{"title":"Use of the potter's wheel at Shimao, Shaanxi, China","authors":"Meng Guo , Zhouyong Sun , Jing Shao","doi":"10.1016/j.ara.2023.100468","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><p>Shimao is among the largest settlements dating back to the late Longshan to early Bronze Age in Northern China. The Huangchengtai locality is often identified as the palace center of Shimao. The excavation of a large number of ceramic artifacts from this site presents an excellent opportunity to study Shimao's pottery technology. To understand the use of the potter's wheel and the traces left on ceramics, we conducted a comprehensive investigation of ceramics from the Huangchengtai locality. This investigation involved observing technological traces, X-ray photography, and microstructural analysis. The results revealed that the majority of the ceramic pots were made using the techniques of coiling and molding. However, a small portion of the pottery displayed techniques of throwing and turning. Interestingly, neither Shimao nor its neighbors had access to highly developed fast-wheel technology during that period. Moreover, many of the pots made on the potter's wheel in Shimao show a connection to pots found in the Longshan culture in the Central Plains. Therefore, it is likely that Shimao's fast-wheel technology originated from the Central Plains.</p></div>","PeriodicalId":51847,"journal":{"name":"Archaeological Research in Asia","volume":"36 ","pages":"Article 100468"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1000,"publicationDate":"2023-12-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Archaeological Research in Asia","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352226723000405","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"2023/8/14 0:00:00","PubModel":"Epub","JCR":"0","JCRName":"ARCHAEOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Shimao is among the largest settlements dating back to the late Longshan to early Bronze Age in Northern China. The Huangchengtai locality is often identified as the palace center of Shimao. The excavation of a large number of ceramic artifacts from this site presents an excellent opportunity to study Shimao's pottery technology. To understand the use of the potter's wheel and the traces left on ceramics, we conducted a comprehensive investigation of ceramics from the Huangchengtai locality. This investigation involved observing technological traces, X-ray photography, and microstructural analysis. The results revealed that the majority of the ceramic pots were made using the techniques of coiling and molding. However, a small portion of the pottery displayed techniques of throwing and turning. Interestingly, neither Shimao nor its neighbors had access to highly developed fast-wheel technology during that period. Moreover, many of the pots made on the potter's wheel in Shimao show a connection to pots found in the Longshan culture in the Central Plains. Therefore, it is likely that Shimao's fast-wheel technology originated from the Central Plains.
期刊介绍:
Archaeological Research in Asia presents high quality scholarly research conducted in between the Bosporus and the Pacific on a broad range of archaeological subjects of importance to audiences across Asia and around the world. The journal covers the traditional components of archaeology: placing events and patterns in time and space; analysis of past lifeways; and explanations for cultural processes and change. To this end, the publication will highlight theoretical and methodological advances in studying the past, present new data, and detail patterns that reshape our understanding of it. Archaeological Research in Asia publishes work on the full temporal range of archaeological inquiry from the earliest human presence in Asia with a special emphasis on time periods under-represented in other venues. Journal contributions are of three kinds: articles, case reports and short communications. Full length articles should present synthetic treatments, novel analyses, or theoretical approaches to unresolved issues. Case reports present basic data on subjects that are of broad interest because they represent key sites, sequences, and subjects that figure prominently, or should figure prominently, in how scholars both inside and outside Asia understand the archaeology of cultural and biological change through time. Short communications present new findings (e.g., radiocarbon dates) that are important to the extent that they reaffirm or change the way scholars in Asia and around the world think about Asian cultural or biological history.