Pig domestication and management strategy has been increasingly discussed in recent years, focusing on the temporal-spatial differences of pig management strategies. The East Liao River Basin with diverse ecosystems, cultural exchanges, and collisions plays an important role in the cultural development, exchange, and integration processes between Northeast China and the Central Plains. Multiple studies have revealed that various forms of subsistence economy, such as nomadism, fishing and hunting, and farming, existed in this region. However, no report or discussion has been presented concerning the status of domestic animal management strategies over a long-term in the East Liao River Basin. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes analysis were performed on the fauna bones at the Changshan site in Siping, Jilin, China, from the Bronze Age (c. 2000–256 BC) to the Liaojin Dynasties (907–1234 AD), to reconstruct their dietary pattern and reveal the status of domestic animal management strategies, especially the diachronic changes in pig feeding strategies. The results showed that pigs (–19.3 ± 1.6%, 5.3 ± 0.9%, n = 27), horses (–18.4 ± 1.7%, 4.8 ± 1.4%, n = 7), and sheep (–19.8 ± 1.5%, 5.7 ± 0.5%, n = 6) primarily received their subsistence through C3-based food. Nevertheless, cattle (–16.4 ± 3.5%, 6.0 ± 2.1%, n = 2) and the past human (–13.9%, 10.3%, n = 1) lived on mixed C3/C4-based food. Notably, the stable isotope data for pigs from the Bronze Age (–19.1 ± 2.0%, 5.4 ± 1.0%, n = 9) to the Liaojin Dynasties (–19.8 ± 0.6%, 5.1 ± 0.7%, n = 15) were similar, indicating that the management and/or feeding strategy of domestic pigs were relatively stable with a free range in a wild ecosystem over a long period. Related studies have shown that pigs in captivity were mainly fed by millet-based food in the West Liao River Basin and the middle reaches of the Yellow River valley, where millet agriculture were adequately developed. Abundant natural resources, including plants, wild animals, and fishes, could provide sufficient food to the past population in the East Liao River Basin. Thus, the millet-based agriculture was just an auxiliary subsistence strategy in the Changshan site, leading to a gap in the driving force for long-term intensive management of pig.
Death represents the termination of all biological functions that sustain an organism and is inevitable in the ordinary life of people. Throughout history, death has been a topic of discussion. The emotion of fear of death has existed since the birth of human beings and has become even more so after civilization. To alleviate the fear of death, the unknown thing, primitive people began to explain death with their own world outlook; thus, the primitive concept of soul and religion came into being. Death is accompanied by the soul, and the fear of death gradually evolved into the awe of the soul, which gradually turned to practical action under the catalysis of primitive religion. Humans began to express their feelings (veneration or contempt) for the deceased in various practical behaviours and rituals that evolved into many fixed forms of burial or sacrificial customs after death. Shamanism is one of them. It is popular among nomadic groups in northern Eurasia, where many archaeological studies of shamanism have been conducted. This paper examined the phenomenon of covering a dead face with all the right ribs of a sheep at Nairentaoligai (乃仁陶力盖)Cemetery M17 in Inner Mongolia, China. These ribs were carefully researched by zooarchaeological methods, and we defined the basic information about the sheep. Then, we recovered the dismemberment process of the sheep by observing the traces on the bone surface and found that the dead face was covered by all the right ribs of a sheep in this tomb. This may have been to practice a particular idea. In connection with the shamanism culture prevalent in the area, we consider that this act may have been intended to declare the death of the body and shelter the soul of the dead from intrusion. This reflects shamanism culture on burial customs. This discovery is of great significance for the research of religious beliefs and death views of the northern nomadic people of the Mongolian Plateau region.
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