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Ii STAPLE ECONOMIES and SOCIAL INTEGRATION in NORTHEAST CHINA: Regional Organization in Zhangwu, Liaoning, China STAPLE ECONOMIES AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION IN NORTHEAST CHINA: Regional Organization in Zhangwu, Liaoning, China by James Thomas Williams B.A., University of Massachusetts, Boston, 2004 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Pittsburgh 2014ii UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences This dissertation was presented by James Thomas Williams It was defended on January 27, 2014 and approved by Bryan K. Hanks, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh Loukas Barton, Assistant Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh Marc Bermann, Associate Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh Kathryn M. Linduff, Professor, History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh Dissertation Advisor: Robert D. Drennan, Distinguished Professor, Department of Anthropology, University of Pittsburgh Ii ii Copyright © by James Thomas Williams 2014 iii STAPLE ECONOMIES AND SOCIAL INTEGRATION IN NORTHEAST CHINA: Regional Organization in Zhangwu, Liaoning, China James Thomas Williams, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2014 The emergence of specialized mobile herding is long been thought to have taken place in Northeast China during the Late Bronze Age (1200 to 600 BCE). It is theorized that the interaction between specialized herders and sedentary farmers was the catalyst for increased social complexity in the region. However, in Northeast China there is little direct settlement and subsistence evidence which appears to indicate the emergence of mobile pastoralism. Therefore theories based on the interaction between herders and farmers remain tenuous. This research is designed to answer two questions. Did reliance on grazing animals and residential mobility increase in some Late Bronze Age communities located in areas where such subsistence strategies would have been attractive alternatives to grain cultivation under warming and drying conditions? Does such a subsistence shift, if documented, show the artifactual evidence and settlement patterning consistent with economic complementarity? This dissertation outlines the changes in settlement patterns of 173 square kilometer region from 4500 BCE to 1200 CE. The Early and Late Bronze Age (2000 to 1200 BCE and 1200 to 600 BCE) is given special attention because this is when this substantial economic change is thought to have taken place. During the Bronze Age locational evidence and use-wear evidence is taken in concert to evaluate the notion of Late Bronze Age specialized mobile iv herders either dominating the landscape or part of a settlement system which includes sedentary farmers. Results from this study call into question the emergence of specialized herders during the Late Bronze Age. Despite environmental conditions that would be conducive to herding economies and a warmer and dryer climate from the Early to Late Bronze Age, this dissertation finds evidence that local communities favored a mixed economy throughout the Bronze Age. The local environmental conditions tempered the degree to which communities carried out certain economic practices. However, economic specialization, which was previously thought to have characterized the region, does not appear to be at all consistent with the evidence. v TABLE OF CONTENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS...........................................................................................................VI LIST OF TABLES.....................................................................................….................…......XI LIST OF FIGURES.................................................................................................................XIII 1.0 INTRODUCTION..................................................................................................................1 1.1 NOMADS FROM THE NORTH...................................................................................2 1.2 EMERGENCE OF SPECIALIZED MOBILE HERDING.........................................4 1.3 THE LATE BRONZE AGE EMERGENCE OF SPECIALIZED HERDING IN NORTHEAST CHINA..........................................................................................................7 1.4 ARCHAEOLOGICAL SETTLEMENT AND SUBSISTENCE EVIDENCE.........10 1.5 ENVIRONMENTS CONDUCIVE TO HERDING AND FARMING.....................12 1.5.1 Environment and the Research Agenda...............................................................14 1.5.2 Zhangwu County.....................................................................................................17 1.6 RESEARCH PLAN.......................................................................................................19 2.0 CHRONOLOGY AND CERAMIC TYPOLOGY.............................................................20 2.1 A NARRATIVE OF CENTRAL AND NORTHEAST CHINA............................22 2.1.1 Neolithic..............................................................................................................22 2.1.2 Bronze Age..........................................................................................................25 2.1.3 Iron Age ….........................................................................................................28 vi 2.1.4 Khitan and Liao..........................................................................................29 2.2 CERAMIC CLASSIFICATION AND TYPOLOGY.................................................32 2.2.1 Hongshan Period Ceramic Typology...............................................................32 2.2.2 Early Bronze Age Ceramic Typology...............................................................35 2.2.3 Late Bronze Age Ceramic Typology................................................................36 2.2.4 Iron Age Ceramic Typology..............................................................................37 2.2.5 Liao Period Ceramic Typology.........................................................................38 2.3 SUMMARY....................................................................................................................39 3.0 RESEARCH AREA AND ENVIRONMENT....................................................................41 3.1 MACRO REGIONAL ENVIRONMENT...................................................................42 3.2 CURRENT ENVIRONMENTS OF THE SURVEY REGION.................................45 3.2.1 The Northern and Southern Areas...................................................................46 3.2.2 Topography and Hydrology..............................................................................48 3.2.3 Current Vegetation Indexes..............................................................................52 3.2.4 Soil Composition and Quality...........................................................................56 3.3 PREHISTORIC CLIMATE AND ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE.......................61 3.3.1 Paleoclimate........................................................................................................61 3.4 COMPARING THE ZHANGWU AND CHIFENG REGIONS...............................63 3.5 ENVIRONMENTAL SUMMARY IN RELATION TO THE RESEARCH AGENDA..............................................................................................................................65 4.0 METHODOLOGY..............................................................................................................66 4.1 FIELD SURVEY METHODS......................................................................................66 4.1.1 Feasibility of Survey Methods for Detecting Evidence of Mobile Societies..67 vii 4.1.2 Field Survey Procedure.....................................................................................69 4.2 METHODS FOR DETERMINING POPULATION AND COMMUNITIES........74 4.2.1 Methodology for Determining Population with Correlates from Sedentary Societies........................................................................................................................74 4.2.2 Local Community and Supra-local Community Delineation........................76 4.2.3 Methodology for Determining Potentially Mobile Population in the Late Bronze Age...................................................................................................................77 4.3 GIS MAP INTERPOLATIONS AND ENVIRONMENTAL VARIABLES...........80 4.3.1 Settlement Maps and Linear Regression.........................................................81 4.3.2 Correlations Between Settlement and Environmental Variables..................88 4.3.3 Absolute Measures of Productivity..................................................................89 4.4 LITHIC ANALYSIS.....................................................................................................93 4.4.1 Use-Wear Methodology.....................................................................................95 4.5 SUMMARY....................................................................................................................99 5.0 SETTLEMENT PATTERNS THROUGH TIME...........................................................101 5.1 PERIOD OF INITIAL OCCUPATION AND HONGSHAN OCCUPATION (4500- 3000 BCE)...........................................................................................................................102 5.1.1 The Potential for Environmental Factors Influencing Settlement Pattering.....................................................................................................................106
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