Ground Stone Tools from the Hanjing and Shunshanji Sites

Summary

The Shunshanji and Hanjing sites are located in the northern part of the middle reaches of the Huaihe River, in Sihong county, Jiangsu Province, China. The two sites date to 8500-7700BP, the middle Neolithic period of China, and the distance between them is about 5 kilometers. Charred rice was recovered during flotation at both sites, and domesticated rice spikelet bases were found in a unit of the Hanjing site. Meanwhile, we revealed some features related to cultivation activities. All the findings suggested that the cultivation of rice emerged in this period. This study examines the subsistence economy and stone-tool production through research into raw material procurement, manufacturing technologies, and the function of stone tools and other stone objects unearthed from the two sites. We also make comparisons with other sites in the same period in China and discuss what role this area played in the origin of rice agriculture in East Asia.

The main methods applied in this research are use-wear and residue analysis for deducing the function of stone tools, and thin-section observations and field survey were conducted for sourcing.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

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

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20789