Late Neolithic white wares from southeastern Shandong, China: The tricks to produce a white looking pot with not much kaolin. Results from petrography, XRD and SEM-EDS analyses

• Published in: Journal of archaeological science, reports Vol. 35; p. 102673
• Main Authors: Druc, Isabelle, Underhill, Anne, Wang, Fen, Luan, Fengshi, Lu, Qingyu, Hu, Qitao, Guo, Mingjian, Liu, Yanchang
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.02.2021
• Subjects: Ceramic analysis; China; Neolithic; Petrography; SEM-EDS; White ware; XRD; White ware; Petrography; SEM-EDS; China; Ceramic analysis; XRD; Neolithic
• ISSN: 2352-409X
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jasrep.2020.102673

•Longshan potters used a diversity of paste recipes to produce white earthenware.•Lack of good local kaolin sources prompted alternative production strategies.•White-slip covered non-white bodies as shared practice but clay sources were many.•Production occurred in many units, and was mostly local.•At Liangchengzhen, white gui tripods were sought for household or communal use, not for burials. Although white earthenware from early China has been a subject of interest for quite some time, there has been a need for more research about raw materials, production methods, and possible areas of production. This in-depth study uses petrography, X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy to investigate Neolithic white earthenware vessels from the Rizhao region, in particular from Liangchengzhen and Dantu, two Longshan period sites (ca 2500–1900 BCE), located in southeastern Shandong province, northern China. We analyzed 98 fragments of white ware and 15 comparative clay samples from the vicinity of LCZ and other areas of Shandong. We show that to comply with the demand for white ware due to its social and cultural importance, Longshan potters used a diversity of paste recipes to produce it, even if their region did not have much kaolin. This includes levigation to get better clays and putting white-slip over non-white bodies. Production was mostly local, and we infer that it was not centralized. This work adds to our initial study of grey and black wares (ding tripods and bei cups) from the same region and brings new information on ceramic production during the Longshan period in Shandong at the local and regional levels.