The Guandimiao Bone Assemblage (and What it Says about the Shang Economy)

Hou, Yaonan; Campbell, Rod; Li, Zhipeng; Yan, Zhang; Li, Suting; He, Yuan

doi:10.1353/asi.2018.0018

Cited by 18 publications

(22 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…This contradicts the popular but now outdated view that the Shang kings ruled through a theocratic monopoly. Indeed, 68 oracle-bone fragments (NISP) from a minimum of 32 whole oracle bones (MNE) were recovered, representing 42 per cent of the worked bone assemblage by fragment (Hou et al 2018). Although they mirror the form of uninscribed oracle bones found at Anyang (Flad 2008), these oracle bones show differences in the tools and methods used in their preparation.…”

Section: Ritual Remainsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Although they mirror the form of uninscribed oracle bones found at Anyang (Flad 2008), these oracle bones show differences in the tools and methods used in their preparation. The presence of semiprocessed oracle bones suggest that they were the work of a local diviner (Hou et al 2018).…”

Section: Ritual Remainsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is now known that Anyang was an extraordinarily vast (30km 2 ) centre of population and large-scale industry, in addition to a site of elite burial and ritual (Zhongguo 2003;Tang & Jing 2009, Jing et al 2013Campbell 2014). The royal tombs at Anyang are far larger and richer than those of any earlier Chinese Bronze Age centre, while evidence for mortuary rituals shows much greater inequality (Campbell 2014(Campbell , 2018. Anyang's workshops and their output dwarf anything hitherto seen within East Asia (and perhaps worldwide).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At least one of the major industries-bone working-produced enormous quantities of quotidian goods for widespread consumption (Campbell et al 2011;Li et al 2011). Weapons and warriors were distributed widely in Shang lineages, suggesting that warfare should be considered a social, rather than elite, institution (Campbell 2009(Campbell , 2018contra Lewis 1990). Ritual, whether in terms of sacrifice, divination or mortuary elaboration, was an arena of universal (if graded, i.e.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ritual, whether in terms of sacrifice, divination or mortuary elaboration, was an arena of universal (if graded, i.e. dictated by status) participation (Campbell 2009(Campbell , 2018. Combined, these new findings refute the notions that: Anyang was a pale, decentralised shadow of Zhengzhou (Erligang), or was primarily a ritual centre; that war and sacrifice were monopolies of those of high status; and that the Shang economy was elite-centred and underdeveloped at the grassroots level.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Guandimiao: a Shang village site and its significance

Campbell

Hou

2018

Antiquity

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Section: Ritual Remainsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Ritual Remainsmentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

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Guandimiao: a Shang village site and its significance

Campbell

Hou

2018

Antiquity

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Animal use in a Shang Village: The Guandimiao zooarchaeological assemblage

Hou

Campbell

Zhang

et al. 2019

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

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Chinese Bronze Age zooarchaeological data sets have almost exclusively been derived from large, urban centres and often from elite contexts. The Anyang period (ca. 1250–1050 BCE) village site of Guandimiao fills an important lacuna as a small, non‐elite, rural site. The large urban sites of the Chinese Bronze Age are thought to have been more centres of animal consumption than of stock rearing, and so, Guandimiao presents the first glimpse of a possible production site. In addition, the near total excavation of the original village affords a rarely fine‐grained understanding of context allowing us to distinguish broadly between domestic, ritual‐related, and mortuary assemblages. These assemblages show differences in relative quantities of taxa, in body part distribution, bone modification, and taphonomy, giving additional insight into animal‐related human behaviour at the site. In addition, a variety of lines of evidence demonstrates a large dog‐related taphonomic bias, a subject that is generally ignored in Chinese zooarchaeology. Finally, the survivorship curves for pig and cattle generally show gradual attrition with a significant proportion of older animals, in contrast with contemporaneous Shang urban sites. This fact, plus the fact that the sex analysis performed on the pig mandibles demonstrated that they were nearly all female, supports the hypothesis that Guandimiao was a site of livestock raising and origin point for urban provisioning.

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Animal use in the late second millennium BCE in northern China: Evidence from Zaoshugounao and Zaolinhetan in the Jing River valley

Zhang

Zhen

et al. 2020

Intl J of Osteoarchaeology

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Zooarchaeological research has contributed greatly to our understanding of animal use in the Bronze Age Central Plains in northern China, where remarkable social transformations occurred in the second millennium BCE. However, limited work has been done for the contemporaneous Jing and Wei River valleys, another crucial region in dynastic and imperial history of China that witnessed the political transition from the Shang Dynasty to the Zhou Dynasty (ca. 1050 BCE). In particular, the Zhou subsistence economy leading up to the emergence of the region as a centre of Zhou political authority is still poorly understood. Here, we present a zooarchaeological analysis of Zaoshugounao and Zaolinhetan, two sites associated with the predynastic Zhou, in present‐day central Shaanxi dating to before and around the Shang–Zhou transition. Results show that the Zaoshugounao and Zaolinhetan residents practiced intensive farming and animal husbandry in and around the settlements complemented by extensive caprine management on marginal lands. Along with other lines of archaeological evidence, our zooarchaeological data demonstrate that the economic developments in the Jing River valley in the late second millennium BCE, in terms of the diversified use of animal resources, underpinned the economic foundation behind the Zhou rise and their eventual conquest of the Shang.

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The Guandimiao Bone Assemblage (and What it Says about the Shang Economy)

Cited by 18 publications

References 12 publications

Guandimiao: a Shang village site and its significance

Guandimiao: a Shang village site and its significance

Animal use in a Shang Village: The Guandimiao zooarchaeological assemblage

Animal use in the late second millennium BCE in northern China: Evidence from Zaoshugounao and Zaolinhetan in the Jing River valley

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