Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Huangtucheng Regional Archaeological Survey

在Stephen Kowalewski博士的指导下，任新宇将对位于淮河中游地区的古城墙城镇黄土城（公元前3000-2000年）进行为期六个月的考古研究。淮河流域是一个富饶的过渡带，也是中国南北的主要地理分界线。然而，淮河地区因其自身的文化发展及其在黄河和长江地区相互作用中的作用而受到较少的考古关注。关于淮河地区国家和文明的起源，我们所知甚少。该项目将提供有关过去人类住区和人工制品的新信息，这些数据将帮助我们了解复杂社会是如何以及何时在中国出现的。关于中国国家形成的大多数观点都是从历史文献中得出的，并且集中在黄河沿岸假定的核心区。然而，最近，研究国家形成的新方法来自核心区以外的研究，来自更早的时期，来自新的考古方法，包括考古地表调查，其中系统地走过给定区域的所有土地，记录每个时期的每个遗址。最近在淮河中部地区的考古发掘发现，包括早在公元前5300年的文字标记和雕像，表明该地区是寻找国家起源的重要场所。本研究将采用新的方法（全覆盖调查、地理信息系统）和新的理论方法来研究不断变化的聚落格局。通过确定聚落的基本变化，本次调查将回答一个基本问题：黄土城是如何以及何时成为一个有城墙的城镇的？它是周围乡村城镇和村庄的中心，还是因为战争，住在城墙外的人很少？或者农村地区的利用是否随着时间的推移而改变？这将是淮河地区首次全面的考古调查。任新宇和她训练有素的调查小组将在黄土城方圆7公里范围内绘制、描述、收集和确定每一个可见的考古遗址的日期。她的项目将为中国中部的年代学和文物分布提供新的数据和见解。这将是第一个描述该地区人类住区悠久历史的研究。它将帮助我们了解文明是如何在不同的环境中产生的。文明和国家在这里的出现是否与更著名的黄河和长江流域一样早？或者淮河是中国北方、南方和沿海之间的边界或边界？还是它的角色随着时间而改变？此外，该项目将为与世界其他重要地区的比较研究提供案例研究。就其更广泛的影响而言，本研究将为中国国家形成的研究带来新的人类学视角。本次实地研究成果将以网站、通讯、科技期刊等多种形式以中英文发布。它将弥合中国考古学研究方法和理论与北美考古学之间的差距，并加强中国考古研究所（河南省文物考古研究所和武汉大学）与美国共同项目主办机构之间的交流。对于不熟悉这些方法的考古学家来说，这个项目将作为最先进的全覆盖和地理信息系统的示范而具有影响力。研究生助理和其他合作的专业考古学家将接受这些方法的培训。更重要的是，它将帮助中国和英国公众更多地了解中国这一重要地区的历史。

Under the supervision of Dr. Stephen Kowalewski, Xinyu Ren will conduct six months of archaeological research centering on an ancient walled town, Huangtucheng (3000-2000 B.C.) in the Middle Huai River region. The Huai River valley is a rich ecotone and it is also a major geographic boundary between northern and southern China. However, the Huai River region receives little archaeological attention for its own cultural development and its role in the interaction between the better-studied Yellow River and Yangtze River regions. Little is known about the origins of state and civilization in the Huai River region. This project will provide new information on past human settlements and artifacts, and these data will help us understand how and when complex societies arose in China.Most ideas about state formation in China have been drawn from historical texts and have been focused on presumed core zones along the Yellow River. Recently, however, new approaches to state formation have come from studies outside core zones, from earlier time periods, and from new archaeological methods, including archaeological surface survey, in which all the land in a given area is walked systematically and every site from every time period is recorded. Recent archaeological excavation findings in the middle Huai River region, including writing marks and statues as early as 5300 B.C., have shown that this area is an important place to search for the origin of the state. This study will use new methods (full-coverage survey, Geographic Information Systems) and new theoretical approaches to study the changing settlement pattern. By identifying the fundamental changes in settlements, this survey will answer one of the basic questions: how and when did Huangtucheng arise as a walled town? Was it a center for surrounding rural towns and villages or did few people, live outside the walls, perhaps because of warfare? Or did the use of the rural area change over time? This proposed study will be the first full-coverage archaeological survey in the Huai River region. Xinyu Ren and her trained survey crew will map, describe, collect and date every visible archaeological site in an area within a 7 km radius of Huangtucheng. Her project will produce new data and insights into chronology and artifact distributions in Central China. This will be the first study to describe the long history of human settlements in this region. It will help us understand how civilization arose in different environments. Did civilization and the state emerge here as early as it did in the more famous Yellow and Yangtze River valleys? Or was the Huai River a periphery or border between North, South and Coastal China? Or did its role change over time? In addition, this project will provide a case study for comparative studies with other important regions in the world. In terms of its broader impact, this research will bring new anthropological perspectives to the study of state formation in China. The results of this field research will be published both in Chinese and English in various forms, including website, newsletter and scientific journal. It will bridge the gap between the research methods and theories in Chinese archaeology and North American archaeology and enhance the communication between Chinese archaeological institutes (Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Wuhan University) and the Co-PI's host institution in the United States. This project will be influential as a demonstration of state-of-the-art full-coverage and GIS for archaeologists who are unfamiliar with these methods. Graduate assistants and other cooperative professional archaeologists will get training in these methods. More important, it will help the Chinese and English public to know more about the history of this important region of China.