The Sanyangzhuang Project: China
Holocene Climate Change, Landscape Evolution, and Human Response in the Lower Yellow River Floodplain, Henan Province, China
The Yellow River valley is the cradle of Chinese civilization and has been a major focus of recent archaeological research. A good deal of recent geoarchaeological research has been directed towards the early episodes of China’s history during the Neolithic and Bronze ages. The Sanyangzhuang project, however, is focused on understanding floodplain evolution and its relation to flooding and culture history during the last 3500 years in the Central Plains. We are conducting research at the Sanyangzhuang site. Described as China’s Pompeii, Sanyangzhuang was buried by a significant flood ca. C.E. 14-17. Because the Sanyangzhuang flooding began as a low energy event, the site, which consists of four excavated agricultural house compounds and surrounding ridged agricultural fields, was slowly buried by fine-grained sediments leading to remarkable preservation of archaeological features. Initial geoarchaeological work focuses on reconstructing the flood history and dynamics at the site and locality level. Additional work is directed to understanding Han and pre-Han culture histories and their relation to Yellow River flooding and landscape evolution through deep testing and coring in and around the Sanyangzhuang area. At least two pre-Han buried ridged-fields lie beneath parts of the Sanyangzhuang site suggesting a complex flood history and attendant cultural adjustments. This research is a collaborative effort with the Henan Provincial Archaeological Institute and the College of Environmental Science and Engineering, Peking University.
Publications
Kidder, Tristram R., Haiwang Liu, and Minglin Li
2012 Sanyangzhuang: early farming and a Han settlement preserved beneath Yellow River flood deposits. Antiquity 86 (331):30-47.
Kidder, Tristram R., Haiwang Liu, Qinghai Xu, and Minglin Li
2012 The Alluvial Geoarchaeology of the Sanyangzhuang Site on the Yellow River Floodplain, Henan Province, China. Geoarchaeology: An International Journal 27:324-343. doi: 10.1002/gea.21411.
Kidder, Tristram R. and Minglin Li
2012 三杨庄汉代遗址地学考古和古环境研究 [Geoarchaeological and Environmental Context of the Han Dynasty Sanyangzhuang site]. In International Symposium on the Urban and Settlement Archaeology of the Han Dynasty and Han Culture, edited by Hong Shi, pp. 123-136 (in Chinese). Science Press, Beijing.
Presentations and Media
Kidder, Tristram R.
2009 China’s Sorrow: 3500 Years of Floods, Droughts and Culture Change in the Yellow River Floodplain, Henan Province, China. Visiting Lecture presentation, Department of Anthropology, University of Tennessee, Knoxville.
2010 Geoarchaeology at Sanyangzhuang: A Preliminary Report. Submitted to the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Zhengzhou. (pdf)
2010 The Geoarchaeology of Sanyangzhuang. Invited paper presented at the “International Symposium on the Urban and Settlement Archaeology of the Han Dynasty and Han Culture,” Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Neihuang, Henan Province.
2010 Excavating China’s Pompeii: Recent Research at Sanyangzhuang, Henan Province. Invited paper presented at the Department of Anthropology, University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
2011 Culture, Climate, and Environment at Sanyangzhuang, Henan Province, China. Invited paper presented at the Department of Anthropology, Tulane University, New Orleans.
2011 Geological and Environmental Archaeology of the Sanyangzhuang Site. Invited paper presented at the Henan Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Zhengzhou.
2011 Culture, Climate, and Environment at Sanyangzhuang, Henan Province, China. Invited paper presented at the College of Urban Planning and Environmental Studies, Peking University, Beijing.
2011 China’s Pompeii: Archaeology at Sanyangzhuang, Henan Province, and what it tells us about history. Invited paper presented at the Institute of Historical Geography, Fudan University, Shanghai (also presented separately as part of the fall 2011 “Anthropology Day” lecture series).
2012 Environmental Change and the Politics of Empire: Geoarchaeology of the Yellow River and the History of Han China from Wu Di to Wang Mang (156 B.C.E.-C.E.26). Invited paper presented at the symposium “Bridging Gaps: Integrating Geosciences within Archaeological Research,” Eberhardt Karls Universität, Tübingen, Germany.
Kidder, Tristram R., and Minglin Li
2011 Geoarchaeology of China’s Pompeii: The Sanyangzhuang Site, Henan Province. Paper presented at the 76th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Sacramento.
Liu, Haiwang, Yuqin Song, Ling-yu Hung and Tristram R. Kidder
2010 Excavations at Sanyangzhuang: A Deeply Buried Han Dynasty site in Henan Province. Paper presented at the symposium “Recent Research in South and East Asia, ” 75th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, St. Louis.
Qin, Zhen, and Tristram R. Kidder
2012 Geoarchaeological Investigations at Sanyangzhuang, Henan Province, China. Poster presented at the 77th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology Conference, Memphis.
Storozum, Michael, and Tristram R. Kidder
2012 Micromorphological Features of Ancient Agriculture in China. Poster presented at the 77th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology Conference, Memphis.
Research in Science,vol 328, 30 April 2010 “Uncovering a Rural Chinese Pompeii” by Andrew Lawler.
Archaeology Magazine, March/April 2011
Discover Magazine, January/February 2011
Record article, May 24, 2010