Sarah M. Nelson

The archaeology of northeast China : beyond the Great Wall

Preface Introduction Part I: Neolithic 1. Hongshan and Associated Cultures 2. New Discoveries and Analysis of the Houwa Site 3. New Neolithic Discoveries in Jilin Province 4. The Neolithic in Heilongjiang Province Part II: Bronze Age 5. Lower Xiajiadian Culture 6. Northern-type Bronzes in Liaoning Province 7. The Bronze Age in Jilin Province 8. The Bronze Age of the Song-nen Plain

Burials, Pigs, and Political Prestige in Neolithic China [and Comments and Reply]

Archaeological constructs guided by ethnographic and ethnohistorical information are tested against archaeological data from Neolithic Shandong. The study of Neolithic burials shows that intensive pig production was important not only for human diet and ritual but also for the display of individual wealth and inequality in the rise of political elites. In addition, pigs served as funds of power for controlling exotic sumptuary items in order to achieve chiefly political hegemony. The data suggest that, in the long term, the fluctuation of pig skulls in mortuary symbolism coincides with that of prestige goods from long-distance exchange. In short, pigs most likely functioned in ancient China as both means of subsistence and objects of social production.

Feasting the Ancestors in Early China

The importance of feasting in graveside ritual during both the Late Shang dynasty and the slightly earlier Xiajiadian culture is strongly suggested by the numerous vessels found in burial contexts dating to these periods. But it seems to be feasting of a different nature than that described in the classical anthropological literature on pig feasts in New Guinea, which forms the basis of many of our models of the role of feasting activities in traditional societies (Rappaport 1967). Rather than constituting a means of cementing alliances, producing Big Men, and organizing for war, early Chinese feasting activities appear to have had other goals. The evidence for graveside feasting in early Chinese society suggests that enlisting the aid of the dead was of greater importance than forming alliances with the living. In other words, it seems that the deceased, both the recently departed as well as more ancient ancestors, were more powerful and desirable allies than their earthly counterparts.

Ritualized Pigs and the Origins of Complex Society: Hypotheses Regarding the Hongshan Culture

Pigs are prominent in the ceremonial and ritual iconography of the Hongshan culture, including jade pig-dragons found in high-status burials, a life-sized pig statue made of unbaked clay, and a mountain that resembles a pig. To attempt to link real pigs with the iconography, the place of actual pigs in the society is examined. Continuity of artifact types from sites 7000-3500 B.C. allows the assumption that pigs were initially important in the subsistence base. I suggest that pig iconography implies pig rituals, and that the pig rituals may have aided in the formation of an elite class. The elite are archaeologically manifested in the elaborate tombs, and their existence can also be inferred by the need for managers in creating the tombs and the artifacts within, as well as in procuring jade and possibly copper.

The Neolithic of northeastern China and Korea

A close relationship between the archaeology of Korea and that of China’s northeast or Dongbei region (formerly known as Manchuria) is frequently postulated (e.g. Kim 1986). Korean models of East Asian prehistory tend to look toward the Dongbei, and beyond into Siberia, for the source of populations that migrated into the Korean peninsula (e.g. Kim 1986: 23). On the Chinese side, the Dongbei is often seen as the recipient of impulses from the middle Huang He (e.g. Chang 1986: 238). By the latter reconstruction, settlement spread to the northeast from a nuclear area around the Huang He where millet cultivation, domesticated pigs, and painted pottery of complex shapes had arisen. These two models of migration and diffusion are not mutually contradictory, but they direct the interpretation of Dongbei Neolithic in different ways. New data from the Neolithic in the Dongbei and Korea do indicate connexions, but not of the simple sort implied by the migrationist and diffusionist models.

The Effects of Rice Agriculture on Prehistoric Korea

in the early years of this century, he presumably followed some written or oral tradition regarding Kijas (Chi-tzu), the legendary agnate of the last Shang king,1 bringing rice to Korea. It is interesting that there was a tradition that millet cultivation preceded rice, which came from northern China at approximately 1100 B.C. Seventy-five years after Hulbert recorded the tradition in English, archaeological research has demonstrated that millet did precede rice in Korea, and that the timing of the introduction of rice at the end of the Shang dynasty is probably too late rather than too early. The fact that millet preceded rice is important for an understanding of the social, economic, and political systems as they were transformed by the introduction of rice agriculture. Rice planting was added to a subsistence base that already included millets (and probably other grains and vegetables, and industrial plants such as hemp and ramie for rope and nets) (Nelson 1975a), and was accepted by an already sedentary population. Nevertheless, profound changes can be seen in the archaeological record in terms of new settlement locations, increased variability of site sizes, increasing site density, and new burial patterns. To what extent these are systemic, related to the new requirements and perhaps the benefits of rice growing, is a complex problem. I do not expect to solve the problem in this paper but hope to indicate that describing these changes either in terms of the diffusion of a new trait or the migration of a new wave of people is insufficient to unravel the complexities of human systems that the rich and varied archaeological finds are increasingly indicating.

An Interactive Computer Graphic Technique for Identifying Occupation Surfaces in Deep Archaeological Sites

AbstractA computer graphic technique, 3DPLOT, is presented. Its purpose is to identify occupational horizons in deep sites that have no visible stratification. The program treats the locations of subsurface artifacts in three-dimensional space as if they were in a clear matrix, rotating and tilting to any desired viewing angle. The benefits of this method are explained, and an example is presented.

Mumun, Proto-Three Kingdoms, and Three Kingdoms in Korea

The Mumun Period in Korea is characterized by the appearance of undecorated pottery, dolmens, and rice agriculture, followed by bronze weapons and mirrors. The Three Kingdoms of Korea are Koguryo in the northern part of the peninsula, Paekje in the west, and Silla in the southeast. These were all expansionist states, but Silla ultimately conquered Koguryo and Paekche, uniting most of the peninsula under its rule.

ASIA, NORTHEAST, EARLY STATES AND CIVILIZATIONS

Northeast Asia includes the Chinese northeast, or Dongbei (formerly known as Manchuria), eastern Inner Mongolia, the Russian Far East south of the Amur river, the Korean peninsula, and the Japanese islands (Figure 1). This region is varied in geology, but connected by long coast lines, and much early contact was probably by boat. Japan was completely cut off by the Holocene period, and its largely volcanic islands were somewhat isolated but never completely out of touch. The Korean peninsula is a block of tilted granite, with a relatively steep eastern side with few bays but many small islands on the south and west (Figure 2). The sea between Korean and Japan was probably a meeting ground of cultures, especially the southern end where islands are visible from the peninsula to Kyushu Island of Japan. The Dongbei and its surroundings are more continental. Chonji, the Heavenly Lake, occupies a large crater in mountains called Changbaishan (Ever White Mountains) in Chinese and Paektusan (Whitehead Mountain) in Korean. Lower mountains separate northeastern China from the Russian Far East, and eastern Inner Mongolia from the Dongbei. None of the mountains made impenetrable barriers.

Comments: On Kim and Nelson; On Kim and Choe

Since the mid-1970s, Korean archaeologists have turned their interests to sociocultural change in Korean prehistory rather than simply the analysis of stylistic variation of artifacts. Studies on subsistence patterns in both the Chŭlmun and Mumun periods have been greatly encouraged and aided by scientific excavations. As in many other areas of the world, plant domestication has not been thoroughly studied in Korea.