Animal transition and subsistence strategy on an ancient Chinese island: A zooarchaeological study of the Xiaozhushan Site

Lyu Peng (Associate Professor, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences; HYI Visiting Scholar 2018-19)
Chair/discussant: Richard Meadow (Senior Lecturer, Department of Anthropology, Harvard University)

Co-sponsored with the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies

From the 1990s, Chinese zooarchaeological research has developed rapidly and achieved fruitful results with the development of Chinese archaeology. The Xiaozhushan shell midden site is located on Guanglu island, Liaoning Province, Northeast China, which can be dated to 7000BP to 4000BP and divided into five phases that belong to Xiaozhushan Culture. The zooarchaeological research on this site can provide empirical materials to understand the animal transition and the transformation of animal resource acquisition patterns from a fishing-hunting economy to a livestock way. We analyze the reasons for the appearance of wild and domestic animals on Guanglu island and the internal relations between animal resource acquisition patterns and animal population structure. We consider that human behavior caused profound influences on the animal population as prehistoric people landed on this island about 7000 years ago.