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Combining sedentism and mobility in the Palaeolithic–Neolithic transition of northern China: the site of Shuidonggou locality 12

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2021

Mingjie Yi ,
Xing Gao ,
Fuyou Chen ,
Shuwen Pei  and
Huimin Wang
Mingjie Yi*
Affiliation:
School of History, Renmin University of China, P.R. China
Xing Gao
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.R. China
Fuyou Chen
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.R. China
Shuwen Pei
Affiliation:
Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.R. China
Huimin Wang
Affiliation:
Institute of Archaeology of Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, P.R. China
*
*Author for correspondence: ✉ yimingjie@ruc.edu.cn
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Abstract

Scholars have long debated when the Neolithic began in China. Neolithisation, however, is a process rather than an event. It is more realistic to investigate the timing and nature of the socio-economic trajectory from mobile, microblade-using foragers to sedentary communities during the Palaeolithic–Neolithic transition in northern China. Here, the authors use artefacts from Shuidonggou locality 12 to demonstrate the socio-economic organisation of the site's inhabitants. They identify long-term site occupation by a large group exhibiting high levels of individual mobility. Comparative analyses with contemporaneous data indicate that the early stages of complex social organisation—a fundamental element of Neolithisation—emerged among microblade-using groups.

Keywords

ChinaTerminal PleistoceneNeolithisationmicrobladehunter-gathererssocial organisation
Type
Research Article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 95 , Issue 380 , April 2021 , pp. 292 - 309
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Antiquity Publications Ltd.

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