Pottery manufacture and exchange at the Qixingdun site in Hunan Province, China

Abstract The Qixingdun site (c.3000–2000 BC) is the largest prehistoric city site at the southern edge of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River. It has endured three periods of archaeological culture, Qujialing, Shijiahe and Xiaojiaowuji, and is a core site for exploring the evolution of ancient Chinese civilization. We employed chemical compositional and petrographic analyses to compare and analyze the pottery excavated from this site with that excavated from the Shijiahe City Site. The results show that pottery production at the site remained stable during the Qujialing and Shijiahe periods, but diversified during the Xiaojiawuji period owing to the abandonment of the city site and the influence of foreign cultures. Additionally, there may have been a long-distance exchange of red clay cups between this site and the Shijiahe site. This material exchange likely maintained social stability during the Shijiahe culture period in conjunction with other types of interaction.