| Summary: | The thesis is a study of the subsistence of the Pearl River Estuary (abbreviated as PRE)
area in the southernmost Mainland China during the Neolithic (6,000-3,500 BP).
Despite poor preservation of organic subsistence material in this (sub) tropical and
coastal area, important Neolithic sites, artifacts and faunal remains have been unearthed in
recent years. Some new methods such as isotopic analysis have been employed. To make good
use of the data and make up for the geographic disadvantage in preservation, it is attempted in
this thesis to summarize and interpret available archaeological material, coupled with site
catchment analysis, to address the subsistence.
First, the subsistence of the Early Neolithic of Lingnan is discussed, and used as a
fore-scene to suggest the PRE subsistence appearing later in the Middle Neolithic. Second,
ecofact, artifact and site data of the PRE (Middle/Late Neolithic) are synthesized, serving as a
solid but limited factual foundation for assessing the subsistence. Finally, site catchment
analysis is used to enhance or mutually verify with the empirical material, or to provide new
lines of reference. Ecological data are integrated wherever possible.
The conclusion is that the Neolithic subsistence of the PRE would have been generally
foraging based, particularly fishing and mollusk collecting. However, farming would have
been playing more and more important role, especially during the Late Phase of the Late
Neolithic (4,300-3,500 BP), with probable economic and political interactions with rice
farming cultures, increase of sedentism, exchange and population, and of social competition
with other groups in South China.
The PRE case tends to confirm to the understanding that even though farming skill was
mastered, if foraging resources were rich and handy, foraging would have prevailed and
farming might have been maintained to the minimum just as a supplement. === Arts, Faculty of === Anthropology, Department of === Graduate
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