Salt production and social hierarchy in ancient China
Subtitle: an archaeological investigation of specialization in China's Three Gorges
By: Rowan K. Flad
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Published: 2011
Place of publication: Cambridge; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 285
ISBN-13: 9781107009417
Subjects: Salt industry and trade; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Archaeology; Bronze age; Neolithic Period; Prehistoric Salt mines and mining; Prehistoric Antiquities; Excavations (Archaeology); Social structure
Description: "This book examines the organization of specialized salt production at Zhongba, one of the most important prehistoric sites in the Three Gorges of China's Yangzi River valley"--

"This book examines the organization of specialized salt production at Zhongba, one of the most important prehistoric sites in the Three Gorges of China's Yangzi River valley. Rowan K. Flad demonstrates that salt production emerged in the second millennium BCE and developed into a large-scale, intense activity. As the intensity of this activity increased during the early Bronze Age, production became more coordinated, perhaps by an emergent elite who appear to have supported their position of authority by means of divination and the control of ritual knowledge. This study explores evidence of these changes in ceramics, the layout of space at the site, and animal remains. It synthesizes the data retrieved from years of excavation, showing not only the evolution of production methods, but also the emergence of social hierarchy in the Three Gorges region over two millennia"--
Notes: Includes bibliographical references  (p. 257-278) and index.
Table of contents: title: Machine generated contents note: 1. Introduction; 2. Production and specialization in complex societies; 3. Ancient salt production in Sichuan; 4. The Zhongba site; 5. Ceramic evidence; 6. Parameters of production according to ceramics; 7. Features and spatiality; 8. Animal remains and divination; 9. Conclusions and Implications; Epilogue.