Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Award: The Role of Material Culture in The Establishment of Centralized Authority

通过这个博士论文改进奖，曾玲怡女士将在耶鲁大学安妮·昂德希尔博士的指导下为她的博士论文收集数据。因此，该项目除了将产生的知识外，还将促进一位有前途和高度胜任的年轻科学家的智力发展和职业道路。这项研究所要解决的中心问题是：包括讲多种语言的多个族裔群体在内的庞大的、地理上广泛的社会实体如何在较长时间内融入有效运作的单位？曾女士选择蒙古帝国作为她的例子，蒙古帝国建立于世纪初，在其鼎盛时期从东欧延伸到中国的太平洋沿岸。她专注于生产集中生产的权力象征，她认为这些象征是精心分配的，以加强被委派官员的权威，并赋予他们地位。通过考古学的方法，我们可以在一个以世纪为单位的时间内研究这一体系的发展和变化，并提供通过简短的时间快照无法获得的洞察力。曾女士将研究蒙古帝国（13 - 14世纪）两种瓷器的生产，消费和分布。她推测，在蒙古帝国建立之初，统治者故意创造这两种瓷器作为新的声望商品，他们控制了新产品的生产和销售。后来，这两种类型的瓷器变得更加普遍，并为追求更高社会地位的帝国中级精英提供。她将采用多种方法，不仅包括在中国景德镇著名的瓷器生产中心进行实地考察，还包括对蒙古帝国其他地区（包括内蒙古和蒙古）出土陶瓷和藏品的SEM-EDS分析。她将研究中央政府和地方代理商使用的不同生产和分配策略，以及它们如何随着时间的推移而变化。还将考虑生产组织和技术选择的原因。

Through this Doctoral Dissertation Improvement award Ms. Lingyi Zeng under the direction of Dr. Anne Underhill of Yale University will collect data for her PhD thesis. Thus the project, in addition to the knowledge it will produce, will further the intellectual development and career path of a promising and highly competent young scientist. The central question which this research addresses is: how do large, geographically extensive social entities, which include multiple ethnic groups speaking many languages, become integrated into effectively functioning units for extended periods of time? Ms. Zeng choses as her example the Mongul empire which was established in the beginning of the 13th century and at its height extended from Eastern Europe to the Pacific coast of China. She focuses on the production of centrally produced symbols of power which, she believes were carefully distributed to reinforce the authority of delegated officials and confer status on them. The archaeological approach adopted permits development and modification of this system to be studied over a time period measured in centuries and provide insight not attainable though a brief snapshot of time.Ms. Zeng will examine the production, consumption, and distribution of two kinds of porcelains in the Mongol Empire (13th-14th centuries). She hypothesizes that at the beginning of the Mongol Empire, the rulers deliberately created these two types of porcelains as new kinds of prestige goods, and they controlled the production and distribution of their new products. Later in time, these two types of porcelains became more common and available to intermediate elites of the empire who were pursuing higher social status. She will employ a variety of approaches including not only fieldwork in the well-known porcelain production center in Jingdezhen, China, but also SEM-EDS analysis of excavated ceramics and collections from other areas of the Mongol Empire, including Inner Mongolia and Mongolia. She will investigate different strategies of production and distribution used by both the central government and local agents, and how they changed over time. The organization of production and the reasons for technological choices will also be considered.