The Yangguanzhai Archaeological Project, China - Institute for Field Research


Location: Xi'an , China

Season: 
June 16, 2019 to July 20, 2019

Application Deadline: 
Friday, April 5, 2019

Deadline Type: 
Rolling

Website: 
http://ifrglobal.org/program/china-yangguanzhai/

Flyer: PDF icon syllabus-china-ygz-2019.pdf

Program Type

Field school

RPA certified

no

Affiliation:

Institute for Field Research, Connecticut College, UCLA, Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, China

Project Director:

Dr. Richard Ehrich, Dr. Zhouyong Sun, Mr. Yang Liping

Project Description

The prehistoric village of Yangguanzhai (YGZ) dates to the Middle to Late Yangshao period (4,000-3,000 BCE), and it is one of the largest of its kind. The site is located in the Jing River Valley, approximately 25 kilometers north of the ancient city of Xi’an in northwest China. YGZ has a moat, a row of cave dwellings, subterranean houses, child urn-burials, and extensive pottery kilns. In the coming 2017 season, the project will plan to continue working in the northeast portion of the site. In order to gain a better understanding of the overall settlement system of the region, we will have lectures and discussions about Neolithic Shaanxi and China, and may also conduct survey work at the nearby Neolithic site of Huiduipo.

Period(s) of Occupation: Neolithic Asia

Project size: 
1-24 participants

Minimum Length of Stay for Volunteers: Participants are required to stay for the full duration of the field school.

Minimum age: 
18

Experience required: 
No prior experience is required to participate in this field school.

Room and Board Arrangements

During the first week of the field school, students will live in a student dormitory at Xibei University in the city of Xi’an. While in the field, students will reside at the Wufulinmen Hotel near the site.

Food is provided Monday to Saturday (breakfast, lunch, and dinner). Students are responsible for their own meals on Sundays. While students are free to obtain their own breakfast and lunch with a daily allowance we provide, all dinners are taken together, since we will use this opportunity to get the whole team together and catch up on the progress of the day. The daily diet in North China is heavily based on rice, noodles, and vegetables. Specialized diets (vegan, kosher, etc.) are difficult to maintain in this location. Vegetarians may find options somewhat limited and should be prepared to be flexible when eating the local food, or should bring supplemental food (e.g. protein bars) if they think it will be necessary.

Cost: 
Room and Board is included in the tuition for the program.

Academic Credit

Name of institution offering credit: 
Connecticut College
Number of credits offered 8 Semester Credits
Tuition: 
$4,325

Location

Contact Information
Institute for Field Research
2999 Overland Ave Suite 103
Los Angeles
CA
USA
90064
info@ifrglobal.org
Telephone: 
424-209-1173
Recommended Bibliography: 

REQUIRED READINGS

K.C. Chang. (1986). The Archaeology of Ancient China (4th edition). New Haven and London: Yale University Press. Chapters 2 “The Early Farmers,” pp. 71-95; Chapter 3 “Regional Neolithic Developments in North China,” pp. 107-123.

Lee, Yun-Kuen (2007). Centripetal Settlement and Segmentary Social Formation of the Banpo Tradition. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 26: 630-675.

 Liu, Li and Xingchan Chen (2012). The Archaeology of China, from the late Paleolithic to the Early Bronze Age. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 1 “Chinese archaeology: past, present, and Future,” pp. 1-21.

Falkenhausen, Lothar von (1995). The Regionalist Paradigm in Chinese Archaeology. In, Nationalism, Politics and the Practice of Archaeology, edited by P. Kohl and C. Fawcett. New York: Cambridge University Press. Pp. 198-216.

Peterson, Christian and Gideon Shelach (2012). Jiangzhai: Social and economic organizations of a Middle Neolithic Chinese village. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 31(2012): 265-301.

Schiffer, Michael B. 1972. Archaeological context and systemic context. American Antiquity 37 (2):156-65.

Shelach, Gideon (1998). A Settlement Pattern Study in Northeast China: Results and Potential Contributions of Western Theory and Methods to Chinese Archaeology. Antiquity 72(275): 114-127.

Underhill, Anne P. (2002) Craft Production and Social Change in Northern China. New York: Kluwer Academic / Plenum Publishers. Chapter 1: Craft production and the development of complex societies in ancient China. Pp. 1-18.

Underhill, Anne P. and Junko Habu (2006). Early Communities in East Asia: Economic and Sociopolitical Organization at the Local and Regional Levels. Archaeology of Asia, edited by M. T. Stark. Malden, MA: Blackwell. Pp.121-148.

Wang Weilin et al. (2009). “Shaanxi Gaoling Yangguanzhai xinshiqishidai yizhi (The Yangguanzhai Neolithic Site at Gaoling County, Shaanxi Province),” Kaogu 2009: 3-9.

Yan Wenming (2000). “Neolithic Settlements in China: Latest Finds and Research.” Journal of East Asian Archaeology 1(1-4): 131-148.

SUPPLEMENTAL READINGS

An, Cheng-Bang, Zhao-Dong Feng, and Loukas Barton (2006). Dry or humid? Mid-Holocene humidity changes in arid and semi-arid China. Quaternary Science Reviews 25(3-4): 351-361.

Chen Zhuhai (1986). Field Investigation of the Prehistoric Methods of Pottery Making in Yunnan. Scientific and Technological Insights on Ancient Chinese Pottery and Porcelain, edited. Shanghai: Shanghai Institute of Ceramics. Pp.27-34.

Crawford, Gary W., Anne P. Underhill, et al. (2005). Late Neolithic Plant Remains from Northern China: Preliminary Results from Liangchengzhen, Shandong. Current Anthropology 46(2): 2005.

Huang Chun Chang (1989). The Loess and Environmental Changes of Holocene in the Weihe River Basin.Geographical Research 8: 20-31.

Falkenhausen, Lothar von (1993). On the Historiographical Orientation of Chinese Archaeology. Antiquity 67:839-849.

Falkenhausen, Lothar von (1999). Su Bingqi (b. 1909). Encyclopedia of Archaeology: The Great Archaeologists, edited by T. Murray. New York: Garland. Pp. 591-600.

Falkenhausen, Lothar von (1999). Xia Nai (1910-1985). Encyclopedia of Archaeology: The Great Archaeologists, edited by T. Murray. New York: Garland. Pp. 601-614.

Fitzgerald-Huber, Louisa G. (1999). The Yangshao Culture: Banpo. The Golden Age of Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China, edited by Yang Xiaoneng. Washington: National Gallery of Art. Pp. 54-77.

Flad, Rowan K., Yuan Jing, and Li Shuicheng (2007). Zooarchaeological Evidence for Animal Domestication in Northwest China. In Late Quaternary Climate Change and Human Adaptation in Arid China, edited by David B. Madsen, Chen FaHu, et al. Amsterdam: Elsevier Press. Pp. 163-199.Flad, Rowan Kimon, Shuicheng Li, Xiaohong Wu, and Zhijun Zhao (2010). Early wheat in China: Results from new studies at Donghuishan in the Hexi Corridor. The Holocene 20(6): 955-965.

Gao Qiang and Yun KuenLee (1993). A Biological Perspective on Yangshao Kinship. Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 12: 266-298.

Li F, Wu N, Lu H, Zhang J, Wang W, et al. (2013) Mid-Neolithic Exploitation of Mollusks in the

Guanzhong Basin of Northwestern China: Preliminary Results. PLoS ONE 8(3): e58999. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0058999

Liu, Li. (2003). "The Products of Minds as Well as of Hands": Production of Prestige Goods in the Neolithic and Early State Periods of China. Asian Perspectives 42(1):1-40.

Liu, Li. (2004). The Chinese Neolithic, Trajectories to Early States. London: Cambridge University Press. Chapter 3: “Household subsistence and ritual,” pp. 33-72; Chapter 4: “Spatial organization and social relations in communities,” pp. 73-113.

Lu, Houyuan, Jianping Zhang, Kam-biu Liu, Naiqin Wu, Yumei Li, Kunshu Zhou, Maolin Ye, Tianyu Zhang, Haijiang Zhang, Xiaoyan Yang, LichengShen, Deke Xu, and Quan Li (2009). Earliest domestication of common millet (Panicummiliaceum) in East Asia extended to 10,000 years ago. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106(18): 7367-7372.

Rosenswig, Robert M. (2009). Ceramic and Daub Discard Patterns from Cuauhtmoc, Soconusco, Mexico Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory, Vol. 16, No. 1(Mar. 2009), pp. 1-32.

Xu Anwu, Wang Changsui, Chi Jinqi, Li Mingchuan, Zhang Maosen, L. Holmes, L. Harbottle, S. Koshimizu, K. Manabu, and K. Koichi (2001). Preliminary Provenance Research on Chinese Neolithic Pottery: Huating (Xinyi County) and three Yellow River sites. Archaeometry 43(1): 35-47.

Yuan Jing and Rowan K. Flad (2002). Pig Domestication in Ancient China. Antiquity 76(293): 724-732.

Zhang Dongju, Chen Fahu, Robert L. Bettinger, Loukas Barton, Ji Duxue, Christopher Morgan, Wang Hui, Cheng Xiaozhong, Dong Guanghui, T. P. Guilderson, and Zhao Hui (2010). Archaeological records of Dadiwan in the past 60 kya and the origin of millet agriculture. Chinese Science Bulletin 55(16): 1636-1642.

Zhang, J., Lu, H., Wu, N., Li, F., Yang, X., Wang, W., Ma, M. & Zhang, X. (2010, July). Phytolith evidence     for rice cultivation and spread in Mid-Late Neolithic archaeological sites in central North    China. Boreas, Vol. 39, pp. 592–602.

Zhao, Hui, Fa-Hu Chen, Sheng-Hua Li, Ann G. Wintle, Yu-Xin Fan, and Dun-Sheng Xia (2007). A Record of Holocene Climate Change in the Guanzhong Basin, China, based on optical dating of a loess-paleosol sequence. Holocene 17(7): 1015-1022.