Regional Settlement and Economic Organization in Southeastern Shandong, China

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With National Science Foundation support, Drs. Anne Underhill and Gary Feinman together with Chinese collaborators will conduct two seasons archaeological fieldwork at the site of Liangchengzhen located in the Shandong region of China. Anthropological archaeologists regard China as a major area of the world where complex societies developed and thus, to elucidate the processes which lead to the emergence of civilization, it is important to understand the prehistory of this region. However, relatively little systematic research has been conducted that investigates the nature of individual complex societies in China or the traces their change over time. To date, most work has focused on Henan province (where the Xia and Shang civilizations are believed to have arisen) and the necessary broad geographic scope has been lacking. Dr. Underhill and Feinman's research will help to remedy this situation. Over the past four years, the investigators have implemented a regional survey which has systematically covered over 300 sq km and identified a distinct settlement hierarchy of at least three tiers that is centered around the large Neolithic period site of Liangchengzhen. An initial season of test excavation at the site has unexpectedly revealed what appear to be houses built on platforms within the walled settlement and this suggests the possibility that differences in social status may have been in place early in the center's occupational history.The NSF supported research will greatly expand the excavation program at the site with a focus on clearing of houses and their surroundings in order to examine the nature and extent of diachronic variation in housing, subsistence and diet, craft production and patterns of consumption. Through the collection of such data one can examine the economic foundations of the Liangchengzhen polity through time and compare the economy and organization of the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age in Shandong with the emerging record in Henan and other areas. In this way it should be possible to obtain a broader picture of the emergence of complex societies and the nature of long-term cultural development in China.