Environmental preconditions and human response: settlement patterns and subsistence practices in the prehistoric Liangshan region, Southwest China

Journal article

The Liangshan region in Southwest Sichuan is known for its great diversity both in geographic layout and ethnic composition. Unsurprisingly it is also characterized by a highly diverse archaeological assemblage. An increasing number of settlement excavations and surveys conducted in recent years are helping us to understand how past people used this highly varied landscape; however, much of the material is still insufficiently published, and paleoenvironmental, archaeobotanical, and archaeozoological data are lacking.
This paper for the first time introduces this little-known body of material to a greater audience. At the same time, it uses the Liangshan region as a case study on how to infer past forms of subsistence from archaeological material alone when archaeobotanical data are missing. Based on stone-tool analysis combined with information on ceramics, settlement structures, and site distribution data, this study identifies the major differences and similarities between the assemblages from different sites and sub-regions, suggesting patterns of past land-use, subsistence systems, and inter-community interaction.
This paper suggests that past populations exploited the Liangshan region in a variety of ways, including hunting and gathering, shifting cultivation, and collaboration between various groups specializing in different subsistence practices and trading what they had plenty of for what they were lacking. The archaeological material furthermore suggests that past decisions about subsistence were not shaped by geographic preconditions alone, but also by cultural factors.

Authors: Hein, A

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Research Center for Chinese Frontier Archaeology, Jilin University China
• Journal: Asian Archaeology
• Volume: 3
• Pages: 39-94
• Publication date: 2015-06-01
• Acceptance date: 2015-01-09
• ISBN: 9787030440884
• Language: English
• Keywords: Southwest China; settlement analysis; spatial analysis; human-environment interaction; stone tool analysis