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

流动的牧民和久坐的农民之间的互动长期以来一直是东北青铜时代中国(公元前2000-600年)社会和政治复杂性的讨论框架。后来，史料记载了中亚牧民和中国北部定居的农民之间的动态互动对中国王朝治国的至关重要。早在几千年前，中国北部的有利地理位置就建立了完全久坐的农业生活，并促进了相当大的人口增长。有人提出，为了应对青铜时代日益恶化的气候条件带来的压力，这个农业基地出现了一种以放牧绵羊、山羊、牛和马为基础的更具流动性的生活方式。从这个角度来看，流动牧群是在与定居农民密切相互依存的关系中发展起来的一种维持生计的专业化。然而，关于流动牧群出现的实际考古证据非常少，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。在罗伯特·D·德雷南博士的指导下，詹姆斯·威廉姆斯将在彰武地区进行一项区域聚落研究，该地区是一个农业生产区，毗邻科尔沁沙地的一部分。这些沙地提供了一种水分和土壤制度，在青铜时代本可以鼓励发展大片草原，这些草原本来可以被专门的流动牧民非常有效地开发，与南方的农民建立互补的经济关系。185平方公里的考古实地调查将横跨生产性农田和科尔沁沙地之间的边界，以提供青铜时代生存和居住模式在这一生态分水岭两侧的视角。这项研究将把对石器使用磨损的分析提高到一个新的水平，以重建古代生存活动的区域模式。该项目还将产生除其实质性研究问题之外的更广泛的影响。作为论文研究，它将为威廉姆斯先生提供必要的培训。实地考察也将为匹兹堡大学、吉林大学和其他地方的学生提供一个机会，获得区域聚落调查的实践现场经验。分析石材工具的使用磨损将培训学生使用这一重要的实验室方法。研究结果将在同行评议的出版物中传播，完整的数据集将在网上公开提供。这项研究将在匹兹堡大学、辽宁考古研究所和吉林大学之间现有合作的基础上进行并加强。它将配合彰武县博物馆记录该地区文化遗产的努力，并提高当地公众对当地遗产的欣赏以及考古遗迹科学调查的性质和价值。

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.