Use-wear, Experimental Archaeology and Residue Analysis in the People's Republic of China, A Session in Memory of George H. Odell

DOCUMENT Citation Only Juzhong Zhang. Ling Yao. Yuzhang Yang. Weiya Li.

Since 2010, we have extracted plentiful plant micro-remains from the surfaces of both stone artifacts and pottery recovered from the Jiahu (9000-7500 cal. yr BP), Peiligang (8500-7000 cal. yr BP) and Tanghu sites in central Henan Province, China. Through micro-morphological examination, starch grains and phytoliths from Oryza, Triticeae Dumort and millet were identified. These remains reflect the existence of mixed farming of rice and millet in the upper reaches of the Huaihe River 7000 years...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Qiang Wang. Dong Li. Qing Wang. Mingqi Li. Xiaoyan Yang.

The analysis of starch grains from the Xijincheng site showed that most of the starch was from barley (Hordeum spp.) which accounted for about 70% of the total starch grains. Other starches included foxtail millet (Setaria italica), broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum), sorghum (Sorghum spp.) and a small amount of starch grains from Leguminosaes and root tuber plants. Combined with the analytical results of carbonized remains, we conclude that ancient Xijincheng people adopted the pattern of...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Wei Ge. Weijin Huang.

Carbonized black debris was found in many fu pots recovered from an early stratum at the Hemudu site (c. 7000–6500 cal. BP). The debris resembles food residues. Although this kind of debris has been regarded as residues of cooked rice for a long time, so far no specific research has been conducted. To clarify the nature of these residues, we carried out a microscopic morphological analysis and stable isotope analysis on one of the specimens. The morphological analysis found starch granules of a...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Chunxue WANG. Yinmin YANG. Chunxue WANG. Xing GAO. Ning WANG.

The appearance of art is an important development in behavioral modernity. In this paper we address the production of early Holocene ostrich eggshell beads. Such beads have been found in many Chinese late Paleolithic sites and also the early Holocene site of Shui Donggou. The study of these ancient beads will help us to better understand early craft production and the role art played in the development of society. In this paper, we present the results of our experimental ostrich shell bead...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Hong Chen. Xiaoling Zhang. Chen Shen.

Use-wear analysis has become an essential method for the functional study of lithic artifacts from archaeological assemblages. However, research concerning multi-stage use-wear formation is poorly developed. In this paper, we report the results of an experimental study focusing on flake scar patterns, rounding and polish formation in multiple stages. For comparative data and interpretation, nine cases of single working tasks were undertaken on scraping bone with Onondaga chert from Ontario Lake....

DOCUMENT Citation Only Geoffrey Cunnar. Fengshi Luan.

A relatively rich burial, M33, was excavated in 2000 at the late prehistoric, Longshan period center of Liangchengzhen by a collaborative team from Shandong University, The Field Museum, and Yale University. The most unusual grave good was a turquoise artifact located on the left arm of the interred. This presentation provides a description of contextual, use-wear, comparative and replication analyses in order to better understand the nature of the turquoise artifact and the burial ritual for...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Liye Xie. Leping Jiang. Weijin Huang.

Bone spades crafted from large mammal scapulae recovered from archaeological contexts have generally been assumed to be earth-working implements, based on analogies with ethnographic artifacts. On the Ningshan Plain in eastern China, hundreds of scapular spades have been discovered. The majority of these scapular spades belong to the early Hemudu culture (7,000-6,000 BP), with a few earlier examples dating to the last stage of the Kuahuqiao culture (7,200-7000 BP). To identify the use contexts...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Yuzhang YANG. Weiya LI. Chenglong YIN. Zhijie CHENG. Juzhong ZHANG.

Shunshanji is an important Neolithic age archaeological site in Jiangsu province. However, until now hardly any paleo-ethnobotanical research has been accomplished. In this paper, microbotanical remains such as starch grains and phytoliths were used to investigate the ancient plant utilization at this site. In addition, carbonized seeds from portulacaceae, rumex, chenopodiaceae, asteraceae were recovered through flotation analysis. Both stone tools and pottery vessels yielded plentiful starch...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ying Guan. Xing Gao.

Archaeological plant residue analysis has developed considerably in China during the last ten years. In terms of the Paleolithic, state of the art technology has been broadly and successfully applied by archaeologists at various sites. Issues about stone tool function, plant use, the origin of agriculture and the like can now be deeply discussed with the direct evidence of residues from stone artifacts. This is the case for either chipped stone or ground stone tools. However, this technology...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Qi-Long Cui. Juzhong ZHANG. Yuzhang YANG.

Word Count =147. 200 maximum. Jiahu is one of the most important settlement sites of the Chinese Middle Neolithic Age (ca.7000-5500 BC) and is located in the upper Huai River Valley, China. During excavations, a number of ground stone tools were uncovered. Use-wear analysis and replication experiments were conducted in order to understand the functionality, usage and contact materials of these tools. Our experiments involved stone shovels, axes, adzes, gouges and other common stone tools from...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Yanhua Song. Xiaoling Zhang. Chen Shen.

In this paper, I report on the use-wear analysis of quartzite artifacts. This is one of the first systematic examinations in China for raw materials other than chert and obsidian. The experiments demonstrated that different use-wear patterns were observed on the different raw materials when the contact materials, use-motion and experimenters were the same. So our research supports the idea that there is no single solution for use-wear analysis. The different characteristics of use-wear...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Zhuang Lina. Zhou Runken.

he Dongshancun Site is located in Zhangjiagang city in Jiangsu Province in the eastern area of China. The site is only 2 kilometers from the Yangtze River. During 2008-2010, the Nanjing Museum excavated about 37 tombs belonging to the Songze Culture (3900-3100BC). Excavations revealed that some of interred were buried with abundant pottery vessels, jade artifacts, and other well-made stone tools such as the stone yue axe, stone adze and stone chisel. In this paper, we employ a low-power method...