Week 1 (September 3rd): Course Introduction: Lecture and course overview

Week 2 (September 10th): Approaches to Early Mainland Traditions: Civilization, Social Evolution, Craft Production and Settlement Hierarchies

Required Readings

background

• [1]: The Formation of Chinese Civilization (Forward, chapter IV)
• [3] The Chinese Neolithic: Trajectories to Early States (chapters 6, 8) (skim)
• [4] Craft Production and Social Change in North China (chapters 1-4, 6) (skim)

theory

• [5] Myths of the Archaic State (chapter 1)
• [6] Understanding Early Civilizations (defining “Early Civilizations” pp. 43-48)

Additional Reading

• [2] “The Longshan Period and Incipient Chinese Civilization”

Week 3 (September 17th): A Tale of Two “Cities”: Taosi and Liangchenzhen

Readings

background

• “Monumental Structure from Ceremonial Precinct at Taosi Walled-town in 2003”. Chinese Archaeology 6, 2006, pp. 1-7.
• “A Report of the 2002-year Excavation at the Taosi Walled Urban Center in Xiangfen, Shanxi”. Chinese Archaeology 5, 2005, pp. 51-58.
• [3] The Chinese Neolithic (chapter 4)
• [8] “Changes in regional settlement patterns and the development of complex societies in southeastern Shandong, China”

theory

• [9] Chiefdoms and Other Archaeological Delusions (chapters 1-3) (easy read)
• [5] Myths of the Archaic State (chapter 3)
• [10]: The Social Construction of Cities (Introduction)

Additional Reading

• [7] “Systematic, regional survey in SE Shandong Province, China”

Week 4 (September 24th): What is a Bronze Age Anyway?

Readings

background

• [11] State Formation in Early China (chapters 1-4) (skim)
• [12] “Shang Archaeology” pp. 124-143

theory/comparison

• [14] The Rise of Bronze Age Society: Travels, Transmissions and Transformations (Introduction)
• [15] “Notes on the Difficulty of Studying the State”
• [16] The Political Landscape (chapter 2: “archaeologies of authority”)

Additional reading

• [13] The Archaeology of the Chinese Bronze Age (Erlitou) (skim)

Week 5 (October 1st): Colonial Encounters in East Asia

Readings

background

• [11] State Formation in Early China (chapters 5-7) (skim)
• [12] “Shang Archaeology” pp. 142-180. (skim)
• [17] “Erlitou and the Formation of Chinese Civilization: Toward a New Paradigm”

theory/comparison

• [18] The Archaeology of Colonial Encounters (introduction, chapter 4)

Additional Reading

• [13] The Archaeology of the Chinese Bronze Age (Early Shang)

Week 6 (October 8th): Culture History, Traditional Historiography and “Lost Civilizations”

Readings

background

• [12] “Shang Archaeology” pp. 180-231 (skim)
• [19] “On the Historiographical Orientation of Chinese Archaeology”
• Excerpts from Shiji: the Xia, Yin and Zhou chapters (Burton Watson trans) (skim)
• Excerpts from the Zhushujinian: From Xia to Zhou (Legge trans) (skim)
• [20] The Yueshi Culture, the Dong Yi and the Archaeology of Ethnicity in Early Bronze Age China (chapter 8)
• [23]: Ancient Sichuan Treasures from a Lost Civilization (Introduction, Chapter 1 and 2) (skim)

theory/comparison

• [21] “Material Culuture, Social Fields and Social Boundaries on the Sepik Coast of New Guinea”
• [22] Archaeology as Culture History: Words and Things in Iron Age Greece (Introduction)

Additional Readings

• [13] The Archaeology of the Chinese Bronze Age (Middle Shang)

Week 7 (October 15th): Violence and the Polity: Late Shang Anyang

Readings

background

• [24] “The Shang: China's first historical dynasty” (pp. 269-291)
• [25]: Blood, Flesh and Bones: Kinship and Violence in the Social Economy of the Late Shang (chapter 7) (skim)

theory/comparison

• [6] Understanding Early Civilizations (chapter 6 “States: City and Territorial”)
• [5] Myths of the Archaic State (pp. 43, 50-51, 96-100)
• [26] The Aztecs (chapter 7)
• [27] The Archaeology of Warfare (introduction)
• [28] The Civilizing Process (pp. 443-524)

Additional Reading

• [13] The Archaeology of the Chinese Bronze Age (Late Shang)

Week 8 (October 22nd): Death and the Ancestors

Readings

background

• [24] “The Shang: China's first historical dynasty” (pp. 232-268)
• [4] Craft Production and Social Change in North China (chapters 7, 8) (skim)
• [29] Blood, Flesh and Bones: Kinship and Violence in the Social Economy of the Late Shang (chapters 6 and 8) (skim)
• [30] “Who were the ancestors?”

theory/comparison

• [31] Death-Ritual and Social Structure in Classical Antiquity (chapter 1)
• [32] The Archaeology of Death and Burial (chapter 1, 4)

NO CLASS OCTOBER 29TH

Week 9 (November 5th): The Post-archaic State?

Readings

background

• [33] Cambridge History of Ancient China (chapters 5 & 6)(skim)
• [34] Landscapes and Power in Early China (chapter 1 “Foundation of the Western Zhou State”)(skim)

theory/comparison

• [35] The Theory of Social and Economic Organization (The Types of Authority and Imperative Co-ordination; Traditional Authority; The Routinization of Charisma) 324-328, 341-382)
• [36] Empires: Perspectives from Archaeology and History (chapter 1, 8)

Week 10 (November 12th): Rise of Regional Polities

Reading

background

• [33] Cambridge History of Ancient China (chapters 7&8)(skim)
• [37] Sanctioned Violence in Early China (chapters 1, 2)
• [38] “Rethinking Warring States Cities”

theory/comparison

• [36] Empires: Perspectives from Archaeology and History (The Afterlife of Empires, chapter 15)

Week 11 (November 19th): Warring States and the Rise of Qin

Reading

background

• [33] Cambridge History of Ancient China (chapters 9 & 10)(skim)
• [41] Records of the Grand Historian: Qin (Biography of the First Emperor)(skim)
• [39] “Secondary State Formation and the Development of Local Identity: Change and Continuity in the State of Qin (770-221 B.C.)”

theory/comparison

• [40] Seeing Like a State (part I)
• [6] Understanding Early Civilizations (48-52)
• [36] Empires: Perspectives from Archaeology and History (section IV: Imperial Ideologies)

November 26th: Thanksgiving Recess

Week 12 (December 3rd): Empire, its Shadows and its Discontents

Readings

background

• [33] Cambridge History of Ancient China (chapters 13, 14)(skim)
• [42] “Rebellion and Revolution: the Study of Popular Movements in Chinese History”
• [36] Empires: Perspectives from Archaeology and History (chapter 1 “The Shadow Empires: Imperial State Formation Along the Chinese-Nomad Frontier”)

theory/comparison

• [43] Empire (read enough to get basic argument)

Week 13(December 10th): Beyond the Mainland

Readings

• [44] The Rise of Civilization in East Asia: The Archaeology of China, Korea and Japan (chapter 13 “The Yellow Sea Interaction Sphere: 500 B.C. – 500 A.D.”)
• [45] The Emergence of Japanese Kingship
• [46] “Culture Contact and Culture Change - the Korean Peninsula and Its Relations with the Han Dynasty Commandery of Lelang”

Bibliography

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