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Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Prologue
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Production and Specialization in Complex Societies
- 3 Ancient Salt Production in Sichuan
- 4 The Zhongba Site
- 5 Ceramic Evidence
- 6 Parameters of Production According to Ceramics
- 7 Features and Spatiality
- 8 Animal Remains and Divination
- 9 Conclusions and Implications
- Epilogue
- Appendix A Chinese and Japanese Term List
- Appendix B The (t) Value and Average Thickness for Each Level Excavated in DT0202
- Appendix C Calculating the Scale of Production Using Briquetage from DT0202
- Appendix D Taxon List for Specimens Recovered from DT0202 with Number of Identified Specimens and Minimum Number of Individual Count by Phase and Subphase
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
1 - Introduction
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 September 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures and Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Prologue
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Production and Specialization in Complex Societies
- 3 Ancient Salt Production in Sichuan
- 4 The Zhongba Site
- 5 Ceramic Evidence
- 6 Parameters of Production According to Ceramics
- 7 Features and Spatiality
- 8 Animal Remains and Divination
- 9 Conclusions and Implications
- Epilogue
- Appendix A Chinese and Japanese Term List
- Appendix B The (t) Value and Average Thickness for Each Level Excavated in DT0202
- Appendix C Calculating the Scale of Production Using Briquetage from DT0202
- Appendix D Taxon List for Specimens Recovered from DT0202 with Number of Identified Specimens and Minimum Number of Individual Count by Phase and Subphase
- Notes
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
How, when, and where did complex societies first emerge in China? This question has been at the heart of archaeological research since the discipline began to develop in China in the 1920s. Scholars in the West have shown particular interest in the process by which centralized states and expansive empires emerged in the Late Neolithic and Bronze Age in the Yellow River valley (e.g., Chang 1983b, 1986; Creel 1970; Fried 1983; Liu 2004; Liu and Chen 2003; Underhill and Fang 2004; von Falkenhausen 2006b), which is traditionally considered the core of Chinese civilization, as well as in adjacent regions (e.g., Li 2006; Nelson 1996; Shelach 1999, 2009). The Sichuan Basin and surrounding areas, where recent discoveries have established that complex polities emerged contemporaneously with the development of social complexity in the Central Plains (Bagley), have only become a focus of interest more recently (Flad and Chen n.d.).
To examine emergent complexity in China, as elsewhere, a key factor that must be explored is the degree to which social roles of community members are interdependent and involve stratified relations of authority. The development of economic specialization plays an important role in the establishment of both interdependence and stratification. This study examines the emergence and organization of specialized salt production at the eastern Sichuan Basin site of Zhongba and explores the implications that this specialization has for emergent complexity in the region.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Salt Production and Social Hierarchy in Ancient ChinaAn Archaeological Investigation of Specialization in China's Three Gorges, pp. 1 - 15Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2011