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Early agropastoral settlement and cultural change in central Tibet in the first millennium BC: excavations at Bangga

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 April 2021

Hongliang Lu
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Sichuan University, P.R. China
Xinzhou Chen*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St Louis, USA
Zhengwei Zhang
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St Louis, USA
Li Tang
Affiliation:
Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany
Ximena Lemoine
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St Louis, USA
Shargan Wangdue
Affiliation:
Tibetan Autonomous Region Cultural Relic and Conservation Institute, Lhasa, P.R. China
Zujun Chen
Affiliation:
Tibetan Autonomous Region Cultural Relic and Conservation Institute, Lhasa, P.R. China
Xinyi Liu
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St Louis, USA
Michael D. Frachetti
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St Louis, USA
*
*Author for correspondence: ✉ xinzhouchen@wustl.edu
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Abstract

Archaeological research demonstrates that an agropastoral economy was established in Tibet during the second millennium BC, aided by the cultivation of barley introduced from South-western Asia. The exact cultural contexts of the emergence and development of agropastoralism in Tibet, however, remain obscure. Recent excavations at the site of Bangga provide new evidence for settled agropastoralism in central Tibet, demonstrating a material divergence from earlier archaeological cultures, possibly corresponding to the intensification of agropastoralism in the first millennium BC. The authors’ results depict a more dynamic system of subsistence in the first millennium BC, as the populations moved readily between distinct economic modes and combined them in a variety of innovative ways.

Information

Type
Research Article
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Antiquity Publications Ltd
Figure 0

Figure 1. The main prehistoric sites in central Tibet discussed in the text (map generated by X. Chen using Arcmap v. 10.6 and SRTM 1Arc-second DEM data; see https://www.usgs.gov/).

Figure 1

Figure 2. View of the Bangga site on an alluvial terrace, facing north-east (photograph by Z. Zhang).

Figure 2

Figure 3. Calibrated radiocarbon dates for Bangga (using OxCal 4.3.2 and IntCal13 calibration curve; Bronk Ramsey 2009; Reimer et al.2013); F = stone enclosure; H = pit; L = layer; R = room; T = trench; Z = hearth (figure by the authors).

Figure 3

Figure 4. Stratigraphy of the Bangga site, north wall: L = layer; F = stone enclosure; H = pit. Calibrated radiocarbon dates (at 95.4% confidence) are presented with the layers (photograph by H. Xu; dates calibrated using the IntCal13 calibration curve in OxCal 4.3.2; Bronk Ramsey 2009; Reimer et al.2013).

Figure 4

Figure 5. Plan of the Bangga site. Features within the stone enclosures were not drawn. F = household; F2 overlays F5; F8 overlays F7 (photograph by H. Xu).

Figure 5

Table 1. Number of features discovered in the stone enclosures at Bangga.

Figure 6

Figure 6. Ceramics at Bangga (a–c), compared with Qugong Culture ceramics from the Changguogou site (d–f): a) late phase red ceramics from Bangga; b) early phase open-mouthed jar from Bangga; c) early phase bowl from Bangga; d) surface-polished, open-mouthed jars collected from Changguogou; e) rim sherd of a surface-polished, ring-based jar collected at Changguogou; f) ring base collected at Changguogou (photographs by X. Chen, Z. Li & X. Zhang).

Figure 7

Figure 7. Early phase stone tools from Bangga: a) millstones; b) stone weight; c) grinding stone; d) chipped stone; e) flake (photographs by X. Chen, Y. Zhi & Z. Li).

Figure 8

Table 2. Domesticated grains from L13 and L14 and stone enclosures, from the 2015–2017 excavations at Bangga.

Figure 9

Table 3. Comparison of prehistoric sites in central Tibet: Qugong, Changguogou and Bangga.

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