholar
Tsang, C.-H. 1995. New archaeological data from both sides of the Taiwan Straits and their implications for the controversy, in J-K Li, P. et al. (ed.) Austronesian Studies Relating to Taiwan: 185225. Taipei: Academia Sinica, Institute of History and Philology.Google Scholar
Tsang, C.-H. 2002. Maritime adaptation in prehistoric Southeast China: implications for the problem of Austronesian expansion. Journal of East Asian Archaeology 3 (1-2): 1545.Google Scholar
Wang, J. & Wang, P.. 1980. Relation between sea-level changes and climatic fluctuations in eastern China in Late Pleistocene. Acta Geographica Sinica 35: 299312.Google Scholar
Yi, S. & Saito, Y.. 2004. Latest Pleistocene climate variation of the East Asian monsoon from the pollen records of two East China regions. Quaternary International 121: 7587.Google Scholar
Yi, S., Saito, Y., Zhao, Q. & Wang, P.. 2003. Vegetation changes in the Changjiang (Yangzi River) Delta, China, during the past 13,000 years inferred from pollen records. Quaternary Science Reviews 22: 1501–19.Google Scholar
Zhang, R. 1999. Zhongguo dongwu dili (Animal geography of China). Beijing: kexue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Zhang, X. & Qi, Z.. 1975. Wo guo de beilei (China's Shellfishes). Beijing: Science Press.Google Scholar
Zheng, Z. & Li, Q.. 2000. Vegetation, climate, and sea level in the past 55,000 years, Hanjing Delta, southeastern China. Quaternary Research 53: 330–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar