Interregional interaction between the Majiayao culture and the Zongri culture on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau: New evidence from the pottery production and exchange

Abstract

The pattern of exchange and interaction between the communities represented by the Majiayao culture and the Zongri culture is one of the key issues in the Neolithic archaeological research on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. This study utilized a combination of chemical composition analysis and petrographic analysis to investigate the raw material choice and modification of the Majiayao-style and Zongri-style pottery from the Lajia site and the Dongguotan site on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. The results suggest that the Zongri-style pottery unearthed from the Lajia site, which is the first-ever discovery of such type of pottery through systematic excavations in the core area of the Majiayao culture, was likely imported from the core area of the Zongri culture in the Gonghe Basin. In Dongguotan, a newly excavated site in the Gonghe Basin, the Majiayao-style painted pottery might have been imported, while the Majiayao-style coarse-paste pottery was more likely to be produced in the local region. Evidence from the pottery production and exchange reveals a bidirectional influence between the lowland Majiayao and highland Zongri communities, indicating a more complex socio-economic landscape of the northeastern Tibetan Plateau during this period than previously thought. The movement of populations is one of the possible ways for the highland communities in the Gonghe Basin to participate in the exchange network with the eastern lowland communities during the late Neolithic period.