The emergence of complex society in China: the case of Liangzhu

Why Rice Farmers Don’t Sail: Coastal Subsistence Traditions and Maritime Trends in Early China

“…It also provides a context for understanding how and why earthworks and water control systems such as those discovered at Liangzhu, also known as the Peripheral Water Conservancy System of the Liangzhu City Site, came into existence in this period(Liu et al 2017). This water control system helped to guarantee the development of the Liangzhu economy, with its specialized jade artwork, as well as the agricultural tool kits that subsequently drove further social complexity and more intensified wet rice agriculture(Qin 2013;Renfrew and Liu 2018).…”

China's major Late Neolithic centres and the rise of Erlitou

“…Numerous tombs here have yielded fine ceramics and, more remarkably, jades (Qin 2015; Renfrew & Liu 2018). Clear levels of status or hierarchy are indicated by a wide variety in the numbers of jades associated with buried individuals.…”

Rethinking pig domestication in China: regional trajectories in central China and the Lower Yangtze Valley

“…There is a sharp contrast between sites in the core area of the Liangzhu cultural zone and those in the periphery. The core area, located to the south of Lake Tai (Figure 5), is usually defined as containing settlement complexes centred around Liangzhu city and composed of a system of earthen dams, ritual altars, cemeteries and a series of production sites (Renfrew & Liu 2018). The borders of the Liangzhu cultural zone extend to the north across the Yangtze River and to the coastal areas in the east.…”

“…In Liangzhu, powerful institutional groups formed, and the city of Liangzhu soon emerged as a political, social, economic and religious centre (Renfrew & Liu 2018). Pigs, with their ability to live within dense urban environments and scavenge for food waste, are ideal livestock for this setting.…”