Worked human bones and the rise of urban society in the neolithic Liangzhu culture, East Asia

The Liangzhu culture, which emerged in the mid-Holocene Yangtze Delta, established one of East Asia's earliest cities. At its core site, Liangzhu, numerous worked human bones were unearthed from canal and moat deposits. These remains date from 5000 to 4550 cal BP, with a concentration between 4800 and 4600 cal BP. One notable characteristic of the worked human bones is the high proportion of unfinished items. This suggests that the bones selected for working may not have been particularly rare or symbolically privileged materials. In light of this, it is necessary to consider not only the possibility-commonly seen in global cases of worked human remains-that the bones came from ancestors or close kin, but also the possibility that the working was carried out with different intentions, possibly unrelated to ancestor worship. As the practice persisted for over 200 years, it appears to have been culturally embedded. The sudden appearance of such items-absent in earlier Neolithic China-may be closely related to Liangzhu's urban nature. Population growth and increasing social complexity may have altered interpersonal relationships, reshaping social and cultural views of "others" and the dead. These transformations likely formed the background for the emergence of practices involving the use of human bones as raw materials.

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Journal
Scientific Reports
Published
2025-08-26
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-025-15673-7
Primary Topic
Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00

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article

Worked human bones and the rise of urban society in the neolithic Liangzhu culture, East Asia

Shinji Kubota, Kazuhiro Uzawa, Yong‐Lei Wang, Takashi Nara et al.
Scientific Reports
Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies
article

Worked human bones and the rise of urban society in the neolithic Liangzhu culture, East Asia

Shinji Kubota, Kazuhiro Uzawa, Yong‐Lei Wang, Takashi Nara, Hirofumi Takamuku, Yu Itahashi, Fumiko Saeki, Junmei Sawada, Shinichi Nakamura, Masashi Maruyama, Takashi Gakuhari, Ming‐Hui Chen, Bin Liu, Shu Song, H Kikuchi, Ningyuan Wang, Minoru Yoneda, Yasuo Hagihara, Kenji Okazaki
article en

Abstract

The Liangzhu culture, which emerged in the mid-Holocene Yangtze Delta, established one of East Asia's earliest cities. At its core site, Liangzhu, numerous worked human bones were unearthed from canal and moat deposits. These remains date from 5000 to 4550 cal BP, with a concentration between 4800 and 4600 cal BP. One notable characteristic of the worked human bones is the high proportion of unfinished items. This suggests that the bones selected for working may not have been particularly rare or symbolically privileged materials. In light of this, it is necessary to consider not only the possibility-commonly seen in global cases of worked human remains-that the bones came from ancestors or close kin, but also the possibility that the working was carried out with different intentions, possibly unrelated to ancestor worship. As the practice persisted for over 200 years, it appears to have been culturally embedded. The sudden appearance of such items-absent in earlier Neolithic China-may be closely related to Liangzhu's urban nature. Population growth and increasing social complexity may have altered interpersonal relationships, reshaping social and cultural views of "others" and the dead. These transformations likely formed the background for the emergence of practices involving the use of human bones as raw materials.

Scientific ReportsVol. 15(1)
Kanazawa University (JP), Tokai University (JP), University of East Asia (JP), University of Tsukuba (JP), Kumamoto Health Science University (JP), Tokoha Gakuen University (JP), Royal Anthropological Institute (GB), Jiaxing University (CN), University of Tokyo Hospital (JP), Institute of Archaeology (CN), Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology (CN), Tottori University (JP), Niigata University of Health and Welfare (JP), The University of Tokyo (JP), Lanzhou University (CN), Kumamoto University (JP)
Niigata University of Health and Welfare, Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science
Sustainable cities and communities
Openalex Percentile: Top 76%
Forensic Anthropology and Bioarchaeology Studies
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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