Doctoral Dissertation Improvement Grant: Guan River Valley Regional Full-Coverage Survey

王延禧将在史蒂芬·A·科瓦列夫斯基博士的监督下，在南阳关河中游河谷进行考古调查，中国。这项研究将绘制、描述、收集和测定从至少8000年前到历史时期最早的人类占领时期的文物。灌河流域的地表在冬季的几个月里是稳定的，没有植被，这使得该项目能够找到并确定其历史悠久期间占据的大部分古城、城镇、村庄和临时营地的年代。其目标是重建聚落和人口历史。王女士希望了解中国的农业制度和城乡生活是如何发展的。这对于了解该地区农业、城市化以及土地利用和景观历史的起源和后来的发展具有重要意义。研究区位于种植谷子的北部中国和种植水稻的南部中国的地理过渡地带。考虑到关中流域丰富的文化遗产和在中国历史发展中的地缘政治战略地位，关中流域几乎没有受到考古学的关注。与中国考古上更知名的一些地区相比，灌河及其附近的高原丘陵地区的自然环境更加多样化，这可能在新石器时代生活方式的早期发展--第一批村庄和以驯养动植物为基础的经济发展--方面发挥了重要作用。该项目将使用全覆盖的行人调查作为主要的数据收集方法，以实现研究目标。与挖掘相比，区域调查的成本要低得多，而且更能保护文化遗产，这将有助于记录考古遗址和环境条件，并产生陶瓷、石器和其他类型的文物收藏品。这些信息将用于创建按时间段划分的结算模式图。结合对历史和现代人口、农业和其他土地利用做法的记录，调查将提供衡量史前人口规模的数据，并评估社区、环境和农业经济之间关系的时间变化。这项调查将在适当、长期和广泛的空间尺度上提供必要的信息，以处理人类社会如何应对农业产生的影响，并维持农业系统从起步阶段到更密集和发达阶段。结果将以中英文报告的形式发表，然后以博士论文的形式发布更详细的报告。该项目将向西方观众提供有价值但陌生的中国考古数据。它将弥合中国考古学和北美考古学研究方法和理论之间的差距，加强研究机构之间的交流。更重要的是，它还将帮助中英两国公众了解古代中国的多样性和复杂性以及人类社会的过去。

Under the supervision of Dr. Stephen A. Kowalewski, Yanxi Wang will conduct an archaeological survey in the Middle Guan River valley in Nanyang, China. This study will map, describe, collect and date artifacts from the earliest human occupation, at least 8000 years ago, up to historic time. The ground surface of the Guan River valley is stable and free of vegetation in the winter months, which allows the project to find and date most of the ancient cities, towns, villages, and temporary camps occupied during its long history. The goal is to reconstruct the settlement and population history. Ms. Wang wishes to understand how China's agricultural system and rural and urban life developed. This is relevant for understanding the origins and later development of agriculture, urbanization, and land-use and landscape history in the regionThe study area is situated at the geographical transition of millet-growing North China and rice-growing South China. The Middle Guan River valley has received little archaeological attention, considering its rich cultural heritage and its geopolitically strategic location in the development of Chinese history. In contrast to some of the archaeologically better-known parts of China, with loess plains and broad river valleys, the Guan River and its nearby upland hills has a more diverse natural environment, which probably played an important role especially in the early development of the Neolithic way of life - the first villages and the development of an economy based on domesticated plants and animals. The project will use full-coverage pedestrian survey as the major data collection method to achieve the research goal. Regional survey, which is much less costly and more protective of cultural heritage compared to excavation, will help record archaeological sites and environmental conditions, and produce collections of ceramics, stone tools, and other artifact types. This information will be used to create settlement pattern maps by time period. Combined with documentation of historic and modern population, agriculture, and other land-use practices, the survey will provide data measuring prehistoric population size, and assess the temporal changes in the relationship between community, environment, and agricultural economy. The survey will provide information at the appropriate long-term and broad spatial scale necessary to address how human societies responded to the impacts generated by agriculture and maintained agricultural systems from incipient to more intensive and developed stages. Results will be published as a report in Chinese and English, and then a more detailed report in the form of doctoral dissertation. The project will provide valuable but unfamiliar Chinese archaeological data to Western audiences. It will bridge the gap between the research methods and theories in Chinese archaeology and North American archaeology and enhance communication between research institutions. More importantly, it will also help the Chinese and English public learn about the diversity and complexity of ancient China and the past of human society.