Hostname: page-component-8448b6f56d-sxzjt Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T00:45:23.963Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Sanzuodian: the structure, function and social significance of the earliest stone fortified sites in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Gideon Shelach ,
Kate Raphael  and
Yitzhak Jaffe
Gideon Shelach*
Affiliation:
Department of East Asian Studies, The Hebrew University, Mt Scopus, Jerusalem, 91905, Israel
Kate Raphael
Affiliation:
Institute of Earth and Science, The Hebrew University, Givat Ram, Jerusalem, 91905, Israel
Yitzhak Jaffe
Affiliation:
Department of East Asian Studies, The Hebrew University, Mt Scopus, Jerusalem, 91905, Israel
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

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.

Keywords

ChinaInner MongoliaManchuriaLate NeolithicEarly Bronze Agesecond millennium BCLower Xiajiadian culturefortificationGISlabour investmentcomplexity
Type
Research article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 85 , Issue 327 , March 2011 , pp. 11 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2011

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

Abrams, E.M. 1994. How the Maya built their world: energetics and ancient architecture. Austin (TX):University of Texas Press.Google Scholar
Abrams, E.M. & Bolland, T.W. 1999. Architectural energetics, ancient monuments, and operations management. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 6:263-91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Arkush, E. & Stanish, C. 2005. Interpreting conflict in the ancient Andes. Current Anthropology 46(1):3–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bagley, R.W. 1999. Shang archaeology, in Loewe, M. & Shaughnessy, E. (ed.) The Cambridge history of ancient China: 545-86. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Barbieri-Low, A. P. 2007. Artisans in early Imperial China. Seattle (WA) & London: Washington University Press.Google Scholar
McC Brown, B. 1987. Population estimation from floor area: a restudy of ‘Naroll's Constant’. Behavior Science Research 22(1-4):1–49.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Casselberry, S.E. 1974. Further refinement of formulae for determining population from floor area. World Archaeology 6:117-22.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chifeng International Collaborative Archaeological Project (ed.). 2003. Regional archaeology in eastern Inner Mongolia: a methodological exploration. Beijing: Kexue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Drennan, R.D., Peterson, C.E., Indrisano, G.G., Teng, M., Shelach, G., Zhu, Y., Linduff, K.M. & Guo, Z. 2003. Approaches to regional demographic reconstruction, in Chifeng International Collaborative Archaeological Project (ed.)Regional archaeology in eastern Inner Mongolia: a methodological exploration: 152-65. Beijing: Kexue chubanshe.Google Scholar
Erasmus, C. 1965. Monument building: some field experiments. Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 21:277–301.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Evans, R.K. & Rasson, J.A. 1984. Ex Balcanis Lux? Recent developments in Neolithic and Chalcolithic research in south-east Europe. American Antiquity 49(4):713-41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Finkelstein, I. 1992. Middle Bronze Age ‘fortifications’: a reflection of social organization and political formations. Tel Aviv 19:201–220.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flad, R.K. 2001. Ritual or structure? Analysis of burial elaboration at Dadianzi, Inner Mongolia. Journal of East Asian Archaeology 3:23–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flannery, K.V. 1972. The cultural evolution of civilizations. Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 3:339–426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Flannery, K.V. 2002. The origins of the village revisited: from nuclear to extended households. American Antiquity 67:417-33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fuller, D.Q., Harvey, E. & Qin, L. 2007. Presumed domestication? Evidence for wild rice cultivation and domestication in the fifth millennium BC of the lower Yangtze Region. Antiquity 81:316-31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guo, Dashun. 1995a. Hongshan and related cultures, in Nelson, S. (ed.) The archaeology of northeast China: 21–64. London & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Guo, Dashun. 1995b. Lower Xiajiadian culture, in Nelson, S. (ed.) The archaeology of northeast China: 147-81. London & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Guo, Dashun. 1995b. Lower Xiajiadian culture, in Nelson, S. (ed.) The archaeology of northeast China: 147-81. London & New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Henry, D.O., White, J.J., Beaver, J., Kadowaki, S., Nowell, A., Cordova, C., Dean, R., Ekstrom, H., Mccorriston, J. & Scott-Cummings, L. 2003. The early Neolithic site of Ayn Abū Nukhayla, southern Jordan. Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 330:1–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kolb, C.C. 1985. Demographic estimations in archaeology: contributions from ethnoarchaeology on Mesoamerican peasants. Current Anthropology 26:581–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Linduff, K., Drennan, R. & Shelach, G. 2004. Early complex societies in NE China: The Chifeng International Collaborative Archaeological Research Project. Journal of Field Archaeology 29:45–73.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liaoning Sheng Wenwu Kaogu Yanjiusuo (Institute for Archaeology and Cultural Relics of Liaoning Province). 2001. Liaoning beipiaoshi kangjiatun chengzhi fajue jianbao [Preliminary report on the excavations at the Kangjiatun fortified site, Beipiao city, Liaoning]. Kaogu 8:31–44.Google Scholar
Naroll, R. 1962. Floor area and settlement population. American Antiquity 27:587–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neimenggu Wenwu Kaogu Yanjiusuo [Inner Mongolia Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology]. 2000. Daihai Kaogu, Volume 1: Laohushan wenhua yizhi fajue baogao [Daihai Archaeology, Volume 1: excavation report of the Laohushan culture site]. Beijing: Kexue Chubanshe.Google Scholar
Neimenggu Wenwu Kaogu Yanjiusuo 2007. Neimenggu Chifeng shi Sanzuodian Xiajiadian xiaceng wenhua shicheng yizhi [Sanzuodian: a site with stone fortifications from the Lower Xiajiadian period, in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia]. Kaogu 7:17–27.Google Scholar
Peltenburg, E. 2004. Social space in early sedentary communities of Southwest Asia and Cyprus, in Peltenburg, E. & Wasse, A. (ed.) Neolithic revolution: new perspectives on Southwest Asia in the light of recent discoveries in Cyprus: 71–89. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Plog, F. 1990. Agriculture, sedentism, and environment in the evolution of political systems, in Upham, S. (ed.) The evolution of political systems: sociopolitics in small-scale sedentary societies: 177-99. Cambridge & New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Shelach, G. 1998. A settlement pattern study in northeast China: results and insights on potential contributions of Western theory to Chinese archaeology. Antiquity 72:114–27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shelach, G. 1999. Leadership strategies, economic activity, and interregional interaction: social complexity in northeast China. New York: Plenum.Google Scholar
Shelach, G. 2000. The earliest Neolithic cultures of northeast China: recent discoveries and new perspectives on the beginning of agriculture. Journal of World Prehistory 14:363–413.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shelach, G. 2001. Apples and oranges? A cross-cultural comparison of burial data from northeast China. Journal of East Asian Archaeology 3:53–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shelach, G. 2006. Economic adaptation, community structure, and sharing strategies of households at early sedentary sites in northeast China. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 25:318–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shelach, G. 2009. Violence on the frontiers? Sources of power and socio-political change at the easternmost parts of the Eurasian steppes during the early first millennium BCE, in Hanks, B. & Linduff, K. (ed.) Social complexity in prehistoric Eurasia: 241-71. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shi, X. 1986. Qian Yangshao wenhua de faxian ji qi yiyi [The discovery of pre-Yangshao cultures and their meaning], in Zhongguo kaoguxue yanjiu, Volume 2:1–23. Beijing: Wenwu chubanshe.Google Scholar
Thorp, R.L. 2006. China in the Early Bronze Age: Shang civilization. Philadelphia (PA): University of Pennsylvania Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tian, G. 1993. Neimenggu changcheng didai zhu kaoguxue wenhua yu linjing tongqi wenhua xianghu yingxiang guilü de yanjiu [Research on the mutual influence among cultures of the Great Wall region of Inner Mongolia and adjacent areas]. Neimenggu wenwu kaogu 1-2: 16–22.Google Scholar
Tong, Z. 1957. Chifeng Dongbajia shicheng zhi kancha ji [A report of survey at the Chifeng Dongbajia stone wall site). Kaogu tongxun 6:230–37.Google Scholar
Whalen, M.E. 1988. House and household in formative Oaxaca, in Wilk, R.R. & Ashmore, W. (ed.) Household and community in the Mesoamerican past: case studies in the Maya area and Oaxaca: 249-72. Albuquerque (NM): University of New Mexico Press.Google Scholar
Xu, G. 1986. Chifeng Yingjinhe Yinhe liuyu de shicheng yizhi [Stone wall sites of the Chifeng Yingjin and Yin river basins]. Zhongguo kaoguxue yanjiu: 82–93.Google Scholar
Xu, H. 2000. Xian Qin chengshi kaoguxue [The archaeology of pre-Qin cities]. Beijing: Yanshan chubanshe.Google Scholar
Yan, W. 1992. Origins of agriculture and animal husbandry in China, in Aikens, M.C. & Rhee, S.N. (ed.) Pacific Northeast Asia in prehistory: 113-23. Pullman (WA): Washington State University Press.Google Scholar
Yuan, Z. 1983. Cong Qinshihuang ling de kaogu ziliao kan Qin wangchao de Yaoyi [Addressing the corvée labour of the Qin from the archaeological data of the mausoleum of the First Emperor of Qin]. Zhongguo nongming zhanzheng shi yanjiu 3:42–55.Google Scholar
Zhao, Z. 2004. Cong Xinglonggou yizhi fuxuan jieguo tan Zhongguo beifang zaozuo nongye qiyuan wenti [Addressing the origins of agriculture in north China based on the results of flotation from the Xinglonggou site]. Dongya guwu 12:188–99.Google Scholar
Zhongguo Shehui Kexueyuan Kaogu Yanjiusuo (Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences). 1996. Dadianzi: Xiajiadian xiaceng wenhua yizhi yu mudi fajue baogao [Dadianzi: excavations of a domestic site and cemetery of the Lower Xiajiadian period]. Beijing: Kexue Chubanshe.Google Scholar