Liangchengzhen Consumption Patterns: Moving from Integrative to Competitive

Summary

Patterns of food consumption are intimately linked to economy, social organization, culture, and identity. This study investigated patterns of food consumption across space and time at Liangchengzhen, a Longshan (ca. 2600-1900 B.C.) site located in Shandong Province, China. It was hypothesized that evidence of increasing social inequality with respect to food consumption would be found from early to late phases. Rice and meat from mammals, especially pigs, were hypothesized as the most likely types of prestigious foods for daily and ritual activities, while fish and marine foods were hypothesized as foods that average households could obtain since Liangchengzhen was close to rivers and the sea. Pottery was sampled from Early and Late Phase storage/trash and ritual pits located in Excavation Area One. Lipid residue analysis on ding, guan, and yan pottery was performed using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry to quantify the amount of C15 and C17 alkane peaks in the pottery. Results indicated that food consumption transitioned from mundane marine food sources in the early phase ritual pits to socially valued rice and pig in the late phase ritual pits. The research provides partial support of increasing social inequality with respect to food consumption from early to late phases at Liangchengzhen.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• The Science of Organic Residue Analysis and the Art of Cultural Interpretation II   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16446