Living Together, Living Apart: Residential Structures in Late Bronze Age Shirenzigou, Xinjiang

Meng Ren, Lixun Chen, Tongyuan Xi, Yue You, Duo Tian, Jianxin Wang (), Marcella Festa () and Jian Ma ()
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Meng Ren: School of Cultural Heritage, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China
Lixun Chen: School of Cultural Heritage, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China
Tongyuan Xi: School of Cultural Heritage, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China
Yue You: School of History, Capital Normal University, Beijing 100089, China
Duo Tian: School of Cultural Heritage, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China
Jianxin Wang: School of Cultural Heritage, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China
Marcella Festa: School of Cultural Heritage, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China
Jian Ma: School of Cultural Heritage, Northwest University, Xi’an 710127, China

Land, 2024, vol. 13, issue 5, 1-21

Abstract: The spatial organization within ancient settlements offers valuable insights into the evolution of social complexity. This paper examines spatially and chronologically contextualized architectural structures and artifacts uncovered at the Late Bronze Age Shirenzigou site to explore the relationship between the use of space and underlying social dynamics in the Eastern Tianshan Mountains of Xinjiang (China). Central to our findings is a distinctive centripetal compound structure, consisting of a larger non-domestic building surrounded by smaller dwellings. This arrangement, along with the variety and distribution of the artifacts, reveals a complex interplay between private and communal spaces at the site, reflecting a growing complexity within the social fabric of the community. The formation of conglomerates of houses around a central communal structure which occurs across the Tianshan Mountains appears to be a strategic adaptation in response to environmental challenges and socio-political transformations across this region at the end of the second millennium BCE.

Keywords: Shirenzigou; spatial organization; social complexity; Eastern Tianshan Mountains; Late Bronze Age (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q15 Q2 Q24 Q28 Q5 R14 R52 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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