“…Dayatou, perched atop a bluff overlooking a major bend in the Tao River, appears to have been occupied from at least the early Majiayao through later historical periods. While this site was previously interpreted as containing a Majiayao cemetery, due to the large number of painted pottery sherds present on the surface as well as a number of looters trenches, our surveys revealed that it is in fact a complex, multiperiod habitation site (Womack et al 2019b). In particular, the results of our magnetometer survey point to at least five discrete occupation areas, some of which appear to have been demarcated using ditch features.…”
Section: Initial Results: Site Layout and Periodizationmentioning
confidence: 70%
“…In sum, our investigations have clarified that several sites were occupied during both the Majiayao and Qijia periods, clearly refuting the idea that these groups occupied different locations or lived at significantly different elevations, even in the late Qijia period when climatic drying and cooling is seen as being most severe (Liu et al 2010). Additionally, our survey at Dayatou indicates that site sizes should not be calculated off of surface scatters of pottery alone (Womack et al 2019b), calling into question whether there was a meaningful shift in site sizes between the two periods.…”
Section: Initial Results: Site Layout and Periodizationmentioning
confidence: 96%
“…While we also undertook work at the later Siwa period site of Huizuiwa 灰嘴洼, the results of that work are not directly related to the topic at hand and are addressed elsewhere (Jaffe et al forthcoming). Initial investigations included total coverage surface survey and selective magnetometry survey, as well as detailed digital mapping at Dayatou, Qijiaping, and Siwashan, magnetometry at Majiayao, and excavation by TRAP at Dayatou (2018) (Womack et al 2019b) and Qijiaping (2016-17) (Womack et al 2017;Hung et al 2019). Majiayao and Siwashan were concurrently excavated by a team from the Archaeology Department at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), and members of TRAP were able to analyze some materials from these investigations.…”
Section: Recent Fieldwork In the Tao River Valley Gansu Provincementioning
The transition between the Majiayao (5300-4000 BP) and Qijia (4200-3500 BP) "cultures" in what is now northwestern China's Gansu Province has typically been defined by major technological changes in pottery forms, subsistence practices, and site locations. These changes are thought to have been driven by a combination of climate change induced cooling and drying as well as human migration into the region from areas further east. Based on our review of literature on the topic, as well as recent fieldwork in the northern Tao River Valley, we suggest that the picture is significantly more complex, with some new technologies slowly being experimented with, adopted, or rejected, while many other aspects of production and social organization persisted over hundreds of years. We hypothesize that these changes reflect the active agency of the inhabitants of southern Gansu during the fifth and fourth millennia BP balancing long-standing cultural traditions with influxes of new technologies. Unlike some societies in other regions at this time, however, increasing technological specialization does not appear to have resulted in growing social inequality, but the archaeological material instead reflects increasingly complex heterarchical organization.
“…Dayatou, perched atop a bluff overlooking a major bend in the Tao River, appears to have been occupied from at least the early Majiayao through later historical periods. While this site was previously interpreted as containing a Majiayao cemetery, due to the large number of painted pottery sherds present on the surface as well as a number of looters trenches, our surveys revealed that it is in fact a complex, multiperiod habitation site (Womack et al 2019b). In particular, the results of our magnetometer survey point to at least five discrete occupation areas, some of which appear to have been demarcated using ditch features.…”
Section: Initial Results: Site Layout and Periodizationmentioning
confidence: 70%
“…In sum, our investigations have clarified that several sites were occupied during both the Majiayao and Qijia periods, clearly refuting the idea that these groups occupied different locations or lived at significantly different elevations, even in the late Qijia period when climatic drying and cooling is seen as being most severe (Liu et al 2010). Additionally, our survey at Dayatou indicates that site sizes should not be calculated off of surface scatters of pottery alone (Womack et al 2019b), calling into question whether there was a meaningful shift in site sizes between the two periods.…”
Section: Initial Results: Site Layout and Periodizationmentioning
confidence: 96%
“…While we also undertook work at the later Siwa period site of Huizuiwa 灰嘴洼, the results of that work are not directly related to the topic at hand and are addressed elsewhere (Jaffe et al forthcoming). Initial investigations included total coverage surface survey and selective magnetometry survey, as well as detailed digital mapping at Dayatou, Qijiaping, and Siwashan, magnetometry at Majiayao, and excavation by TRAP at Dayatou (2018) (Womack et al 2019b) and Qijiaping (2016-17) (Womack et al 2017;Hung et al 2019). Majiayao and Siwashan were concurrently excavated by a team from the Archaeology Department at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), and members of TRAP were able to analyze some materials from these investigations.…”
Section: Recent Fieldwork In the Tao River Valley Gansu Provincementioning
The transition between the Majiayao (5300-4000 BP) and Qijia (4200-3500 BP) "cultures" in what is now northwestern China's Gansu Province has typically been defined by major technological changes in pottery forms, subsistence practices, and site locations. These changes are thought to have been driven by a combination of climate change induced cooling and drying as well as human migration into the region from areas further east. Based on our review of literature on the topic, as well as recent fieldwork in the northern Tao River Valley, we suggest that the picture is significantly more complex, with some new technologies slowly being experimented with, adopted, or rejected, while many other aspects of production and social organization persisted over hundreds of years. We hypothesize that these changes reflect the active agency of the inhabitants of southern Gansu during the fifth and fourth millennia BP balancing long-standing cultural traditions with influxes of new technologies. Unlike some societies in other regions at this time, however, increasing technological specialization does not appear to have resulted in growing social inequality, but the archaeological material instead reflects increasingly complex heterarchical organization.
“…These similarities have been seen as evidence that early bronze-working technology in China was imported from Central Asia, probably via the north-west during the Majiayao and Qijia periods, and then continuing east to the northern Central Plain (Lin 1986; Fitzgerald-Huber 1995). To evaluate the connections between these regions, scholars have looked to the analysis of both metal artefacts (Li 2005; Linduff & Mei 2009; Jaang 2015; Rawson 2017) and pottery (Hung 2011, 2021; Cui et al 2015; Womack et al 2019; Dammer 2021).…”
Section: Late Neolithic Interaction Network In North-western Chinamentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Our findings provide a case study for one way in which inter-community relations can develop and be maintained among small-scale societies. Figure 1.Map of north-western China, centred on the Tao River Valley, showing new research sites (Siwashan and Majiayao), comparative sites from previous studies (after Womack et al 2019), and other important Majiayao and Qijia period sites in the region. Inset: map showing the approximate extent of Jaang's (2015) Ejin River Transfer Zone (shaded grey oval) (figure by authors).…”
During the Neolithic and Bronze Age, goods and ideas moved between Central Asia and the Chinese Central Plain via north-western China. While the crops, animals and technologies exchanged are well documented, the local and social bases of these interactions are poorly known. Here, the authors use petrographic analysis of ceramic sherds from Gansu Province, China, to document the local production of pottery vessels and their circulation between sites. Individual vessel forms are associated with multiple paste recipes indicating the production of similar products by different communities of practice. It is argued the circulation of these vessels forged inter-community relationships. In aggregate, these local networks underpinned longer-distance exchange between Central and East Asia.
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