Zhongba is a Neolithic, Bronze and Iron Age site located in the Ganjing River valley in Zhong Xian County of Chongqing municipality in the Three Gorges Dam region of China. One of many thousands of sites examined ahead of the Three Gorges Dam construction, Zhongba contains important evidence for the evolution of the technology of salt production in the eastern Sichuan Basin.
The Zhongba site is truly massive, with components dated between 2370 BC and 200 BC, including important Longshan, Shang and Qin dynasty cultural information. This article focuses on the evidence for salt production at the site, and that is but a sliver of the information gleaned about Chinese history from Zhongba.
Historically, the Ganjing River valley is known to have been important for salt at least as long ago as the early centuries AD. The region is a particularly suitable place for salt production, because of salt deposits laid down during the Triassic epoch, and effluent brine formed from groundwater flowing through the deposits is still present in the region.
Salt Production at Zhongba
Historical records of salt production in the eastern Sichuan Basin dates to the the Eastern Han in the third century AD. However, archaeological evidence at Zhongba indicates salt production at the site began at least as early as the Bronze Age Shang dynasty (ca 1800 BC) and perhaps as early the Neolithic Longshan dynasty, approximately 2500 BC. This evidence comes in the form of massive accumulations of pottery sherds from salt production known as briquetage.
The briquetage dump at Zhongba contains many millions of potsherds: a massive undertaking for the research team. Sampling of the briquetage has identified three main vessel types dominating the collections which appear to be related to salt production. Support for that identification is from trace elements of salt residue, as well as the similarities of the vessels used world wide in salt production.
- The earliest form of vessel found in the briquetage is a huabian jiandigang, a pointed-bottom vat with a scalloped rim. These vessels were large, up to 40 centimeters in diameter (16 inches). They were decorated with cord-marking and had thick pointed bases and relatively straight rims with wavy impressions. These pots date between 2500-2000 BC, and they make up 92 percent of the total assemblages of the levels in which they have been identified.
- The second type is the jiandibei, a pointed-bottom cup. These vessels were considerably smaller, measuring 5-8 cm (2-3 in) in diameter at the rim. They were produced in short (5-6 cm) and tall (8-10 cm) heights, and they are thought to have functioned as molds for creating uniform cones of salt.
- The third most frequent type of vessel represented in the midden is the huandiguan, rounded bottom jarlets. These come in three sub-types, a large scalloped-rim jar (up to 60 cm or 24 in tall), and two smaller jars, one with a scalloped-rim and one without scallops, both about 24 cm (10 in) tall. These jars are also thought to have been used as brine containers, placed over fires and used to boil brine and produce large salt cakes.
The evidence from Zhongba suggests three technological transitions in production technique. The earliest, represented by the large vats, operated from from about 2500-1500 BC. The second technique involved small cups to create cone-shaped cakes, between 1500 and 1000 BC. The third technique using the jarlets emerged gradually in the first millennium BC and eventually developed into a large-scale industry. At the end of the Bronze Age, the ceramics were replaced by iron pans, a technique that continued without changing until well into the 20th century.
Sources
This glossary entry is a part of the About.com guide to Salt Production, and the Dictionary of Archaeology.
Flad RK, Xiaohong W, Von Falkenhausen L, Shuicheng L, Zhibin S, and Chen P. 2009. Radiocarbon Dates and Technological Change in Salt Production at the Site of Zhongba in the Three Gorges, China. Asian Perspectives 48(1):149-181.
Flad R, Zhu J, Wang C, Chen P, von Falkenhausen L, Sun Z, and Li S. 2005. Archaeological and chemical evidence for early salt production in China. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 102(35):12618-12622.
Tian X, Zhu C, Xu X, Ma C, Sun Z, Yin Q, Zhu Q, and Shi W. 2008. Reconstructing past subsistence patterns on Zhongba Site using stable carbon and oxygen isotopes of fossil tooth enamel. Chinese Science Bulletin 53(0):87-94.
Tian X, Zhu C, Sun Z, Shui T, Huang Y, Flad R, and Li Y. 2011. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses of mammal bone fossils from the Zhongba site in the Three Gorges Reservoir region of the Yangtze River, China. Chinese Science Bulletin 56(2):169-178.
Zhu C, Zheng C, Ma C, Sun Z, Zhu G, Wang H, Gao H, Wang P, and Huang R. 2005. Identifying paleoflood deposits archived in Zhongba Site, the Three Gorges reservoir region of the Yangtze River, China. Chinese Science Bulletin 50(21):2493-2504.
