Dissertation Research: Settlement Organization and Sociopolitical Evolution in China

沃森在帕蒂·乔·沃森博士的指导下，吉米·雷利先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。雷利曾与中国考古学家合作，对位于黄河中游的中国境内的垣曲盆地南部的考古遗址进行了调查和发掘。该小组发现了一系列涵盖新石器时代和青铜时代早期的定居点，从而证明了该地区出现了复杂的分层社会。在国家科学基金会的支持下，莱利先生将继续这项工作。他将参与正在进行的盆地三个地点的挖掘工作，并对周围地区进行调查。他收集的数据的空间分析将提供有关区域人口和住区模式的长期趋势的信息。它将记录特定社区随着时间的推移在规模和内部组织方面的变化，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，并检查从遗址发现的花卉和动物遗骸。考古学家希望了解复杂的社会是如何产生的，因为这些社会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基本过程，有必要利用比较方法并检查发生这种转变的一些个别实例。只有这样，才能把总的趋势和历史的具体情况分开。在这种背景下，中国的黄河地区是极其重要的，因为这里是世界文明的独立摇篮之一。雷利的工作地点跨越了这一过渡时期。这项研究还将提供许多考古学家感兴趣的数据，进一步加强美国和中国共和国的科学合作，并有助于培养一位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.