Dissertation Research: Settlement Organization and Sociopolitical Evolution in China

在Patty Jo Watson博士的指导下，Jimmy Railey先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。他曾与中国考古学家一起对位于中国黄河中游的沅曲盆地南部的考古遗址进行调查和挖掘。该团队发现了一系列涵盖新石器时代和早期青铜时代的定居点，从而记录了该地区复杂分层社会的出现。在国家科学基金会的支持下，莱利先生将继续这项工作。他将参与在盆地的三个地点进行的挖掘工作，并对周围地区进行调查。对他收集的数据进行空间分析将提供关于区域人口和定居模式的长期趋势的信息。它将记录特定社区的规模和内部组织随时间的变化，并阐明陶瓷生产和分销的组织。他将对发现的陶瓷材料进行详细分析，并检查从遗址中发现的植物和动物遗骸。考古学家希望了解复杂社会是如何产生的，因为它们形成了我们今天生活的基本社会结构。为了深入了解所涉及的底层过程，有必要使用比较方法并检查发生此转换的许多单独实例。只有这样，才能把一般趋势同历史的特殊性分开。在这种情况下，中国黄河地区是极其重要的，因为这是世界文明的独立摇篮之一。莱利工作的网站跨越了这一过渡时期。这项研究还将为许多考古学家提供感兴趣的数据，进一步促进美国和中华人民共和国之间的科学合作，并帮助培养一名有前途的年轻科学家。

Watson Under the direction of Dr. Patty Jo Watson, Mr. Jimmy Railey will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. Mr. Railey has worked with Chinese archaeologists in the survey and excavation of archaeological sites in the southern Yuanqu basin, located in the middle Yellow River in China. The team has found a series of settlements which encompass both the Neolithic and early Bronze Age periods and thus document the emergence of complex stratified societies in this region. With National Science Foundation support, Mr. Railey will continue this work. He will participate in on-going excavations at three sites in the Basin and also conduct a survey of the surrounding area. Spatial analyses of the data he collects will provide information on the long-term trends in regional demography and settlement patterns. It will document changes in the size and internal organization of specific communities over time and shed light on the organization of production and distribution of ceramics. He will conduct a detailed analysis of ceramic materials recovered and also examine floral and faunal remains recovered from the sites. Archaeologists wish to understand how complex societies arose since these form the basic social structure within which we live today. To gain insight into the underlying processes involved, it is necessary to utilize a comparative method and examine a number of individual instances in which this transformation took place. Only in this way can general trends be separated from historical particulars. In this context the Yellow River region of China is extremely important because this was one of the independent cradles of world civilization. Mr. Railey works on sites which span this transition. The research will also provide data of interest to many archaeologists, further scientific cooperation between the United States and the Peoples Republic of China and help to train a promising young scientist.