Papers by Tu Dongdong
The production of pottery in East Asia can be traced back to approximately 20,000 years ago. Hunt... more The production of pottery in East Asia can be traced back to approximately 20,000 years ago. Hunter-gatherer communities utilised pottery for many years before transitioning to agriculture in regions such as China, Japan, and the Russian Far East. While there has been much debate surrounding pottery production in hunter-gatherer societies, little attention has been given to the role of ceramic vessels in the shift to sedentism and agriculture. This research explores the technological aspects of pottery production in both hunter-gatherer societies and societies in the midst of transitioning to agriculture. The study focuses on ceramic assemblages from two sites in the Fuxin Area of Liaoning province, China. The earlier site represents a small semi-sedentary society that relied solely on hunting and gathering, while the later site, around 400 years later, is a village that also incorporates the use of millet. Using petrography, X-ray diffractometry, X-ray florescence, and thermo-gravimetric analyses, the study identifies differences in ceramic production between the two sites, including the use of selective clay and temper types and improved firing techniques at the later site. These technological changes are believed to be due to specific changes in the preferences of sedentary groups, possibly related to food processing during the onset of agriculture. The findings shed light on the relationship between social, economic, and technological variation in prehistoric societies.
Journal of Anthropological Archaeology, 2022
The transition to agriculture and sedentary life are two processes that have shaped the history o... more The transition to agriculture and sedentary life are two processes that have shaped the history of humankind and catalyzed not only subsistence strategies and dietary habits, but also meaningful transformations of social relations and cultural formations. However, while questions about where and when the earliest domesticated plants and animals emerged have received much attention, anthropologically-oriented research on early sedentary communities is much less developed. In this paper we analyze the abundant archaeological data excavated at one early Neolithic sitethe Chahai sitein Northeast China. The rich data published in the Chahai site report enables us to address such issues as economic adaptation, internal community organization, the economic activities and sharing strategies of household members, and mechanisms of community integration. This analysis suggests that during the formative phases of sedentism and cultivation, households in Northeast China were relatively independent production and consumption units. Differences in the activities conducted at the household level suggest incipient processes of specialization, but no evidence of socioeconomic stratification or centralized leadership was identified. At the community level, non-economic activity, such as group rituals and communal feasting, suggests the development of collective leadership that organized small-scale public construction and rituals serving as integrative mechanisms.
PlosONE, 2019
The reasons and processes that led hunter-gatherers to transition into a sedentary and agricultur... more The reasons and processes that led hunter-gatherers to transition into a sedentary and agricultural way of life are a fundamental unresolved question of human history. Here we present results of excavations of two single-occupation early Neolithic sites (dated to 7.9 and 7.4 ka) and two high-resolution archaeological surveys in northeast China, which capture the earliest stages of sedentism and millet cultivation in the second oldest center of domestica-tion in the Old World. The transition to sedentism coincided with a significant transition to wetter conditions in north China, at 8.1-7.9 ka. We suggest that these wetter conditions were an empirical precondition that facilitated the complex transitional process to sedentism and eventually millet domestication in north China. Interestingly, sedentism and plant domestication followed different trajectories. The sedentary way of life and cultural norms evolved rapidly, within a few hundred years, we find complex sedentary villages inhabiting the landscape. However, the process of plant domestication, progressed slowly over several millennia. Our earliest evidence for the beginning of the domestication process appear in the context of an already complex sedentary village (late Xinglongwa culture), a half millennia after the onset of cultivation, and even in this phase domesticated plants and animals were rare, suggesting that the transition to domesticated (sensu stricto) plants in affluent areas might have not played a substantial role in the transition to sedentary societies.
Culture Relics in Southern China 南方文物, 2018
Archaeological Research In Asia, 2017
A B S T R A C T Ceramic is one of the most transformative and enduring technologies in human hist... more A B S T R A C T Ceramic is one of the most transformative and enduring technologies in human history. This paper addresses the development of pottery production in North China since its appearance during the late Pleistocene, and through its development and use first by hunter-gatherer societies and then by the early sedentary village communities. We analyze the economic and social context for the beginning of pottery production in North China and argue that pottery was a transformative agent in the dramatic dietary and social changes that occurred prior to and during the transition to agriculture. At the same time, pottery technology and pottery production were also transformed by this trajectory, especially during the relatively rapid transition to large-scale sedentary villages that took place in North China. A model is developed to chart the feedback processes that embody this trajectory.
Papers in Chinese by Tu Dongdong
边疆考古研究, 2019
Since 2012 Jilin University in cooperation with the Liaoning’s Institute of Archaeology and Cultu... more Since 2012 Jilin University in cooperation with the Liaoning’s Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relics initiated the archaeological project “The Rise of Agriculture and Sedentary Way of Life in Northeast China.” In 2015, after two seasons of regional survey in the Fuxin area, we conducted excavations at the site of Tachiyingzi. The aim of the excavations was to better our understanding of the social and economic life of societies that existed in the Fuxin area during the early stages of the Neolithic period. In this paper we report the results of the excavations at the Tachiyingzisite. All together we excavated 51 square meters at eight different localities of this site. The most extensive excavations were carried out at area I where a well preserved house structure of the Xinglongwa period was exposed. The excavations of the Tachiyingzisite uncovered a large number of artifacts – including ceramic vessels, different types of stone tools and ornaments – as well as plant remains. We used various recovery techniques, such as flotation and residue analysis, to recover data relevant to our understanding of the economy of this site. This data is highly relevant to our understanding of the process of transition from mobile hunter-gatherer to sedentary agricultural societies in Northeast China.
边疆考古研究, 2019
Since 2012 Jilin University in cooperation with the Liaoning’s Institute of Archaeology and Cultu... more Since 2012 Jilin University in cooperation with the Liaoning’s Institute of Archaeology and Cultural Relics initiated the archaeological project “The Rise of Agriculture and Sedentary Way of Life in Northeast China.” In 2015, after two seasons of regional survey in the Fuxin area, we conducted excavations at the site of Jiajiagou west. In this paper we report the results of this excavation which exposed an area of 11.5 square meters. Artifacts collected at the site were identified as belonging to the Xiaohexi culture. Based on seven 14C ages the site is dated between 5,900—5,700 BCE. This is the first time that a Xiaohexi site was systematically dated. The site was probably a small temporary site and we excavated an oval structure (house). The excavations of the Jiajiagou west site uncovered a large sample of potshards as well as 300 stone artifacts. Using such methods as flotation, residue and starch analysis, we identified the plant species that were utilized by the population of the site. Those plants included wild fruits, nuts and a small amount of wild millet. This data indicates that the community of the Jiajiagou west site was likely to cultivate the land around the site and thus they initiated the process of plant domestication and the transition to agriculture and sedentary way-of-life.
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Papers by Tu Dongdong
Papers in Chinese by Tu Dongdong