Mapping spatiotemporal variations of Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements in the Gansu-Qinghai region, China: Scale grade, chronological development, and social organization
Mapping spatiotemporal variations of Neolithic and Bronze Age settlements in the Gansu-Qinghai region, China: Scale grade, chronological development, and social organization
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DOI：
10.1016/j.jas.2021.105357
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发表时间：
2021-05
影响因子：
2.8
通讯作者：
Ye Li;P. Lu;Longjiang Mao;Panpan Chen;Lijie Yan;Lanbo Guo
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Ye Li;P. Lu;Longjiang Mao;Panpan Chen;Lijie Yan;Lanbo Guo
中国甘肃和青海地区由于其重要的地理位置和独特的环境，见证了中华文明的产生和发展。这个以前被忽视的地区最近引起了人们的注意。现有研究的主要目的是将聚落的时空分布与环境变化联系起来。然而，他们普遍没有考虑社会组织的演变及其对史前聚落时空变化的影响。基于GIS分析方法，对甘青地区史前聚落的时空分布和等级规模进行了分析，重构了其文化传承和社会演化过程。所研究的时间顺序表明，不同的定居点发展模式是伴随而来的，较老时期的大多数定居点在随后的较年轻时期被放弃，表明遗产继承不良。阳韶-马家窑晚期三层区域聚落体系的出现，表明社会组织发生了根本性的变化，这可能与土司社会的兴起有关。这种区域社会分层在齐家时期进一步加剧，出现了四层聚落制度。然而，在青铜时代，聚落系统的复杂性减弱了，这可以从聚落系统等级的降低中看出。干旱和寒冷的气候事件使甘肃和青海地区的人类以游牧为生，他们过去以参与农业活动为生。
Due to its important geographic location and unique environment, the Gansu and Qinghai region in China has been witnessing the emergence and development of Chinese civilization. This previously neglected region has recently been attracting people's attention. Existing studies have been mainly aiming to relate the spatiotemporal distributions of settlements to environmental changes. However, they generally fail to consider the evolution of social organizations and its role in impacting the spatiotemporal variations of prehistoric settlements. In this paper, we analyzed the spatiotemporal distribution and rank-size of prehistoric settlements in the Gansu-Qinghai region based on GIS analytical methods and reconstructed the process of cultural inheritance and social evolution. The examined chronological periods were demonstrated to be concomitant with different settlement development patterns, and most settlements in an older period were abandoned in the subsequently younger period, indicating poor inheritance. The occurrence of a three-tier regional settlement system during the late Yangshao–Majiayao period indicates fundamental changes in social organization, which is possibly related to the rise of a chiefdom-level society. Such a regional social stratification was intensified during the Qijia period, when a four-tier settlement system emerged. However, the complexity of the settlement system got weakened during the Bronze Age, as is indicated by the lowered hierarchy of the settlement system. The drying and cooling climatic event rendered nomadism the prevalent subsistence among the humans in the Gansu and Qinghai region who used to survive by participating in agricultural activities.