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Anne UnderHill博士(野外博物馆)和她在山东大学的同事中国测试山东省东南部日照地区的3-5个潜在遗址进行挖掘。通过十多年系统的区域调查，昂德希尔博士和她的中美团队找到了数百个龙山时期(公元前2600-1900)的聚居地。他们确定了关于聚落规模的明确等级，并假设梁城镇遗址是一个地区性中心。良城镇长期以来一直以面积超过100公顷的精美陶器和玉器而闻名。主要是实用的陶器和石器发现在较小的定居点被判断为附属于政治中心在凉城镇。该小组随后于1999-2001年在凉城镇进行了发掘。然而，目前尚不清楚的是，居住在该地区中心的人们与那些生活在较小的边远社区的人之间的互动性质。通过挖掘与凉城镇当代和邻近的一个较小的聚落，该小组旨在调查史前晚期凉城镇政体中社会、经济、政治和礼仪关系的性质。该团队将评估有关城市化出现的假设、梁城镇精英阶层对较小聚居地的经济控制(如手工艺品生产和交换)的性质，以及该地区涉及祭祀祖先以实现社会融合的公共仪式等机制。要实现这一目标，需要在较小的安置点对埋藏的龙山矿藏进行广泛的测试。该小组将与当地专家合作，对暴露的剖面进行探测和评估，以确定龙山时代早、中期埋藏的居民区，如凉城镇。最终被选择进行挖掘的理想地点将有房屋和居住垃圾的证据(生产和消费陶器和石器、大米和其他谷物、家养动物和仪式遗迹，如异常大的坑，里面装着发酵饮料的残留物)。由于待测试地点是该团队十年前发现的，另一项任务将是评估现代农业和其他活动对埋藏矿藏的影响。田野季节还将致力于初步研究资源分布(如粘土)和龙山时期及之后区域景观的变化。这个由NSF资助的项目将使最长的中外合作实地考察、培训和出版项目之一得以继续。短暂的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。有机会充分评估候选地点的沉积物是否有潜力生产出测试定居点之间相互作用性质所需的各种文物，这对今后的挖掘工作的成功至关重要。中国是世界上最早的文明发源地之一，在这里，很少有地区性项目涉及对聚落之间可能存在的等级和水平关系的范围的研究，以及在第一个有文化的朝代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.