Doctoral Dissertation Research: Craft Specialization and Animal Products at the Late Neolithic Longshan Period Sites of Taosi and Zhoujiazhuang, Shanxi Province, China

博士论文研究：中国山西省陶寺和周家庄新石器时代晚期龙山时代遗址的工艺专业化和动物产品

• 批准号: 1249600
• 负责人: P Jeffrey Brantingham
• 金额: $ 1.76万
• 依托单位: University of California-Los Angeles
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-02-01 至 2014-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1249600&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Research; Craft; Specialization

Under the direction of Dr. P. Jeffrey Brantingham, Ms. Katherine Brunson will conduct a seven month fieldwork project to study the zooarchaeological record at the Late Neolithic Longshan period sites of Taosi and Zhoujiazhuang in Shanxi Province, China. Ms. Brunson's research will explore the possibility that animal exploitation strategies and animal products played a key role in the processes of craft specialization and state formation in ancient China. Unlike stone, clay, or metal resources, animals are uniquely vulnerable to environmental fluctuations and disease. This raises the question of whether complexity based on craft specialization in animal products is more fragile that that based on ceramics or bronze manufacturing. By studying evidence for secondary (ante-mortem) product use and bone working during the late third millennium and early second millennium BC at Taosi and Zhoujiazhuang, Ms. Brunson will examine the relationship between animal products, craft specialization, increased social complexity, environmental change, and societal collapse during the Longshan period. The research is significant because it provides insight into the complex interactions between environment, subsistence and other human behaviors which led to the rise of social complexity. Archaeology provides a unique set of data which permits scientists to examine this unfolding process over extended periods of time.Increasing social complexity during the Longshan period coincided with several changes in the zooarchaeological record. During the Early and Middle Neolithic, pigs and dogs were the main indigenous Chinese domesticates. During the Late Neolithic, sheep and cattle were introduced to China, likely through trade routes from West Asia. Whereas pigs and dogs are primarily used for meat, sheep and cattle may be used for secondary products such as wool and milk or as draught animals. The availability of new animal resources may have created opportunities for people to diversify their herd management strategies during times of environmental stress. New animal resources may have also promoted specialized craft production in crafts such as bone working. Ms. Brunson's previous research at Taosi revealed that kill-off patterns for sheep match a wool exploitation pattern, that there is evidence for cattle bone tool production, and that herding strategies changed significantly after political collapse at Taosi. Ms. Brunson will further examine these trends by creating more refined age and sex profiles, conducting a detailed analysis of bone craft production organization, and by analyzing faunal assemblages from nearby sites such as Zhoujiazhuang. Her research will form an important point of comparison with studies that emphasize prestige goods and bronze production in the formation of ancient Chinese states. Because many animal products were utilitarian or subsistence goods, they hold important information for how craft production was organized in different ways and why certain types of crafts are more resistant to political, economic, or environmental changes, while other crafts are less so. The broader impacts of Ms. Brunson's work include facilitating international scholarly exchange and contributing to the developing field of zooarchaeology in China. Ms. Brunson will build upon existing collaborations with Chinese scholars as she learns methods that will be important to her future work in China. She plans to publish her dissertation results in both English and Chinese language journals in order to make her findings available to a wide audience. Finally, Ms. Brunson will upload her data to an online open access archive so that researchers from around the world can have access to the faunal data from these important sites.

在P. Jeffrey Brantingham博士的指导下，凯瑟琳·布伦森女士将进行一个为期七个月的实地考察项目，研究中国山西省新石器时代晚期龙山时期陶寺和周家庄遗址的动物考古记录。布伦森女士的研究将探讨动物开发策略和动物产品在中国古代工艺专业化和国家形成过程中发挥关键作用的可能性。与石头、粘土或金属资源不同，动物特别容易受到环境波动和疾病的影响。这就提出了一个问题，即基于动物产品工艺专业化的复杂性是否比基于陶瓷或青铜制造的复杂性更脆弱。通过研究公元前3000年晚期和公元前2000年早期陶寺和周家庄的二次（死前）产品使用和骨骼加工的证据，Brunson女士将研究龙山时期动物产品，工艺专业化，社会复杂性增加，环境变化和社会崩溃之间的关系。这项研究意义重大，因为它提供了对环境、生存和其他人类行为之间复杂相互作用的洞察，这些相互作用导致了社会复杂性的上升。考古学提供了一组独特的数据，使科学家能够在很长一段时间内研究这一演变过程。龙山时期社会复杂性的增加与动物考古学记录中的几个变化相吻合。在新石器时代早期和中期，猪和狗是中国主要的土著驯化动物。在新石器时代晚期，绵羊和牛被引入中国，可能是通过西亚的贸易路线。猪和狗主要用于肉食，而羊和牛可用于生产羊毛和牛奶等次级产品或作为耕畜。新的动物资源的可用性可能为人们在环境压力时期多样化其牛群管理策略创造了机会。新的动物资源也可能促进了骨加工等专门工艺品的生产。布伦森女士之前在陶寺的研究显示，绵羊的放牧模式与羊毛开采模式相匹配，有证据表明牛骨工具的生产，而且在陶寺政治崩溃后，放牧策略发生了重大变化。布伦森女士将通过创建更精确的年龄和性别档案，对骨工艺品生产组织进行详细分析，并分析周家庄等附近遗址的动物群组合，进一步研究这些趋势。她的研究将形成一个重要的比较点，与研究，强调声望商品和青铜生产在中国古代国家的形成。由于许多动物产品是实用或生计商品，它们为手工艺生产如何以不同方式组织以及为什么某些类型的手工艺更能抵抗政治，经济或环境变化而其他手工艺则不那么重要提供了重要信息。布伦森女士的工作的更广泛的影响包括促进国际学术交流和促进中国动物考古学的发展。Brunson女士将在与中国学者现有合作的基础上，学习对她未来在中国工作至关重要的方法。她计划在英文和中文期刊上发表她的论文成果，以便使她的研究成果能够为广大读者所用。最后，布伦森女士将把她的数据上传到一个在线开放获取档案，以便世界各地的研究人员可以访问这些重要地点的动物群数据。