Standardization in pottery production of the Jinsha site, Chengdu Plain, China

Summary

In earlier studies, scholars have focused on the measurement of vessels’ dimensions to assess the degree of standardization. It should be noted however that not all dimensions are culturally salient or equally important. Moreover, when manufacturing processes can be decomposed into multiple stages, cultural idiosyncrasies that have been shaped through either institutionalized or unconscious ways might affect and be sought in any of these stages. This has called for analyses on ceramics by using different scientific strategies. Through testing the dimensional measurements and mineral compositions of several vessel types that were popular in the Jinsha site (ca. 1200-650 BC), it appears that their degrees of standardization, though vary with both loci and phases, are generally greater than vessels found in other sites at the outskirts. The spatial pattern of the pottery kilns unearthed in this early urban center, Jinsha, might be a key to the formation of consensus. I suggest that the production scale should lie in between households and workshops, in which kilns were close but meanwhile were spaced by buildings or other features such that they can be loosely bonded. Such manner of production organization might also reveal the pattern plural social groups co-resided in Jinsha.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Beyond Typology: Current Trends in Ceramic Analysis in China

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 15344