| Throughout much of the 20th century, archaeological investigations of urbanism were dominated by various versions of social evolutionism, situating the city either in a regular system of historical transformations or in subsistence demands that tied it to local ecological conditions. Nevertheless, in recent decades scholars increasingly recognize that ancient cities must be understood as invented political instruments to legitimate and enact power. Following this insight, this dissertation highlights the importance of political practice to a theoretical understanding of urbanism through a study of the Liao cities on the Xilamulun pastureland in Southeast Inner Mongolia, China.;The Liao empire was established by nomadic pastoralist Khitans in AD 916. The Imperial heartland was the Xilamulun river valley, their pastureland. Beginning at the end of the ninth century, Khitans intentionally transplanted numerous groups of settlers from conquered lands to the Xilamulun pastureland to reside in a number of newly built walled cities and villages. Although the pastureland was extensively urbanized, the Khitan emperors and the majority of central bureaucrats maintained their nomadic lives and traveled constantly. Adopting Adam Smith's (2003) political landscape approach, my research examines three dimensions of landscape of Liao pastureland cities, i.e. imagination, perception, and experience, to understand the articulation of politics with urban landscape. Using data from historical documents, my archaeological surface survey of Bitubei (a Liao city in the Xilamulun river valley), a detailed analysis of ceramic assemblage collected of Bitubei, and an instrumental neutron activation analysis of 89 samples of Bitubei ceramic sherds, I argue that, in seeming defiance of local ecological conditions, Liao pastureland cities were produced by Khitan emperors to legitimate, consolidate, and increase their power. These settlements did not emerge simply as byproducts of the social transformation from nomadic Khitan tribes to the Liao empire, but rather were brought forth as one of the political instruments deployed by rulers who pursued their own strategic interests. |
