Letting the stones speak: An interdisciplinary survey of stone collection and construction at Liangzhu City, prehistoric Lower Yangtze River

Our interdisciplinary investigation of the stone collection and construction process of Liangzhu City walls offers important evidence to understand the engineering and organization behind the construction. We examined spatial distributions, physical and petrological characteristics of the stones discovered from our excavations of representative wall sections. These results were compared with similar aspects as well as sedimentation contexts and availability of the surveyed stones from the surrounding regions to identify the source areas for the stone collection. We developed criteria based on physical and petrological characteristics and spatial distribution of stones for the identification of construction units and estimated the volume of stones for each unit. We concluded that even though the overall scale of stonework construction was enormous, the actual tasks of stone collection and construction were likely completed by small individual working groups. Liangzhu workers preferred to collect directly available, hand-portable stones from source areas. However, some areas with suitable stone sources were neglected by Liangzhu workers. The total workforce may have followed a central organization, and many groups likely worked simultaneously. Through the repeated efforts of numerous small working groups, Liangzhu society constructed a massive, multicomponent infrastructure. Our study holds implications for wider archaeological research of ancient stone architecture.