Jiangzhai is a large Neolithic village (Yangshao culture) located in Lintong County, about four kilometers from the famous (and much later) Tomb of Shihuang di. Radiocarbon dates from the site fall between 4790 and 3690 BC, and cover the four phases of the Yangshao culture. The oldest phase (called Banpo) is securely dated between 4790 and 4340 BC (calibrated).
The site includes an area of nearly 50,000 square meters, in a neatly regimental pattern of concentric circles. The innermost circle is an open plaza containing what may be animal pens. A constructed road surface runs through the central plaza. The next ring out from the center is a residential zone consisting of 122 semi-subterranean above-ground structures, all of which open towards the center. The third ring is a ditch with gaps between the segments for passageway. Outside the ditch are three discrete cemeteries, with pit and urn burials, traditional in Banpo sites.
Living at Jiangzhai
The residential zones are apparently aligned in clan or family groups, with a typical pattern being a single large house surrounded by between 10 and 20 smaller houses. Population estimates for the village are between 100 and 300.
Jiangzhai's residents cultivated foxtail millet, and kept domestic pigs, chickens and dogs. It is apparent from stable isotope investigations that millet was also part of the diet of the pigs and chickens. Stone tools include a large number of axes, which suggests to excavators that they were shifting (or slash-and-burn) horticulturalists. Bone, horn, and shell tools, nearly 1,000 intact or nearly intact pottery vessels and over 1 million pottery sherds were recovered during the excavations.
Many of the vessels are decorated with abstract signs painted on them before they were fired. Similar signs have been found at other Banpo sites such as Banpo. Scholars are divided as to the meaning of these signs, whether they represent clan emblems or potter signatures.
Excavations at Jianghzai were begun in the early 1970s by the Banpo museum. Yun K. Lee's 2007 article on Jiangzhai is a fascinating study of the concentric rings and possible connections to the social organization of the society.
Sources
Lee, Yun K. 2007 Centripetal settlement and segmentary social formation of the Banpo tradition. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26 630–675.
Pechenkina, Ekaterina A., Stanley H. Ambrose, Ma Xiaolin, and Jr. R. A. Benfer 2005 Journal of Archaeological Science 32(8):1176-1189.
Yang, Xiaoneng. 2002. Banpo Site at Xi'an and Jiangzhai Site at Lintong, Shaanxi Province. Chinese Archaeology in the Twentieth Century: New Perspectives on China's Past. Volume 2: 51-52.
