From Cooking Practices to Social Structure: Reinterpreting Pottery Functions and Early Settlement Organization in the Shangshan Culture

Abstract

This study reinterprets the relationship between pottery function and social organization within the early Neolithic Shangshan Culture (c. 11,000-8,500 BP) of China's Lower Yangtze River region. While the Shangshan Culture is renowned for some of the world's earliest pottery, previous research has often focused on typological classification and dating. This paper proposes a functional analysis of Shangshan pottery, particularly cooking vessels, to investigate how evolving food preparation techniques reflected and shaped early settlement structures and social dynamics. By examining the link between subsistence strategies and material culture, the study challenges conventional views of early sedentary societies. A mixed-methods approach, integrating archaeological data with ethnographic analogy, is employed to analyze pottery use wear, residue, and morphological traits across three case studies at the Shangshan, Huxi, and Qiaotou sites. The analysis of 416 vessels reveals that boiling vessels dominate all assemblages (38.5% at Shangshan), indicating this cooking method was central to daily subsistence. Spatial segregation of cooking, storage, and consumption areas at Huxi demonstrates organized domestic spaces with community level planning. Inter household variability at Qiaotou suggests potential emerging differences in economic roles among residential units. The results indicate a correlation between specific cooking practices and the emergence of more organized settlement layouts. This research contributes to a deeper understanding of how daily practices, like cooking, can serve as a powerful lens through which to view the formation of early social complexity and community organization in Neolithic China.