Osteoarthritis, labour division, and occupational specialization of the Late Shang China - insights from Yinxu (ca. 1250 - 1046 B.C.).

This research investigates the prevalence of human osteoarthritis at Yinxu, the last capital of the Late Shang dynasty (ca. 1250-1046 B.C.), to gain insights about lifeways of early urban populations in ancient China. A total of 167 skeletal remains from two sites (Xiaomintun and Xin'anzhuang) were analyzed to examine osteoarthritis at eight appendicular joints and through three spinal osseous indicators. High osteoarthritis frequencies were found in the remains with males showing significantly higher osteoarthritis on the upper body (compared to that of the females). This distinctive pattern becomes more obvious for males from Xiaomintun. Furthermore, Xiaomintun people showed significantly higher osteoarthritis in both sexes than those from Xin'anzhuang. Higher upper body osteoarthritis is speculated to be caused by repetitive lifting and carrying heavy-weight objects, disproportionately adding more stress and thus more osseous changes to the upper than the lower body. Such lifting-carrying could be derived from intensified physical activities in general and specialized occupations in particular. Higher osteoarthritis in males may reveal a gendered division of labour, with higher osteoarthritis in Xiaomintun strongly indicating an occupational difference between the two sites. The latter speculation can be supported by the recovery of substantially more bronze-casting artifacts in Xiaomintun. It is also intriguing that relatively higher osteoarthritis was noticed in Xiaomintun females, which seems to suggest that those women might have also participated in bronze-casting activities as a "family business." Such a family-involved occupation, if it existed, may have contributed to establishment of occupation-oriented neighborhoods as proposed by many Shang archaeologists.

Investigating the tool marks on oracle bones inscriptions from the Yinxu site (ca., 1319-1046 BC), Henan province, China.

Oracle Bone Inscriptions in the Shang dynasty (1600-1046 BC) are the earliest well-developed writing forms of the Chinese character system, and their carving techniques have not been studied by tool marks analysis with microscopy. In this study, a digital microscope with three-dimensional surface reconstruction based on extended depth of focus technology was used to investigate tool marks on the surface of four pieces of oracle bones excavated at the eastern area of Huayuanzhuang, Yinxu site(ca., 1319-1046 BC), the last capital of the Shang dynasty, Henan province, China. The results show that there were two procedures to carve the characters on the analyzed tortoise shells. The first procedure was direct carving. The second was "outlining design," which means to engrave a formal character after engraving a draft with a pointed tool. Most of the strokes developed by an engraver do not overlap the smaller draft, which implies that the outlining design would be a sound way to avoid errors such as wrong and missing characters. The strokes of these characters have different shape at two ends and variations on width and depth of the grooves. Moreover, the bottom of the grooves is always rugged. Thus, the use of rotary wheel-cutting tools could be ruled out. In most cases, the starting points of the strokes are round or flat while the finishing points are always pointed. Moreover, the strokes should be engraved from top to bottom. When vertical or horizontal strokes had been engraved, the shell would be turned about 90 degrees to engrave the crossed strokes from top to bottom. There was no preferred order to engrave vertical or horizontal strokes. Since both sides of the grooves of the characters are neat and there exists no unorganized tool marks, then it is suggested that some sharp tools had been used for engraving characters on the shells. Microsc. Res. Tech. 79:827-832, 2016. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

Fermented beverages of pre- and proto-historic China.

Chemical analyses of ancient organics absorbed into pottery jars from the early Neolithic village of Jiahu in Henan province in China have revealed that a mixed fermented beverage of rice, honey, and fruit (hawthorn fruit and/or grape) was being produced as early as the seventh millennium before Christ (B.C.). This prehistoric drink paved the way for unique cereal beverages of the proto-historic second millennium B.C., remarkably preserved as liquids inside sealed bronze vessels of the Shang and Western Zhou Dynasties. These findings provide direct evidence for fermented beverages in ancient Chinese culture, which were of considerable social, religious, and medical significance, and help elucidate their earliest descriptions in the Shang Dynasty oracle inscriptions.