The Analysis About Tanshishan Site In Settlement And Environmental Archaeology

Tanshishan site is an i1nportant prehistory and bronze age site that was seated in the areaof the lower reaches of Minjiang River. It I1as been excavated fOr eight times and there is nodoubt that it had four main layers. A lot of basic study has been done but there still aredisputation about what the relationship betWeen the low and the middle layer is and how aboutthe time of each layer. As to researching on the sett1ement pattern or the environment then orinteraction between people and environment, only few scholar did a little.For the reason above, this thesis firstly reanalyze the question about each Iayers' timeand got the conclusion as foIlowed: the time of the low layer was from 5000B.P to 4500B.P,the time of the middIe layer was from 4000B.P to 3300B.P, the time of the upper layer wasfrOm 3300B.P to 2700B.P.Based on this established frame of time, the thesis gave a detailed analysis on theeconomic and settlement pattern of each Iayer, the changes of the environment during the sitewas dwelled and how the development of the society was promoted or restrained byenvironmeni around it.The sea 1evel aIong the FUjian coast was rising when people of the low layer ofTanshiPhan site lived. They made their living mostly by collecting plants, hunting and fishingfor the shellfishes in Minjiang River and they had began to fishing for marine productssometime. They had to move frequently to ensure getting enough fOod so that their settlementpattern was .unsteady. The act in a smalI amount and the tie between them was rather loose .Thedeclining incident of climate in about 4000B.C. might be one of the reasons than result in theinterval between the 1ow and the middle layer.Around 4000B.C., the sea level along Fujian coast achieved its cIimax and began toebbing after then. From 4000B.P to 3300B.P, people of the middIe layer of Tanshishan sitebuilt up planed hamlet and marine shellfish played a marked role in their recipes. The plenty ofnature resource and the situation of residence assured the sca1e extending of the settlement andthe rising of the population .In the later phase of the middle layer, equal of the members inproperty and status was broken. Private ownership and class constrict sprung.From 3300B.C. to 2700B.P, sea water rapid1y ebbed out of the Fuzhou Plain, marineshellfish were no more obtained .The resident of the upper layer of Tanshishan site again putstress on hunting and collecting,but the deteriorated nature couId not affOrd the increasedpopulation. People chose to quit their way of 1if e and merge with people emigrated fromzhejiang and Jiangxi instead of immigranting themse1ves. Innuenced by advanced cultureoutside, the area of Tanshishan also progressed into slavery.