The Majiayao to Qijia transition: exploring the intersection of technological and social continuity and change

The transition between the Majiayao (5300–4000 BP) and Qijia (4200–3500 “cultures” in what is now northwestern China’s Gansu Province has typically been defined by major technological changes pottery forms, subsistence practices, site locations. These are thought to have driven a combination of climate change induced cooling drying as well human migration into region from areas further east. Based on our review literature topic, recent fieldwork northern Tao River Valley, we suggest that picture significantly more complex, with some new technologies slowly being experimented with, adopted, or rejected, while many other aspects production social organization persisted over hundreds years. We hypothesize these reflect active agency inhabitants southern during fifth fourth millennia BP balancing long-standing cultural traditions influxes technologies. Unlike societies regions at this time, however, increasing specialization does not appear resulted growing inequality, but archaeological material instead reflects increasingly complex heterarchical organization.