An Archaeological Research On The Settlement System In Sili Area During The Han Peirod

Many attentions were paid on the ancient cities in previous archaeological researchesand field works for a long time. However, the enormous settlement system, comprisedof thousands of cities and other settlements, has been neglected intentionally or not.Therefore, the settlement system in Sili area, which was the core area of Han Empire,is addressed to be the main objects in this study. A crucial aim of this study is also tobuild an effective way to uncover the characteristics and pattern of the settlementsystem during the Han period, for the sake of increasing our knowledge about thecontemporary developments of politic, economy and society.The amount of sites, including cities and non-city settlements during the Han period,were almost1800in Sili area. It is different from most previous studies mainlyfocusing on the layout and structure in a single site. The patterns of spatial distributionand forming reasons of the entire settlement system in sili area and relevant socialorganization are extremely emphasized in this study. Moving the research object fromsingle site to the settlement system, as well, could be a significant contribution of thisstudy. The detailed studies will be addressed in five sub-regions. The regions are setwith the inspiration from the administrative units of Han Empire, including Sanfu areaand four Han commanderies–Hedong, Henan, Henei and Hongnong. In this study, italso tries to explore a new approach to simulate the spatial information of thosepossible missing settlements in the light of the spatial distribution of tombs, in orderto make our reconstruction of the settlement system in Sili more rational.This dissertation consists of six chapters.In chapter one, the historical and archaeological backgrounds, the current situation ofrelated settlements and an overview about relevant previous researches arerespectively introduced. Then, the achievements and existing deficiencies in theprevious researches on the Han settlements, especially ones in Sili area, are reviewed.On this basis, the main thoughts and methods of this study developed are explained.In chapter two, the pre-researches are addressed on the settlements. It consists of threeparts. The first part is a discussion concerning about the chronological issue and other related issues of Han settlements in Sili area. It is mainly based on the informationfrom relevant archaeological records and ancient textual records, and it wouldcontribute to consolidate the basis of this study. In the second part, it sets up thesimulation points (‘S Points’) to simulate the possible missing settlements based onthe spatial distribution of Han tombs in Sili area. Combining ‘S points’ with sites ofcities and non-city settlements, were discovered in previous archaeological filedworks, could improve our reconstruction of Han settlement system in Sili area.Furthermore, more comprehensive and accurate understandings of Han settlementsystem are available. In the third part, the settlement catchments are reconstructed inSili area by considering interacts among all kinds of settlements in Sili, as well as theinfluences from geographical conditions and the human active patterns. The sitecatchment is a general space accommodating the daily activities and catching requiredresources of people who lived in the sites. Rebuilding the site catchment is animportant development in the methodology of archaeological settlement research.In chapter three, the relationships between location of settlements and environmentalfactors have been observed and analyzed. In the study, by the utilizing varyenvironmental databases, the spatial analysis based on the ArcGIS and the methods ofstatistical analysis, it mainly focuses on the influences from topography, soil andhydrology (including elevation, slope, soil type, soil texture, river and flowaccumulation) to the locations of Han settlements in Sili area. According to theseanalyses, the location of settlements, actually, reflected people’s general ideas aboutthe agricultural production and transportation. Moreover, obvious various directionsor levels in the location selection are revealed in the sub-regions. This shows thatthere was a comprehensive plan from the central government of Han Empire. In otherwords, in addition to two influences mentioned above, the political factor was also acrucial influence, even more important, in the location selection of settlements.Besides, the analyses in this chapter provides some valuable clues to further reveal thedifferent distribution patterns between various kinds of settlements (cities andnon-city settlements).In chapter four, the spatial features of settlement system in Sili area were discussed.Based on the rank classification of sites (cities and settlements) and the simulation ofpossible missing sites (S points), the spatial distributions of settlements are detailedanalyzed with supports of ArcGIS respectively in each sub-region. According to this,some relevant social and political issues are discussed as well. It could be revealedthat there are both similarities and differences reflected in the spatial distribution ofsettlement system among these sub-regions. For instance, the areas of intensivesettlement gatherings (or settlement groups) are revealed in almost every sub-region.Although the features and functions of these gatherings shows obvious differences,their establishments shows similar strong attentions to the advantages intransportation and military defense. In addition, the attentions to the agriculturaladvantage are also commonly recognized. However, above all, the establishment ofsettlement system in Sili area, and most probably entire empire, was taken under comprehensive design from the central government of Han Empire, i.e. the politicalinfluence was possibly strongest.In chapter five, the basis of settlement system, the social structures in five sub-regionscould be discussed. Some classical thoughts and approaches of archaeologicalsettlement research are brought into this study, and developed, in order to obtain somenew understandings about social patterns, structures and other relevant problems.Firstly, according to the classification and statistic analysis on the areas of sitecatchments concerning about cities and non-city settlements in each sub-region, thedifferences of farmlands control and production surpluses between cities and non-citysettlements in each sub-region and Sili area. Secondly, the social structures in everysub-region and the whole sili area are discussed with the utilization of rank-size model.Based on this analysis, different levels of social integration and various patterns ofsocial organization are explored among five sub-regions and Sili area.In chapter six, all above studies are comprehensively summarized.