Three Gorges Region Of The Living Environment

On the basis of theoretical model of the Human Settlements Sciences, the dissertation is aimed at investigating the human settlements situation and evolutive process 2200-5000B.P. of the Chongqing Section of the Reservoir Area in Three Gorges Project, by using the archaeological materials, especially focuses on the riverine area of Yangtse River between Zhong-xian and Wu-Shan. Meanwhile, it also discusses theoretically how the Human Settlements studies explain and integrate archaeological materials for an effort to consummate the disciplinary system of Human Settlements Sciences.The Sciences of Human Settlements was originated from the progressively urbanization issues since the industrial revolution in the 18^th Century. It emphasized the use of multidisciplinary approaches in urban study for the sake of creating more suitable settlements for human habitation and of coordinating human and nature. In despite of the Sciences of Human Settlements deals with practical matters of contemporary human settlements and prospects the future construction tendency of human settlements, it still attaches importance to the researches in ancient human settlements. For the concerned results up to the present in China, the researches of ancient human settlements were mainly for those cities with abundant historical documents and excavated fmdings or for the preserved villages of Ming or Qing Dynasty, only a few researches for those early residences only with archaeological materials and barely literatures. In addition to ascertain comprehensively the objective regularity of human resident activities' rise and fall in order to supply experiences to solve the urban-rural contradictions and urbanization problems during modernization process, as references for better human settlements; the dissertation, on the other hand, will also facilitate us to examine the various archaeological material with an integrated viewpoint thereby improve the integrality of knowledge about early residences.According to the published archaeological reports, the dissertation firstly reconstructed and analyzed the early human settlements of the area from Zhong-xian to Wu-Shan in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area, stressed on the two aspects of resident states and subsistent modes:1. To gather extensively the archaeological materials from 132 Pre-Chin Period sites of Zhong-xian, Wan-zhou, Yun-yang, Feng-jie and Wu-shan, analyzed statistically the elements such as quantity, horizontal and vertical distributions, temporal distributions of those sites, and presented the data in the form of diagrams. The settlements development process of the day were divided into four stages, thereof the two increasing periods of Xia-Shang Period and East-Zhou Period were differentiated in increased mode. Bases on the distributive regions and dwelling ruins of those sites, the author reestablished the human resident states of the day.2. To organize the tool findings of productive activities from those sites, such as stone hoe, net plummet, fishhook, arrow and salt-making tools, combined with the results from environmental archaeological researches to consider the subsistent modes of early human in the Three Gorges Reservoir Area.Form the above reconstructive methods we could comprehend basically the human settlement states of the day in the area. However, since a great deal of the archaeological materials are fragmentary and the various levels of sites excavation and investigation, the understanding to early settlement was still limited in a segmental vision. Therefore, applying archaeological materials into the human settlements study, especially into the exploration of the further reasons of human settlements evolvement, needs to acquire more information from the materials to the effect of continuous entirety. The dissertation discussed particularly how to use archaeological materials into human Settlements study: first of all, we must go beyond the limits of traditional ideas of the archaeology in order to gain more information; secondly, we need a multidisciplinary approach, especially the techniques and means of natural science, so that to extract hidden information from archaeological findings; furthermore, we must regard the synchronic and diachronic issues when using the acquired information thus to find out the reasons of adience and variation of human settlements.Based on the information that had extracted richly and the results from multidisciplinary researches, the dissertation gave an example of Maliutuo Site, discussed its early human settlements states, particularly the dynamic mechanism of the evolutionary process of human settlements. The human settlements system of Maliutuo was in a generally stable state during the period of the Neolithic Age to Shang Dynasty, but the stable structure was destroyed in East-Zhou Dynasty by the pressures of internal economic development and population expansion and of far-reaching impact from Chu Culture. The system then adjusted its structure, for instance the metallurgy industry, labor force allocation, settlement movement etc., and reached a new equilibrium finally.Through the investigation of above-mentioned areas and sites, the dissertation not only enhanced the knowledge of early human settlements in the Three Gorges, but also explored methodologically the approaches of applying archaeological materials into the early human settlement study in an effective way.