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Sanzuodian: the structure, function and social significance of the earliest stone fortified sites in China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Gideon Shelach ,
Kate Raphael  and
Yitzhak Jaffe
Gideon Shelach*
Affiliation:
Department of East Asian Studies, The Hebrew University, Mt Scopus, Jerusalem, 91905, Israel
Kate Raphael
Affiliation:
Institute of Earth and Science, The Hebrew University, Givat Ram, Jerusalem, 91905, Israel
Yitzhak Jaffe
Affiliation:
Department of East Asian Studies, The Hebrew University, Mt Scopus, Jerusalem, 91905, Israel
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Extract

The authors present new research on the Chifeng area of north-eastern China where they have been studying the remains of a society of the second millennium BC. This northern region, which saw the introduction of agriculture at the same time as the Yellow River basin experienced a brief and intensive period of fortification in the Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age: natural ridges above the valleys were ringed with double stone walls and semicircular towers enclosing clusters of round houses with yards. Using large-scale survey and analysis of the structures at the key site of Sanzuodian, they place this phenomenon in its cultural and social context.

Keywords

ChinaInner MongoliaManchuriaLate NeolithicEarly Bronze Agesecond millennium BCLower Xiajiadian culturefortificationGISlabour investmentcomplexity
Type
Research article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 85 , Issue 327 , March 2011 , pp. 11 - 26
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2011

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