Doctoral Dissertation Research: Craft Specialization and Animal Products at the Late Neolithic Longshan Period Sites of Taosi and Zhoujiazhuang, Shanxi Province, China

在P.Jeffrey Brantingham博士的指导下，Katherine Brunson女士将进行为期七个月的田野调查项目，研究山西陶寺和周家庄新石器时代晚期龙山遗址的动物考古记录，中国。布伦森的研究将探索动物开发策略和动物产品在古代中国的工艺专业化和国家形成过程中发挥关键作用的可能性。与石头、粘土或金属资源不同，动物特别容易受到环境波动和疾病的影响。这引发了一个问题：基于动物产品工艺专业化的复杂性是否比以陶瓷或青铜制造为基础的复杂性更脆弱。通过研究公元前三千年末和公元前二千年初陶寺和周家庄的次级(死前)产品使用和骨骼加工的证据，布伦森女士将研究龙山时期动物产品、工艺专业化、社会复杂性增加、环境变化和社会崩溃之间的关系。这项研究具有重要意义，因为它提供了对环境、生存和其他导致社会复杂性上升的人类行为之间复杂相互作用的洞察。考古学提供了一组独特的数据，使科学家能够研究这一长期展开的过程。龙山时期社会复杂性的增加与动物考古记录的几次变化相吻合。在新石器时代早期和中期，猪和狗是中国本土驯养的主要动物。在新石器时代晚期，羊和牛被引入中国，很可能是通过西亚的贸易路线。猪和狗主要用于肉类，而羊和牛可用于羊毛和牛奶等副产品或用作牵引动物。新的动物资源的可获得性可能为人们在环境压力时期实现畜群管理策略多样化创造了机会。新的动物资源可能也促进了骨骼加工等手工艺的专业工艺生产。布伦森之前在陶寺的研究显示，羊的宰杀模式与羊毛开采模式相匹配，有证据表明牛骨工具的生产，而且在陶寺政治崩溃后，放牧策略发生了重大变化。布伦森将通过创建更精细的年龄和性别特征、对骨制工艺品的生产组织进行详细分析，以及通过分析周家庄等附近遗址的动物群组合，进一步研究这些趋势。她的研究将形成一个重要的比较点，与强调中国古代国家形成中的名品和青铜生产的研究相比。由于许多动物产品是功利性的或自给自足的商品，它们掌握着重要的信息，表明工艺生产是如何以不同的方式组织起来的，以及为什么某些类型的工艺更能抵抗政治、经济或环境的变化，而其他类型的工艺则不那么重要。布伦森女士的工作产生了更广泛的影响，包括促进国际学术交流，为中国动物考古学领域的发展做出贡献。布伦森将在与中国学者现有合作的基础上学习方法，这些方法对她未来在中国的工作将非常重要。她计划在英文和中文期刊上发表她的论文成果，以便让更多的读者了解她的发现。最后，布伦森将把她的数据上传到一个在线开放获取档案中，这样来自世界各地的研究人员就可以访问这些重要网站的动物群数据。

Under the direction of Dr. P. Jeffrey Brantingham, Ms. Katherine Brunson will conduct a seven month fieldwork project to study the zooarchaeological record at the Late Neolithic Longshan period sites of Taosi and Zhoujiazhuang in Shanxi Province, China. Ms. Brunson's research will explore the possibility that animal exploitation strategies and animal products played a key role in the processes of craft specialization and state formation in ancient China. Unlike stone, clay, or metal resources, animals are uniquely vulnerable to environmental fluctuations and disease. This raises the question of whether complexity based on craft specialization in animal products is more fragile that that based on ceramics or bronze manufacturing. By studying evidence for secondary (ante-mortem) product use and bone working during the late third millennium and early second millennium BC at Taosi and Zhoujiazhuang, Ms. Brunson will examine the relationship between animal products, craft specialization, increased social complexity, environmental change, and societal collapse during the Longshan period. The research is significant because it provides insight into the complex interactions between environment, subsistence and other human behaviors which led to the rise of social complexity. Archaeology provides a unique set of data which permits scientists to examine this unfolding process over extended periods of time.Increasing social complexity during the Longshan period coincided with several changes in the zooarchaeological record. During the Early and Middle Neolithic, pigs and dogs were the main indigenous Chinese domesticates. During the Late Neolithic, sheep and cattle were introduced to China, likely through trade routes from West Asia. Whereas pigs and dogs are primarily used for meat, sheep and cattle may be used for secondary products such as wool and milk or as draught animals. The availability of new animal resources may have created opportunities for people to diversify their herd management strategies during times of environmental stress. New animal resources may have also promoted specialized craft production in crafts such as bone working. Ms. Brunson's previous research at Taosi revealed that kill-off patterns for sheep match a wool exploitation pattern, that there is evidence for cattle bone tool production, and that herding strategies changed significantly after political collapse at Taosi. Ms. Brunson will further examine these trends by creating more refined age and sex profiles, conducting a detailed analysis of bone craft production organization, and by analyzing faunal assemblages from nearby sites such as Zhoujiazhuang. Her research will form an important point of comparison with studies that emphasize prestige goods and bronze production in the formation of ancient Chinese states. Because many animal products were utilitarian or subsistence goods, they hold important information for how craft production was organized in different ways and why certain types of crafts are more resistant to political, economic, or environmental changes, while other crafts are less so. The broader impacts of Ms. Brunson's work include facilitating international scholarly exchange and contributing to the developing field of zooarchaeology in China. Ms. Brunson will build upon existing collaborations with Chinese scholars as she learns methods that will be important to her future work in China. She plans to publish her dissertation results in both English and Chinese language journals in order to make her findings available to a wide audience. Finally, Ms. Brunson will upload her data to an online open access archive so that researchers from around the world can have access to the faunal data from these important sites.