Doctoral Dissertation Research: Emergent Complexity on the Mongolian Steppe: Mobility, Territoriality and the Development of Early Nomadic Polities

在Robert D. drerennan博士的指导下，Jean-Luc Houle将在蒙古中部的哈努伊河谷进行考古定居点研究，以记录该地区最早的复杂社会。长期以来，人们一直认为，蒙古草原上的早期复杂社会（最终形成了成吉思汗那样的庞大帝国）是建立在流动的牧民和大量定居的农民之间的经济相互依赖之上的。最近，这一观点受到了一些人的挑战，这些人认为，在流动的放牧生活方式的背景下，等级社会组织和大规模政治整合的发展潜力要大得多。在蒙古的例子中，争论集中在铁器时代的匈奴（约公元前209年至公元93年），以及这种流动的牧民政体是源于本土的政治进程，还是源于与中国定居的农业国家的相互作用。在蒙古中部，令人印象深刻的青铜时代晚期（公元前2千年中期到公元前1千年中期）的仪式和丧葬纪念碑向一些人表明，匈奴的政治整合源于复杂的地方根源，等级社会，早于与中国大型定居国家的定期互动。然而，对这些纪念碑的解释是有争议的，缺乏与社会地位、政治权威和经济专业化高度相关的直接证据。虽然这些可能高度流动的青铜时代晚期人类的居住遗迹相当短暂，但Houle先生已经开发并实地测试了恢复它们的方法。他的研究将把这种方法应用于两个25公里的区域，以便绘制出人类占领的所有痕迹，估计占领这些区域的人口数量，并评估这些纪念碑反映区域集中的程度。对所定位的一些职业进行地层测试将产生更大的人工制品样本，以及植物和动物遗骸，从而能够评估流动性、生存策略、经济专业化和社会等级的程度。除了为博士候选人提供考古研究的设计、指导和实现方面的培训外，研究的更广泛影响将包括为蒙古和美国的考古学本科生和研究生提供基本的实地经验，他们将协助收集和记录实地数据。蒙古外地的公共宣传是一个持续的非正式过程。在这样一个分散和流动的人口中，很少有机会进行正式的公开讲座和演讲，但与路过的牧民和其他旅行者的访问和交谈是不断的，这提供了进入蒙古中部主要信息网络的途径，通过这个信息网络，对过去科学研究的性质和价值以及保护文化遗产的重要性的解释将向外扩散。在首都乌兰巴托，将对回收的材料进行分析，乌兰巴托大学提供了一个公开讲座和演示的场所。研究完成后，将建立一个网站，向公众公布研究结果。

Under the supervision of Dr. Robert D. Drennan, Jean-Luc Houle will carry out an archaeological settlement study in the Khanuy River Valley of central Mongolia in order to document the earliest complex societies of the region. It has long been thought that early complex societies in the Mongolian steppe (culminating in vast empires such as that of Genghis Khan) were built upon economic interdependence between mobile herding peoples and large populations of settled farmers. More recently this view has been challenged by those who see much more potential for the development of hierarchical social organization and large-scale political integration within the context of a mobile herding way of life.In the Mongolian case this debate centers on the Iron Age Xiongnu (ca. 209 BCE to 93 CE) and whether this polity of mobile herders resulted from indigenous political processes or from interaction with sedentary agricultural states in China. Impressive Late Bronze Age (mid-second to mid-first millennia BCE) ritual and funerary monuments in central Mongolia have suggested to some that Xiongnu political integration grew from local roots in complex, hierarchical societies that predate regular interaction with large sedentary states in China. The interpretation of these monuments is controversial, however, and highly relevant direct evidence of social status, political authority, and economic specialization is lacking. Although the residential remains of these possibly highly mobile Late Bronze Age peoples are quite ephemeral, Mr. Houle has developed and field tested methodologies for recovering them. His research will apply that methodology to two 25 km zones, in order to map out all traces of human occupation, make estimates of the numbers of people occupying these zones, and evaluate the extent to which these monuments reflect regional centralization. Stratigraphic testing of some of the occupations located will produce larger samples of artifacts, as well as floral and faunal remains, enabling assessment of the degree of mobility, of subsistence strategies, of economic specialization, and of social ranking.In addition to providing the doctoral candidate with training in the design, direction, and realization of archaeological research, the broader impacts of the research will include providing fundamental field experience to Mongolian and American undergraduate and graduate archaeology students who will assist during the collection and recording of data in the field. Public outreach in the field in Mongolia is a continuous and informal process. In such a dispersed and mobile population, there are few opportunities for formal public lectures and presentations, but visiting and conversing with herders and other travelers passing through is incessant, and this provides access to the major information network of central Mongolia, through which explanations of the nature and worth of scientific research into the past and of the importance of protecting cultural patrimony will ripple outward. In the capital city, where analysis of the materials recovered will be carried out, Ulaanbaatar University provides a venue for public lectures and presentations. Upon completion of the research, a website will be set up to communicate the results to the general public.