Development of Complex Societies in Southeastern Shandong, China

Development of Complex Societies in Southeastern Shandong, China provides a comprehensive account of a pioneering archaeological project in the province of Shandong that transformed understandings of regional settlement patterns.

From 1995 to 2007, researchers from China and the United States conducted a systematic, full-coverage regional archaeological survey in southeastern Shandong Province, China, covering an area of more than 1,400 square kilometres. This pioneering multiyear international project transformed the archaeological understanding of regional settlement patterns from the Neolithic to the Han period in southeastern Shandong.

As an update of the 2012 synthesis published in Chinese, this volume is the most detailed account of the project available in English. The team discovered many new sites, including the earliest known Neolithic settlements in the area, and revealed distinctly different regional settlement patterns in the hinterlands of the two largest late Neolithic sites, Liangchengzhen and Yaowangcheng.

The book includes field procedures, methods of analysis, and descriptions of major sites generously illustrated with maps, as well as photographs of key artefacts and archaeological localities.