New Insights into Bronze Age Ceramic Production in Northwestern China: Petrographic Analysis of Qijia and Shajing Materials from the Andersson Collections

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

The late Neolithic to late Bronze Age periods (ca. 2300–400 BCE) in what is now northwestern China was a time of significant technological and social change. Based on limited excavation and survey, it has been suggested that major changes took place in subsistence technologies, including a potential shift from sedentary farming to mobile herding, as well as increasing use of metal items. Ceramics are also thought to reflect these transitions based on major changes in vessel form and surface treatment; however, only preliminary analyses of ceramic technology from this time period have taken place. Here we use petrographic analysis of long-dormant collections of ceramics from the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm, Sweden, to assess changes in ceramic technology and circulation between the Qijia cultural period (2300–1500 BCE) and Shajing cultural period (1000–400 BCE) in northwestern China. Using ceramic petrography, we explore whether paste recipes and other aspects of production shift alongside changes in ceramic form and surface treatment between the Qijia and Shajing periods, or whether there is long-term continuity in production practices.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Ceramics and Archaeological Sciences   •
• Society for American Archaeology 88th Annual Meeting, Portland, OR (2023)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 35591.0