The Spatial Organization And Built Environment Of The Lu State

This thesis has three main objectives:the first is to discuss a recently developed theoretical framework used to investigate ancient cities and the built environment; the second is to provide a comprehensive investigation of the built environment of the capital of the Lu State, one of the many states during the Zhou Dynasty that was located in present-day Shandong Province, China. Although the Lu City, which was the hometown of Confucius, has been extensively studied by archaeologists, especially by archaeologists from the Shandong Archaeological Institute in the late 1970s, little research has been conducted in the hinterland. Therefore, the final objective of this thesis is to present the recent findings from archaeological work that has been conducted in the Lu State hinterland-both near to the city and also further afield. During the 3rd National Archaeological Survey of China, several sections of wall remains and mountain fortifications were discovered south of Laiwu (located around 80km northeast from the Lu City), which were likely built and used by the Lu State. This thesis provides the results from this survey as well as additional results from preliminary surveys completed during the following year.Within the last couple of decades how archaeologists investigate space has greatly changed - not only has the physical means in which to study space significantly changed, the premises about, and approaches to interpreting meaning in spatial analysis have also been an important development in recent archaeological discourse. Along with this development, new conceptions of the defining qualities of urban centers and new methods for researching urban planning and the built environment have also emerged. This thesis discusses Smith's functional approach to defining cities, which is comprised of four integral categories:urban life, urban form, urban function, and urban meaning. Within the category of urban meaning, the reciprocal relationship between social behavior and the built environment is emphasized as well as Amos Rapoport's discussion on architectural communication. This thesis outlines this recently developed theoretical framework and uses the Lu City as an example of how to apply these theories to actual archaeological data. Although some analysis was completed, empirical data from certain aspects of the built environment is still limited. Therefore, this thesis also raises many questions for future investigations of the Lu City, the hinterland and the relationships between the two.