The Neolithic of Southeast China: Cultural Transformation and Re ...

3. The exchange networks in southeast China during the Neolithic period: The development of exchange networks along the coastal area is not only the key issue in investigating the cultural changes on the southeast China coast, it is also essential for interpreting the expansion of the Proto-Austronesians across the Taiwan Strait (Chapter Four). So far, most studies on this issue have been built on indirect evidence such as a typological comparison of pottery and stone tools. However, archaeologists today have a much broader scope of contemporary techniques at their disposal to find more direct evidences for prehistoric interactions. My study combines the traditional typological analysis of stone adzes with the geochemical approach to investigate the Neolithic exchange networks in southeast China (Chapters Five and Seven).

The Damaoshan and Huangguashan Investigations

The Damaoshan site and the Huangguashan site are ideal to address the above themes. The Damaoshan site is located in Dongshan County, southern Fujian (Fan, 1991; Xu, 1988). Previous surveys have reported that it was a settlement with dense deposits of marine shells and fish bones. The collected potsherds and stone tools indicate that people had developed a Neolithic culture. During my visit to this site in December 2001, I found that although part of the site was destroyed, there is still about 300 m² left intact. Located in southern Fujian, this site had great potential to provide the necessary evidence for the study of cultural development and exchange networks along the coastal area.

As mentioned above, the Huangguashan site is located in Xiapu County, northeastern Fujian Province. The rich deposit of marine shells, as thick as 3 m, indicates that the inhabitants of the Huangguashan site developed a strong maritime adaptation. The first excavation in 1989 found a large number of artifacts but did not systematically collect fauna samples and dating materials (FPM, 1994). Since 2000, I have been involved in a research project to study Neolithic seafaring along the Fujian coast (Rolett, Jiao, & Lin, 2002). The sourcing of the stone adzes excavated from the Huangguashan site is one of the focuses of this project. After a visit to the Huangguashan site in December 2001, it was determined that it was necessary to conduct further excavation at this site in order to have a better understanding of the chronology and other background information of this site.