Settlement Relocation and the Emergence of Early Urban Centers in the Heartland of Chinese Civilization, 2500-1600 BCE

Summary

This is an abstract from the "New Thoughts on Current Research in East Asian Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Settlement patterns and social structures shifted significantly around 2500 BCE in the late Longshan era, and again around 1600 BCE when an intraregional state identified with the historical Shang dynasty evolved in the Central Plain, heartland of Chinese civilization. Our research examines the political transformation from pre-state to dynastic societies between 2500 and 1600 BCE from the perspective of urban formation.

We argue that the Taosi (2300-1900BCE) and Erlitou (1750-1520BCE) urban sites formed from the settlement relocation and nucleation of populations from multiple villages. Multiple lines of evidence support this argument. First, both the Taosi and Erlitou sites are far from previous regional centers. Second, both urban centers appear to have been politically important from their inception. Third, mortuary patterns, pottery assemblages, stone tools, house structures, and dietary traditions within each urban centerappear exceptionally diverse, suggesting a complex population makeup.

Although the triggers to this nucleation process remain unclear, the construction of the urban centers involving groups from previously unrelated communities would have provided an environment for social re-engineering, even if the political outcomes were unintended.Therefore, settlement relocation and the construction of the urban centers contributed to the formation of dynastic polities.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• New Thoughts on Current Research in East Asian Archaeology   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24231