Social dynamics in early Bronze Age China: A multi-isotope approach

Abstract

This paper uses a multi-isotope approach (C, N, S) to explore the social dynamics of early Bronze Age China, focusing on communities within the Central China Plain. Building upon recent research on Yinxu, the last capital of the Shang Dynasty (Cheung et al., 2017a, 2017b), we obtained 49 samples from six contemporaneous sites both within and outside of Yinxu, including sites from the Gansu, Shaanxi, and Henan Provinces. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic ratios of an additional 419 individuals, and stable sulfur isotopic ratios of 118 individuals from seven other sites taken from published reports are also included to expand the geographic scope of this study. By including sites outside of Yinxu, this study is able to investigate the cultural contacts and exchanges between Yinxu and other communities, and provide novel insights into the geographic origins of the sacrificial victims found at Yinxu. Our findings are consistent with other scholars' observations that during the late Shang period, Yinxu was one of several cultural centers of Bronze Age China, where goods, ideas, technologies, and people from different cultural groups were gathered and exchanged.