A Research On The Human Skeletons Of Houtaomuga Site, Daan City, Jilin Province

Houtaomuga site is located on the shore of Xinhuang lake in Yonghe village,Da’an city, Jilin province. The geographical position of this site is in the southern partof Songnen plain and near the intersection of two rⅣers. Between2011and2014, ithas been excavated for four years and seven different periods have been identifiedfrom the early Neolithic Age to the Liao and Jin Dynasties. Based on the significantresearch about the193indⅣiduals found in this site, we can have an in-depthunderstanding of the ancient population in northeast China about their burial customs, lⅣing conditions, communication, the styles of lⅣelihood and so on.Based on the observation about the skeleton materials from different periods,many ways about the cranial morphological characteristics, height, paleopathology,age and sex, and manners of burial were carried out to do a more comprehensⅣephysical anthropology research and know what happened in the ancient populationduring this periods. For better introductions and discussions, all materials were dⅣided into to two ages, the Neolithic age and the Bronze age. The whole dissertation hasfⅣe chapters.Chapter Ⅰ IntroductionThis chapter shows the introduction of the geographic and archaeologicalbackground of Houtaomuga site, the situation of skeletons and burials in differentperiods, the methods and purposes of this research.Chapter Ⅱ The research on the Neolithic human skeletonsThis chapter introduces and discusses the human skeletons one period afteranother. From the traits of cranial and facial morphology, the Neolithic inhabitants inHoutaomuga site belong to Asia mongoloid, especially more like the types of east Asiaand northeast Asia. Through the calculation of peoples’ heights and pathologicalobservation of human bone, we know the situations of these indⅣiduals in height andpathology. After the estimations about sex and age, we find there is an abnormal sexualratio and the average age of death is generally low. Through the observations in fieldwork, there are not fixed burial customs about the orientation, posture and burialgoods. Chapter Ⅲ The research on the human skeletons from the bronze age to earlyiron age in this siteThe comprehensⅣe research focus on the six period which has a large number ofindⅣiduals’ skeletons. After the analysis of data about the sex and age estimation, wefind nearly half of the indⅣiduals are subadults and that makes the estimated lifeexpectancy at birth for this group is low. There is a lack of preferential mortalitypractices by sex between two burial forms. This may indicate that male and femalemembers of this ancient community were equally treated after death. But moresubadults were buried in the vertical pit. The low sex ratio suggests that the maleresidents may take on more dangerous works in this society. The inhabitants from thesixth period in Houtaomuga site belong to Asia mongoloid, and more like the types ofnorthern Asia and northeast Asia. Compared to the other ancient groups about theskulls, we find the residents of this group are the ancient northeast China type. Andancient people which belong to the same culture (the Hanshu Ⅱculture) are the sametype (the ancient northeast China type), which means the people of the ancientnortheast China type are the main part of Hanshu Ⅱ culture groups. Calculated byheight and the observation of paleopathology, we know the situations of these indⅣiduals in height and pathology. And we recognize the people of the sixth period havepoor oral health status and often used their tooth as tools.Chapter Ⅳ Other research about the residents in Houtaomuga siteThrough the synthetical analysis about the height and pathological situation of theresidents in houtaomuga site, we find some interest results. The height of ancient maleresidents in northeast of China only has smaller fluctuations, and from the nationalview, the male residents in different regions have different height value in the Neolithicage, but the height level of each region is consistent. The height of female residentsgoes an apparent decline from the Neolithic age to the Bronze Age. The statistics of theoral disease conditions, we realize most of the residents in this site have teeth enamelhypoplasia, the prevalence of dental calculus increased over time goes on, dental cariesare found since the middle and late period of Neolithic age. The different incidences ofcaries indicate that people in different periods have different economic types.Chapter Ⅴ ConclusionIn the last chapter, I sum up and summarize the content of each chapter.