A place of pilgrimage? Niuheliang and its role in Hongshan society

Drennan, Robert D.; Xueming, Lu; Peterson, Christian E.

doi:10.15184/aqy.2016.227

Cited by 25 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 10 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Systematic regional settlement study in 2014, however, has conclusively documented even higher population densities in the area around these monuments than in either the Chifeng or Upper Daling regions. The Niuheliang monument group does appear to be something quite different from the usual supra-local communities, but the association between public architecture and habitation at a regional scale is incontestable (Liaoning and Zhongguo 2015; Drennan et al 2017).…”

Section: Hongshan Villages and Supra-local Communitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hongshan households and communities in Neolithic northeastern China

Drennan

Peterson

Xueming

et al. 2017

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Analysis of a large sample of household artifact assemblages from residential zones dating to the Hongshan period (4500-3000 BCE) in northeastern China complements regional-scale settlement study and excavation of house structures, platforms, and tombs. Prestige differentiation between household units is recognizable but modest. Productive differentiation is also present, indicating a very small degree of economic interdependence between households involving the utilitarian goods of daily life. Exchange did transcend both local and regional-scale communities, but movement of goods seldom exceeded a few kilometers. Standards of living were similar across households, with no sign of wealth differentiation. Confirming what has previously been suggested about the role of belief systems in Hongshan social integration, the strongest differentiation detectable in the household evidence involved religious roles and ritual activities. The elaboration of ceremonial architecture and funerary ritual of the Hongshan core zone is thus seen not to correspond to larger regional-scale communities, greater projection of political power, a more specialized economy, larger-scale exchange of goods, or accumulation of wealth. These commonly imagined aspects of early complex society were strikingly underdeveloped in Hongshan society, given its complex ceremonial architecture, elaborate burial treatment of presumed ritual specialists, and famous jade carvings.

show abstract

Section: Hongshan Villages and Supra-local Communitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Hongshan households and communities in Neolithic northeastern China

Drennan

Peterson

Xueming

et al. 2017

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Over the past 20 years, four high-resolution, detailed, large-scale regional archaeological surveys were conducted in northeast China [27–30]. Here we focus on the surveys conducted around the modern cities of Chifeng and Fuxin [27,28](Fig 1) because these are the only surveys that recovered evidence of the earlier phases of sedentism.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sedentism and plant cultivation in northeast China emerged during affluent conditions

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The reasons and processes that led hunter-gatherers to transition into a sedentary and agricultural way of life are a fundamental unresolved question of human history. Here we present results of excavations of two single-occupation early Neolithic sites (dated to 7.9 and 7.4 ka) and two high-resolution archaeological surveys in northeast China, which capture the earliest stages of sedentism and millet cultivation in the second oldest center of domestication in the Old World. The transition to sedentism coincided with a significant transition to wetter conditions in north China, at 8.1–7.9 ka. We suggest that these wetter conditions were an empirical precondition that facilitated the complex transitional process to sedentism and eventually millet domestication in north China. Interestingly, sedentism and plant domestication followed different trajectories. The sedentary way of life and cultural norms evolved rapidly, within a few hundred years, we find complex sedentary villages inhabiting the landscape. However, the process of plant domestication, progressed slowly over several millennia. Our earliest evidence for the beginning of the domestication process appear in the context of an already complex sedentary village (late Xinglongwa culture), a half millennia after the onset of cultivation, and even in this phase domesticated plants and animals were rare, suggesting that the transition to domesticated ( sensu stricto ) plants in affluent areas might have not played a substantial role in the transition to sedentary societies.

show abstract

“…The best-known Hongshan site is Niuheliang, where complexes of ceremonial architecture and elaborate burials with finely carved jades occur at more than 16 localities scattered through unproductive mountainous terrain; the distribution of associated occupation is as unusual as the architecture [31]. Niuheliang appears to have been a pilgrimage center for a vast region [32], and thus would likely have had an atypical local economy. A sample of 50 households from several dispersed Hongshan villages in the more productive Upper Daling Valley and nearby hills provides a more accurate view of regular economic life in Hongshan villages [33].…”

Section: Plos Onementioning

confidence: 99%

Local economies and household spacing in early chiefdom communities

2021

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Archaeological research has by now revealed a great deal of variation in the way early complex societies, or chiefdoms, developed. This variation is widely recognized, but our understanding of the forces that produced it remains relatively undeveloped. This paper takes aim at such understanding by exploring variation in the local economies of six early chiefdoms; it considers what implications this variation had for trajectories of chiefdom development, as well as the source of that variation. Economic exchange is a primary form of local interaction in all societies. Because of distance-interaction principles, closer household spacing within local communities facilitated more frequent interaction and thus encouraged productive differentiation, economic interdependence, and the development of well-integrated local economies. Well-integrated local economies, in turn, provided ready opportunities for aspiring leaders to accumulate wealth and fund political economies, and pursuit of these opportunities led to societies with leaders whose power had a direct economic base. Wider household spacing, on the other hand, impeded interaction and the development of well-integrated local economies. In such contexts, aspiring leaders were able to turn to ritual and religion as a base of social power. Even when well-integrated local economies offered opportunities for wealth accumulation and a ready source of funding for political economies, these opportunities were not always taken advantage of. That variation in the shapes of early chiefdoms can be traced back to patterns of household spacing highlights the importance of settlement and interaction in explaining not just chiefdom development, but societal change more generally.

show abstract

A place of pilgrimage? Niuheliang and its role in Hongshan society

Abstract: Abstract

Cited by 25 publications

References 10 publications

Hongshan households and communities in Neolithic northeastern China

Hongshan households and communities in Neolithic northeastern China

Sedentism and plant cultivation in northeast China emerged during affluent conditions

Local economies and household spacing in early chiefdom communities

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About