Ancient Central China

Centers and Peripheries along the Yangzi River

Rowan K. Flad, Pochan Chen

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9780521899000
• eBook ISBN: 9781139847766
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: Social Sciences

Ancient Central China provides an up-to-date synthesis of archaeological discoveries in the upper and middle Yangzi River region of China, including the Three Gorges Dam reservoir zone. It focuses on the Late Neolithic (late third millennium BC) through the end of the Bronze Age (late first millennium BC) and considers regional and interregional cultural relationships in light of anthropological models of landscape. Rowan K. Flad and Pochan Chen show that centers and peripheries of political, economic and ritual activities were not coincident, and that politically peripheral regions such as the Three Gorges were crucial hubs in interregional economic networks, particularly related to prehistoric salt production. The book provides detailed discussions of recent archaeological discoveries and data from the Chengdu Plain, Three Gorges and Hubei to illustrate how these various components of regional landscape were configured across Central China.

Table of contents

• Contents
• Figures
• Tables
• Boxes
• Acknowledgments
• 1 Introduction: Centers and Peripheries in the Ancient Yangzi River Valley
• Part I Setting the Stage
• Part II Political and Cultural Topographies
• Part III Topographies of Economic Activity and Ritual
• Glossary
• Bibliography
• Index