Investigating Social, Economic, and Political Organization of the Liangchengzhen Polity, Southeastern Shandong, China

美国国家科学基金会考古项目高风险探索性研究竞赛将允许中国山东大学的Anne Underhill博士（Field Museum）和她的同事在山东省东南部日照地区测试3-5个潜在的挖掘地点。通过十多年来系统的区域调查，昂德希尔博士和她的中美团队定位了龙山时期（公元前2600-1900年）的数百个定居点。他们根据定居点的大小确定了一个明确的等级，并假设梁城镇遗址是一个区域中心。梁城镇的面积超过100公顷，长期以来以制作精美的陶器和玉器而闻名。在被认为是梁城镇政治中心附属的较小定居点发现了主要是实用的陶器和石器。考古队从1999年到2001年在梁城镇进行挖掘。然而，目前尚不清楚的是，居住在区域中心的人们与居住在较小的、偏远社区的人们之间的互动的性质。通过挖掘与凉城镇同时代的一个较小的定居点，该团队旨在调查史前晚期凉城镇政体的社会、经济、政治和仪式关系的本质。该团队将评估有关城市主义出现的假设，梁城镇精英小规模定居点的经济控制性质（通过工艺生产和交换等手段），以及该地区社会整合的公共仪式等机制。要实现这一目标，需要在较小的定居点对龙山埋藏的沉积物进行广泛的测试。该小组将与当地专家合作，对暴露的剖面进行探测和评估，以确定龙山时期早期和中期的埋藏居民区，如凉城镇。最终挖掘的理想地点将有房屋和居住废墟的证据（陶器和石器的生产和消费，大米和其他谷物，驯养的动物，以及仪式遗迹，如含有发酵饮料残留物的异常大的坑）。由于要测试的地点是该小组十年前发现的，因此另一项任务将是评估现代农业和其他活动对埋藏沉积物的影响。实地考察季还将初步研究资源分布（如粘土）以及龙山时期和之后区域景观的变化。这个由美国国家科学基金会资助的项目将使最长的中外合作田野调查、培训和出版项目之一得以延续。短期测试阶段将为来自美国和山东大学的考古学学生提供机会。有机会对候选地点的沉积物进行充分评估，以确定它们是否有可能产生用于测试定居点之间相互作用性质的各种人工制品，这对未来发掘的成功至关重要。作为世界上最早文明的发源地之一，中国很少有区域性项目涉及对聚落之间可能的等级和水平关系的研究，以及在第一个有文字的王朝建立之前，政治是如何发展的。

The NSF Archaeology Program High Risk Exploratory Research competition will permit Dr. Anne Underhill (Field Museum) and her colleagues at Shandong University, China, to test 3-5 potential sites in the Rizhao area of southeastern Shandong province for excavation. Through their systematic, regional survey for over a decade, Dr. Underhill and her Sino-American team located hundreds of settlements from the Longshan period, c. 2600-1900 B.C.. They identified a clear hierarchy with respect to the size of settlements and hypothesized that the site of Liangchengzhen, long known for its finely made pottery vessels and jade objects in an area over 100 hectares in size, was a regional center. Mainly utilitarian pottery vessels and stone tools were found at the smaller settlements judged to be subsidiary to the political center at Liangchengzhen. The team then excavated at Liangchengzhen from 1999-2001. What remains unclear however is the nature of the interactions between people living in the regional center and those in the smaller, outlying communities. By excavating a smaller settlement contemporary to and located near Liangchengzhen, the team aims to investigate the nature of social, economic, political, and ritual relations in the late prehistoric, Liangchengzhen polity. The team will evaluate hypotheses about the emergence of urbanism, the nature of economic control (by means such as craft production and exchange) of smaller settlements by elites at Liangchengzhen, and mechanisms such as public rituals involving veneration of ancestors for social integration in the region. Achieving this goal will require extensive testing of the buried Longshan deposits at the smaller settlement sites. The team will work with local experts in probing and assessment of exposed profiles to identify buried residential areas dating to the Early and Middle phases of the Longshan period as at Liangchengzhen. The ideal site to be chosen for eventual excavation will have evidence for houses and residential debris (production and consumption of pottery and stone objects, rice and other grains, domesticated animals, and ritual remains such as unusually large pits containing pots with residues for fermented beverages). Since the sites to be tested were discovered by the team a decade ago, another task will be to assess the impact of modern farming and other activities on the buried deposits. The field season also will be devoted to an initial study of resource distribution (such as clays) and changes to the regional landscape during and after the Longshan period. This NSF funded project will enable the continuation of one of the longest Sino-foreign collaborative fieldwork, training, and publication programs. The short testing phase will provide opportunities for archaeology students from the United States and Shandong University. The opportunity to adequately assess the deposits at the candidate sites for their potential to yield the kinds of artifacts necessary to test the nature of interactions between settlements is essential for the success of the future excavation. Few regional projects in China, home to one of the world's earliest civilizations, have involved studies of the range of possible hierarchical and horizontal relations between settlements and how polities developed prior to the establishment of the first literate dynasties.