Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T02:06:12.541Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Chronology of the earliest pottery in East Asia: progress and pitfalls

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Yaroslav V. Kuzmin
Yaroslav V. Kuzmin*
Affiliation:
Pacific Institute of Geography, Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Radio St. 7, Vladivostok 690041, Russia (Email: ykuzmin@tig.dvo.ru)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The origin of pottery is among the most important questions in Old World archaeology. The author undertakes a critical review of radiocarbon dates associated with the earliest pottery-making and eliminates a number of them where the material or its context are unreliable. Using those that survive this process of ‘chronometric hygiene’, he proposes that food-containers made of burnt clay originated in East Asia in the Late Glacial, c. 13 700-13 300 BP, and appeared in three separate regions, in Japan, China and far eastern Russia, at about the same time.

Keywords

East AsiaNeolithicPalaeolithic-Neolithic transitionpotteryradiocarbon dating
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 80 , Issue 308 , 1 June 2006 , pp. 362 - 371
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 2006

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

An, Z. 1991. Radiocarbon dating and the prehistoric archaeology of China.World Archaeology 23: (2: 193–200.Google Scholar
Bae, K. & Kim, J.C. 2003. Radiocarbon chronology of the Palaeolithic complexes and the transition to the Neolithic in Korea. The Review of Archaeology 24 (2): 46–9.Google Scholar
Barnes, G.L. 1999. The Rise of Civilization in East Asia: The Archaeology of China, Korea and Japan. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Bonsall, C., Cook, G., Manson, J.L. & Sanderson, D. 2002. Direct dating of Neolithic pottery: progress and prospects. Documenta Praehistorica 29: 47–58.Google Scholar
Choe, C.P. & Bale, M.T. 2002. Current perspectives on settlement, subsistence, and cultivation in prehistoric Korea. Arctic Anthropology 39 (1–2): 95–121.Google Scholar
Darvill, T. 2002. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Archaeology. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Derevianko, A.P., Kuzmin, Y.V, Jull, A.J.T., Burr, G.S. & Kim, J.C.. 2004. AMS 14Cage of the earliest pottery from the Russian Far East: 1996–2002 results. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 223–224: 735–9.Google Scholar
Guo, R. & Li, J. 2002. The Nanzhuangtou and Hutouliang sites: exploring the beginnings of agriculture and pottery in North China, in Yasuda, Y. (ed.) The Origins of Pottery and Agriculture: 193–204. New Delhi: Roli Books and Lustre Press.Google Scholar
Habu, Y. 2004. Ancient Jomon of Japan. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Higham, C.F.W. 2002. Eurasia east of the Urals, in Cunliffe, B., Davies, W. & Renfrew, C. (ed.) Archaeology: The Widening Debate: 335–62. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Higham, C.F.W. & Lu, T.L.–D. 1998. The origins and dispersal of rice cultivation. Antiquity 72: 867–77Google Scholar
Im, H.J. 1995. The new archaeological data concerned with the cultural relationship between Korea and Japan in the Neolithic age. Korea Journal 35 (3): 31–40.Google Scholar
Imamura, M., Sakamoto, M., Shiraishi, T., Sahara, M., Nakamura, T., Mitsutani, T. & Van Der Plicht, J. 1999. Radiocarbon age calibration for Japanese wood samples: wiggle–matching analysis for a test specimen. Mémoires de la Socìété Préhistorique Frangaise [Supplement 1999 de la Revue d’Archeometrie] 26: 79–82.Google Scholar
JOMONJIDAISOSOKI (SHIRYOSHU) [The Incipient Jomon of Japan: Materials Volume] 1996. Yokohama: Yokohama Rekishi Hakubutsukan (in Japanese).Google Scholar
Kajiwara, H. 1998. The transitional period of Pleistocene–Holocene in Siberia and the Russian Far East in terms of theorigin of pottery,in Ono, A. (ed.) Proceedings of Symposium on the Comparative Archaeology of the Pleistocene–Holocene Transition: 23–31. Sakura: National Museum of Japanese History.Google Scholar
Keally, C.T., Taniguchi, Y. & Kuzmin, Y.V. 2003. Understanding the beginnings of pottery technology in Japan and neighboring East Asia. The Review of Archaeology 24 (2): 3–14.Google Scholar
Keally, C.T., Taniguchi, Y.,Kuzmin, Y.V. & Shewkomud, I.Y. 2004. Chronology of the beginning of pottery manufacture in East Asia. Radiocarbon 46 (1): 345–51.Google Scholar
Kuzmin, Y.V. 2002. The earliest centers of pottery origin in the Russian Far East and Siberia: review of chronology for the oldest Neolithic cultures. Documenta Praehistorica 29: 37–46.Google Scholar
Kuzmin, Y.V., Jull, A.J.T., Lapshina, Z.S. & Medvedev, V.E. 1997. Radiocarbon AMS dating of the ancient sites with earliest pottery from the Russian Far East. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 123: 496–7.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kuzmin, Y.V. & Orlova, L.A. 2000. The Neolithization of Siberia and the Russian Far East: radiocarbon evidence. Antiquity 74: 356–65.Google Scholar
Kuzmin, Y.Y & Shewkomud, I.Y. 2003. The Palaeolithic–Neolithic transition in the Russian Far East. The Review ofArchaeology 24 (2): 37–45.Google Scholar
Macneish, R.S., Cunnar, G., Zhao, Z. & Libby, J.G. 1998. Re–revised Second Annual Report of the Sino–American Jiangxi (PRC) Origin of Rice Project SAJOR. Andover, MA: Andover Foundation for Archaeological Research, Ltd.Google Scholar
Macneish, R.S. & Libby, J.G. (ed.). 1995. Origins of Rice Agriculture: The PreliminaryReport ofthe Sino–American Jiangxi (PRC) Project SAJOR (Publications in Anthropology No. 13, El Paso Centennial Museum). El Paso, TX: The University of Texasat El Paso.Google Scholar
Morlan, R.E. 1967. Chronometric dating in Japan. Arctic Anthropology 4 (2): 180–211.Google Scholar
Nakamura, T., Taniguchi, Y.,Tsuji, S. & Oda, H. 2001. Radiocarbon dating of charred residues on the earliest pottery. Radiocarbon 43(2B): 1129–38.Google Scholar
Naumann, N. 2000. Japanese Prehistory: The Material and Spiritual Culture ofthe Jomon Period. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag.Google Scholar
O’Malley, J.M., Kuzmin, Y.V., Burr, G.S., Donahue, D.J. & Jull, A.J.T. 1999. Direct radiocarbon AMS dating of the earliest pottery from the Russian Far East and Transbaikal. Mémoires de la Société Préhistorique Francaise [Supplement 1999 de la Revue d’Archeometrie] 26: 19–24.Google Scholar
Ono, A., Sato, H., Tsutsumi, T. & Kudo, Y. 2002. Radiocarbon dates and archaeology of the Late Pleistocene in Japanese Islands. Radiocarbon 44 (2): 477–94.Google Scholar
RADIOCARBON DATES IN CHINESE ARCHAEOLOGY, 1965–1991, BY INSTITUTE OF ARCHAEOLOGY, CHINESE ACADEMY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES. 1991. Beijing: Cultural Relics Publ. (in Chinese with English Abstract).Google Scholar
Spriggs, M. 1989. The dating of the Island Southeast Asian Neolithic: an attempt at chronometric hygiene and linguistic correlation. Antiquity 63: 587–613.Google Scholar
Taylor, R.E. 1987. Radiocarbon Dating: An Archaeological Perspective. Orlando, FL: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Vandiver, P.B. 1999. Paleolithic ceramics and the development of pottery in East Asia, 26,000 to 10,000 BP. In Proceedings of the International Symposium on Ancient Ceramics (ISAC): 26–37. Shanghai: Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academyof Sciences. Google Scholar
Wu, X. & Zhao, C. 2003. Chronology of the transition from Palaeolithic to Neolithic in China. The Review of Archaeology 24 (2): 15–20.Google Scholar
Yasuda, Y. 2002. Origins of pottery and agriculture in East Asia, in Yasuda, Y. (ed.) The Origins of Pottery and Agriculture: 119–42. New Delhi: Roli Books and Lustre Press.Google Scholar
Zhang, C. 1999. The Mesolithic and the Neolithic in China. Documenta Praehistorica 26: 1–13.Google Scholar
Zhang, C. 2002a. Early pottery and rice phytolith remains from Xianrendong and Diaotonghuan sites, Wannian, Jiangxi Province, in Yasuda, Y. (ed.) The Origins of Potteryand Agriculture: 185–91. New Delhi: Roli Books and Lustre Press.Google Scholar
Zhang, C. 2002b. The discovery of early pottery in China. Documenta Praehistorica 29: 29–35.Google Scholar
Zhang, F. 2000. The Mesolithic in south China. Documenta Praehistorica 27: 225–31.Google Scholar
Zhao, C. & Wu, X. 2000. The dating of Chinese early pottery and a discussion of some related problems. Documenta Praehistorica 27: 233–9.Google Scholar
Zhao, Z. 1998. The Middle Yangtze region in China is the one place where rice was domesticated: phytolith evidence from the Diaotonghuan Cave, Northern Jiangxi. Antiquity 72: 885–97.Google Scholar