Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: A Geochemical Perspective On Productive Differentiation

博士论文改进补助金：生产力分化的地球化学视角

• 批准号: 1444978
• 负责人: Robert Drennan
• 金额: $ 2.52万
• 依托单位: University of Pittsburgh
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2014
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2014-08-01 至 2016-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1444978&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Doctoral; Dissertation; Improvement; Grant; Geochemical

Researchers seek understanding of the processes that led to the very complex, large-scale societies in which most of the world's population now lives, and of the factors that bound their members together and fostered continued development. Such societies began to emerge separately in many parts of the world, providing an opportunity to investigate what underlying factors these early complex societies share, as well as how different contexts shaped them in varying ways. Archaeology is uniquely able to study the origins of complex societies because their beginnings occurred far back in time - well beyond the reach of written history. Since all human societies must provide their members with at least the basic necessities of life, economic organization is one of the keys to understanding why development flourished in some early complex societies and just how their trajectories took the courses that they did. Research focuses how some human groups initially built enough trust among different local groups that they could rely upon each other to produce goods that all families needed for their survival. This project will contribute to this effort by reconstructing the economics of one set of villages as they underwent such a transformation some 6,000 years ago. In the process it will further researchers' ability to put advanced analytical techniques in geochemistry to work in the effort to reconstruct ancient human relations better. It will provide training in these techniques to archaeology students, and it will foster deeper appreciation of anthropological research questions on the part of specialists in applying physical and chemical techniques to archaeological materials. This project will serve to further the scientific education of Mr. Tao Li, a doctoral candidate and provide the data necessary for his to produce a dissertation thesis. It will also serve to strengthen institutional ties between the University of Pittsburgh and the University of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.Ancient pottery has always been a particularly important material to archaeologists because it was widely used, it breaks easily, and its fragments, once discarded, are preserved almost indefinitely. It is usually the most abundant material archaeologists recover from ancient complex societies. This project will use pottery as a window into ancient economic organization. By identifying the chemical fingerprints of different sources of clay for pottery making, the researchers will trace out the networks of distribution that brought pottery made at different places to the families of three Hongshan villages in northeastern China between about 4500 and 3000 BC. It will determine how complex these networks were, how extensive was the economic interdependence involved, and whether pottery production and distribution had important connections to emerging leadership roles and the first regional political integration.

研究人员寻求了解导致世界上大多数人口现在生活的非常复杂的大规模社会的过程，以及将其成员联系在一起并促进持续发展的因素。这样的社会开始在世界上许多地方单独出现，这为研究这些早期复杂社会共有的潜在因素以及不同的环境如何以不同的方式塑造它们提供了机会。考古学在研究复杂社会的起源方面具有独特的能力，因为它们的起源要追溯到很久以前——远远超出了有文字记载的历史范围。由于所有人类社会都必须至少为其成员提供基本的生活必需品，经济组织是理解为什么在一些早期复杂社会中发展繁荣以及它们的轨迹是如何走上这条道路的关键之一。研究的重点是一些人类群体最初如何在不同的地方群体之间建立足够的信任，使他们能够相互依赖，生产所有家庭生存所需的商品。该项目将通过重建大约6000年前经历这种转变的一组村庄的经济，为这一努力做出贡献。在这个过程中，它将进一步提高研究人员的能力，将先进的地球化学分析技术用于更好地重建古代人类关系。它将向考古学学生提供这些技术方面的培训，并将培养专家在将物理和化学技术应用于考古材料方面对人类学研究问题有更深的了解。本项目将进一步加强博士研究生李涛先生的科学教育，并为其撰写博士论文提供必要的数据。它还将有助于加强匹兹堡大学和中国科学院大学之间的机构联系。古代陶器对考古学家来说一直是一种特别重要的材料，因为它被广泛使用，容易破碎，而且它的碎片一旦被丢弃，几乎可以无限期地保存下来。它通常是考古学家从古代复杂社会中发现的最丰富的材料。该项目将利用陶器作为了解古代经济组织的窗口。通过鉴定制陶用粘土的不同来源的化学指纹，研究人员将追踪出在大约公元前4500年至3000年之间，将不同地方制作的陶器带到中国东北部三个红山村庄的家庭的分销网络。它将决定这些网络有多复杂，经济相互依存有多广泛，以及陶器的生产和分销是否与新兴的领导角色和第一次区域政治整合有重要联系。