A Study On The Settlement Archaeology In The Coastal Area Of Southeastern Shandong, China From Prehistoric Period To Han Dynasty Supported By GIS

This dissertation focuses on the study of settlement archaeology in the coastal area of southeastern Shandong, China from prehistoric period to Han dynasty supported by GIS. The paper addresses a discussion of the relationship between the selection of settlement and the environmental factors from prehistoric period to Han dynasty firstly in order to explore the impact of environment on the development of human society's settlement selection. A further analysis is conducted using least-cost analysis method supported by GIS to disscuss the possible natural factors as well as social factors that might have affected people's behavior on settlement selection in ancient times. Upon on this the acquision and mobilization of resources during Longshan period is discussed. Finally, a case study of GIS analysis on the Longshan period transition of regional center from Dantu site to Liangchengzhen site is carried out for the purpose of exploring the causes that promoted this transition along with a theoretical discussion on the motive force of the development of social complexities. Besides that, this paper talks about the changes of major settlements'internal layout from late Dawenkou culture to Han dynasty.Settlement archaeology as well as environmental archaeology develops rapidly in today's China. Regional archaeological study has been played an important role during the last 10 years and some scholars are trying to make full use of the survey data together with the excavation data for a long-term understanding of the development of aettlement patterns in their research. Some important issues, such as the development of social complexities in ancient times and the origins of the civilization and early states in China have been discussed a lot. Spatial Analysis weighes heavily in the study of settlement archaeology and K. C. Chang thinks that spatial analysis, cultural ecology and system theory are the three vital somponents of settlement archaeology during his lecture in 1980s. Spatial analysis is one of the most important trends in the development of archaeological studies. Geographic Information System holds a unique position when combined with environmental factors and has a bright future in archaeological study.This dissertation consists of four chapters and the preface introduces the significance of this study, the history and current status of archaeological research supported by GIS, as well as the methods used in this dissertation.Chapter 1 introduces the natural geography and environmental changes since the Holocene Epoch in the coastal area of SE Shandong, China, which is the basis of the whole paper. Firstly the author introduces the environment factors that will be discucussed in the following chapters, including the soil types, geological and topographic features, etc. Then environmental and coastline changes since the Holocene Epoch in the study area are mentioned. Finally reconstruction work of palaeoenvironment conducted by archaeologists and other scholars are summarized.Chapter 2 concentrates on the relationship of settlement pattern changes and human's selection of settlement from Beixin Culture to Han dynasty in this region. This dissertation will pay attention to the internal layout of major settlements when it comes to macro settlement patterns since the survey report has already addressed a lot on the external layout. This chapter is composed of two major parts, and firstly the author introduces the study method and the data sources used in this chapter. The second part discusses the changes of settlement patterns and the selection of settlement from the historical angle which can be divided into two parts--changes of internal layout of settlements from prehistoric period to Han dynasty and the relationship between settlement selection and environmental factors. This dissertation employs both survey and excavation data when discussing the changes of settlement patterns and data from nearby is introduced for the lack of aboundant information in some specific periods.Chapter 3 centers around the study using least-cost analysis and discusses the issues of selection of settlement and acquisition & mobilization of resources. The author firstly introduces the theory and method of least-cost analysis and discusses determination of the factors during least-cost analysis in archaeological study.Upon on this, primary pathways are created with GIS software and overlay analysis of settlements and primary pathways is conducted among different periods in order to explore the natural and social factors that affect human's settlement selection. Further morem, the author starts a brief discussion on the acquisition and mobilization of natural resources in the study area.Chapter 4 concentrates on the case study of Dantu and Liangchengzhen to explore the possible reasons that promote the transition from Dantu to Liangchengzhen during Longshan period. In this chapter the author firstly summizes the previous studies conducted in Dantu and Liangchengzhen respectively since the 1930s, and then discusses the factors that determin Dantu site's settlement settlement during late Dawenkou period. The analysis supported by GIS to exolore the possible reason is the main part of this chapter which can be divided into three parts—the discussion on traffic factors, the suitability for agriculture & estimation of arable lands and the role of rice farming during Longshan period.The last part summarizes the main conclusions of this dissertation, points out the innovation points and problems needed to be solved in future.The innovation points of this dissertation read as follows. Firstly the author employes a new research approach of GIS analysis for the settlement archaeology study in SE Shandong area. On the basis of rethinking the parameter settings and analytical procedure, this dissertation adopts some new parameters to disscuss the relationship between the settlement selection and environment factors. For example, buffer zones of coastline to look into the possible use of marine resources during different periods.Secondly, the adoption of least-cost analysis is the first attempt in chinese archaeology to discuss issues like selection of settlement and resources acquisition & mobilization. According to the different layouts of settlements along the primary pathway at different periods, natural and social factors that might have affected the human's choice of site location are discussed in this paper.Thidly, the author holds the opinion that the major factor that promoted the changes of regional center from Dantu to Liangchenzghen during Longshan period is uneven pressure caused by the rapid growing of polulation and the lack of natural resources because of the development of social complexity from late Dawenkou period to Longshan period. Rice farming plays an important role in this process and the traffic factor is less important than it's regarded.Finally based on the discussion of internal layouts of major settlements from prehistoric period to Han dynasty, the author speculates that social structure changed a lot from late Dawenkou period to Longshan period. The internal layout based on different functions during Dawenkou period had been replaced by a more complex way mainly based on social scale.