Island Life: A Zooarchaeological Study of the Daxie Site, China

The lower Yangtze Valley is a fruitful area to examine the interplay between the origins and intensification of agriculture and socio-political complexity. Most archaeological research on the emergence and decline of the complex society in this region has focused on large late Neolithic centres, such as the Liangzhu ancient city. Many small- to medium-size sites were also involved in dynamic regional social networks and further investigations into these smaller sites can help archaeologists contextualise core–hinterland relationships. In this paper, we report a zooarchaeological analysis of Daxie, a late Neolithic island village located in Ningbo, China. The faunal assemblage is dominated by wild animals with a few livestock, indicating a subsistence economy reliant primarily on wild resources incorporating limited use of domesticates. The heavy exploitation of marine resources is also a distinctive feature: marine fish were procured and sea salt production was developed. Such a self-sustaining village economy, on one hand, was loosely connected to the Liangzhu core area’s subsistence. On the other hand, the island industry specialised in salt production might have forged Daxie’s connection within the regional society.