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

Summary

In summary, the seven decades of archaeological investigations in Southeast China have produced a significant amount of data for understanding the Neolithic cultures in this area. Chinese archaeologists conducted most of the research, and the issues they explored or debated can be summarized as follows:

1. Regional variations of the material cultures and the definition of archaeological cultures: Chinese archaeologists are preoccupied with the identification of archaeological “culture”, defined as an entity consisting of an assemblage of material remains and features known to be contemporary, associated with one another, and occupying a continuous geographical area. This is V. G. Childe‘s concept introduced to China by Xia Nai in 1959 (Xia, 1959). It has been the primary goal of many Chinese archaeologists to define their discoveries as “X” culture, and the practice of archaeology in Southeast China is part of this academic tradition. Due to different understandings of material cultures, Chinese archaeologists constantly engage in debate over the spatial and temporal definition of a particular culture. In Southeast China, the debate on the definition of the Tanshishan Culture has been a major issue. Zeng Fan argued that the Tanshishan Culture included all the remains of the Upper, Middle and the Lower layers of the Tanshishan site (Zeng, 1993), a view that has been criticized by his colleagues (Lin, 1993; Wu, 1981). Wu Mianji argued that the Upper Tanshishan was a mix of Neolithic and Bronze Age remains, and therefore it was not appropriate to incorporate it into the Tanshishan Culture. He instead suggested that, as a meaningful archaeological entity, the Tanshishan Culture should only refer to the Lower and Middle Tanshishan (Wu, 1981). Wu‘s theory has been accepted by most archaeologists (FPM, 2004a; Lin, 1993).

2. The subsistence pattern: This issue was only occasionally touched upon in the summary sections of archaeological reports. The presence of domesticated pig and dog bones has been noted by researchers, but the report of the faunal identification was so brief that there was no quantitative information provided. In fact, there has been no effort during the excavation to systematically collect animal bones and other faunal remains. There has been some effort to analyze the marine shells collected from coastal sites such as the Damaoshan site, the Lazhoushan site, and the Keqiutou site. Most reports are limited to the nominal recognition of shell species without further analysis of the collection strategy and their roles in the economy.