The Archaeology of a Frontier: The Yangzi Delta in the QIn-Han Period

The Yangtze River delta has been among the wealthiest places on earth for the past millennium, but we know very little about its society during the Qin-Han period, when it was a colonial frontier. When Qin conquered the region in the 220s BCE, it was a culturally alien region to its northern occupiers, but by the time the Han empire collapsed in 220 CE the colonists had erased many aspects of its culture, most notably its language, while retaining those aspects of indigenous agriculture and cuisine that were well suited to the subtropical wetland environment. We can deduce this by comparing evidence from before and after this period, but textual evidence from the Qin-Han period itself is thin and archaeological evidence comes mostly from tombs. This paper will review archaeological material from this period to evaluate available evidence of social change that might elucidate the Han colonization of this region.