Herding or Hunting? Animal Exploitation at Jiangzhuang (Jiangsu, China) During the Liangzhu Period (3300-2300 BC)

Abstract

This zooarchaeological study, examining faunal remains recovered from the Jiangzhuang site, attempts to dissect the interplay between subsistence choices and societal development during the Liangzhu period (3300–2300 BC) in the Lower Yangtze Valley. We found that in this rural village peripheral to the Liangzhu core area, Jiangzhuang residents heavily relied on wild animal resources, among which cervids were intensively utilised. A variety of suids, including domesticated pigs, wild boar, feral pigs, and hybrids of the three, were also present, suggesting a complex human-suid relationship involving both husbandry and hunting. Subsistence at Jiangzhuang was self-sufficient, and its rejection of intensive agriculture was attributed to natural and social factors. The economic independence in the peripheral Liangzhu areas might have contributed to the collapse of Liangzhu society.