Fig 8 - uploaded by Gideon Shelach
Content may be subject to copyright.
Source publication
The origins, development, and makeup of early state societies in China have long been a favorite topic of research, though there has recently been an upsurge of attention among archaeologists in China and abroad. Research has been dominated by the identification of the Erlitou site from the early second millennium BC as the center of the earliest s...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... and clear internal division suggest a much more formal definition of what such a city should look like (Fig. 7). The walls of two sites are impressive, measuring 17-25 m wide at the base and 9 m tall. The inner walls of Zhengzhou enclosed an area of about 300 ha, but the area inside the recently discovered outer walls was as large as 1,500 ha (Fig. 8). The area inside the walls of Yanshi, which may have been one of the secondary centers of Zhengzhou, is roughly 200 ha. While there has not yet been a systematic survey, settlement around the two sites is reportedly very dense, including relatively large tertiary centers ( Liu and Chen 2003, pp. 87-101;Yuan and Zeng ...
Context 2
... of over 500 kg (Thorp 2006, pp. 89-91). Mold parts found at the different bronze workshops in Zhengzhou suggest that one, the Nanguanwai (南关外), specialized in the production of ritual vessels (although it also produced tools and weapons), while another, Zijingshan (紫荆山), produced few vessels, if any, and focused instead on weapons and small tools (Fig. 8) (Henan 2001, pp. 307-383). Such workshop specialization, which can be seen in other crafts as well, may have to do not only with the artisans working in each foundry but also with the level of political control over and sponsorship of these workshops. Some of the attributes of bronze production are shared by other Erligang crafts. A ...
Citations
... Evidence of the early use of formwork boards to produce RE walls comes from the walled Longshan settlement of Pingliangtai (Henan Province). RE was used in the construction of Shang cities, including walled compounds at Yanshi(Shelach and Jaffe 2014, Yuan andHou 2009). The Qin dynasty (221 BC-206 BC), and the Han dynasty (206 BC-202 AD) constructed walls along the northern frontier of China with RE and adobe ...
Rammed earth (RE) construction is a sustainable building method, using naturally available materials, for laying foundations, and walls typically of low-rise buildings. RE construction requires: compaction of a mixture of damp soil with a suitable proportion of clay, lime, cement, and other binding material. The advantages and disadvantages of RE construction depend on the geographic location, the quality of material, and the difficulty acquiring land-use and funding approvals, but RE structures once constructed have the advantages of being structurally rigid, durable, fire resistant, soundproof, and moisture resistant. In addition, RE construction can be cost effective as compared to structures that are made with other building materials, provided an adequate supply of suitable earth exists onsite or nearby. Owing to its advantages, RE construction has been widely used since ancient times for domestic, agricultural, and monumental public buildings and structures. In this paper, the physical characteristics of RE construction are reviewed, and the history of its use globally and in Canada are discussed.
... Among the most important changes is that social stratification becomes increasingly visible. The Liangzhu City displays a degree of social complexity with power and wealth concentrated in small elite groups (Liu and Chen 2012;Shelach and Jaffe 2014;Kidder and Zhuang 2015). Furthermore, this city was likely settled and developed with a specific purpose in mind, as very few earlier remains have been found (Underhill 2013: 579). ...
A critical assessment of the heterogeneous prehistoric societies of Liangzhu in China and Cyclades in Greece, forged by differing geographical, ecological, topographical, demographic, and historical conditions, is proposed. Through juxtaposition, the obtained contrasting image reveals the textures of cultures and leads to mutual understanding. For the farmers of the Yangtze River delta and the islanders of the central Aegean Sea waterborne travel encouraged a culture of exchange, long-distance relationships, and maritime or riverine navigation. Despite structural similarities, both communities would have been perplexed at the alienness of the populous settlement of Liangzhu within the lush evergreen surroundings, the masterful jade craftsmanship, the network of Cycladic villages surrounded by meagre land from which a living was eked out and hard rocks mined for rare minerals, and the intrepid sailing of dangerous Aegean waters for trade, community, marriage, and war. Activities and mentalities of distant cultures are classified as parallel items. The prehistoric inhabitants of the Yangtze delta's habitat and the deep blue of the Aegean Sea left us with unique a cultural heritage that promotes its investigation, interpretation, and dissemination using modern technology. Cultural tourism and ecological protection with interpretation and integration in the context of tangible and intangible cultural heritage are linked to sustainable development goals Yangtze River delta and the Cycladic islands act as heritage regions. When properly valued, they are assets for societal cohesion, education, development, and understanding of the past, give reason to the present, and aid for the future.
... As Chinese archaeology is deeply rooted in historiography (Falkenhausen 1993), the search for archaeological manifestations of the beginning of the Xia dynasty (c. 2070-1600 BC, Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project 2001), the first great dynasty according to later historical classics, has played a central role in China both before and after the introduction of anthropological approaches (Liu Li 2009;Shelach and Jaffe 2014). In this context, it is no surprise that the notion of Erlitou as the first state, based on neoevolutionary models, became entangled with the traditional historiographic narrative (Campbell 2014;Shelach and Jaffe 2014): the Erlitou settlement has been equated with the first capital of the Xia dynasty, and the emergence of the Erlitou state with the beginning of the Xia dynasty as well as the "Three Dynasties" (the Xia-Shang-Zhou, c. 2100-256 BC) celebrated in later texts (e.g., Wu et al. 2016). ...
... 2070-1600 BC, Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project 2001), the first great dynasty according to later historical classics, has played a central role in China both before and after the introduction of anthropological approaches (Liu Li 2009;Shelach and Jaffe 2014). In this context, it is no surprise that the notion of Erlitou as the first state, based on neoevolutionary models, became entangled with the traditional historiographic narrative (Campbell 2014;Shelach and Jaffe 2014): the Erlitou settlement has been equated with the first capital of the Xia dynasty, and the emergence of the Erlitou state with the beginning of the Xia dynasty as well as the "Three Dynasties" (the Xia-Shang-Zhou, c. 2100-256 BC) celebrated in later texts (e.g., Wu et al. 2016). ...
... However, the latest archaeological discoveries and anthropologically driven research suggest that the spotlight on the first state(s) in China should be directed at other places and earlier times, namely the so-called "Longshan states" in the late third millennium BC Shelach and Jaffe 2014) or the even earlier Liangzhu state in the lower Yangzi River basin (c. 3300-2300 BC) (Renfrew and Liu 2018). ...
This article builds on recent archaeological theorizing about early complex societies to analyze the political anthropology of Neolithic and Bronze Age China in a culture-specific trajectory over the longue durée. Synthesizing the latest archaeological discoveries, I show that a series of successive declines, beginning around 2000 BC, took place throughout lowland China. This put an end to the lowland states of the Longshan period (2400–1900 BC) and provided the context for the constitution of the Erlitou secondary state (1900–1500 BC). Following the shift in “archaic states” studies from identifying “what” to investigating “how,” I focus on the strategies, institutions, and relations that undergirded and sustained the Erlitou secondary state. I explore how heterogeneous lowland populations were reorganized after collapse, how a new collective identity was created through ritual and religious performance at the household level at Erlitou, and how Erlitou’s ideologies, political system, and economic network were shaped by the upland polities and societies. Through a series of innovative practices, the Erlitou secondary state did not replicate the preceding Longshan states but instead pioneered a sociopolitical order that was repeatedly reenacted and referred to as a source of legitimacy in successive Bronze Age Central Plains polities.
... Instead, we see a return to speculative culture-historical interpretive approaches that serve to enhance and certify the "facts" contained in the traditional historical narrative. We and others have previously argued that this tendency is especially problematic when historians and archaeologists of the earliest phases of East Asian prehistory interpret the distant past through projection from better-known historical periods (Campbell 2014(Campbell , 2018Lee 2002;Shelach-Lavi 2019a, 2019bShelach-Lavi and Jaffe 2014;von Falkenhausen 1993). This linear, anachronistic reading of Chinese prehistory in turn creates an illusion of homogeneity and unbroken continuity in the development of Chinese society and culture. ...
... A Critique of the Traditional Models As we have argued elsewhere, the unilinear view of the development of Chinese prehistory is quite problematic (Campbell 2009;Shelach-Lavi and Jaffe 2014). We oppose it on several factual grounds: First, contrary to the main component of the unilinear view, during the late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age, contemporaneous large sites and complex polities existed in different regions of North China. ...
... Evidence for the emergence of social complexity, including the construction of large fortified sites, is known from many regions, including the upper, middle, and lower Yangzi River basins (Flad and Chen 2013;Shelach-Lavi 2015:127-160). Similarly, and contrary to the commonly held view, during the late third and the beginning of the second millennia BCE, several large-scale regional centers coexisted with both the earlier Shimao and the later Erlitou sites (Campbell 2014;Shelach-Lavi and Jaffe 2014). ...
The Shimao (石峁) site, located in northeastern Shaanxi Province, is the focus of some of the most exciting work being done in
Chinese archaeology today. Since 2012, the site has been included several times in the list of the most important discoveries of Chinese
archaeology and was even selected by the first Shanghai Archaeology Forum as one of the top 10 archaeological discoveries in the
world. Because of its unique nature and the exemplary work being done by its excavators, Shimao could have formed the basis of a
new focus on systematic fieldwork and rigorous model building. Instead, the excavation of Shimao has been subsumed in traditional
narratives that have supported linear views of history and thrown focus especially on its relationship to the emergence of dynastic
China in the Central Plains. We will argue here, rather, that another approach would be to see the Shimao center as the core of a
regional trajectory that is parallel, but not necessarily tied, to the developments in the Central Plains.
... It is one of the six major regions delineated in Su Bingqi's quxi-leixing (regional systems and local cultural series) framework because of the important regional Neolithic cultures and abundant material remains indicating early and consistent contact with, for example, Yangshao culture in the Central Plains (zhongyuan) and Dawenkou culture in Shandong (Shan, 2018;Su, 2009;Su and Weizhang, 1981). The region has also been well-known for the emergence of social complexity, as well as the first unity of regional cultures, in the Upper Qujialing period (Shan, 2018), leading to the formation of regional states on the Jianghan Plain (the Shijiahe site in Tianmen City of Hubei Province is one example for such regional states to be noticed) (e.g., Liu, 2017;Nakamura, 1997;Shelach and Jaffe, 2014;Yang, 1995;Zhang, 1998). (Whether the Shijiahe walled-town represented a statelevel polity-or to what extent the polity had seized control of-is a debatable topic, which is beyond the scope of this paper and thus not pursued further. ...
... (Whether the Shijiahe walled-town represented a statelevel polity-or to what extent the polity had seized control of-is a debatable topic, which is beyond the scope of this paper and thus not pursued further. We refer to it (and others) as 'regional state', which was coined by Shelach and Jaffe (2014), mainly to imply their dramatic territorial expansion and greater regional impacts.) The formation of regional states had a great impact in the middle Yangtze River valley, which can be evidenced by the dramatic expansion of cultural area from 35,000 km 2 to 170,000 km 2 in the Lower to Upper Qujialing transition. ...
Nineteen Neolithic earthen walled-towns have been discovered in the middle Yangtze River valley, seventeen of which were dated to the Lower or Upper Qujialing period (5500–4500 cal BP). Nowhere else in East Asia did so many man-built walled-towns exist at the time. The rise of walled-towns arguably coincided with emerging social complexity in the region, which leads some researchers to conclude a correlation between the two. However, inadequate discussion has been made on the topic (and especially how differentiation emerged and developed with town emergence in the region). To such an end, many first-hand data with enough details are needed.
The present paper introduces recent excavations and discoveries at Zoumaling, one of the oldest earthen walled-towns in the middle Yangtze River valley of south China. Our data sheds light on the town’s structure and layout, residential patterning, construction and occupation history, local subsistence economy, burial practice, and non-food production activities. A mode of local production and consumption seems clear for the sedentary, agriculture-based Qujialing communities at the walled-town site. The labor investment in walled-town construction was beyond the capability of self-sufficient households and could have been achieved mostly if not all by corporate groups. Within the walled-town, a few households achieved higher status or greater wealth (or both) and they might have obtained leadership or wealth in walled-town construction and maintenance. Further studies of household assemblages at the Zoumaling walled-town, as well as comparisons with contemporaneous walled-towns elsewhere, are needed to elaborate how interhousehold differences related to town emergence and contributed to the formation of social differentiation.
... 1850-1550, which has been associated with China's first dynasty (the Xia), the Bronze Age has naturally corresponded with state formation in the minds of many Chinese archaeologists. Setting aside the received historical tradition (written over 1000 years after the period in question) and looking at the archaeology, the watersheds in the development of urban population agglomerations and complex polities fit neither the spatial nor temporal parameters of the Central Plains Metropolitan Bronze tradition (Campbell 2014a;Shelach and Jaffe 2014). ...
... To summarize then, we are proposing to renovate the concept of the Chinese Bronze Age, arguing that it should be seen as related to the spread of a historically specific suite of technologies (including bronze). In North China this also corresponds with the emergence of the first large-scale societies in the Late Longshan period c. 2500-1900 BC (Shelach and Jaffe 2014;Shelach-Lavi 2015). ...
... While these characteristics have been enough to convince many Chinese archaeologists that a highly centralized and hierarchical royal dynasty ruled Erlitou, the courtyard structures could also have served collective purposes (Thorp 1991); even with a more-hierarchical interpretation, the palace-temple area should be considered an investment in club goods for a group of unknown size. At the same time, in terms of markers of hierarchy, labor investment, or scale, Erlitou is surpassed by Shimao in site size, by Shimao and Taosi in terms of evidence of labor investment (see also Shelach and Jaffe 2014), and by Taosi in terms of mortuary hierarchy (Campbell 2014a(Campbell , 2018. From a longterm sociopolitical development perspective, despite standing at the headwaters of the Central Plains Metropolitan tradition with the first casting of ritual bronze vessels, Erlitou otherwise resembles the preceding large centers of the third millennium BC in scale and complexity (Campbell 2014a, Shelach andJaffe 2014). ...
In this article we argue that several of the dominant narratives concerning the political economy of the Chinese Bronze Age are in need of major revision, including its chronological divisions and assumptions of unilineal development. Instead, we argue that for many parts of China, the Bronze Age should begin in the third millennium BC and that there was significant political economic heterogeneity both within and between regions. Focusing on the issues of centralization and commercialization, we argue that, in spite of the tendency in the Chinese archaeological literature to equate complexity with centralization and hierarchy and to posit top-down redistributive economic models, there is little evidence of such institutions. To the contrary, our survey of nearly 2000 years of development turns up significant investment in public goods, especially before the Anyang period, as well as ample evidence of horizontal exchange and increasing commercialization.
... Given that the construction workforces in the Taosi and Erlitou sites could easily build the studied rammed-earth monuments with 1-3 months, these projects may not have required complex organization of labor comparable to the level of state-power manifested in craftworks, mortuary practices, and settlement hierarchy (Shelach and Jaffe, 2014;Xie et al., 2020;Zhang et al., 2019). In other words, the construction of these monuments did not project the polities' greatest manpower or signal their rulers' highest capacity for force. ...
Free access until Feb 9, 2021: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440320302247?dgcid=author
Rammed-earth construction techniques (i.e., tamping or pounding loose earth into a solid mass with a rammer) were invented in the Iron Age Mediterranean and the Neolithic Middle Yellow River Valley and adopted across the globe overtime. Rammed-earth techniques were widely employed for building massive structures ranging from large tombs to the Great Wall in late Neolithic and dynastic China; as such, understanding the labor costs involved is fundamental for understanding labor organization for these public works.
Ethnographic, historic, and previous experimental accounts provide inconsistent labor estimations for rammed-earth compaction. Our research develops a method for contextually relevant and reliable labor estimations for archaeological rammed-earth structures of varying quality. We built a rammed-earth wall under realistic conditions, quantified the influential factors for rammed-earth quality, and developed the protocol for calibrating experimental results to match the archaeological record.
Our calibrated estimations for the rammed-earth walls at the Taosi and Erlitou urban sites reveal rather light labor demands on the inhabitants, implying that monumental architectures at the dawn of China's dynastic history in the Central Plain were less about manifesting power than facilitating social changes. Our method can be applied to estimate labor costs for earthen structures in general and enables reliable comparative studies across and space regarding the relations between massive earthen construction and social-political transformation.
... Given that the construction workforces in the Taosi and Erlitou sites could easily build the studied rammed-earth monuments with 1-3 months, these projects may not have required complex organization of labor comparable to the level of state-power manifested in craftworks, mortuary practices, and settlement hierarchy (Shelach and Jaffe, 2014;Xie et al., 2020;Zhang et al., 2019). In other words, the construction of these monuments did not project the polities' greatest manpower or signal their rulers' highest capacity for force. ...
Free access until Jan 9, 2021: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0305440320302247?dgcid=author
Rammed-earth construction techniques (i.e., tamping or pounding loose earth into a solid mass with a rammer) were invented in the Iron Age Mediterranean and the Neolithic Middle Yellow River Valley and adopted across the globe overtime. Rammed-earth techniques were widely employed for building massive structures ranging from large tombs to the Great Wall in late Neolithic and dynastic China; as such, understanding the labor costs involved is fundamental for understanding labor organization for these public works.
Ethnographic, historic, and previous experimental accounts provide inconsistent labor estimations for rammed-earth compaction. Our research develops a method for contextually relevant and reliable labor estimations for archaeological rammed-earth structures of varying quality. We built a rammed-earth wall under realistic conditions, quantified the influential factors for rammed-earth quality, and developed the protocol for calibrating experimental results to match the archaeological record.
Our calibrated estimations for the rammed-earth walls at the Taosi and Erlitou urban sites reveal rather light labor demands on the inhabitants, implying that monumental architectures at the dawn of China’s dynastic history in the Central Plain were less about manifesting power than facilitating social changes. Our method can be applied to estimate labor costs for earthen structures in general and enables comparative studies across time and space regarding the relations between massive earthen construction and social-political transformation.
... In accordance with structuration theory, settlement relocation and urban construction events prior to Pan Geng can therefore be seen as ostensible "political experiments" (as defined by Wright 2006:316) that produced the political experience and knowledge that ultimately led to Pan Geng's successful application of capital relocation as a form of social engineering. Not coincidentally, settlement transformation and sociopolitical instability, as well as repeated collapse and regeneration across different regions in China, were experienced from late Longshan to Erlitou eras prior to the Shang period (Li, M. 2018;Sebillaud 2014;Shelach and Jaffe 2014). It is likely that social failures and innovations contributed to the creative, intentional use of capital relocation as a social engineering strategy in the Shang dynasty, if not earlier. ...
... In accordance with structuration theory, settlement relocation and urban construction events prior to Pan Geng can therefore be seen as ostensible "political experiments" (as defined by Wright 2006:316) that produced the political experience and knowledge that ultimately led to Pan Geng's successful application of capital relocation as a form of social engineering. Not coincidentally, settlement transformation and sociopolitical instability, as well as repeated collapse and regeneration across different regions in China, were experienced from late Longshan to Erlitou eras prior to the Shang period (Li, M. 2018;Sebillaud 2014;Shelach and Jaffe 2014). It is likely that social failures and innovations contributed to the creative, intentional use of capital relocation as a social engineering strategy in the Shang dynasty, if not earlier. ...
Settlement relocation occurred repeatedly throughout global human history, often resulting in significant sociopolitical and economic changes. Historical records document the use of settlement relocation as a strategy for social engineering in China no later than the late Shang dynasty (1250–1046 B.C.). We employ placemaking theory to examine social changes associated with population movements to Taosi (2300–1900 B.C.) and Erlitou (1750–1520 B.C.) and the processes of urban construction concomitant to the movements at each site. Furthermore, we employ structuration theory to interpret the process of political knowledge building as concerns settlement relocation and social engineering. Based on our assessment of settlement histories, divisions of space, burial patterns, and community formation, we conclude that the use ofsettlement relocation as political strategy was formulated during the Taosi and Erlitou eras, and that it was intentionally implemented for political reform by Phase II of Erlitou. KEYWORDS: placemaking theory, structuration theory, social transformation, Chinese archaeology, settlement archaeology, urbanization.
