Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Multivariate analysis of cooking pots from elite and “commoner” contexts at Yanshi Shangcheng: implications for the politics of daily life and development of ceramic technology in the early Bronze Age of northern China

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

In this study, we investigate how ceramics used in domestic contexts may have differed between elites and “commoners” at Yanshi Shangcheng, a walled settlement from the early Shang (Erligang) period of northern China. Marked social stratification is evident at the site, particularly in the form of differential architecture and the layout of the settlement, which had an inner “palace” district and an outer lower status area. We inquire into whether social difference infused the sphere of daily life and daily cuisine at this early Bronze Age settlement. We performed a suite of statistical tests on two types of grayware cooking pots, guan jars and li tripods, from elite and lower status contexts, including a permutation-based modified multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA), univariate tests, and a test of the homogeneity of multivariate dispersions. We tested variables related to main stages in the pottery production sequence, including clay preparation, vessel construction, and vessel firing. Pottery data, such as characteristics of the fabric, measurements of thickness, rim diameter, color, and hardness, were recorded at the site visually and with the aid of a hand lens and various measurement devices. Results indicate significant aspects of heterogeneity related to thickness, hardness, pot size, surface texture, and color. Results also indicate little difference in variables related to clay preparation methods. Possible explanations for the differences are explored, including developments in firing conditions and selection of higher quality pieces for elites. The statistical techniques developed herein could be applied to a range of artifactual types to investigate questions of difference.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8
Fig. 9
Fig. 10
Fig. 11
Fig. 12

Similar content being viewed by others

Notes

  1. Difference between means of a particular variable is the absolute difference between the mean measurement from Area IV and the mean measurement from the Palace. For example, the difference between means of the percentage of inclusions in Area IV (7.3%) and the Palace (6.9%) is 0.4%.

References

  • Anderson M (2001) A new method for non-parametric multivariate analysis of variance. Austral Ecology 26:32–46

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson M (2006) Distance-based tests for homogeneity of multivariate dispersions. Biometrics 62:245–253

    Google Scholar 

  • Appadurai A (1981) Gastro-politics in Hindu South Asia. Am Ethnol 8:494–511

    Google Scholar 

  • Arnold PJ (1991) Dimensional standardization and production scale in Mesoamerican ceramics. Lat Am Antiq 2(4):363–370

    Google Scholar 

  • Attema, P (1997/1998) Ceramics of the first millennium B.C. from a survey at Lanuvium in the Alban Hills, Central Italy: method, aims and first results of regional fabric classification. Palaeohistoria 39/40:413–440.

  • Bagley RW (1990) Shang ritual bronzes: casting technique and vessel design. Arch Asian Art 43:6–20

    Google Scholar 

  • Benco NL (1988) Morphological standardization: an approach to the study of craft specialization. In: Kolb C, Lackey L (eds) A pot for all reasons: ceramic ecology revisited. Laboratory of Anthropology, Temple University, Philadelphia, pp 57–72

  • Blitz J (1993) Big pots for big shots: feasting and storage in a Mississippian community. Am Antiq 58(1):80–96

    Google Scholar 

  • Bray T (ed) (2003a) The archaeology and politics of food and feasting in early states and empires. Kluwer Academic/ Plenum, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Bray T (2003b) Inka pottery as culinary equipment: food, feasting, and gender in imperial state design. Lat Am Antiq 14(1):3–28

    Google Scholar 

  • Chang KC (1980) Shang civilization. Yale University Press, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

  • Chang KC (1983) Art, myth, and ritual: the path to political authority in ancient China. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Chang KC (1986) The archaeology of ancient China. Yale University Press, New Haven and London

    Google Scholar 

  • Chase, WT (1994) Chinese bronzes: casting, finishing, patination, corrosion. In: Scott DA, Podany J, Considine BB (eds) Ancient & historic metals: conservation and scientific research. Proceedings of a Symposium organized by the J. Paul Getty Museum and the Getty Conservation Institute. The Getty Conservation Institute, Los Angeles,  pp 85–117

  • Cheng T-K (1960) Archaeology in China, Volume II, Shang China. W. Heffer & Sons, Cambridge

  • Cianchetta I, Trentelman K, Maish J, Saunders D, Foran B, Walton M, Sciau P, Wang EP, Cotte M, Meirer F, Liu Y, Pianetta P, Mehta A (2015) Evidence for an unorthodox firing sequence employed by the Berlin Painter: deciphering ancient ceramic firing conditions through high-resolution material characterization and replication. J Anal At Spectrom 30:666–676

    Google Scholar 

  • Munsell Color (2000) Munsell soil color charts. Gretag Macbeth, New Windsor, NY

    Google Scholar 

  • Costin CL (1996) Craft production and mobilization strategies of the Inka empire. In: Wailes B (ed) Craft specialization and social evolution: in memory of V. Gordon Childe. The University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, pp 211–228

    Google Scholar 

  • Costin CL (2002) Production and exchange of ceramics. In: D'Altroy TN, Hastorf CA (eds) Empire and domestic economy. Kluwer Academic, New York, pp 203–242

  • D’Altroy TN, Hastorf CA (eds) (2002) Empire and domestic economy. Springer, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Deal M (1998) Pottery ethnoarchaeology in the central Maya lowlands. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City

    Google Scholar 

  • Dietler M, Hayden B (eds) (2001) Feasts: archaeological and ethnographic perspectives on food, politics, and power. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington and London

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobres MA, Hoffman CR (1994) Social agency and the dynamics of prehistoric technology. J Archaeol Method Theory 1(3):211–258

  • Dobres MA (2000) Technology and social agency. Blackwell, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Dobres MA (2010) Archaeologies of technology. Camb J Econ 34(1):103–114

    Google Scholar 

  • Druc I, Underhill A, Wang F, Luan F, Lu Q (2018) A preliminary assessment of the organization of ceramic production at Liangchengzhen, Rizhao, Shandong: perspectives from petrography. J Archaeol Sci Rep 18:222–238

    Google Scholar 

  • Du J (2003) Yanshi Shangcheng chutan (preliminary investigation of Yanshi Shangcheng). Zhongguo Shehui Kexue Chubanshe, Beijing

    Google Scholar 

  • Du J, Wang X, Zhang L (1999) Shilun Yanshi Shangcheng xiaocheng de jige wenti (discussion on some issues surrounding the Small Town at the Shang city at Yanshi). Kaogu 2:35–40

    Google Scholar 

  • Fang L (2011) Chinese ceramics. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Forte V (2019) Skilled people or specialists? knowledge and expertise in copper age vessels from central Italy. J Anthropol Archaeol. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jaa.2019.101072

  • Franklin U (1983) The beginnings of metallurgy in China: a comparative approach. In: Kuwayama G (ed) The great Bronze Age of China. Los Angeles County Museum, Los Angeles, pp 100–123

    Google Scholar 

  • Gifford J, Smith W (1978) Gray corrugated pottery from Awatovi and other Jeddito sites in northeastern Arizona. Papers of the Peabody Museum 67. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Goffer Z (2007) Archaeological chemistry, Second edn. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ

  • Gower JC (1971) A general coefficient of similarity and some of its properties. Biometrics 27:857–871

    Google Scholar 

  • Halperin CT, Foias AE (2010) Pottery politics: Late Classic Maya palace production at Motul de San José, Petén, Guatemala. J Anthropol Archaeol 29(3):392–411

    Google Scholar 

  • Hayden B, Cannon, A (1984) The structure of material systems: ethnoarchaeology in the Maya highlands. SAA Papers No. 3. Society for American Archaeology. Washington, DC

  • Henan Second Team, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (1984) 1983 nian qiu Henan Yanshi Shangcheng fajue jianbao (preliminary report of fall 1983 excavations of the Shang city at Yanshi in Henan). Kaogu 10:872–879

    Google Scholar 

  • Henan Second Team, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (1985) 1984 nian chun Yanshi Shixianggou Shangcheng gongdian yizhi fajue jianbao (preliminary report of Spring 1984 excavations of the palace site at the Shang city at Shixianggou in Yanshi, Henan). Kaogu 4:322–335

    Google Scholar 

  • Henan Second Team, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (1988) Henan Yanshi Shixianggou Shangcheng diwu hao gongdian jizhi fajue jianbao (preliminary report on the excavations at palace foundation No. 5 at the Shang city at Shixianggou in Yanshi, Henan). Kaogu 2:128–140

    Google Scholar 

  • Henan Second Team, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (1999) Henan Yanshi Shangcheng IV qu 1996 nian fajue jianbao IV 1996 (1996 excavations of Area IV at the Shang city at Yanshi in Henan). Kaogu 2:12–23

    Google Scholar 

  • Henan Second Team, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (2000) Henan Yanshi Shangcheng gongcheng beibu “dahuigou” fajue jianbao (briefing on the excavation of the “Large Ash Trench” in the north of the palace city of the Shang city at Yanshi in Henan). Kaogu 7:1–12

    Google Scholar 

  • Henan Second Team, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (2006a) Henan Yanshi Shangcheng gongcheng dibahao gongdian jianzhu jizhi de fajue (report of the excavations of Palace Building No. 8 of the palace city of the Shang city in Yanshi, Henan). Kaogu 6:3–12

    Google Scholar 

  • Henan Second Team, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (2006b) Henan Yanshi Shangcheng chiyuan yizhi (ruins of the pool yard at the Shang city at Yanshi in Henan). Kaogu 6:13–31

    Google Scholar 

  • Henan Second Team, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (2006c) Henan Yanshi Shangcheng IV qu 1999 nian fajue jianbao IV 1999 (report of the 1999 excavations in Area IV at the Shang city at Yanshi in Henan). Kaogu 6:32–42

    Google Scholar 

  • Hintze JL, Nelson RD (1998) Violin plots: a box plot-density trace synergism. Am Stat 52(2):181–184

    Google Scholar 

  • Hodder I (1991) The decoration of containers: an ethnographic and historical study. In: Longacre W (ed) Ceramic ethnoarchaeology. University of Arizona Press, Tucson, pp 71–94

    Google Scholar 

  • Hunt AMW (2017) The Oxford handbook of archaeological ceramic analysis. Oxford University Press, Oxford

  • Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (1980) Yinxu Fu Hao mu (the tomb of Lady Hao at Yinxu). Wenwu Press, Beijing

    Google Scholar 

  • Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (2002) Henan Yanshi Shangcheng Shang dai zaoqi wangshi jisi yizhi (early Shang dynasty royal sacrificial site at the Shang city at Yanshi in Henan). Kaogu 7:6–8

    Google Scholar 

  • Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (2013) Yanshi Shangcheng (Yanshi Shang City). Kexue Chubanshe, Beijing

    Google Scholar 

  • Kampstra P (2008) Beanplot: a boxplot alternative for visual comparison of distributions. J Stat Softw 28(1):1–9

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirch PV (1990) Monumental architecture and power in Polynesian chiefdoms: a comparison of Tonga and Hawaii. World Archaeol 22(2):206–222

    Google Scholar 

  • Kirch P, Sharyn JO (2003) New archaeological insights into food and status: a case study from pre-contact Hawaii. World Archaeol 34(3):484–497

    Google Scholar 

  • LeCount L (1999) Polychrome pottery and political strategies in Late and Terminal Classic lowland Maya society. Lat Am Antiq 10(3):239–258

    Google Scholar 

  • Lemonnier P (ed) (1993) Technological choices: transformation in material cultures since the Neolithic. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Leroi-Gourhan A (1943) L’Homme et la matière. Albin Michel, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Leroi-Gourhan A (1945) Milieu et technique. Albin Michel, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Li C (1977) Anyang. University of Washington Press, Seattle

    Google Scholar 

  • Li Y (2007) Co-craft and multicraft: section-mold casting and the organization of craft production at the Shang capital of Anyang. In: Shimada I (ed) Craft production in complex societies: multi craft and producer perspectives. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, pp 184–223

  • Lian H, Tan D, Zheng G (2013) Bronze casting techniques of the Erlitou Culture period. Chinese Archaeology 13(1):192–200

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu L (2003) The products of minds as well as of hands: production of prestige goods in the Neolithic and early state periods of China. Asian Perspect 42:1–40

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu L (2006) Urbanization in China: Erlitou and its hinterland. In: Storey G (ed) Urbanism in the preindustrial world: cross-cultural approaches. University of Alabama Press, Tuscaloosa, pp 161–189

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu L, Chen X (2012) The archaeology of China: from the Late Paleolithic to the Early Bronze Age. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu Z, Mehta A, Tamura N, Pickard D, Rong B, Zhou T, Pianetta P (2007) Influence of Taoism on the invention of the purple pigment used on the Qin terracotta warriors. J Archaeol Sci 34:1878–1883

    Google Scholar 

  • Madella M, Kovacs G, Berzsenyi B, Godino IB (eds) (2019) The archaeology of household. Oxbow Books, Oxford

  • Maechler, M., Rousseeuw, P, Struyf, A, Hubert, M, Hornik, K (2017) cluster: cluster analysis basics and extensions. R package version 2.0.6.

  • Mann T (1995) The magic mountain. Translated by JE Woods, Alfred Knopf, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • McArdle BH, Anderson MJ (2001) Fitting multivariate models to community data: a comment on distance-based redundancy analysis. Ecology 82(1):290–297

    Google Scholar 

  • McDowall, A (2015) Simple burial in unmarked grave for Saudi king who lived in palaces. Reuters, JANUARY 23, 2015. URL accessed February 14, 2019. https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-saudi-burial/simple-burial-in-unmarked-grave-for-saudi-king-who-lived-in-palaces-idUKKBN0KW1JX20150123

  • McGuire RH, Paynter R (eds) (1991) The archaeology of inequality. Basil Blackwell, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Medley M (1976) The Chinese potter: a practical history of Chinese ceramics. Phaidon, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Mills B (1999) Ceramics and social contexts of food consumption in the northern Southwest. In: Skibo J, Feinman G (eds) Pottery and people. University of Utah Press, Salt Lake City, pp 99–114

  • Moody J, Robinson H, Francis J, Nixon L, Wilson L (2003) Ceramic fabric analysis and survey archaeology: the Sphakia survey. Ann Brit Sch Athens 98:37–105

    Google Scholar 

  • Moore H (1994) Bodies on the move: gender, power, and material culture. In: Moore H (ed) A passion for difference. Indiana University Press, Bloomington, pp 71–85

  • Nash DJ (2009) Household archaeology in the Andes. J Archaeol Res 17:205–261

    Google Scholar 

  • Oksanen, J, Guillaume Blanchet, F, Friendly, M, Kindt, R, Legendre, P, McGlinn, D, Minchin, PR, O’Hara, RB, Simpson, GL, Solymos, P, Henry, M, Stevens, H, Szoecs, E, Wagner, H (2017) vegan: community ecology package. R package version 2.4-4. https://CRAN.R-project.org/package=vegan.

  • Orton C, Hughes M (2013) Pottery in archaeology, Second edn. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

  • Orton C, Tyers P, Vince AG (1993) Pottery in archaeology. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Pentedeka A, Kiriatzi E, Spencer L, Bevan A, Conolly J (2010) From fabrics to island connections: macroscopic and microscopic approaches to the prehistoric pottery of Antikythera. Annu Br Sch Athens 105:1–81

    Google Scholar 

  • Perry G (2016) Pottery production in Anglo-Scandinavian Torksey (Lincolnshire): reconstructing and contextualising the chaîne opératoire. Mediev Archaeol 60(1):72–114

  • Pfaffenberger B (1988) Fetishised objects and humanised nature: towards an anthropology of technology. Man 23(2):236–252

    Google Scholar 

  • R Core Team (2017) R: a language and environment for statistical computing. R Foundation for Statistical Computing, Vienna. https://www.R-project.org/

  • Reents-Budet D, Bishop RL, Taschek JT, Ball JW (2000) Out of the palace dumps: ceramic production and use at Buenavista del Cayo, Belize. Anc Mesoam 11:99–121

    Google Scholar 

  • Reinhart K (2015a) Religion, violence, and emotion: modes of religiosity in the Neolithic and Bronze Age of Northern China. J World Prehist 28:113–177

    Google Scholar 

  • Reinhart K (2015b) Ritual feasting and empowerment at Yanshi Shangcheng. J Anthropol Archaeol 39:76–109

    Google Scholar 

  • Reinhart K (2017) Ritual and daily life in the Chinese Bronze Age: foodstuffs and bodies in depositional context at Yanshi Shangcheng. In: Zinn K, Steele L (eds) Exploring the materiality of food ‘stuffs’: transformations, symbolic consumption and embodiments. Routledge, New York, pp 248–270

    Google Scholar 

  • Reinhart K (2018) Rethinking urbanism in the early Bronze Age of China: the role of craft specialists and community politics in the social construction of Yanshi Shangcheng. Archaeological Research in Asia 14:106–120

    Google Scholar 

  • Reinhart K (2020) Analysis of grooved ceramic vessels from the early Chinese Bronze Age site of Yanshi Shangcheng: preliminary evidence of food preparation methods through starch analysis. J Archaeol Sci. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2019.05.017

  • Rice, PM, Adams, WY, Ball, JW, Davis, WM, Earle, T, Fry, RE, Hodder, I, Joesink-Mandeville, LRV, Kolb, CC, Nishimura, M, Kojo, Y, Dorado, MR, Stark, BL, Van Der Leeuw, SE (1981) Evolution of specialized pottery production: a trial model [and comments and reply]. Curr Anthropol 22(3):219–240

  • Rice PM (1987) Pottery analysis: a sourcebook. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Roux V (2003) Ceramic standardization and intensity of production: quantifying degrees of specialization. Am Antiq 68(4):768–782

    Google Scholar 

  • Roux V (2017) Ceramic manufacture: the chaîne opératoire approach. In: Hunt A (ed) The Oxford handbook of archaeological ceramic analysis. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 101–113

  • Roux V (2019) The Ghassulian ceramic tradition: a single chaîne opératoire prevalent throughout the Southern Levant. Journal of Eastern Mediterranean Archaeology & Heritage Studies 7(1):23–43

    Google Scholar 

  • Schiffer M, Skibo J (1987) Theory and experiment in the study of technological change. Curr Anthropol 28(5):595–622

    Google Scholar 

  • Schiffer M, Skibo J (1989) A provisional theory of ceramic abrasion. Am Anthropol 91(1):101–115

    Google Scholar 

  • Shapiro G (1984) Ceramic vessels, site performance, and group size: a Mississippian example. Am Antiq 49(4):696–712

    Google Scholar 

  • Shepard A (1956) Ceramics for the archaeologist. Carnegie Institute of Washington, Washington

    Google Scholar 

  • Silliman S (2001) Agency, practical politics and the archaeology of culture contact. J Soc Archaeol 1(2):190–209

    Google Scholar 

  • Skibo JM, Schiffer M (1987) The effects of water on processes of ceramic abrasion. J Archaeol Sci 14:83–96

    Google Scholar 

  • Skibo JM, Schiffer M, Reid K (1989) Organic-tempered pottery: an experimental study. Am Antiq 54(1):122–146

    Google Scholar 

  • Skibo JM, Butts T, Schiffer M (1997) Ceramic surface treatment and abrasion resistance: an experimental study. J Archaeol Sci 24:311–317

    Google Scholar 

  • Stark MT, Bishop RL, Miksa E (2000) Ceramic technology and social boundaries: cultural practices in Kalinga clay selection and use. J Archaeol Meth Theory 7(4):295–331

    Google Scholar 

  • Stoltman JB, Jing Z, Tang J (2009) Ceramic production in Shang societies of Anyang. Asian Perspect 48(1):182–203

    Google Scholar 

  • Stoltman JB, Yue Z, Jing Z, Tang J, Burton JH, Raudsepp M (2018) New insights into the composition and microstructure of ceramic artifacts associated with the production of Chinese bronzes at Yinxu, the last capital of the Shang dynasty. Archaeol Res Asia 15:88–100

  • Sugiyama S (2005) Human sacrifice, militarism, and rulership: materialization of state ideology at the feathered serpent pyramid, Teotihuacan. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Swenson ER (2003) Cities of violence: sacrifice, power and urbanization in the Andes. J Soc Archaeol 3(2):256–296

    Google Scholar 

  • Tang J (1999) The burial ritual of the Shang dynasty: a reconstruction. In: Whitfield R, Wang T (eds) Exploring China’s past: new discoveries and studies in archaeology and art. Saffron, London, pp 173–188

    Google Scholar 

  • Tang J (2004) The social organization of late Shang China: a mortuary perspective. Ph.D. Dissertation, University of London, Institute of Archaeology, University College, London

  • Tani M (1994) Why should more pots break in larger households? Mechanisms underlying population estimates from ceramics. In: Longacre W, Skibo J (eds) Kalinga ethnoarchaeology. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC, pp 51–70

  • Thorp R (2006) China in the early Bronze Age: Shang civilization. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia

  • Tite MS, Kilikoglou V, Vekinis G (2001) Review article: strength, toughness and thermal shock resistance of ancient ceramics, and their influence on technological choice. Archaeometry 43:301–324

    Google Scholar 

  • Trigger BG (1990) Monumental architecture: a thermodynamic explanation of symbolic behaviour. World Archaeol 22(2):119–132

    Google Scholar 

  • Trostel B (1994) Household pots and possessions: an ethnoarchaeological study of material goods and wealth. In: Longacre W, Skibo J (eds) Kalinga ethnoarchaeology. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington, DC pp 209–224

  • Turner C, Lofgren L (1966) Household size of prehistoric Western Pueblo Indians. Southwest J Anthropol 22(2):117–132

    Google Scholar 

  • Twiss K (2019) The archaeology of food: identity, politics, and ideology in the prehistoric and historic past. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Underhill A (2002a) Craft production and social change in northern China. Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Underhill A (2002b) Investigating craft specialization during the Longshan period of China. In: Peregrine PN, Ember CR, Ember M (eds) Archaeology: original readings in method and practice. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, pp 280–297

  • Wang X (1999) Yanshi Shangcheng buju de tansuo he sikao (thinking and probing the layout of the Shang city at Yanshi). Kaogu 2:24–34

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang X, Gu F (2006) Yanshi Shangcheng gaocheng buju yu bianqian yanjiu (research on the layout and changes of Yanshi Shangcheng Palace City). Kaogu 6:4–15

  • Welbourn A (1984) Endo ceramics and power strategies. In: Miller D, Tilley C (eds) Ideology, power and prehistory. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 17–24

    Google Scholar 

  • Whitbread I (2017) Fabric description of archaeological ceramics. In: Hunt A (ed) The Oxford handbook of archaeological ceramic analysis. Oxford University Press, New York, pp 200–216

    Google Scholar 

  • Wickham H (2009) ggplot2: elegant graphics for data analysis. Springer-Verlag, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Wiessner P, Shieffenhovel W (eds) (1996) Food and the status quest. Berghahn Books, Providence, Rhode Island

    Google Scholar 

  • Wood N (2011) Chinese glazes: their origins, chemistry, and recreation. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia

    Google Scholar 

  • Xia Shang Zhou Chronology Team (2000) Xia Shang Zhou duandai gongcheng 1996 ~ 2000 nian jieduan chengguo baogao 1996–2000 1996 2000 (report on the results of the Xia Shang Zhou project, 1996–2000). Shijie Tushu Chuban Gongsi, Beijing

  • Young L, Stone T (1990) The thermal properties of textured ceramics: an experimental study. J Field Archaeol 17(2):195–203

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang X, Qiu S, Cai L, Bo G, Wang J, Zhong J (2008) Establishing and refining the archaeological chronologies of Xinzhai, Erlitou, and Erligang cultures. Chinese Archaeology 8:197–210

    Google Scholar 

  • Zinn K, Steele L (eds) (2017) Exploring the materiality of food ‘stuffs’: transformations, symbolic consumption and embodiments. Routledge, New York

Download references

Acknowledgments

Special thanks to Ian Hodder, Ian Robertson, Liu Li, Chen Xingcan, Gu Fei, Cao Huiqi, and Guo Tianping. Field research was conducted by Katrinka Reinhart. Guo Tianping assisted with identification, measurement, and illustration of pot sherds. David Greenberg assisted with photography and map making. Statistical techniques were co-developed and programmed in R by the authors. We are grateful for the insightful review comments. Thanks to the Stanford Archaeology Center for the invitation to present a draft of this paper.

Funding

This study is supported by the National Science Foundation (BCS-0314373) and Wenner-Gren Foundation (US) (Gr. 7115).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Heritage Services, Stanford University, Field Conservation Facility, 477 Oak Road, Stanford, CA, 94305, USA

    Katrinka Reinhart

  2. Center for Population Biology and Department of Evolution and Ecology, University of California, Davis, 2320 Storer Hall, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA, 95616, USA

    Michael D. Edge

Authors
  1. Katrinka Reinhart
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Michael D. Edge
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Katrinka Reinhart.

Additional information

Publisher’s note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Electronic supplementary material

ESM 1

(DOCX 14.6 mb)

ESM 2

(DOCX 36.6 kb)

ESM 3

(TXT 4.58 kb)

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Reinhart, K., Edge, M.D. Multivariate analysis of cooking pots from elite and “commoner” contexts at Yanshi Shangcheng: implications for the politics of daily life and development of ceramic technology in the early Bronze Age of northern China. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 12, 227 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-020-01100-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-020-01100-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation