Yuhuangmiao
The socio-cultural dynamics of a community between the steppes and the Chinese plains
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6012932 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Limin Huan (0000-0003-2398-7613), Ursula Brosseder (0000-0003-2157-9907) |
| Year | 2024 |
| Volume | 8 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 229-249 |
| Publication date | 2024-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Asian Archaeology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 2520-8098 • E-ISSN: 2520-8101 |
| Publisher | Springer Science+Business Media (PUBLISHER • DE) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s41826-024-00098-4 |
| PMID | 39703764 |
| OpenAlex | W4405199037 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 34 |
The Yuhuangmiao culture emerged around the 7th to the 4th centuries BCE in northeastern China near Beijing. The burial ritual with stone layers, numerous animal deposits, and the material culture indicate a strong steppe connection. It is often used to support the narratives in the Chinese historical texts that people living in the area had a distinctive lifestyle from those in the southern, agricultural-based communities and that the two groups often had a hostile relationship. Based on the cemetery of Yuhuangmiao, we focus in our case study on the socio-cultural dynamics over time in communities of a small region between the steppes and the Chinese Central Plains and in confrontation with very different neighbors to the south and the northwest. We use a seriation and correspondence-based approach to propose a new chronology for three sites. The duration of the sites is divided into three phases, with a total span of around 200 years between 600 and 400 BCE. Our results show that the changes in the burial ritual and material culture reflect a community’s internal development and external communication with other regions. Based on our chronology, the elite members of the Yuhuangmiao community used objects with steppe designs and horses to express their identities and social power. This practice was most prominent in the first phase and waned over time. We suggest reconsidering previous interpretations of these practices as a decline of the Yuhuangmiao people and view it instead as an expression of intra-community changes, possibly as an indicator of a successful integration of a community with foreign immigrants in an area located between two very different systems: of the steppes and the Central Plains
Ancient history · Archaeology · Art · Beijing · China · Chronology · Elite · Ethnology · Genealogy · Geography · Literature · Narrative · Political science · Seriation (archaeology · Sociology · Steppe · Anthropology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Archaeology and Rock Art Studies · History · Pacific and Southeast Asian Studies
Mathematics and computers in archaeology
Quantifying archaeology
Life and Afterlife in Ancient China
An Ecoregion-Based Approach to Protecting Half the Terrestrial Realm
Detrended correspondence analysis
Mortuary variability
The Northern Frontier in Pre–Imperial China
Traders and raiders on China's northern frontier
Avar Chronology Revisited, And The Question Of Ethnicity In The Avar Qaganate
Ancient China and its Enemies
Against the Grain
The Metal Road of the Eastern Eurasian Steppe
The IntCal20 Northern Hemisphere Radiocarbon Age Calibration Curve (0–55 cal kBP)
Correspondence analysis
Seeking Horses
Ritual or Structure? Analysis of Burial Elaboration at Dadianzi, Inner Mongolia
Monumental architecture
Communication and display
China and the steppe
Directional Changes in Funerary Practices During 50,000 Years
Pastoralists and peasants
| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |