Dissertation Research: The Origins of Pottery in China

在普赖斯博士的指导下，王海宁先生将为他的博士论文收集数据。他将在中国的三个地区进行考古研究，并将田野调查与出土陶瓷材料的分析相结合。他将试图了解导致陶器在该地区发展和采用的因素。陶器最早出现在大约1万年前的中国，在许多地区。没有迹象表明它不是本土发明，也不是从其他地方引进的。王先生将在三个生态环境截然不同的地区进行实地考察。他将审查现场报告和回收的材料，以尽可能重建生计做法和社会组织。他将尝试计算人口规模和人口密度。他还将参观现场，确定并记录周围的物理环境。他尤其希望了解该区域居民可利用的潜在资源。最后，他将对出土的陶瓷遗骸进行实验室分析，以确定陶瓷器皿所起的具体功能。他将对附着在碎片上的残留物进行化学分析，以了解个别容器中含有什么。令考古学家感兴趣的是，陶瓷几乎同时出现在旧大陆的许多地方。尽管对实践的了解可能来自一个来源，但陶瓷的出现始终是一个更大的特征复合体之一，包括新的社会组织形式和生存实践。研究人员不知道这些中的哪一个是开发和采用这一构成重大技术进步的特征的最直接责任。王先生精心设计的项目应该会为这个问题提供新的线索。这项研究之所以重要，有几个原因。它将提供许多考古学家感兴趣的数据。它将处理一个具有重大意义的问题，并帮助培训一位有前途的年轻科学家。

Under the direction of Dr. Prudence Rice, Mr. Haining Wang will collect data for his doctoral dissertation. He will conduct archaeological research in three areas of China and combine fieldwork with analysis of excavated ceramic materials. He will attempt to understand the factors which led to the development and adoption of pottery in this region. Pottery first appears in China approximately 10,000 years ago in many regions. There is no suggestion that it is other than an indigenous invention or was introduced from elsewhere. Mr. Wang will study sites in three widely separated regions which are ecologically distinct. He will examine site reports and materials recovered to reconstruct, as far as possible, subsistence practices and social organization. He will attempt to calculate population sizes and population density. He will also visit sites and determine and record the surrounding physical environment. In particular he wishes to understand what potential resources were available to inhabitants of the region. Finally, he will conduct laboratory analysis of excavated ceramic remains to determine the specific functions which ceramic vessels served. He will carry out chemical analysis of residues adhering to shards to learn what individual vessels contained. Archaeologists are intrigued by the fact that ceramics appear in many parts of the Old World at roughly the same time. Although it is possible that knowledge of the practice spread from one source, the appearance of ceramics is always one of a larger complex of traits which include new forms of social organization and subsistence practices. Researchers do not understand which of these are most directly responsible for the development and adoption this trait which constituted a major technological advance. Mr. Wang's carefully designed project should shed new light on this question. This research is important for several reasons. It will provide data of interest to many archaeologists. It will address a question of major significance and assist in the training of a promising young scientist.