A Study Of Settlement Sites In The East Tianshan Area From The Bronze Age To The Early Iron Age

Two thousand B.C., in East Tianshan Mountain, in Xinjiang province, group of people managed the agriculture, which they engaged in a certain degree of animal husbandry, hunting and gathering at same time, which belongs to farming-pastoral economic model. During this period, there are many agricultural settlement sites in oasis zone in Hami basin and Barkol lakes region. Around the age of one thousand BC, most of the Eurasia region entered the late Bronze Age and early Iron Age. As the climate change, the economic mode change from farming-pastoral to nomadic economy, nomadic people began to appear. East Tianshan Mountain area as the ancient eastern and western civilization confluence zone, also gradually into the nomadic economy era, nomad and their settlements in the Mountain foothill site. In this period the economic model transformation is brought great change to civilization in this region. At present, the research of in East Tianshan Area during this period on the process of economic model transformation and features historical sites is few. This dissertation will depend on field survey, excavation documents in this region, combine with previous work over the years, to research the settlements development in the East Tianshan Mountain region since two thousands BC.This dissertation is divided into eight chapters. In the first chapter is the introduction part, the author first defined the research scope of space and time, reviewed the previous related research in Tianshan Region, analyzed the deficiency, and put forward the theoretical research methods used in the paper. In chapter2, detailed climate characteristics of the natural environment and the environment since the Holocene climate change in East Tianshan Mountain region. In the third chapter, cultural factors of this region are analyzed from the existing archaeological excavations documents, the survey data. Then according to the archaeological culture characteristics, combined with the chronology analysis results, archaeological sites are divided into five categories. And on the basis of general East Tianshan Mountain area the period from farming-pastoral economic model to nomadic economic model is divided into three stages.Some of the residents settle in Barkol Lake from the East Tianshan Mountain because of climate, population pressure or t the oasis capacity from1800BC to1600BC. In about1200BC the climate is dry and cold again, early nomadic activities began to appear in the East Tianshan Mountain Regions, and continue to the end of the one thousand BC. The fourth chapter is discussed on site selection, grade the form, economic form settlements characteristics in the oasis region and Barkol Lake. The fifth chapter is focus on comparison of site selection, layout features based on function. In north of Tianshan Mountain, there are many large and medium size settlement, small one is few, that show there is the govern centre of an ancient nomadic people in the summer. In the South of the Mountain, there are also large size settlements, but mainly small and medium-sized settlement sites, the site layout is the premise of guarantee people through the depth of winter, is the nomads of the winter camp, and analyzed military defensive sites around large and medium-sized settlements. Chapter6study agricultural settlement sites in one thousand B.C.. This period of agricultural settlement continued the tradition of the early period, features such as distribution, layout, haven’t changed too much which shows the stability of the agricultural economy. In the seventh chapter because of limited of data, only simply discuss grassland nomadic culture in one century. In this period, settlement is few in the site, most of them are graves, which is show at this time of animal husbandry has been fully entered the era of nomadic culture. Chapter8on the basis of the analysis and research in the above chapters, the Bronze Age and Early Iron Age the East Tianshan Region distribution of agricultural and nomadic has carried on the comparative analysis of the historical sites, the deduction from the farming-pastoral economy to the nomadic economy evolution, finally analyzes the changes of the East Tianshan Mountain area gathering pattern and the relationship between climate change since Holocene.