Regional Settlement and Economic Organization in Southeastern Shandong, China

在美国国家科学基金会的支持下，安妮·昂德希尔博士和加里·费曼博士将与中国合作者一起在中国山东地区的两城镇遗址进行为期两个季度的考古实地考察。人类学考古学家认为中国是世界上复杂社会发展的主要地区，因此，为了阐明导致文明出现的过程，了解这一地区的史前史非常重要。然而，相对而言，很少有系统的研究，探讨中国个别复杂社会的性质或其随时间变化的痕迹。到目前为止，大多数工作都集中在河南省（夏商文明被认为是在那里兴起的），缺乏必要的广泛的地理范围。昂德希尔博士和费曼的研究将有助于纠正这种情况。在过去的四年里，调查人员实施了一项区域调查，系统地覆盖了300多平方公里，并确定了一个以梁城镇大型新石器时代遗址为中心的至少三层的独特聚落等级。在遗址的第一个测试挖掘季节，意外地发现了似乎是建在围墙内的定居点平台上的房屋，这表明在该中心的职业历史早期，社会地位的差异可能已经存在。NSF支持的研究将大大扩大遗址的挖掘计划，重点是清理房屋及其周围环境，以研究自然。以及住房、生计和饮食、手工艺生产和消费模式的历时变化程度。通过这些资料的收集，可以考察梁城镇政权的经济基础，并将山东新石器时代晚期和青铜时代早期的经济和组织与河南等地区的新兴记录进行比较。通过这种方式，我们应该能够对中国复杂社会的出现和长期文化发展的性质有一个更广泛的了解。

With National Science Foundation support, Drs. Anne Underhill and Gary Feinman together with Chinese collaborators will conduct two seasons archaeological fieldwork at the site of Liangchengzhen located in the Shandong region of China. Anthropological archaeologists regard China as a major area of the world where complex societies developed and thus, to elucidate the processes which lead to the emergence of civilization, it is important to understand the prehistory of this region. However, relatively little systematic research has been conducted that investigates the nature of individual complex societies in China or the traces their change over time. To date, most work has focused on Henan province (where the Xia and Shang civilizations are believed to have arisen) and the necessary broad geographic scope has been lacking. Dr. Underhill and Feinman's research will help to remedy this situation. Over the past four years, the investigators have implemented a regional survey which has systematically covered over 300 sq km and identified a distinct settlement hierarchy of at least three tiers that is centered around the large Neolithic period site of Liangchengzhen. An initial season of test excavation at the site has unexpectedly revealed what appear to be houses built on platforms within the walled settlement and this suggests the possibility that differences in social status may have been in place early in the center's occupational history.The NSF supported research will greatly expand the excavation program at the site with a focus on clearing of houses and their surroundings in order to examine the nature and extent of diachronic variation in housing, subsistence and diet, craft production and patterns of consumption. Through the collection of such data one can examine the economic foundations of the Liangchengzhen polity through time and compare the economy and organization of the late Neolithic and early Bronze Age in Shandong with the emerging record in Henan and other areas. In this way it should be possible to obtain a broader picture of the emergence of complex societies and the nature of long-term cultural development in China.