Painted Pottery Production and Social Complexity in Neolithic Northwest China

Painted Pottery Production and Social Complexity in Neolithic Northwest China PDF Author: Ling-Yu Hung
Publisher: British Archaeological Reports (Oxford) Limited
ISBN: 9781407358789
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
This study focuses on Neolithic period Majiayao-style painted pottery from Northwest China, which is known for its high quality and beautiful décor. While much is known about the pottery, research on the associated Majiayao Culture has previously been limited to cultural histories that emphasize chronology and trait-list classification, leading to a static and simplistic view of past realities. This study instead focuses on the long-overlooked social and economic processes behind the production of these vessels. Attribute and physicochemical analyses of hundreds of ceramic vessels and samples selected from multiple sites in Gansu, Qinghai, and Sichuan provinces are combined with settlement pattern and mortuary analyses of thousands of sites and burials. By synthesizing these data, this study illustrates a positive correlation between regional density of settlement distribution, intensification of pottery production, and degree of social inequality in each phase. Rather than showing a simple linear process of increasing social complexity, however, distinct regional variations in each phase and significant regional fluctuations over time can be seen. The results of this study demonstrate that economic and social patterns related to Majiayao ceramics were far more complex than previously thought.

Painted Pottery Production and Social Complexity in Neolithic Northwest China

Painted Pottery Production and Social Complexity in Neolithic Northwest China PDF Author: Ling-Yu Hung
Publisher: British Archaeological Reports (Oxford) Limited
ISBN: 9781407358789
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 216

Get Book

Book Description
This study focuses on Neolithic period Majiayao-style painted pottery from Northwest China, which is known for its high quality and beautiful décor. While much is known about the pottery, research on the associated Majiayao Culture has previously been limited to cultural histories that emphasize chronology and trait-list classification, leading to a static and simplistic view of past realities. This study instead focuses on the long-overlooked social and economic processes behind the production of these vessels. Attribute and physicochemical analyses of hundreds of ceramic vessels and samples selected from multiple sites in Gansu, Qinghai, and Sichuan provinces are combined with settlement pattern and mortuary analyses of thousands of sites and burials. By synthesizing these data, this study illustrates a positive correlation between regional density of settlement distribution, intensification of pottery production, and degree of social inequality in each phase. Rather than showing a simple linear process of increasing social complexity, however, distinct regional variations in each phase and significant regional fluctuations over time can be seen. The results of this study demonstrate that economic and social patterns related to Majiayao ceramics were far more complex than previously thought.

Pottery Production, Settlement Patterns and Development of Social Complexity in the Yuanqu Basin, North Central China

Pottery Production, Settlement Patterns and Development of Social Complexity in the Yuanqu Basin, North Central China PDF Author: Xiangming Dai
Publisher: British Archaeological Reports Oxford Limited
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 156

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Book Description
Bunun is a language spoken by one the Austronesian minority groups on the island of Taiwan. it is most marked characteristitics are its complex verbal morphology and its unusual argument alignment system. Takivatan Bunun is the third-largestof its five extant dialects and is spokenby number of small settlements in two countries.

Technological Knowledge in the Production of Neolithic Majiayao Pottery in Gansu and Qinghai

Technological Knowledge in the Production of Neolithic Majiayao Pottery in Gansu and Qinghai PDF Author: Evgenia Dammer
Publisher: International
ISBN: 9781407360317
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The first comprehensive scientific study of technological knowledge in Majiayao pottery production. It suggests that technological knowledge can help address the connectivity of people in Neolithic northwest China over far distances.

Craft Production and Social Change in Northern China

Craft Production and Social Change in Northern China PDF Author: Anne P. Underhill
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461506417
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 409

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Book Description
This book offers an anthropological analysis of how craft production changed in relation to the development of complex societies in northern China. It focuses on the production and use of food containers-pottery and bronze vessels-during the late prehistoric and early historic periods. A major theme is how production and use of prestige vessels changed in relation to increase in degree of social inequality. The research and writing of this book took place intermittently over a period of several years. When I first outlined the book in 1994, I planned to offer a more limited and descriptive account of social change during the late prehistoric period. In considering the human desire to display status with prestige goods, my initial approach emphasized how the case of northern China was similar to other areas of the world. I began to realize that in order to adequately explain how and why craft production changed in ancient China, it was crucial to consider the belief systems that motivated produc tion and use of food containers. Similarly, a striking characteristic of ancient China that I needed to include in the analysis was the preponderance of food containers, rather than other goods, that were buried with the deceased. I decided to investigate the social and ritual uses of food, bever ages, and containers during more than one period of Chinese history. Some strong patterns could have emerged during the late prehistoric period.

The Chinese Neolithic

The Chinese Neolithic PDF Author: Li Liu
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1139441701
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
This book studies the formation of complex societies in prehistoric China during the Neolithic and early state periods, c. 7000–1500 BC. Archaeological materials are interpreted through anthropological perspectives, using systematic analytic methods in settlement and burial patterns. Both agency and process are considered in the development of chiefdoms and in the emergence of early states in the Yellow River region. Interrelationships between factors such as mortuary practice, craft specialization, ritual activities, warfare, exchange of elite goods, climatic fluctuations, and environmental changes are emphasized. This study offers a critical evaluation of current archaeological data from Chinese sources, and argues that, although some general tendencies are noted, social changes were affected by multiple factors in no pre-determined sequence. In this most comprehensive study to date, Li Liu attempts to reconstruct developmental trajectories toward early states in Chinese civilization and discusses theoretical implications of Chinese archaeology for the understanding of social evolution.

The Rise of Trans-Eurasian Exchange

The Rise of Trans-Eurasian Exchange PDF Author: Ting An
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 9819970350
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
This book has re-visited two distinctive patterns, namely pottery and millet, the movement of both of which conflict with conventional narratives concerning prehistoric trans-Eurasian exchange. The significance of this lies beyond the simple matter of chronology, but rests on the relationship between the movement of agricultural resources and of other items of material culture. Studies on early west–east interaction have attracted researchers from various disciplines, such as archaeology, history, Asian studies, art history, etc. Pursuing an archaeological approach, the book re-examines two of the earliest evidences of trans-Eurasian cultural exchange. The book is intended for researchers who are interested in prehistory, archaeobotany, pottery studies and comparative studies of early civilizations.

Ceramics Before Farming

Ceramics Before Farming PDF Author: Peter Jordan
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1315432358
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 632

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Book Description
A long-overdue advancement in ceramic studies, this volume sheds new light on the adoption and dispersal of pottery by non-agricultural societies of prehistoric Eurasia. Major contributions from Western Europe, Eastern Europe and Asia make this a truly international work that brings together different theories and material for the first time. Researchers and scholars studying the origins and dispersal of pottery, the prehistoric peoples or Eurasia, and flow of ancient technologies will all benefit from this book.

China

China PDF Author: John Makeham
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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Book Description
China boasts a recorded history that dates back more than 3,500 years, and the Chinese have endowed the rest of the world with an enduring legacy. China examines the turbulent history of this immense nation, including the inventiveness of the Bronze Age society, the Barbarian invasions, the conquest by Genghis Khan, the rise and fall of the dynasties, and the Opium Wars. It takes in the architecture of the emperors; the magnificent buildings of the Forbidden City; the imperial tombs, and the mysterious entombed warriors. It also surveys Chinese culture and social history, including the rise of Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism, and the cult of ancestor worship.

The Emergence of Pottery in West Asia

The Emergence of Pottery in West Asia PDF Author: Akiri Tsuneki
Publisher:
ISBN: 178570575X
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 196

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Book Description
Over the past fifty years or so early pottery complexes in the wider region of West Asia have hardly ever been investigated in their own right. Early ceramics have often been unexpected by-products of projects focussing upon much earlier aceramic or later prehistoric periods. In recent years, however, there has been a tremendous increase in research in various parts of West Asia focusing explicitly on this theme. It had generally become accepted that the adoption of pottery in West Asia happened relatively late in the history of ceramics. Several regions are now believed to have developed pottery significantly earlier. Thus, pottery occurs in Eastern Russia, in China and Japan by 16,500 cal. BC and in north Africa it is known in the 10th millennium. However, while the East Asian examples in particular do mark chronologically earlier instances, the picture in West Asia is actually rather more complex, in part because of the tyranny of the Aceramic/Ceramic Neolithic chronology. For the first time, The Emergence of Pottery in West Asia examines in detail the when, where, how and why pottery first arrived in the region? A key insight that emerges is that we must not confuse the reasons for pottery adoption with the long-term consequences. Neolithic peoples in West Asia did not adopt pottery because of the many uses and functions it would gain many centuries later and the development of ceramic technology needs to be examined in the context of its original cultural and social milieu.

Early to Medieval Chinese Pottery

Early to Medieval Chinese Pottery PDF Author: Richard A. Pegg
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 260

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Book Description
A thorough and stunning look at The MacLean Collection Asian Art Museum, which consists of more than five thousand objects, from Neolithic times to the present, focused in three media--pottery, bronze, and stone from primarily China and Southeast Asia. A selection of Chinese pottery from the MacLean Collection of Asian art, dating from the Neolithic period (ca. 10, 000-2000 BCE) to the Tang dynasty (618-906), providing insights into the material culture, belief systems, and social development of early to medieval China. Nowhere in the world has such a rich, distinguished, and continuous tradition of pottery production developed as in China. From the Neolithic period (ca. 10, 000-2000 BCE) to the Tang dynasty (618-906), the art of Chinese pottery making has developed as much in response to functional and aesthetic considerations as to technological improvement. The forty-eight objects selected from the MacLean Collection Asian Art Museum represent some of the most important stages of this unparallel tradition when the forms, the artistic styles, and the techniques of pottery making emerged, improved, and sophisticated. They also provide insights into the material culture, belief systems, and social development of early and medieval China. OFFICIAL MUSEUM COLLECTION: An inside look into the rare collection of Asian Art both achived pieces and those currently on display in the museum located in Chicago, Illinois PERFECT FOR ART LOVERS: With enthralling photography and it's sleek hardcover, this book makes an exquisite gift for museum and art lovers everywhere CURATED FOR YOU BY THE BEST: Authored by three of the finest doctors and curators of ancient, modern, and contemporary Chinese art and pottery