Long-Distance Human Migration in Late Neolithic China: Isotopic Evidence from Qingliangsi Cemetery

Summary

Around 2200BC, Qingliangsi is a large settlement to the north of the Yellow River with wealth accumulation and social stratification. The location of the site close to rich salt resources made the location a draw for emergent elites during the late Neolithic. Among the most significant lines of evidence of emergent stratification are remains of human sacrifice found in the Qingliangsi cemetery. Our carbon, oxygen, and strontium isotope analyses of human remains excavated from Qiangliangsi show that some of the elites and the sacrificed juveniles during Longshan period may have come from regions near the Yangtze and Huai Rivers. Our results delineate the complex demography in Qingliangsi and reveal population movement over long distances driven by salt resources. The unusually rich salt resources in North China may have played a vital catalytic role in this evolution.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 21933