Sherds of societies: Quantitative and petrographic analysis of Neolithic ceramics in Northeast China

Abstract

In China, Neolithic sites are routinely attributed to “archaeological cultures” through typological comparisons of complete pottery vessels. However, ceramic datasets have the potential to reveal more than a chrono-cultural attribution. Taking into account not only all the complete vessels but also all the sherds excavated from a site makes it possible to use quantitative analysis as well as morpho-stylistic and petrographic approaches to measure the heterogeneity of the ensemble and ask why and how it was formed. The Wutaishan site in Nong'an, Jilin province, located at the centre of Northeast China, was chosen to implement this methodology. The ceramology research on the complete pottery dataset excavated at this site sheds light on the long- and short-distance exchanges networks in Northeast China at the turn of the 4th millennium BCE, provides a new understanding of inter-site relations in the Yitong River valley, and opens perspectives on the interpretation of the functional spatial layout within the site itself.