Search

ABSTRACTIn archaeology, ceramics receive much attention because they are abundant in many archaeological contexts, chronologically sensitive, and provide a good window into past human behaviors, in particular decision-making in ceramic production which reflects past communities of practice and individual actions. While most studies tend to rely heavily on differences in object shape and style to distinguish between different periods and cultural contexts, the present ethnographic study focuses on one object type, namely zishateapots from Yixing, China, to explore the hidden diversity in potting behaviors resulting in products that are visually nearly identical in form and style. The article raises awareness of potential differences in raw materials, techniques, and markets for the production of morphologically similar vessels, which would be categorized as the same “type” within typological ceramic classification, and calls for careful evaluation of the complexities within technological practices and their corresponding social boundaries.

The Neolithic painted pottery of northwest China has long been admired for its high level of craftsmanship. Yet, little is known about the technological processes and potting communities behind these objects. At the same time, the wide variety of supposedly less “beautiful” Bronze Age wares is often disregarded and simply ascribed to the emergence of multiple new cultures. In both cases, the relationship between object appearance, technology, and cultural expectations is unexplored. The present paper presents the first results of a pilot study using a combination of scientific techniques to learn about traditions of ceramic production and their transformation over time and space in prehistoric northwest China.

The spread of domesticated crops has commonly occurred alongside broad patterns of long- and short-distance human movements and culture contact across regions. While exchange across Eurasia along the so-called Silk Road has been much discussed, recent work has revealed increasingly more evidence for early north-south contact along the eastern rim of the Tibetan Plateau. Main points of debate concern the timing and direction of the spread of agriculture and domesticated crops. This paper contributes to these discussions by presenting new data from macrobotanical remains and phytoliths from Houzidong in southwest Sichuan, a Neolithic site on the eastern rim of the Tibetan Plateau. The results show that the main crops during the late Neolithic (4200–4000 cal. BP) were foxtail millet (Setaria italica) and broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum), with a small amount of rice (Oryza sativa), but that agriculture was overall not a major focus. Rather, the subsistence at Houzidong like at other sites in the region was highly diverse, relying on gathering, hunting, and small-scale cultivation with considerable crop diversity aimed at minimizing the impact of potential crop failure. This paper shows that subsistence practices differed markedly between sites, local populations exploiting the rich natural resources in the respective ecological niches in various ways. We argue that the wide variety of food sources available in southwest China allowed people to mitigate risk but also made them more receptive to new food sources such as plant crops, experimenting with them and adding them to their portfolio. Similar patterns can be seen in the adoption and adaptation of other outside influences with each community picking and choosing what suited them best, thus creating the rich and varied patchwork of highly localized cultural phenomena that came to characterize southwest China.

The Anning River Valley at the eastern rim of the Tibetan Plateau has long been a transit area and exchange corridor connecting Southwest China to the northern steppe. What has long remained unexplored are the local developments in the Anning River Valley itself. Recent fieldwork has brought to light new evidence and recent research on the local chronology has greatly enhanced our understanding of local prehistoric developments. Nevertheless, the Anning River Valley is usually treated as a cultural unit rather than the diverse area it is. Based on the results of recent fieldwork analyzed in a combination of object typology and spatial analysis, the present paper argues that during the Neolithic period the Anning River Valley was inhabited by various separate groups engaged in various types of subsistence practices. Over time, these groups grew increasingly closer and were finally drawn into one identity group connected by the practice of erecting megalithic graves. The conspicuous nature of those monuments and the complex rituals conducted in and around them also attracted communities in the neighboring mountains. Some of them adopted the practice wholesale; others adopted only certain aspects but preserved other burial customs of their own as well as ceramic form traditions and tool assemblages. As the paper shows, these differences in reaction to this new burial practice depended partially on local geographic preconditions, partially on the nature of the groups involved and various cultural factors.