Zooarchaeological and taphonomic analysis of the faunal assemblage from Tangzigou, southwestern China

This dissertation research is a zooarchaeological and taphonomic analysis of the faunal assemblage from Tangzigou, an Early Holocene open-air site in Yunnan Province, southwest China. The goal of this study was to reconstruct the foraging behavior of Tangzigou people in order to investigate whether there were archaeological signs of resource stress and/or intensification in post-Pleistocene southwestern China. This research contributes to our current understanding of the timing and process of the subsistence shift from foraging to agriculture during the Pleistocene-Holocene transition.;No evidence of resource intensification was found in the Tangzigou assemblage. Data used to evaluate the resource stress hypothesis were derived from the analysis of the skeletal element representations, mortality profiles, bone breakage patterns, and bone surface modifications of ∼9000 mammalian bone fragments. Large-scale comparative datasets were produced from observations of modern antlers and experimental studies on modern cervid/bovid phalanges to accurately document the various types of modifications. This was done in order to confirm or dispute the existence of antler tools at Tangzigou, and to explain the meaning of intensively broken phalanges in the Tangzigou assemblage.;The interpretation here is still a hypothesis based on just one site from a single time period that requires further testing. A larger sample is essential for inter-site and diachronic comparisons to understand the timing and process of subsistence shift. Only then, can an accurate portrait of the human subsistence strategies from Tangzigou emerge. This research is a step toward fulfilling that goal.