Changes and Consistencies in Bone Technologies as a Sign of Cultural Transition about 4,000 Years Ago in Eastern China: Insights from the Dinggong Site, Shandong, China

Summary

This is an abstract from the "SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 90th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Changes in ceramics and prestige goods played an important role in defining historical chronologies retracing the emergence of complex societies in Ancient China. However, it remains unclear whether, and if so, to what extent, these cultural changes also affected other aspects of material culture. Here, we present the analysis of bone tools found in Longshan and Yueshi contexts at Dinggong, Shandong Province. We identify a continuum in the techniques used to manufacture bone tools during the Longshan and Yueshi eras. From a typological standpoint, both tool types and intra-typological diversity increase during the Yueshi compared to Longshan. Longshan tools are generally more standardized than Yueshi tools; the latter often show evidence suggesting they were expediently manufactured. We argue this pattern reflects the preservation of a common know-how among the human groups occupying Dinggong throughout the Longshan to Yueshi eras. The typological diversification and decrease standardization observed during the Yueshi era are coherent with social groups adopting flexible technological behaviors to cope with deteriorating environmental conditions.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 90th Annual Meeting, Denver, CO (2025)   •
• SAA 2025: Individual Abstracts

Keywords

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 53766