Strontium Isotopes in Human Teeth as Indicators of Migration in the Warring States Period Sites of Zhaitouhe and Shijiahe

Summary

This is an abstract from the "From Tangible Things to Intangible Ideas: The Context of Pan-Eurasian Exchange of Crops and Objects" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The sites of ZhaiTouHe and ShiJiaHe are two neatly arranged cemeteries with complicated features. The cemeteries were both discovered in Huangling county, Shaanxi Province, are the first complete Rong people’s tombs found in northern Shaanxi, and are closely related to the Wei’s culture. In order to reveal migration patterns, strontium isotope analysis was conducted on human teeth. With the help of some archaeological data and historical literature, the Rong’s way of life and the changes in the immigration policy of Qin are also studied, with focus on the process of national fusion during the Warring States Period in northern Shaanxi. The results of the study indicate that both graveyards have some migrants, and the mobility of the population was high. The Rong people’s way of living changed after arrival in the Huangling area. At the same time, one sample also indicates how immigration policies changed in the subsequent Qin Dynasty.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• From Tangible Things to Intangible Ideas: The Context of Pan-Eurasian Exchange of Crops and Objects   •
• Society for American Archaeology 84th Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM (2019)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 24519