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Journal ArticleDOI

Recent Developments in the Archaeology of Southwestern China

Alice Yao
- 05 Feb 2010 - 
- Vol. 18, Iss: 3, pp 203-239
TLDR
In this paper, the development of bronze metallurgy in southwestern China parallels trends observed among Neolithic communities in Southeast Asia, and they propose that sociopolitical complexity emerged as part of a multiregional phenomenon that had its beginning with the formalization of trade networks during the Neolithic period.
Abstract
Archaeology of ancient China’s periphery has traditionally been examined through the historiographic lens of Chinese textual sources. Social developments in the periphery are often explained in relation to accounts of migration from “core” regions of China. Setting conventional paradigms and textual sources aside, this article examines prehistoric developments in southwestern China in conjunction with broader trends in Southeast Asia. This comparative approach reveals that the development of bronze metallurgy in southwestern China parallels trends observed among Neolithic communities in Southeast Asia. Using recent data and a reassessment of radiocarbon dates for the Bronze Age, I propose that sociopolitical complexity emerged in southwestern China as part of a multiregional phenomenon that had its beginning with the formalization of trade networks during the Neolithic period.

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Book

The Archaeology of Early China: From Prehistory to the Han Dynasty

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present an extended time period from the earliest peopling of China to the unification of the Chinese Empire some two thousand years ago, focusing on the emergence of agricultural communities and the establishment of a sedentary way of life.
Dissertation

Adaptation and Invention during the Spread of Agriculture to Southwest China

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors present the results of research into how agricultural strategies were modified during the spread of agriculture into southwest China by incorporating advances from the fields of plant biology and ecological niche modeling into archaeological research.
Journal ArticleDOI

Early agriculture at the crossroads of China and Southeast Asia: Archaeobotanical evidence and radiocarbon dates from Baiyangcun, Yunnan

TL;DR: Archaeobotanical results from systematic flotation at what is presently the earliest Neolithic site with hard evidence for crop cultivation in the Southwestern Chinese province of Yunnan provide secure evidence for the spread of Chinese Neolithic crops to Yunnan, and provide new evidence for reconstructing possible sources of cereal agriculture in mainland Southeast Asia.
Journal ArticleDOI

The Earliest States in China: A Long-term Trajectory Approach

TL;DR: Based on an analysis of the long-term trajectory, the authors identified, in north China, two phases of rapid transformations: the first, starting around 2500 BC, when several unstable regional states evolved and declined, and the second, around 1600 BC when an intra-regional state, usually identified with the historical Shang, rapidly evolved.
Journal ArticleDOI

Networks of Power in Archaeology

TL;DR: One way of modeling these relations is to see them as organized within social networks through which the resources needed to exert power in all its forms flow differentially as discussed by the authors, and two approaches to describing these interactions and understanding their political implications are particularly salient in the literature.
References
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Peer Polity Interaction and Socio-political Change

TL;DR: Cherry and Renfrew as mentioned in this paper discuss peer polity interaction and socio-political change in Anglo-Saxon England and the development of long-distance relations in Later Neolithic Britain and Ireland.
Book

The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 BC

TL;DR: The Cambridge History of Ancient China as discussed by the authors provides a survey of the cultural history of pre-imperial China, including Shang, Western Zhou, Spring and Autumn, and Warring States.
Book

Nationalism, Politics and the Practice of Archaeology

TL;DR: Kohl and Tsetskhladze as mentioned in this paper discuss the politics and poetics of archaeology in the service of the state, and the role of ethnicity in the preservation of archaeological narratives.
Book

Early cultures of mainland Southeast Asia

TL;DR: Higham as discussed by the authors presents a synthesis of the latest archaeological discoveries in Southeast Asia, starting with early hunter gatherers and concluding with the early states, with particular reference to Angkor, with Rice farming is now documented in the Yangzi Valley; copper and bronze casting is seen as an extension via China of a process that began in the Near East.
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