Large Walled Sites on the Chengdu Plain, Sichuan, China: Shifting Centers of Regional Emphasis

Summary

In the third millennium BC, several walled sites were inhabited in the Chengdu Plain of Sichuan, China. These late Neolithic settlements varied in size and shape, and they had mounded earth walls, some encompassing the largest areas of any known sites of their time in China. The site of Baodun is the largest known example, and has recently been the focus of extensive excavations. Other known sites in the region include Gucheng in Pi Xian County, the most completely preserved of these walled sites, and Sanxingdui, which became a central settlement of the Bronze Age Sanxingdui Culture following the late Neolithic Baodun Culture. This talk examines the cultural and social context of these large walled sites and discusses landscape and settlement pattern changes during the transition from the Neolithic to Bronze Age periods in the region.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• What to Do with "Megasites" in Prehistory? Further Exploring the "Megasite" Conundrum

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 14708