Table Of ContentInterdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology
Minghao Lin
Origins of
Cattle Traction and
the Making of
Early Civilisations
in North China
Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology
Series Editor
Jelmer Eerkens, University of California, Davis, CA, USA
Editorial Board Members
Canan Çakırlar, University of Groningen, Groningen, The Netherlands
Fumie Iizuka, University of California, Merced, CA, USA
Krish Seetah, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
Nuria Sugranes, Instituto de Evolución, Ecología Histórica y Ambiente,
San Rafael, Mendoza, Argentina
Shannon Tushingham, Washington State University, Pullman, WA, USA
Chris Wilson, Flinders University, Bedford Park, Australia
Archaeology stands alone among the sciences in its attempt to enlighten us about
the entire record of humankind. To cover such a broad range of time and space,
archaeologists must ensure that their findings are integrated into broader spheres of
scientific knowledge. The IDCA series aims to highlight the collaborative and
interdisciplinary nature of contemporary archaeological research.
Topics the series has covered include:
• Paleoecology
• Archaeological Landscapes
• Statistical Approaches
• Laboratory Methods
• Human Biological and Cultural Evolution
• Human Nutrition
• Emergence of Agriculture and Pastoralism
For a copy of the proposal form, please contact Christi Lue (christi.lue@springer.
com). Initial proposals can be sent to the Series Editor, Jelmer Eerkens (jweerkens@
ucdavis.edu). Proposals should include:
• A short synopsis of the work or the introduction chapter
• The proposed Table of Contents
• The CV of the lead author(s)
• If available: one sample chapter
We aim to make a first decision within 1 month of submission. In case of a
positive first decision the work will be provisionally contracted: the final decision
about publication will depend upon the result of the anonymous peer review of the
complete manuscript. We aim to have the complete work peer-reviewed within 3
months of submission.
This book series is indexed in SCOPUS.
For more information, please contact the Series Editor at (jweerkens@
ucdavis.edu).
Minghao Lin
Origins of Cattle Traction
and the Making of Early
Civilisations in North China
Minghao Lin
Department of History, School of Humanities
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Shanghai, China
Shanghai Jiao Tong University
Wenner-Gren Foundation
CSC Cambridge Overseas Trust
ISSN 1568-2722 ISSN 2730-6984 (electronic)
Interdisciplinary Contributions to Archaeology
ISBN 978-3-031-15534-5 ISBN 978-3-031-15535-2 (eBook)
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-15535-2
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature
Switzerland AG 2022
This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether
the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of
illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and
transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar
or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication
does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant
protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book
are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the
editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any
errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional
claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Cover illustration: Cattle distal metacarpal excavated from the Dinggong site, China. Photo taken by
Minghao Lin on 22nd September, 2013.
This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface
In recent years, the topic of how ancient societies were connected across Eurasia
prior to the “Silk Road” era has become a topic interest among both academics and
the lay public. Meanwhile, people are also curious about the emergence and devel-
opment of Chinese early civilisations. In this sense, this book, built upon my PhD
research, can be regarded as a response to such accumulated enthusiasm. On the one
hand, it not only explores the early history of cattle traction in North China but also
tries to explain it within the trans-Eurasian network. On the other hand, this book
also attempts to investigate how the use of draught cattle contributed to the making
of Chinese early civilisations. Both are important topics that have not been well
explored before.
This book begins with a systematic review of the evidence for cattle traction
from diverse lines of knowledge, such as historical texts, oracle bone inscriptions,
pictures and paintings, and excavated artefacts and traces. This book introduces
newly gathered evidence from cattle bones that span the critical periods when trac-
tion is thought to appear. According to the theory behind bone biomechanics and
Wolff’s Law, long-term stresses (such as traction) would lead to morphologically
recognisable changes in cattle bones. Therefore, the methods of pathological index-
refined (PIr) and morphometrics are developed from controlled samples, and then
applied to Chinese archaeological assemblages from the Late Neolithic and Bronze
Age (Erlitou, Shang and Western Zhou). By examining cattle traction from bone
pathologies, this book reveals valuable information on the origins of cattle traction
in China. It also discusses how the innovation of cattle traction in North China fits
into broader trans-Eurasian development in animal exploitation for secondary prod-
ucts, and development of complex society and food production systems.
This book has benefited from advice and suggestions that I received over the past
years from a great number of colleagues and friends including, but not limited to,
Graeme Barker, Martin Jones, Preston Miracle, Jianjun Mei, Richard Thomas,
Rosie Luff, Fengshi Luan, Hui Fang, Haskel Greenfield, Laszlo Bartosiewicz,
Umberto Albarella, Louise Martin, Niels Johannsen, Anne Underhill, Jessica
Rawson, Guiyun Jin, Yanbo Song, Qiang Wang, Fen Wang, Benheng Shi, Xuexiang
Chen, Charly French, Xinyi Liu, Yijie Zhuang, Emma Lightfoot, Diane Lister, John
v
vi Preface
Moffett, Charles Aylmer, Jane Gaastra, Suzie Pilaar Birch, Ros Wallduck, Pia Spry-
Marques, Tina Greenfield, Chris Stimpson, Ryan Rabett, Wim Van Neer, Bea De
Cupere, Kristian Gregersen, Zhanyang Li, Hong Xu, Haitao Zhao, Xiping Hui,
Huiqi Cao, Xiaolin Ma, Songmei Hu, Xingshan Lei, Yaopeng Qian, Zhen Wang,
and the late Tony Legge and Anne Pike-Tay.
Shanghai, China Minghao Lin
March 2022
Contents
1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Cattle and Traction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.1 Cattle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
1.1.2 Traction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
1.1.3 The Wider Context of Cattle Traction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
1.2 Research History of Cattle Traction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.2.1 The West. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
1.2.2 China: A Brief Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
1.3 Project Design: Materials, Regions and Periods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.3.1 T he Role of Cattle Bones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
1.3.2 Study Regions and Periods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
1.4 Outline of the Book . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
2 Cattle Traction in China: What We Know . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
2.2 Framework of Chinese Archaeological Cultures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.3 Known Scholarship for Chinese Cattle Traction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27
2.3.1 Historical Textual Documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.3.2 O racle Bone and Bronze Inscriptions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
2.3.3 W all Pictures and Historical Paintings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
2.3.4 Excavated Artefacts and Traces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
2.4 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 44
2.5 Conclusions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
2.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
vii
viii Contents
3 Identifying Traction in Cattle Bones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
3.2 Bone Biology and Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3.2.1 Functions of Bone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3.2.2 Bone Elements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
3.2.3 Bone Types . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.2.4 Development of Bone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
3.2.5 Biomechanics of Bone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
3.2.6 W olff’s Law and the Basic Multicellular Unit (BMU) . . . . 60
3.2.7 Special Properties of Bone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
3.2.8 F atigue Failure and Stress Fractures in Bone. . . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.2.9 H uman as a Case: Bone Remodelling
and Physical Strain . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
3.3 Identifying Traction in Cattle Bones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
3.3.1 Cattle Bone Remodelling Under Traction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
3.3.2 C attle Bone Deformations and Pathologies
Under Traction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
3.3.3 Skeletal Parts Under Traction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
3.4 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
4 Project Methods: Analyses of Controlled Samples
for Cattle Traction Interpretation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
4.2 The Methods of Pathological Index (PI), Pathological
Index-Refined (PIr), and Morphometrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
4.2.1 The PI and PIr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
4.2.2 Morphometrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
4.2.3 E valuations of the PI, PIr, and Morphometrics . . . . . . . . . . 75
4.3 Controlled Materials . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
4.3.1 Traction Cattle Samples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 77
4.3.2 N on-traction Cattle Samples: Modern and Palaeolithic
Groups . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
4.3.3 E thnographic Evaluations of European and Chinese
Samples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
4.4 Results for the PI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4.4.1 N on-traction Models: Modern Chinese and Romanian
Meat Cattle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
4.4.2 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
4.4.3 N on-traction Models: Modern Meat Cattle
and Palaeolithic Aurochs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
4.4.4 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
4.4.5 C omparative Models of Traction and Non-traction
Cattle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
4.4.6 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Contents ix
4.5 Results for the PIr . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
4.5.1 Non-traction Models: Modern Chinese
and Romanian Meat Cattle. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
4.5.2 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
4.5.3 N on-traction Models: Modern Meat Cattle
and Palaeolithic Aurochs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
4.5.4 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
4.5.5 C omparative Models of Traction and Non-traction
Cattle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
4.5.6 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
4.6 Results for the Morphometrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
4.6.1 S catterplots for Cattle Group Separation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
4.6.2 Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
4.7 Overall Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
4.8 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 120
5 Application of the PIr Method to Chinese Archaeological
Samples for Cattle Traction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
5.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
5.2 Archaeological Sites for the PIr Method . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
5.2.1 Erlitou Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124
5.2.2 Daxinzhuang Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
5.2.3 Dinggong Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
5.3 The PIr Models of Chinese Late Neolithic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
5.3.1 Cattle Bone Samples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
5.3.2 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
5.3.3 Discussion: Chinese Late Neolithic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 130
5.4 The PIr Models of Chinese Bronze Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
5.4.1 Cattle Bone Samples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
5.4.2 Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
5.4.3 Discussion: Chinese Bronze Age . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
5.5 Overall Discussion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 148
5.6 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 150
6 Application of the Morphometric Method to Chinese
Archaeological Samples for Cattle Traction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
6.1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
6.2 Archaeological Sites for the Morphometrics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
6.2.1 Yanshishangcheng Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
6.2.2 Zhougongmiao Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 155
6.2.3 Zaoshugounao Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 156
6.2.4 Lijiayao Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
6.2.5 Guanzhuang Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 157
6.2.6 Donglongshan Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 158
6.2.7 Anban Site . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
