Mapping Qijiaping: New Work on the Type-Site of the Qijia Culture (2300–1500 B.C.) in Gansu Province, China

ABSTRACT

Recent work at the Qijia Culture type-site of Qijiaping in the Tao River valley of Gansu Province, China, has shed light on the complex nature of this early Bronze Age site. Situated at the intersection between the mixed pastoralists of eastern central Asia and the agriculturalists of China’s northern Central Plain, Qijia peoples absorbed, evolved, and transmitted products and technologies that shaped cultural developments in both directions. The Tao River Archaeological Project (TRAP) used a combination of surface survey, geophysics, digital mapping, and targeted excavation to expand our understanding of the multicomponent nature of Qijiaping. This included identifying potential habitation, mortuary, and production locales; examining site-wide ceramic use; mapping anomalies through geophysics; and further exploring these through targeted excavations. The results have expanded our knowledge of the site structure of Qijiaping and its place in the wider Qijia interaction sphere, while also confirming the usefulness of this methodology.

KEYWORDS:

• Qijia culture
• Early Bronze Age
• northwest China
• magnetometry
• surface survey
• GIS

Acknowledgements

We are very grateful to the following individuals for their contributions to the project: Liu Bingbing and the staff of the Gansu Provincial Institute of Archaeology, Li Xinwei, Guo Zhiwei, Zhang Hai, Wu Xiaohong, Jin Guiyun, Tang Shiqian, Zhao Zhigang, Timothy Horsley, Kate Brunson. We are also grateful to the many graduate students who have joined us in the field or otherwise contributed to this work: Jada Ko, Christopher Kim, Lele Ren, Eric Carlucci, Rita Dal Martello, Chris Foster, Zhang Handong, Wan Xiang, Ai Wanqiao, Li Yongde, Yu Pu, and Chen Pin. We would also like to thank the following institutions for their generous support of our fieldwork: The Asia Center at Harvard University, The DigitalGlobe Foundation, and the American School of Prehistoric Research. Finally thank you to the people of Qijiaping for their support of our work in their fields and constant generosity year after year.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on Contributors

Andrew Womack (M.Phil. 2014, Yale University) is a doctoral candidate in Anthropology at Yale University. His interests include developments in social networks and craft production in Neolithic and Early Bronze Age northwestern China.

Yitzchak Jaffe (Ph.D. 2016, Harvard University) is a visiting assistant professor at the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World at New York University. He has published papers on early Chinese social identity, early state formation, and mortuary practices in Antiquity, Asian Perspectives, the Journal of Social Archaeology and the Journal of Archaeological Research.

Jing Zhou (M.A. 2010, Northwestern University, China) is an archaeologist at the Gansu Provincial Institute of Archaeology. His work focuses on excavation and preservation of prehistoric sites throughout Gansu.

Ling-yu Hung (Ph.D. 2011, Washington University in St. Louis) is an assistant professor at Indiana University. Her research focuses on the dynamics among migration, diffusion, trade, and social change in prehistoric northwestern China.

Hui Wang (Ph.D. 2006, Kobe University, Japan) is the director of the Gansu Provincial Institute of Archaeology. His research covers a wide range of topics centered on cultural interaction and expansion in early Gansu.

Shuicheng Li (Ph.D. 1996, Peking University) is a professor of archaeology in the Peking University Department of Archaeology and Museum Studies. His research topics include ceramic analysis, interregional interaction, and cultural transitions in northwestern China.

Pochan Chen (Ph.D. 2004, University of California, Los Angeles), recently deceased, was an associate professor at National Taiwan University. His research focused on interregional interaction, salt production and other technological change, archaeological method, and economic practices in ancient China.

Rowan Flad (Ph.D. 2004, University of California Los Angeles) is the John E. Hudson Professor of Archaeology at Harvard University. His research is focused on technological changes and related social processes in early China, particularly as they relate to craft production, subsistence practices, ritual, and social organization.

ORCID

Andrew Womack http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1046-6106

Ling-yu Hung http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8814-4417

Rowan Flad http://orcid.org/0000-0002-7018-8868

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by National Science Foundation [grant number 1541275].