Radiocarbon dating of charcoal and bone collagen associated with early pottery at Yuchanyan Cave, Hunan Province, China

Wu, Xiaohong; Yuan, Jingjie; Bar‐Yosef, Ofer; Chu, Vikki; Pan, Yan; Liu, Kexin; Cohen, David J.; Jiao, Tianlong; Li, Shuicheng; Gu, Hanming; Goldberg, Paul; Weiner, Steve

doi:10.1073/pnas.0900539106

Cited by 162 publications

(110 citation statements)

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“…For instance, systematic flotation at the site of Zengpiyan produced no rice despite a large variety of other paleobotanical finds (Zhao 2003a). Recent reinvestigation of the site of Yuchanyan provided no support for the notion that rice agriculture was being practiced alongside the use of early pottery (16300-13430 BC) (Boaretto et al 2009). Similarly, recent reevaluations of phytolith evidence from the sites of Diaotonghuan and Xianrendong show that these sites are representative of hunting and gathering rather than agricultural tradition (Zhao 2010a).…”

Section: Setting the Stage: New Dates For The Origins Of Rice And Milmentioning

confidence: 99%

Millets, Rice, Social Complexity, and the Spread of Agriculture to the Chengdu Plain and Southwest China

Guedes

2011

Rice

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Southwest China played a pivotal role in the spread of agriculture across East and Southeast Asia. Both rice and millet were important in the spread of populations and the expansion of agriculture into this region. Recent finds in the mountainous peripheries of Sichuan Province show that the earliest inhabitants of this region practiced a combination of broomcorn and foxtail millet agriculture (ca 4000-2500 BC). These crops are adapted to high altitude and arid environments, which facilitated their movement across this region and eventually into the Tibetan Plateau. At around 2700 BC, a combined system of rice and foxtail millet agriculture appears suddenly in sites of the Baodun culture on the Chengdu Plain. The use of this double cropping system provided advantages to the inhabitants of this region in both risk reduction and yield. I argue that this had important consequences for spurring population growth, facilitating expansion into new territories and the development of social complexity.

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Section: Setting the Stage: New Dates For The Origins Of Rice And Milmentioning

confidence: 99%

Millets, Rice, Social Complexity, and the Spread of Agriculture to the Chengdu Plain and Southwest China

Guedes

2011

Rice

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“…Early dates for pottery come from southern China at around 18 300 to 15 430 calBP (Boaretto et al 2009) and Japan and the Russian Far East around 16 230 calBP (Keally et al 2003;Kuzmin 2006). Much of the earliest pottery in these regions is undecorated and rather coarse.…”

Section: East Asiamentioning

confidence: 99%

Not meant to last: mobility and disposable pottery

Gibbs

2012

Doc. praeh.

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IntroductionA number of recent publications indicate that the emergence of pottery remains an important topic in Old World archaeology (e.g., Barnett, Hoopes 1995;Gheorghiu 2009; Jordan, Zvelebil 2009a;Rice 1999;Yasuda 2002). Models from a range of theoretical perspectives have been proposed to explain why people began using fired clay vessels (Brown 1989;Rice 1999). A recurring theme implicit in some of these models is that pottery developed as a durable container that was intended to have a long use-life. But is it possible that early pots were not always fashioned with longevity in mind? Were pots sometimes used for a short period, perhaps to achieve a single, specific task, and then discarded? Accepting that the origins of pottery was likely complex and varied, this paper explores the potential roles of 'disposable' pottery in early pottery-using groups and speculates that disposable pottery may have particular advantages for mobile groups. Pottery origins and mobilityExplanations for the adoption of pottery come from a variety of perspectives (Rice 1999). However, many recent discussions have stressed either the functional advantages of pottery or its potential role as a prestige object. Functionalist explanations typically consider pottery an adaptation for food preparation, and focus on its benefits as a watertight and vermin-proof storage container, or emphasise its role in new culinary contexts (Rice 1999.6-10). Such explanations suggest that the introduction of new foodstuffs or the benefits of cooking food in a more efficient way -through the direct application of heat 84-provided the stimulus for the adoption of pottery as a functionally superior container.Explanations that consider the prestige value of pottery have built primarily on the work of Brian Hayden (1995;1998), who argues that early pottery played a role in ritual feasting displays, especially in the context of increasing resource intensification. Feasts allowed aggrandising individuals to impress or mobilise others and thereby influence socio-economic relationships. As a new and presumably difficult item to make, pottery would have had prestige value that could enhance the status of its owner. During feasts, pottery -and especially fine, decorated pottery -could be used to display or serve prestige foods, such as oils or alcohol. Hayden (2009) suggests that undecorated and seemingly utilitarian vessels can be explained from a prestige perspective if they were involved in the preparation of these foods.These two kinds of explanation -functionalist and prestige -differ in significant ways, yet in both there is an emphasis on well-made pottery that was presumably intended to be durable. For functionalist explanations, there is an expectation that early pottery should be sufficiently well-made in order to fulfil its functional roles as a cooking or storage container. While there may have been early phases of experimentation characterised by cruder vessels (e.g., Brown 1989), the development of pottery should be towards well-made, functional...

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“…Other sherds dated to ca. 16,000 to 15,000 BCE have been recovered from the Yuchanyan Cave in Hunan, China [19,22].…”

Section: Early Chemical Technologiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Introduction: The Pacific Rim — From Early Chemical Technology to Independent Local Chemical Communities

Rasmussen

2018

Igniting the Chemical Ring of Fire

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Radiocarbon dating of charcoal and bone collagen associated with early pottery at Yuchanyan Cave, Hunan Province, China

Cited by 162 publications

References 26 publications

Millets, Rice, Social Complexity, and the Spread of Agriculture to the Chengdu Plain and Southwest China

Millets, Rice, Social Complexity, and the Spread of Agriculture to the Chengdu Plain and Southwest China

Not meant to last: mobility and disposable pottery

Introduction: The Pacific Rim — From Early Chemical Technology to Independent Local Chemical Communities

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