Dissertation Research: Staple Economies and Social Integration in Northeast China: Regional Organization in Zhangwu, Liaoning, China

长期以来，流动牧民和定居农民之间的互动一直是关于中国东北青铜时代（公元前2000-600年）社会和政治复杂性的讨论的框架。后来，历史资料记录了中亚游牧民族和中国北方定居农民之间的动态互动对中国王朝治国之道的至关重要。早在几千年前，在中国北方的有利位置就已经建立了完全定居的农业生活，并促进了相当大的人口增长。有人提出，作为对青铜时代日益恶化的气候条件的压力的回应，一种以放牧绵羊、山羊、牛和马为基础的更具流动性的生活方式从这个农业基地出现。从这个角度来看，流动放牧在与定居农民密切相互依赖的关系中发展成为一种生存专业化。然而，关于流动放牧出现的实际考古证据极其稀少，因为以前的考古研究主要集中在农民定居的更有利的地区。在Robert D. drerennan博士的指导下，James Williams将在张武地区进行一项区域聚落研究，该地区毗邻科尔沁沙地的一部分农业生产区。这些沙地呈现出的水分和土壤状况，在青铜器时代鼓励了广阔草原的发展，这些草原可以被专门的流动牧民非常有效地开发，这些牧民与南方的农民建立了互补的经济关系。185平方公里的考古实地调查将跨越生产农田和科尔沁沙地的边界，提供青铜时代生态分水岭两侧的生存和定居模式的观点。该研究将对石器使用磨损的分析提高到一个新的水平，有助于重建古代生存活动的区域格局。该项目还将产生更广泛的影响，超出其实质性的研究问题。作为论文研究，它将为Williams先生提供必要的培训。实地考察也将为来自匹兹堡大学、吉林大学和其他地方的学生提供一个获得区域聚落调查实地实践经验的机会。分析石器工具的使用磨损将训练学生掌握这一重要的实验方法。研究结果将在同行评审的出版物中传播，完整的数据集将在网上公开。这项研究将建立并加强匹兹堡大学、辽宁考古研究所和吉林大学之间的现有合作。它将与彰武县博物馆合作，记录该地区的文化遗产，并提高当地公众对当地遗产和考古遗迹科学调查的性质和价值的认识。

The interaction between mobile herders and sedentary farmers has long framed the discussion of social and political complexity during the Bronze Age in Northeast China (2000-600 BC). For later times, historic sources document the vital importance to dynastic Chinese statecraft of dynamic interactions between the pastoral "nomads" of central Asia and the settled farmers of northern China. Fully sedentary agricultural living had been established thousands of years earlier in favorable locations in northern China and had fostered considerable population growth. It has been proposed that a more mobile way of life founded on herding sheep, goats, cattle, and horses emerged from this agricultural base as a response to stress from deteriorating climatic conditions during the Bronze Age. Mobile herding, in this perspective, developed as a subsistence specialization in a relationship of close interdependence with settled farmers. Actual archaeological evidence of the emergence of mobile herding is, however, extremely scanty because previous archaeological research has concentrated heavily on the more favorable zones settled by farmers.Under the guidance of Dr. Robert D. Drennan, James Williams will carry out a regional settlement study in the Zhangwu region, where an agriculturally productive area adjoins a portion of the Horqin Sandy Lands. These Sandy Lands present a moisture and soil regime that would have encouraged the development of extensive grasslands during the Bronze Age, grasslands that could have been very productively exploited by specialized mobile herders bound into a complementary economic relationship with farmers to the south. Archaeological field survey of 185 sq km will cut across the boundary between the productive farmland and the Horqin Sandy Lands to provide a view of Bronze Age subsistence and settlement patterns on both sides of this ecological divide. The research will bring to a new level the analysis of use wear on stone tools for reconstructing regional patterns of ancient subsistence activities.The project will also have broader impacts beyond its substantive research issues. As dissertation research, it will provide essential training for Mr. Williams. The fieldwork will also be an opportunity for students from the University of Pittsburgh, Jilin University, and elsewhere to gain practical field experience in regional settlement survey. Analysis of use wear on stone tools will train students in this important laboratory approach. Research results will be disseminated in peer-reviewed publications and the complete dataset will be made publicly available online. The research will build upon and strengthen existing collaborations between the University of Pittsburgh, the Liaoning Institute of Archaeology, and Jilin University. It will cooperate with the Zhangwu County Museum's efforts to document the cultural heritage of the region and to enhance the local public's appreciation of local heritage and the nature and value of the scientific investigation of archaeological remains.