A Zooarchaeological Study of the Haimenkou Site, Yunnan Province, China

Product Description

Archaeology of East Asia, Volume 1
Haimenkou was an important location, with trade and cultural links connecting parts of modern Southeast Asia and northwestern China in ancient times. This book is based on an analysis of the faunal assemblage recovered from the Haimenkou site during the 2008 field season in Yunnan Province, China. It investigates the human-animal relationships at Haimenkou through a time span running from the late Neolithic Period to the middle Bronze Age (ca. 5000-2400 BP). The animal exploitation patterns, local animal domestication processes, human subsistence strategies and communication networks linking Haimenkou and other regions in prehistoric China are studied. Domesticated pig, dog and sheep bones were identified. Over sixteen wild mammal species as well as bird and fish bones and mollusc shells were also recovered. The results suggest that the Haimenkou people developed a mixed subsistence economy, consisting of crop farming, plant food gathering, animal husbandry, hunting and fishing.

Review

'An invaluable contribution to an understudied area of Chinese archaeology.' Prof. Roderick B. Campbell, Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University 'Wang does an admirable job presenting baseline data that is critical for understanding the zooarchaeological record in southwestern China. Her work is one of the first zooarchaeological analyses for the region that goes beyond simply identifying taxa in order to examine taphonomic and demographic trends. ... It will be of great value to those doing future archaeological research in Yunnan.' Dr Katherine Brunson, Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, Brown University

About the Author

Juan Wang