Archaeology in the New Century - Diverse Interactions of Culture, Location, and Ecology

Author: Xu Zongyuan, Zhang Zhongpei / Country:
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-04-01
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(1) The analysis of the overall settlement structure at the Jiangzhai Site begins with the microscopic accumulation of the Banpo cultural layer. The stratigraphic observation of the Banpo cultural layer shows that the Banpo layer can be further divided into three smaller layers, each providing a relatively complete layout (Figures 4–6). There is a very thin layer of undisturbed earth between these three layers, indicating that the Banpo-phase site underwent three periods of use and three periods of abandonment. Below, we refer to these three layers of cultural accumulation as the Early, Middle, and Late Banpo phases. The layout of the Jiangzhai settlement during the Banpo phase is concentric (Figure 3). The central part of the site is an open plaza, where, apart from possible remnants of enclosures, few other remains were found, and the accumulation of ash was also thin. Houses and pits were built around the central plaza, clearly divided into five zones—east, south, west, northwest, and north. Each zone had houses facing the same direction, all oriented toward the central plaza, with a buffer zone without remains between each zone. A crescent-shaped moat, combined with the river on the west side, defined the boundaries of the settlement. Outside the settlement were burial areas, consisting of three discontinuous cemeteries. A simple visual inspection reveals several notable changes in the Banpo-phase remains at the Jiangzhai Site. First, the moat only existed during the Middle Banpo phase. Second, in the Early Banpo phase, the southern part of the site was largely empty, except for two houses. These two houses have cut relationships, so only one house coexisted in the south during the early phase. Despite this, the settlement design still maintained a centripetal structure, as if reserving space for the southern group. Third, most of the northwest zone is overlaid by the modern village of Jiangzhai, leaving only a partial view. Except for the relatively numerous houses in the middle phase, the houses in the early and late phases are few, but all visible foundations of doorways are southeast-southeast, differing significantly from those of other groups. Fourth, the northwest part of the site suffered severe damage during the Late Banpo phase, with no houses remaining. Fifth, although the Jiangzhai Site was used three times, its spatial structure remained largely unchanged. The remains of the five zones occupied their respective positions relative to each other, and although the boundaries between zones slightly shifted, they did not affect the overall layout of the settlement. Sixth, several large houses appeared during the Middle Banpo phase, distributed across the five zones. If the (Yangshao large houses) were primarily used for collective rituals (Wang Ningsheng 1983), each zone had its own facilities for such rituals. The division of the Banpo-phase remains at the Jiangzhai Site into five groups was proposed by Gong Qiming and Yan Wenming (1981), who also used this to explore the social structure of Jiangzhai. However, not everyone agrees with this view, mainly because the number of houses in the northwest zone is too small, raising doubts about whether it should be considered a separate group. Chen Yong (1993) wrote an article dividing the residential areas of Jiangzhai into four groups. I believe the five-group division is more consistent with archaeological realities, mainly because the doorways of the houses in the northwest corner of the site face southeast-southeast, differing from those in the west and north groups. Additionally, the Middle Banpo-phase northwest group, like the east, south, west, and north groups, has one large house. Whether the Banpo-phase residents of Jiangzhai divided the settlement into four or five groups is not important to the purpose of this article; what matters is that they clearly divided the residential area into several zones, with a deliberate intention to utilize the built environment, which remains evident even 6,000 years later. The discussion above confirms that the Banpo-phase settlement at Jiangzhai, despite three periods of use and three periods of abandonment, maintained its spatial layout. This observation aligns with the expectation that the built environment was designed according to the principles of segmented society and partially supports Hypothesis 1: the overall spatial structure has a hierarchical order corresponding to social segmentation. Below, we will discuss this issue by examining the formal variations in archaeological remains. P35-37