A Preliminary Study On Pottery Production And Settlement Pattern At Sujiacun,Rizhao,Shandong

According to the findings of the regional survey conducted in the coastal region of southeast Shandong,during the Longshan period,the area coexisted with two regional centers,Liangchengzhen and Yaowangcheng,three hierarchies of settlements with administrative functions,and small settlement strata represented by dispersed settlement clusters that,in terms of the level of social development,had entered the early State development stage.The northern area of them,with the Liangchengzhen site at its core,has a clear degree of settlement nucleation,a fully established secondary settlement hierarchy,and a highly integrated organizational structure pattern over the entire area.The Sujiacun site is the center of a small settlement group in Southeast Shandong’s coastal region.In 201 9,systematic materials were collected during archaeological excavations there,including trenches,house sites,ash pits,burials,ash ditches,kiln sites,wells,pottery,jade,and stone tools,which filled the vacancy in the low-grade settlements’ archaeological material.The Neolithic cultural remains at the site can be loosely separated into three stages of continuous development based on stratigraphic relationships and the distribution of artifacts.A distinct spatial and temporal framework for the study of handicraft production is provided by the systematic excavation strategy and research techniques of settlement archaeology.In the context of settlement archaeology study,this paper aims to analyze the ceramic artifacts from the Sujiacun site.The research investigates the role played by ceramic craft production in the emergence of regional social power and political organizational structure at the macro level as well as the dynamic interaction between pottery production and settlement transformation inside the settlement at the micro level.This study uses visual production process observation,chemical composition analysis,and petrographic microscopic observation to first summarize the technological development process of pottery manufacturing at the Sujiacun site.Sujiacun pottery production can be separated into two stages using the end of the second period of the Longshan culture as the boundary.The pottery form is relatively simple,and the technical tradition and production system exhibit the qualities of stability and continuity.The technical characteristics of the first stage are the more primitive hand-made and clay bar billet production method and the immature fast-wheel billet production technology.The second stage saw the emergence of a comprehensive innovation in pottery production technology.An important aspect of this time was the widespread application of wheel system technology,which was seen in the widely popularization of wheel fix technology and the mass production of pottery parts using wheel systems.The highest level of pottery production may be seen in the variety of ware varieties,and the creation of eggshell pottery embodies the craftsman’s utmost quest of aesthetics and technology.Petrographic analysis demonstrates that Sujiacun site did not have a monopoly on the production resources and manufacturing procedures for Fine Pottery,and that both ordinary pottery and fine pottery were manufactured locally.Black pottery manufacture is characterized by the widespread usage of clothing technology.White pottery does not primarily use kaolin as a basic material.The potters completely revolutionized the entire chain of pottery production operations at the end of the second phase of the Longshan culture,abandoning the original technical traditions in the process.This led to a broad technical agreement between Sujiacun and the sites in the southeast coastal region of Shandong.The analysis of production organization reveals that the scale of "family handicraft" or"individual workshop handicraft" has been reached at the Sujiacun site,where potters carry out independent pottery production activities and the elite class has relatively lax control over handicraft production.This shift in scale away from primitive family production is evident in the organization of pottery production.There is a dynamic relationship between pottery production and the changes in social organization within the community are closely and dynamically tied to pottery production at the Sujiacun site.In the early period.although the nuclear family status was already significant in social organization,it was still bound by blood ties,and the related pottery production likewise exhibited shrinkage traits and was on a scale equivalent to small industries.The nuclear family evolved into an independent grassroots social organization unit in the late period,and the separation of blood relations and the clarity of property ownership led to the formation of large-scale individual workshops and even core workshop-style pottery production.During this time,there was a noticeable growth in class differentiation,and social power was focused in the excess of social wealth and public power,such as feasting.The comprehensive analysis of refined pottery as well as a large number of daily pottery vessels indicates that in the late second period of the Longshan culture,the Sujiacun site,as the central settlement of a small settlement group,was incorporated into a settlement organization structure with three settlement levels under the control of the Liangchengzhen site.Social sophistication further developed.and competitive feasting activities with high-quality pottery were an important means of consolidating and expanding social power for the elite class.The rise of elite leadership led to a further deepening of socio-political stratification.As a result of this process,the region’s higher social classes were able to agree on a wide range of political ideas,which aided in the integration and unity of cultural landscapes.The locations of the Liangchengzhen site steadily grew,the social surplus and social labor that the central settlement could control increased dramatically,and eventually the central settlement established its domination over a large area.The early state in the coastal region of southeastern Shandong has different features in both economic and political aspects,in contrast to the northern Shandong region and the Taosi and Shijiahe city sites of the same period.Although the scale of the social units involved in economic production is small,they have strong grassroots sinking forces,a relaxed and liberal economic environment,and a low degree of social resource intensification.However,politically,the social classes are sharply divided and there is a strong climate of political competition,which allows for in-depth investigation of the region’s politics.For a thorough investigation of the region’s civilizational patterns,this serves as proof of grassroots settlement.