Ceramic production and provenance in the Yiluo Basin (Henan, China): Geoarchaeological interpretations of utilitarian craft production in the Erlitou state

Abstract

Petrographic and portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) analysis performed on late Neolithic/early Bronze Age utilitarian ceramic assemblages from three high-level centers in the Yiluo River valley (Henan, China) – Erlitou, Huizui, and Shaochai – have identified discriminating features which serve as a basis for inferring community-level production loci on an intra-basinal scale. Principal among these are 1) a volcanic and sulfide-silica “Luo River” inclusion signature seen at Erlitou and Shaochai, 2) a metamorphic (amphibole gneiss and schist) signature seen almost exclusively in sherds from Huizui, and 3) a predominantly fine-grained siliciclastic and carbonate sedimentary lithic “Songshan Mountain” signature observed among sherds at both Huizui and Shaochai. The pXRF data help to further refine these petrographic provenance assignments. Identification of overwhelmingly “local” production signatures suggests that wares were not widely exchanged between the Erlitou urban core and the surrounding centers with much frequency during the Erlitou period (ca. 1900–1500BCE). Domestic wares may have been produced for systems of local exchange among regional centers and surrounding rural potting communities utilizing ceramic raw materials found within shared geological resource zones. The persistence of local production signatures throughout the Yangshao (ca. 5000–3000BCE), Longshan (ca. 3000–2000BCE), and Erlitou periods at Huizui suggests that systems of localized ceramic production and exchange within the Yiluo basin were not significantly altered in response to processes of urbanism and regional economic integration characterizing formation of the Erlitou state.