The Research Of Settlements Archaeology Supported By GIS

The recent development of GIS (Geographic Information Systems) technology has seen its increasing use in archaeological studies. Many advances have been made in its archaeological application, particularly the use of GIS spatial analysis in regional settlement archaeology. Such applications have helped broaden the research field in modern archaeology.The major results of this dissertation are summarized as follows.1. This dissertation covers a number of archaeologically-important river valleys, including the Linfen Basin (the middle Fenhe and its tributary Fuhe) in Shanxi, the Luoyang Basin (the Yinhe and Luohe) and the Huanhe valley in Henan, and the Qixinghe and Meiyanghe in Shaanxi. By using the data of regional archaeological survey, topography, hydrology, remote sensing imagery, an information system of settlement archaeology for each study region is built for the collection, processing, and spatial analysis of archaeological and environmental data. This dissertation also employs various GIS functions including distance analysis, location analysis, model building, interview analysis, slope analysis and hydrology analysis to explore the man-environmental relationships during the beginning stages of early civilization in the Central Plains, to study the man-land relations in the original of civilization formed in the center of ancient China, to examine the relationship between natural environment and the distribution of ancient settlements during different periods, and to discuss human adaptation to and impacts on the environment. This study exemplifies the successful application of GIS techniques in Chinese archaeology.2. It is found that human settlements tend to be located along small rivers where subsistence environment is very fragile and the catchment size often small. The catchment size is directly related to the development of settlements, which may explain that the Zhou people abandoned Zhouyuan and moved its capital to the Fenhe valley. In order to sustain in both rainy and dry seasons, and to avoid the threat of flooding, the people living in different periods may have selected or adapted to the environments suitable for living, and even altered them. Larger rivers such as Huanhe, Luohe, and Yihe have very large catchment basins with sufficient water resources, and the settlements along these rivers are capable of adapting to usual climate changes. They were relatively stable in the evolution of cultural types.3. It is found that ground slope and the distance to rivers affect the distribution of settlement sites. In each study region, the sites are basically located within the zone with the ground slope of less than 3 degrees and less than 600 meters to the rivers. Current data may not allow us to determine whether small- and middle-sized settlements are located within the view of large-sized settlements.