An Intersite Comparison of Human Skeletal Trauma in Shang Dynasty China

Summary

Participation in the near-constant military campaigns of the Late Shang dynasty of China may have constituted an important social role for much of the population. Archaeologists have employed mortuary analysis and a close-reading of contemporaneous oracle bone inscriptions to help elucidate the nature of warfare and its participants. A large-scale bioarchaeological analysis of human skeletal remains could not only provide valuable insight on the relationship between weaponry as grave goods and possible participation in violent interactions, but also illuminate the overall experience of traumatic events at the population level. This paper presents the bioarchaeological analysis of trends in traumatic lesions among a population from the Liujiazhuang locale of Yinxu in Henan Province. Patterns in the distribution of lesions on the body are examined to assess whether they are more likely to result from accidental injury or intentional violence, along with a demographic analysis of who in the population is affected by diverse types of trauma. These results are then compared to two sites with Late Shang components in Shandong Province, Jinan Liujiazhuang and Qianzhangda, to assess how differences in the distribution of trauma may reflect differential participation in warfare-related events or variations in lifestyle and activity.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 17423