Antler arrowhead crafting at Zaoshugounao in the Guanzhong region: Implications for worked bone production in Bronze Age northern China

Abstract

The analysis of worked animal remains from archaeological contexts can provide a window into animal resource exploitation, craft production, and social organization in ancient societies. The Guanzhong region, where the Shang-Zhou dynastic transition occurred, is key to understanding developing social complexity and early state formation in Bronze Age China. Previous research on worked animal remains from Bronze Age sites in the region has exclusively focused on urban centers of capital-level and village-size settlements. There is a lack of work on sites of a level in between. Here, we present a study of antler arrowhead production at Zaoshugounao, a large Bronze Age settlement in the Guanzhong region primarily occupied during approximately the 13th-10th centuries BCE. Our results show that the production of antler arrowheads at Zaoshugounao involved a relatively complete workflow. The spatial distribution of associated worked antlers further implies that the BIII excavation unit of the site, particularly Locale 3, was possibly a location specifically used for antler crafting. Bone working practices at Zaoshugounao, exemplified by antler arrowhead production, stood in contrast with those at contemporary capital cities and village sites, suggesting the existence of at least three patterns of worked bone production in the Guanzhong region and neighboring Central Plains during the late second and first millennium BCE. Our findings from Zaoshugounao contribute to a better understanding of animal resource exploitation and craft production in Bronze Age northern China around the time of the Shang-Zhou dynastic transition.