A Companion to Chinese Archaeology (Underhill/A Companion to Chinese Archaeology) || The Kuahuqiao Site and Culture

The Lower Yangzi River RegionPART VII

A Companion to Chinese Archaeology, First Edition. Edited by Anne P. Underhill.© 2013 Blackwell Publishing Ltd. Published 2013 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

The Kuahuqiao Site and Culture

JIANG Leping 蒋乐平

The Kuahuqiao 跨湖桥 culture is located in Zhejiang, a southeastern coastal province of China (Figure 26.1 ). The Qiantang river is the largest watercourse in the province, and it fl ows into Hangzhou Bay after crossing the whole province. North of this bay is the Hanjiahu Plain, where the famous Majiabang 马家浜 culture (see Chapter 28 ) is located, and to the south is the Ningshao Plain, the distribution area of the cele-brated Hemudu 河姆渡 culture (see Chapter 27 ). The Kuahuqiao site, after which the Kuahuqiao culture is named, is very close to the place where the Qiantang river enters Hangzhou Bay. In other words, the Kuahuqiao site is located at the western end of a large plain in the lower Qiantang river valley. To the west of the site is an upland area. The site is 5–6 m underneath the current surface, below the water table.

The Kuahuqiao culture was discovered after the famous Hemudu culture ( c. 7000–5000 BP ) ( c. 5050–3050 BC ) was identifi ed. Radiocarbon (C-14) dates show that occupation of the Kuahuqiao site was no earlier than 8000 BP and no later than 7000 BP ( c. 6050–5050 BC ). So far, fi ve sites of this culture have been discovered: Kuahu-qiao, Xiasun 下孙 , Shangshan 上山 , Xiaohuangshan 小黄山 , and Qingdui 青碓 . These sites are situated from the upper to the lower Qiantang river valley ( Jiang 2010 ).

The specifi c location of the Kuahuqiao site is Xianghu village in the Xiaoshan district of Hangzhou city. After being discovered in 1990, it was excavated the same year and again in 2001 and 2002. The site is more than 10 ha in size, but it suffered severe damage from villagers digging for clay to make bricks. This greatly reduced the intact areas of the site. The Xiasun site is situated less than 2 km northeast of

CHAPTER 26

Figu

re 2

6.1

Loc

atio

n of

the

Sha

ngsh

an,

Kua

huqi

ao,

and

Hem

udu

cultu

re a

reas

. (A

fter

Tia

nluo

shan

Edi

tori

al G

roup

20

09 :

46,

plat

e.)

THE KUAHUQIAO SITE AND CULTURE 539

Kuahuqiao and at the same height above sea level. It was discovered in 2003 and excavated the same year. It was also greatly damaged by villagers digging clay for bricks. The total area of the site is not clear.

Situated about 50 m above sea level, the Shangshan site is located in Qunan village, part of Huangzhai town in Pujiang county. It is located on the upper Puyangjiang river, a major tributary of the Qiantang river. The site was excavated in 2000, 2001, and from 2004 to 2006. It is around 3 ha in size. Underneath the Kuahuqiao culture occupation layer at Shangshan is a layer from an even earlier cultural period called the Shangshan culture (see Jiang and Liu 2006 [Ed.]).

The Xiaohuangshan site is located in Shangdushan village, Ganlin town, Shangzhou city. It is situated in the upper Caoejiang river valley, another major tributary of the Qiantang river. It is more than 40 m above sea level. The site was discovered in 2005 and excavated during the same year. It occupied an area of around 10 ha and also suffered serious damage from villagers digging for clay. As at the Shangshan site, the Kuahuqiao cultural layer at Xiaohuangshan overlays deposits from the earlier Shang-shan culture.

The Qingdui site, lying around 50 m above sea level, is situated in Sihou village in Longyou county, upper Qiantang river valley. It was discovered and test-excavated in 2010. The site is more than 3 ha in size, with the Kuahuqiao cultural layer super-imposed upon a Shangshan cultural layer. Sporadic fi ndings of materials related to the Kuahuqiao culture have been reported from other locations in the general area as well.

Since Kuahuqiao culture deposits are directly superimposed on Shangshan culture layers at three sites, the Shangshan culture must be an important source of the Kua-huqiao culture. Since the Shangshan culture is mainly distributed in the upper Qian-tang river valley and some Kuahuqiao culture sites extend to the lower valley, it seems that Neolithic cultures gradually shifted from the upper to the lower Qiantang river valley. The core areas for the later Hemudu, Majiabang, Songze 崧泽 , and Liangzhu 良渚 (see Chapter 28 ) cultures are all located further down in the plain in the lower river valley (Table 26.1 ).

The most important data for the Kuahuqiao culture published so far come from the sites of Kuahuqiao and Xiasun ( Zhejiang and Xiaoshan 2004 ), of which the former site contributes much more signifi cantly to our knowledge. Therefore, the discussion below focuses primarily on remains from the Kuahuqiao site. Although the site was severely damaged, its location below the water table resulted in excellent preservation of many organic artifacts made from wood and bone, faunal remains, and plant remains, providing exceptional data for research on the Kuahuqiao culture.

ESTABLISHING THE ANTIQUITY OF THE KUAHUQIAO SITE AND CULTURE

The fi rst excavation of the Kuahuqiao site in 1990 revealed a cultural type previously unknown to archaeologists. Results from radiocarbon dating suggest that the site was already occupied around 8000 BP ( c. 6050 BC ), surprisingly earlier than the Hemudu site. It was even more striking that the ceramic vessels unearthed from the site were more refi ned than those from the later Hemudu culture. Therefore, archaeologists were suspicious of the earlier date for the Kuahuqiao site, and the excavation was not

540 JIANG LEPING

renewed for 10 years. It was not until 2000 that archaeologists once again paid atten-tion to the site. Only after the second and third excavations (2001–2002) was the Kuahuqiao site properly appreciated among archaeologists. The radiocarbon dates from acorn, charcoal, wood, and other samples prove that the site was occupied from c. 8000 to 7000 BP ( c. 6050–7050 BC ). The Kuahuqiao culture was offi cially recog-nized and named as such after the Xiasun site was discovered in 2003.

The early cultural period for the site was doubted for two reasons. First, as a single component site, Kuahuqiao could not provide information about the chronological relationship between the Kuahuqiao culture and other Neolithic cultures in the area. Archaeologists in China traditionally rely on cultural stratigraphy as indispensable evidence for relative dating. Second, the Kuahuqiao ceramic vessels have peculiar shapes, and they could not be easily incorporated into the existing system of regional ceramic typology and seriation established on the basis of stylistic variation of artifacts from Hemudu, Majiabang, Songze, and Liangzhu culture sites in the area.

The puzzle of Kuahuqiao ’ s relationship with other cultures was not solved until the discovery of the Shangshan and Xiaohuangshan sites. These two sites reveal an earlier occupation from the Shangshan culture, dated to no later than 8500 BP ( c. 6550 BC ), with a Kuahuqiao culture layer directly superimposed upon it. More importantly, at the Shangshan site, the stratum of Kuahuqiao culture remains is sandwiched between the layers from the Shangshan and Hemudu cultures. Archae-ologists then had conclusive evidence that the dating of the Kuahuqiao site was correct.

THE ORGANIZATION OF SETTLEMENTS

Since only two sites from the Kuahuqiao culture have been systematically excavated so far – Kuahuqiao and Xiasun – it is not yet possible to conduct a regional analysis of the sites. It appears that the Kuahuqiao culture represents a transitional stage through which ancient upland peoples resettled in the plain along the coast. The

Table 26.1 Sequence of Neolithic cultures in Zhejiang province.

Culture Minimum number of sites

Distribution area Approximate date BP ( BC )

Shangshan 10 Upper Qiantang valley 11,000–8500 (9050–6550)

Kuahuqiao 5 Upper to lower Qiantang valley More than 8000–7000 (6050–5050)

Hemudu and Majiabang

70 Hemudu sites concentrated in the Ningshao Plain; Majiabang sites distributed around Lake Tai

7000–5800 (5050–3850)

Songze 30 Mostly on the Hangjiahu Plain 5700–5300 (3750–3350)

Liangzhu 300 Mostly on the Hangjiahu Plain 5200–4300 (3250–2350)


discussion below introduces data about settlement layout and economic life for the Kuahuqiao culture on the basis of remains from the Kuahuqiao and Xiasun sites. Both sites are located in an area near an ancient lake called Xiang.

The ancient Xiang lake is situated between two mountains running from the northeast to the southwest. A valley around 5 km in length was formed between these two mountains. The Kuahuqiao site is situated in a narrow part of the valley. Accord-ing to local villagers, there were other sites in the valley which unfortunately were destroyed by people digging for clay at various times. Since the Xiasun site was dis-covered only 1.5 km north of the Kuahuqiao site and villagers have identifi ed destroyed sites in the area, it seems there was originally a group of sites distributed in a belt covering an area around 2 km in length. The ceramic production areas at the Xiasun site suggest it was a locus for a restricted economic activity, rather than a village like Kuahuqiao. It seems it was a functional division of areas for certain activities among the communities at the time. In contrast to the location of late Neolithic sites in the Qiantang river valley, the Kuahuqiao settlements were not located on hillsides. There-fore the sea level may have been lower around 8000–7000 BP ( c. 6050–5050 BC ), with a quite different hydrological environment.

Two types of architecture, utilizing wood and earth mixed with wood, were identi-fi ed at the Kuahuqiao site. The major example of wood architecture is structure F2. The wooden architecture involved a square or rectangular room encircled by pre-served posts as well as postholes. The bases of the posts were buried in small pits or simply inserted into the earth. Although F2 was partially damaged, it seems that it was a rectangular house on a south–north axis. Compared with the wooden archi-tecture at the Hemudu site, there were fewer remains of rabbet joints ( sunmao goujian 榫卯构件 , mortise-and-tenon construction) at Kuahuqiao. It is also likely that pile-dwellings (houses raised on stilts, ganlan jianzhu 干栏建筑 ) were already in use. One line of evidence for this conclusion is the discovery of the remains of a ladder fashioned out of the cleaved half of a pine trunk. The ladder is 15 cm in diam-eter, and the preserved length is 52 cm. Three steps, spaced 21–24 cm apart, were formed by gouging the front of the trunk. This style of ladder or staircase made from a tree trunk with no handrail allowed people to ascend to a loft step by step. The ladders would be placed against the interior or exterior walls of houses and used as needed. Similar ladders made from a single tree trunk are still used in southwest China by the Dong 侗 ethnic minority group and by Tibetan peoples. Therefore, buildings with one or more raised fl oors ( loushi jianzhu 楼式建筑 ) would have existed, perhaps similar to the houses on stilts discovered at the Hemudu site.

Structure F4 provides the best example of the wattle-and-daub architectural style (earth mixed with wood, tumuhunhe jianzhu 土木混和建筑 ). Only the southern corner of the structure survived. The preserved walls are around 30–40 cm high and about 35 cm wide. Human-worked wooden stakes, from 13 to 64 cm long, were buried about 30 cm apart in the walls. The bottom parts of the stakes show clear evidence of chopping and cutting.

In southern China, ancient earthen roads are rarely identifi able from other features, especially for sites buried below the water table. We were fortunate to fi nd quite refi ned roads built with stone cobbles at the Kuahuqiao site. One can still encounter similar cobble roads between villages south of the Yangzi river. According to local villagers, there was once a 30 m long cobble road in the western part of the Kuahuqiao

542 JIANG LEPING

site. The part closest to the hill was destroyed. During excavation, we discovered remnants of several cobble roads, the largest of which was 6.5 m long and 0.7–2.0 m wide.

The extended line of the remains of one cobble road points toward what my team has identifi ed as architectural feature B, an earthen platform around 1.6 m high. The platform consists of several layers which all display evidence of burnt earth. This earthen platform was used throughout the entire occupation of the site. It appears to be a very important feature in the settlement, because the cobble road led to it. I believe that this platform functioned as an area for making sacrifi cial offerings and discuss this issue further below.

A lake or river often constitutes one of the boundaries of a Neolithic village. Exca-vations show that the Kuahuqiao site was bordered by water in the southeast, and the remains of garbage – mostly ceramic sherds, from which we can often reconstruct complete vessels, and animal bones – are particularly rich in the southeastern edge of the ancient village. Kuahuqiao residents must have habitually dumped garbage in this area peripheral to water, as inhabitants of agricultural villages south of the Yangzi river still often do.

The southeastern border of the Kuahuqiao site remained peripheral to the water in the earlier periods, but in the late period the site expanded quite a lot to the southeast. One reason was a drop in water level. Another important reason might be that the accumulated garbage invaded the lake, forcing it to gradually recede. As a rough estimation, the settlement expanded around 30–50 m to the southeast from the early to the late period.

ECONOMIC STRATEGIES

The Kuahuqiao people developed a rich array of economic strategies, primarily col-lecting, rice cultivation, fi shing, and hunting. There were rich deposits of organic remains from wild plants at the Kuahuqiao site. At several locations a large quantity of seeds of Fagasceae (different species of oak) were encountered. During the excava-tions we collected botanical remains – notably many seeds of cultivated rice and wild fruits such as jujube and peach – through the method of fl otation from a few units. This demonstrated that the Kuahuqiao people did not solely practice rice cultivation; collecting also played an important role in their subsistence strategies. According to the botanical remains we recovered, the main wild plant sources used by the Kuahu-qiao people belonged to the following fl oral families: Rosaceae (peach, plum, apricot), Anacardiaceae (cashew family, includes other nuts and fruits such as mangos), Tra-paceae (water chestnut), and Nymphaeaceae (aquatic plants including water lily). Besides the fruits and seeds of the subtropical and tropical plants listed above, we also discovered remains of the Leguminosae family (including beans and peas) and the Cucurbitaceae family (including squashes, gourds, melons). We still need to determine the genus and species of these plants, as well as their roles in the economic life of the Kuahuqiao people.

Two observations can be made about these kinds of collected fruits and seeds. First, they have been collected as food by human beings for a long time, at least until the early modern period. Second, these fruits and seeds can be divided into two main


groups. The fi rst type is plants such as fruits (peach, plum, etc.) that cannot be pre-served for future consumption. The second type is plants that are highly farinaceous (i.e. high in starch) such as nuts and the seeds of plants. Examples of this type include acorns and water chestnuts. People can preserve these plant foods for future consumption.

Acorns, nuts produced on plants of the Quercus genus, are still collected by local people today. The remains of acorns have been found on grinding stones from the earlier Shangshan culture deposits at the Shangshan and Xiaohuangshan sites, indicat-ing that acorns were consumed as sources of starch at an early period. Because acorns had to be soaked in water to get rid of the astringent taste of tannic acid, they were often placed in pits that could also be used for storage. Many pits like this were discovered at Kuahuqiao as well as sites such as Hemudu and Beilun Shaxi 北仑沙溪 . In the 300 sq m excavation area alone at Kuahuqiao in 1990, we found around 20 acorn storage pits. People often built wooden chambers in these pits, or they placed wooden boards and reed mats at the bottom of the pits. Pit H17 serves as a good example. It is bag-shaped in profi le and about 50 cm deep. It is roughly square in plan view, measuring around 65 cm per side. The base is approximately 70 cm per side. Visible from the opening was a grid-shaped wooden framework about 30 cm wide with two intersecting and interposed layers consisting of wood strips. Many acorns were discovered in the pit (Figure 26.2 ).

The remains of rice unearthed at Kuahuqiao is one of the most important dis-coveries of cultivated rice in the lower Yangzi river valley. The Kuahuqiao specimens are very valuable for tracing the origin and evolution of cultivated rice. From approximately a thousand remains of rice discovered through fl otation, we identifi ed 196 pieces of paddy rice (18.4%), 369 pieces of threshed rice (34.7%), and 498 pieces of rice husk (46.9%). The dimensions of the rice are informative about the process of domestication and the subspecies of rice grown by the people at Kuahuqiao.

The variation in length of the paddy rice is 4.99–8.65 mm, and the variation in width is 1.46–3.61 mm. Those samples longer than 7.10 mm constitute 40.1 percent of the sample. Current research indicates that common wild rice, the ancestor of cultivated rice, is 7.10–10 mm long and 1.90–3.40 mm wide. Compared with wild rice, then, most of the Kuahuqiao paddy rice is shorter, and more than 50 percent of the remains are clearly different from common wild rice. The variation in width of the Kuahuqiao paddy rice is greater than that of wild rice. Therefore, the rice from Kuahuqiao is distinguishable from wild rice, and thus it must be considered as domes-ticated ( Zheng et al. 2004 ).

Domesticated rice is different from wild rice with respect to the ratio of length to width. The average ratio of length to width of the Kuahuqiao paddy rice is 2.74, and for the threshed rice it is 2.61. Among varieties of modern cultivated rice, usually the ratio for Japonica rice is smaller than 2.30; for Indica rice it is 2.50–3.50. Rice that falls into the range 2.31–2.50 often is considered to be a middle type, but the ratio for typical wild rice is larger than 3.50. My colleagues and I conclude that among the remains of paddy rice and threshed rice grains recovered from Kuahuqiao, Indica rice constitutes 62.57 percent of the total, Japonica rice 16.82 percent, and the middle range type, 18.98 percent. The remaining (1.63%) should be considered wild rice.

Figu

re 2

6.2

Pit

for

stor

ing

acor

ns f

rom

Kua

huqi

ao.

(Aft

er Z

hejia

ng a

nd X

iaos

han

2004

: 27

, Fi

gure

16,

Pla

te 7

.1.)


In order to obtain further information about the early rice at Kuahuqiao, we also analyzed rice phytoliths ( guisuanti 硅酸体 ). Detailed analyses of variation in phytolith shape shows that there is no apparent difference between the remains of phytoliths from the various deposits at Kuahuqiao. Also, the Kuahuqiao rice phytoliths belong to a relatively large class. In contrast to the pattern for the rice grains, the rice phy-toliths from Kuahuqiao are very close to the phytoliths of modern cultivated Japonica rice. The abundant remains of rice unearthed at Kuahuqiao suggest that rice was already domesticated in the lower Yangzi river valley as early as 8000 BP ( c. 6050 BC ).

From the 700 sq m area excavated at Kuahuqiao during 2001 and 2002, we dis-covered more than six thousand pieces of animal bones. These include: different species of fi sh, turtles, Yangzi alligator ( Alligator sinensis ), greater spotted eagle ( Aquila clanga ), and other species of birds (swan, duck, crane, goose, plover, hawk).

We also found remains of animals such as the raccoon dog (Nyctereutes procyo-noides) , domesticated dog and pig, and several kinds of large wild animals including, tigers, the leopard cat ( Prionailurus bengalensis) , rhinoceros, wild boar, sika deer ( Cervus nippon ), and the Sumatran serow ( Capricornis sumatraensis ) .

Our research indicates that most of these bones belonged to animals hunted by the Kuahuqiao people and were discarded after consumption. We were able to identify patterns of human activities from water buffalo bones such as butchering and cooking. First, black areas produced by burning were extensively observed on limb bones, ribs, and mandibles showing that meat was roasted before consumption. Second, shoulder bones and other large limb bones were usually broken close to the joint, indicating the consumption of marrow. The animal bones at Kuahuqiao tend to be large in size in comparison to bones, for example, from the later site of Huizui 灰嘴 in Henan province (see Chapter 14 ), where they were smashed to small pieces （ IA,CASS 2011 ). This suggests that the natural environment around Kuahuqiao provided abundant animals for hunting, since people did not need to use laborious methods to extract meat. We also observed traces of chopping and cutting on various parts of the bones, some of which could only have been made with a great deal of strength. It is also possible that raw meat was cut into pieces before it was roasted.

Domesticated pigs discovered at Kuahuqiao may represent the earliest domesti-cated pig in southern China. When pigs were domesticated, changes in diet and food composition led to morphological transformations such as shortened jaw bones and weakened teeth. Teeth are relatively more resistant to change than other bones but preserve more inherited information. Pig teeth from all phases of occupation at Kua-huqiao demonstrate a gradual shortening of the teeth, a pattern indicative of domes-tication. Moreover, there is a clear pattern towards the selection of younger animals for butchering, evident for all phases of occupation at the site. The pattern is even clearer over time. For the early phase, the average age of butchering is 4.6 years, for the middle phase it is 3.5, and for the late phase it is 2.9. It should be emphasized that although there is evidence for domestication of pigs at Kuahuqiao, this subsist-ence strategy was not a dominant one. Among the animal bones discovered, the proportion of domesticated pigs to other fauna was relatively high only for the early phase, with the fi gures dropping lower and lower for the later phases. I expect to collaborate with scholars from other disciplines in the future to address whether changing environmental conditions had an impact on subsistence practices at the Kuahuqiao settlement.

546 JIANG LEPING

VARIATION IN SITE FUNCTION

The site of Xiasun is unusual, judging from its relatively homogenous remains and the fact that it is located less than 2 km from Kuahuqiao. My colleagues and I propose that it was a special-purpose, satellite settlement of Kuahuqiao, which served as a locus of pottery production.

At Xiasun, the distribution of burned earth, sandstone, and pits seems to follow a regular pattern. There are concentrations of burned earth in the east, sandstone in the central area, and pits in the southwest. It is evident that a large quantity of sand-stone was quarried from the neighboring hills, but the sandstone was not used to produce axes and adzes found at the site. I propose that people quarried sandstone for its iron minerals instead. Dark red iron minerals were found on one cobblestone hammer that probably was used to crush iron ores. Our analyses of the Kuahuqiao ceramics indicated that iron minerals are present in red slips and even in the clays of painted pots. Therefore, presumably the part of the Xiasun site with abundant sand-stone functioned as an area to produce mineral pigments.

We found multiple lines of evidence providing information about the nature of ceramic production at Xiasun. First, the categories of artifacts unearthed at Xiasun are relatively limited as a whole. The thin cultural deposit at the site, along with a dense concentration of pits formed in a short time and the extensive distribution of sandstone, suggest that Xiasun was a special purpose production area rather than a typical settlement. Second, we discovered fi ve ceramic beaters ( paizi 拍子 ) that served as pottery-making tools, many smooth cobblestones that could have been used to burnish vessel surfaces, and some big stones with smooth surfaces that were leveled neatly and that could have served as platforms for kneading clays. Third, we found two types of pits. The fi rst type of pit was deep, probably the result of people digging for clay. The second type of pit was not as deep and contained ash of burned plants. There were many of these pits, and we believe they were used to store prepared clay for pottery production. We think the ash inside the pit was used as a cushion to sepa-rate the prepared ceramic paste from the earthen base of the pits ( Zhejiang and Xiaoshan 2004 : 318–319; Jiang 2010 ).

CRAFT GOODS FROM THE KUAHUQIAO CULTURE

Craft products at Kuahuqiao sites include ceramics, stone artifacts, bone and antler tools, and wooden artifacts (some with a lacquer coating, discussed below). The Kuahuqiao pots (Figure 26.3 ) can be divided into three morphological groups: round-bottomed vessels (79%), vessels with ring-feet (18%), and fl at-bottomed vessels (3%). Vessel forms include the fu 釜 cauldron used for cooking, guan 罐 jar, bo 钵 bowl, quanzupan 圈足盘 ring-footed shallow dish, dou 豆 stemmed dish, and zeng 甑 steamer jar. Fu cauldrons were a common type of cooking vessel, and they were often used on more than one ceramic support ( zhijiao 支脚 ). We also found ceramic fanglun 纺轮 spindle whorls.

An intriguing characteristic of Kuahuqiao ceramics is charcoal-tempering in the clay paste. One can observe the remains of plant ash on the surface of Kuahuqiao vessels. Cooking vessels were tempered with grit.


Ceramic surface treatments include stamping, punching, incising, piecing, and appliqué. Appliqué normally shows up on the border between the shoulders and the belly of fu cauldrons. Piercing is mainly applied to the ring foot of vessels, and the designs include circles, crescents, crosses, a design resembling the character bu 卜 , and a design like the character gong 工 .

Many Kuahuqiao pottery vessels are elegantly decorated. Often a coating of clay, a slip ( taoyi 陶衣 ), was applied to the surface of vessels that were not used for cooking such as guan jars, bo bowls, dou stemmed dishes, and quanzupan ring-footed shallow dishes. The most common slip color is red, and slips were applied to different areas on different kinds of vessels. On many vessels the red-slip layer has fl aked away, exposing a gray-slip layer. It appears that two layers of slip were sequentially applied after vessels were formed. Black slips have been identifi ed, too. Many black guan jars and dou stemmed dishes reveal evidence of burnishing on both the outside and inside of the vessels. Burnishing a black slip is a relatively advanced technique.

The most conspicuous decoration on Kuahuqiao pottery vessels is painting, but it represents only 2 percent of sherds in the ceramic assemblage. This technique was mainly applied to three types of vessels: guan jars, ring-footed pan shallow dishes, and dou stemmed dishes. Painting was usually applied on the slip covering. There must have been many more painted vessels than we have discovered, since coatings

Figure 26.3 Reconstructed pottery vessels from Kuahuqiao: fu cauldrons (A, E, L), bo bowls (B, C, G, J), guan jars (D, H, I), dou stemmed dishes (K), zeng steamer jar (M), quanzupan ring-footed shallow dish (F, N, O). (After Zhejiang and Xiaoshan 2004 : Plates 27.4, 24.1; 22.5, 30.5, 23.4, 6.4, 20.4, 29.4, 12.2, 12.4, 10.2, 30.4.)

548 JIANG LEPING

of slip would have often fl aked off or faded. One style of painting was characterized by thick lines of a milky color on the exterior surfaces of vessels. Another style included thin red lines mainly on the interior surfaces of dou stemmed dishes and ring-footed pan shallow dishes. There were several types of painted designs, including bands, wavy lines, fl ames, and sun images.

Most Kuahuqiao pottery vessels appear fairly consistent in shape and thickness, indicating a relatively high level of ceramic shaping and fi ring techniques. Evenly produced raised lines are evident on guan jars, bo bowls, and dou stemmed dishes, suggesting that these vessels were fi nished on slow-turning wheels. According to experiments, Kuahuqiao ceramics were fi red at relatively low temperatures, from 750°C to 850°C.

We discovered the carbonized remains of food on the interior surfaces of several fu cauldrons. We identifi ed the remains of seven types of plants on the basis of the size and surface characteristics of starch grains, including plants of the grass family – possibly Setaria italica (foxtail millet) and Oryza (the genus including rice), the bean family (likely genus Vigna ), and nuts (possibly acorns). The diversity of starch grains from the sherds suggests multiple functions for the fu cauldron and a diverse diet for the Kuahuqiao people.

OTHER KINDS OF ARTIFACTS

There were diverse stone, bone, and wooden artifacts recovered from Kuahuqiao. The raw material of the lithic artifacts mainly consists of sedimentary rocks, with a few volcanic rocks from the surrounding uplands. The choice of materials was related to the function of the objects. Adzes are all made from a variety of sedimentary rock that has good ductility and fi ne granules. Whetstones are all made from another variety of sedimentary rock which is relatively tough with coarse granules. Some axes are made from volcanic rocks. Ornaments are made from fl uorite.

Lithic artifacts were mainly chipped, pecked ( zhuo 琢 ), and polished. Chipping and pecking laid the foundation for effi cient and high-quality polishing. Many small pol-ished hammers were unearthed at Kuahuqiao. The entire bodies of the polished lithic artifacts are shiny. The other forms of lithic artifacts include adzes, axes, chisels, projectile points, grinding stones, and huang 璜 ring-shaped ornaments. In total we found three highly polished huang ornaments. Therefore, during the Kuahuqiao period, people already used fi ne stone to decorate the human body. One huang -shaped ornament with an oval cross section less than 0.5 cm long has an aperture that is elegantly drilled out on both sides. The holes on both sides match each other perfectly, indicating an advanced drilling technique. We also found the wooden handle of a stone adze, providing us with more information on the use of this tool form. This kind of adze would have been an important tool for making many kinds of wooden artifacts as well as canoes (discussed below).

The sources of bone artifacts include the shoulder blades, limbs, ribs, and skulls of mammals and fi sh. Deer antlers also were used. The bone was cut, pared, and polished to form artifacts including si 耜 spades, projectile points, darts, awls, needles, knives, spoons, whistles, and pronged fork-like tools ( cha 叉 ). The bone si spade was made from the shoulder blade of a large mammal. A handle was inserted into a hole


that was chiseled out of the shoulder blade, while the spine of the scapula was fi nished to turn the soil. The lower part of the tools we found were broken or abraded.

Projectile points and darts were tools for fi shing and hunting. Whistles, three of which were found at Kuahuqiao, were used as musical instruments, but originally they might have also been used to mimic cries of birds in order to entrap them. It is noteworthy that a number of bone tools were probably used for preparing clothes, such as needles.

The sources of wooden artifacts from the Kuahuqiao culture include Chinese red pine, different kinds of oaks, beech, and bamboo. Most of these artifacts were made from the sapwood of bulky logs, indicating that the Kuahuqiao people knew sapwood was not prone to crack and would be advantageous for making objects. Many sharp, awl-shaped artifacts were baked to increase hardness. The kinds of wooden artifacts that we found include the awl, knife, projectile point, fork-shaped object, shovel, bow, and handles for some stone tools. Awls, 10–20 cm long, are the most numerous of the wooden artifacts. Their uses might have included darts for fi shing or arrow heads for hunting. There are other wooden artifacts of undetermined function such as one with a ring-end wooden handle (see Liu and Chen 2012 : 159, Figure 5.17 [Ed.]). In addition to the ladder previously discussed, we found wooden posts and oars (see below). An intriguing fi nding was what we interpreted as a wheel shaft ( lunzhou 轮轴 ). Because some Kuahuqiao ceramics were fi nished on slow-turning wheels, the bell-shaped wheel shaft could have been the “seat” of a simple wheel.

We also discovered basketwork composed of neatly retouched plant fi ber that could have been used as dustpans or mats. Normally three threads were interlaced together with three others at a right angle to them. This advanced technique is still observed today. Rigid wooden sticks were found in some basketwork, suggesting that the basketwork was designed to function when bolstered by the sticks.

SPECIAL CONTRIBUTIONS OF THE KUAHUQIAO CULTURE

There are a few special artifacts discovered at the Kuahuqiao site that represent sig-nifi cant achievements made by the human beings who lived there. These include weaving equipment, boats, lacquer bows, adhesion, and medicine.

On the basis of the bone and wooden knives, wooden poles, shuttles, and other tools unearthed at Hemudu, Lin ( 1992 : 126–133) has suggested that the Hemudu people had already invented a certain kind of equipment ( fangzhi gongju 纺织工具 ) for weaving cloth (apparently like a backstrap loom [Ed.]). It may have been operated by a crouching worker as seen among the Yi 彝 people of western China. The tech-nique called for a log to be tied to the waist of the worker with rope, while the worker ’ s two feet extended to hold a second log, freeing the hands to weave the textile. At the Kuahuqiao site we discovered artifacts similar to those from Hemudu that we think were used for weaving. For example, stick-shaped artifacts could serve as a warp fi xing bar, while bone and wooden knives could work for the weft. In particular there is a well-preserved bone knife, 28.8 cm long and 2.1 cm wide. One end of the knife, as wide as a palm (9 cm), was more abraded and therefore was probably the handle. If so, it seems that the width of the fabric was no less than 20 cm. The stick-shaped artifact with grooves on both ends may have been a cloth

550 JIANG LEPING

beam as described above for modern weavers. The only component of weaving equip-ment that we failed to discover at the Kuahuqiao site is a shuttle. The wooden and bone fork-shaped artifacts found there, however, could have been used to pick up threads.

Another notable discovery at the Kuahuqiao site was part of a boat 5.6 m long, the earliest boat found in East Asia so far. One end of the boat is almost complete, with its broadside around 1 m. The bow of the boat is 29 cm wide and the width extends to 52 cm on the main body. The boat is similar in shape to a canoe, and it was made from pine. When it was discovered, the boat was fi xed to a wooden stake on the shore. There were timbers, wooden stakes, wooden tools, and an unfi nished wooden oar nearby. This suggested to us that people built and repaired boats at that location. Since the boat was worn and broken, it may have been in the process of being repaired. A major part of the broadside was missing, and the broken cross-section was trimmed in order to be put together with additional boards to raise the broadside. Strips of pine wood found near the boat, the same kind of wood as on the body of the boat, probably were intended for use in repairs. A second hypothesis is that people planned to add one or two “wings” ( bianjiating 边架艇 ) to the boat. 1 A small boat with one or two “wings” would be more able to withstand a storm on the water.

We also recovered a partially preserved lacquer bow at the Kuahuqiao site. The two ends are relatively slender, two to three cm in diameter. The cross section of the middle part (17 cm long) is oblate, but its fl attened side is opposite to that of the rest of the bow body, indicating that the middle part was the handle. This bow was made from mulberry. It is particularly noteworthy that red lacquer was painted on the bow, the earliest lacquer artifact found in China. 2 Laboratory analysis showed that the wooden bow was covered by three layers of lacquer, and ferric oxide was identifi ed. Infra-red spectrum analysis reveals that the lacquer is identical to modern raw lacquer.

In addition, we found evidence for using resin as an adhesive to repair pottery at the Kuahuqiao site. There is one rim sherd from a dou stemmed dish that is about 6.7 cm long by 4.5 m wide, with a black interior surface and red exterior surface. We know that the cross-section was broken for the second time because we discovered crimson semi-transparent adhesive material on the section, along which we also found a repaired crack with adhesive material on it. Along with the invention of lacquer, the use of adhesion testifi es to the excellent capability of the Kuahuqiao people to understand and utilize natural materials.

Another noteworthy object found at Kuahuqiao was a small pottery fu cauldron decorated with cord-marking. The jar has a fl aring mouth, a bulging body, a round bottom, and a pointed end. It was discovered with a bunch of similar-looking plant stems inside, about 5–8 cm long. These stems were relatively neatly placed – slightly coiled, at the bottom of the vessel. A lack of mud between the stems leads us to believe that this bunch of plant stems was inside the vessel before it was discarded. The fact that these stems did not disperse, but clinched closely to each other, indicates that they had already been cooked soft when discarded. Further evidence for this idea can be seen from the traces of smoke and fi re on the exterior surface of the vessel. I believe that the best explanation for these plant stems is that they were prepared as medicine, later discarded for some reason. A sample was sent to the Chinese


Medicinal Laboratory of the Zhejiang Institute of Drug Quality Control, and the contents were identifi ed as a plant stem and branch. Prehistoric peoples must have known the medical value of natural materials, as later people in China did. The fi nding at Kuahuqiao is an important new clue to the origin of Chinese medicine, especially medical herbs.

ART AND RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

The fi ndings at the Kuahuqiao site also suggest the existence of art and religion. For example, musical instruments such as bone whistles were discovered. Many bone whistles were discovered at the Jiahu 贾湖 (see Chapter 10 ) and Hemudu sites.

As previously discussed, the shaping and surface treatment of pots was not only determined by function but also by aesthetic perceptions. There are several kinds of painted and incised designs on the pots. Since vessels were usually placed on the ground, decorations such as painting were often applied to the shoulder and rim of jars or the interior surfaces of plates, making them visible from above. The painted strokes suggest that a certain kind of tool with a soft end was used. All these fi ndings indicate that the Kuahuqiao people already possessed artistic consciousness.

There were several kinds of painted designs on ceramics, as mentioned above, such as bands and designs shaped like fl ames. We also found incised designs on ceramic, antler, and wooden artifacts. These can be classifi ed as realistic representations and abstract designs. The former class includes wave designs, grid designs, and “hanging curtain” ( chuizhang 垂帐 ) designs often seen on the lower neck of jars, close to the shoulder. The Kuahuqiao site was close to the bay, and east of the site was open water. The wooden boat and other artifacts demonstrate that water had an important role in the daily life of the Kuahuqiao people. Therefore, it is logical that wave designs are quite common on ceramics. Grid designs probably represent fi shing nets, and we also discovered a cross-shaped bone tool designed to make fi shing nets. The “hanging curtain” design could represent curtains used in houses, although it is not something we would expect to see at such an early date. The interpretation seems plausible given the evidence for weaving that we found.

Some designs seem to indicate particular religious beliefs. For example the sun and fl ame designs could indicate sun worship. A design like a ladder could symbol-ize communication with the spiritual world. The extensive use of cross designs on objects at Kuahuqiao is consistent with the other evidence of sun worship. Archi-tectural feature B, the earthen platform described earlier, could have been used for sun worship. This layered platform is roughly circular in plan view. It was com-posed of as many as 19 layers, and we found evidence of burned earth on each layer. The process of constructing the platform was essentially the process of grad-ually accumulating deposits of burned earth. The function of the burned earth cannot be easily explained from a practical perspective. It would have been almost impossible for a cooking site in the open air to evolve into such a stable and inde-pendent platform structure; therefore, I suggest that this platform was used for making sacrifi cial offerings with fi re. The excavated part of architectural feature B is around 10 m by 10 m and around 1.6 m high. Besides the uppermost layer, there is a shallow pit, around 1–2 m in size, where earth was burned in each of the 19

552 JIANG LEPING

layers. A few other pits contained fragments of human skulls and antler, likely sac-rifi cial offerings.

THE RELATIONSHIP OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE TO THE DEVELOPMENT AND DECLINE OF THE KUAHUQIAO CULTURE

Global environmental change deeply impacts the lives of human beings on earth. Research on the evolutionary history of ancient peoples, especially in regions relatively sensitive to environmental change, can lead to a more profound understanding of the relationship between environmental transformation and human development. As previously explained, the Kuahuqiao site is situated in the lower Qiantang river valley. The Kuahuqiao culture may have derived from the Shangshan culture of the upper Qiantang river valley. Why did that Neolithic culture begin in the upper river valley area? To answer this question we need an environmental perspective.

Recent research shows that climate during the earlier Holocene fl uctuated, and one area where this occurred was the middle and lower Yangzi river valley ( Wang Kaifa and Zhang 1981 ; Du 2002 ). The climate changed in Zhejiang during the early and middle Holocene according to the following stages:

1. Around 11,000–9000 BP ( c. 9050–7050 BC ): wind increase during the summer, warm and humid;

2. Around 9000–7600 BP ( c. 7050–5650 BC ): temperature dropped, dry and cold, extremely low temperatures around 8200 BP ( c. 6250 BC );

3. Around 7600–4800 BP ( c. 5650–2850 BC ): optimum period of the Holocene, warm and humid.

The dates from the dendrochronological calibration of remains from the earlier Shangshan site is between about 11,400 and 8600 BP ( c. 9450–6650 BC ), correspond-ing to the period of climate fl uctuation in the early Holocene. During this period, it was warm and the ancient Shangshan people could relatively easily attain food through diverse methods. But then a cold wave began, and temperatures dropped 7.8–10°C around 8200 BP ( c. 6250 BC ) ( Wang Ninglian and Yao 2002 ). This would have deeply infl uenced the economy of the Shangshan culture. The drop in tempera-ture would have made forest cover degenerate, causing food shortages and changes in subsistence practices. Human beings had to cultivate plants in order to obtain stable food supplements. Following the fall of temperature and sea level, land areas in the lower Qiantang river valley expanded providing pioneer plants the opening to grow, creating new opportunities for survival. From about 8000 to 6900 BP ( c. 6050–4950 BC ), after a short period of temperature decline, temperatures began to rise gradually around 7600 BP ( c. 5650 BC ). Therefore the Kuahuqiao culture could then develop and fl ourish under a more suitable climate.

The decline of the Kuahuqiao culture was also closely related to environmental deterioration. I initially mentioned that supralittoral and mesolittoral zones were deposited above the Kuahuqiao site, indicating that the abandonment of the site was fundamentally caused by fl ooding due to the rise of sea level. This is a very important phenomenon and a crucial clue to the study of change in the Holocene coastline and


its relationship to human cultures. Sea level rose globally during the Holocene, and there was a relatively high sea level along China during the period 7000–5000 BP ( c. 5050–3050 BC ). The advance of the sea not only submerged relatively low areas along the coastline, but it also made the depositional environment change in the lower river valleys. During excavation of the Kuahuqiao site, we discovered evidence for sea level changes from analysis of soils and fossil diatoms. Diatoms can be divided into different ecological types such as coast, bay, and stream. Fossil diatoms in depos-its are important clues for the study of ancient environments ( Tsuji 2000 : 43–78). We found many kinds of diatoms in soil samples from the Kuahuqiao occupation layers, in the supralittoral and mesolittoral sediments above it, and in the marsh underneath the cultural layers. The change of the composition of fossil diatoms in the various soil layers indicates that the Kuahuqiao site was mainly surrounded by fresh water suitable for human habitation during a period of sea retreat, but around 7000 BP ( c. 5050 BC ), human beings could not live along the Hangzhou Bay because of the advance of the sea.

The most convincing evidence for the argument that the Kuahuqiao site was directly submerged under water due to transgression of the sea comes from the Xiasun site, where we can see the superimposition of marine beds upon human occupation layers. This pattern, however, only indicates the temporal sequence of the two depos-its, but not the causality; that is, whether the site was abandoned because of the advance of the sea. Although our set of radiocarbon data from geological survey proves that these two events took place at about the same time, we need direct evi-dence that the site was invaded by the sea, and this is supplied by the Xiasun site. We found remains of barnacles on the bottom of many pieces of excavated sherds and lithics, showing that they were once immersed in seawater. Biologically, barnacles usually live on microbes carried by the tide, positioning themselves against the tide. This indicates that the site suffered greatly from tidal incursions in this period. Also, wooden posts at the site were eaten hollow by shipworms, which can only survive in seawater. Later the site began to be submerged in relatively still water. In the early phase of this period, the location of the site was suitable for the growth of shellfi sh from eastern China called Glauconome chinensis (common name: zhongguo lulang 中国绿螂 ) which normally lives at the mouths of low-level saline rivers along the coast. Therefore, the Xiasun site demonstrates submergence of areas during the end of the Kuahuqiao period, likely causing abandonment of settlements.

According to current chronological data, the time when the Kuahuqiao site was abandoned was approximately when the Hemudu site was established. Both sites were located at a similar height above sea level, and both were situated around the Hangzhou Bay. It is a seemingly contradictory phenomenon that one was submerged while the other developed.

The special hydrological environment at the mouth of the Qiantang river deter-mined the depositional characteristic of the Kuahuqiao site. The reciprocal action of the fl ow of the river and the advance of the tide shaped a topography high in the south and low in the north – in other words, high coastline and low hinterland. Our conclusion is that the rise of sea level that began c. 7000 BP ( c. 5050 BC ) did not last long enough to submerge the site completely. It was the regional rise of sea level and subsequent soil deposition due to the changing tide and river that was the deci-sive force.

554 JIANG LEPING

CONCLUSIONS

After people moved from the land area in the upper Qiantang river valley to the plain in the lower valley, the Kuahuqiao culture fl ourished. Later it struggled for survival in the face of major transformation of the hydrological environment around 7000 BP ( c. 5050 BC ). Did it decline rapidly? Or, did the Kuahuqiao people move back to the upland area? These questions cannot be answered now because very few sites have been discovered or excavated in the upper Qiantang river valley. Nevertheless, in the plain in the lower valley, another archaeological culture – the Hemudu culture – rose swiftly.

NOTES

1 These “wings” were apparently an extension of the body of the boat, rather than a rudder. [Ed.]

2 This is from the lacquer tree, Toxicodendron vernicifl uum , commonly referred to as qishu 漆树 . [Ed.]

REFERENCES

Du , Yun 杜耘 . 2002 . 洞庭湖新石器文化遗址与古环境 (Neolithic Sites and Ancient Environ-ment along Dongting Lake) . Huazhong Shifang Daxue Xuebao ( Ziran Kexue Ban ) 36 ( 4 ): 516 – 520 .

IA, CASS [ 中国社会科学院考古研究所 ] . 2011 . 河南灰嘴遗址的发掘 ( Excavation of the Huizui Site in Henan ) . Unpublished MS, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing.

Jiang , Leping . 蒋乐平 . 2010 . 浙江早期新石器时代文化概略及初步认识 (An Introduction to Early Neolithic cultures in Zhejiang) . In 中国考古学会第十二次年会论文集 (Proceedings of the 12th Annual Meeting of the Chinese Archaeology Society) , ed. 国考古学会 :, 219 – 229 . Beijing : Wenwu .

Jiang , Leping , and Liu Li . 2006 . New evidence for the Origins of Sedentism and Rice Domes-tication in the Lower Yangzi River, China . Antiquity 2006 ( 80 ): 355 – 361 .

Lin , Huadong 林华东 . 1992 . 河姆渡文化初探 (A Preliminary Study of the Hemudu Culture) . Hangzhou : Zhejiang Renmin .

Liu , Li , and Chen Xingcan . 2012 . The Archaeology of China. From the Late Paleolithic to the Early Bronze Age . New York : Cambridge University Press .

Tianluoshan Editorial Group [ 田螺山遗址 – 河姆渡文化新视窗编委会 ] . 2009 . 田螺山遗址 . 河姆渡文化新视窗 (A New Window into the Hemudu Culture) . Hangzhou : Xiling .

Tsuji , Seiichiro 辻誠一郎 , ed. 2000 . 考古学植物学 (Archaeology and Botany) . Tokyo : Doseisha .

Wang , Kaifa 王开发 , and Zhang Yulan 张玉兰 . 1981 . 根据孢粉分析推论沪杭地区一万多年来的气候变迁 (A Tentative Hypothesis of Climate Change in Shanghai and Hangzhou During the Past 10,000 Years According to Pollen Analyses) . Lishi Dili 1981 ( 1 ): 126 – 131 .

Wang , Ninglian 王宁练 , and Yao Tandong 姚檀栋 . 2002 . 全新世早期强降温事件的古里雅冰芯记录证据 (Evidence From the Guliya Ice Core for a Dramatic Drop in Tem-perature During the Early Holocene) . Kexue Tongbao 47 ( 11 ): 818 – 823 .

Zhejiang and Xiaoshan [ 浙江省文物考古研究所 , 萧山博物馆 ] , eds. 2004 . 跨湖桥 (The Kua-huqiao Site) . Beijing : Wenwu .

Zheng , Yunfei 郑云飞 , Jiang , Leping 蒋乐平 , and Zheng , Jianming 郑建明 . 2004 . 跨湖桥遗址出土的古稻研究 (A Study of Ancient Rice Unearthed from Kuahuqiao) . Zhongguo Shuidao Kexue 18 ( 2 ): 119 – 124 .

Documents

A Companion to Chinese Archaeology (Underhill/A Companion to Chinese Archaeology) || The Kuahuqiao Site and Culture