Dr. Anne Underhill
.
Anne P. Underhill
Adjunct Associate Professor
Boone Associate Curator of East Asian Archaeology, Field Museum

Ph.D. University of British Columbia 1990
Room 2110-C BSB  (312) 665-7008   auhill@fieldmuseum.org
 
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Archaeology, Complex Societies, Ceramic Production; China

Current Research - Past Research - Selected Publications  
 
Personal Statement
 
When Anne Underhill began her career, foreigners were not allowed to participate in archaeological fieldwork in the People’s Republic of China. She did independent analyses of burials and pottery vessels from published archaeological reports, and analyzed pottery stored in museums in Henan and Shandong provinces. She also studied modern potters (ethnic minorities) in Guizhou and Xinjiang provinces who use traditional production techniques. In the early 1990’s, new laws permitted foreigners to participate in collaborative field projects. Anne developed one of the first collaborative archaeological survey and excavation projects involving American scholars. She has been fortunate to work with archaeology professors at Shandong University, Jinan city, Shandong, since 1995. She continues as the American director of a field project located in the Rizhao area of southeastern Shandong.
   
Current Research
  
Knowing their expertise in regional survey in Mexico, Anne asked Linda Nicholas and fellow Field Museum curator Gary Feinman (both at The Field Museum) to join the research team. To date our team has conducted six winter seasons of regional settlement pattern survey (1995-2001). We have discovered a settlement hierarchy around the Longshan period (ca. 2600-1900 B.C.) center at Liangchengzhen. During the fall of 1999 and 2000, Anne and her Shandong University colleagues began excavations at the large site of Liangchengzhen.
 
Past Research
 
 
   
Selected Publications
2005  (With Patrick E. McGovern, Hui Fang, Fengshi Luan, Gretchen R. Hall, Haiguang Yu, Chen-shan Wang, Fengshu Cai, Zhijun Zhao, and Gary Feinman) Chemical Identification and Cultural Implications of a Mixed Fermented Beverage from Late Prehistoric China. Asian Perspectives 44(2):249-275.

2005  (With Gary Crawford, Zhijun Zhao, Gyoung-Ah Lee, Gary Feinman, Linda Nicholas, Fengshi Luan, Haiguang Yu, Hui Fang, and Fengshu Cai) Reports - Late Neolithic Plant Remains From Northern China: Preliminary Results From Liangchengzhen, Shandong. Current Anthropology 46(2):309-316.

2003   Investigating Variation in Organization of Ceramic Production: An Ethnoarchaeological Study in Guizhou, China. Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 10(3):203-275.

2002   Craft Production and Social Change in Northern China. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum.

2002  (With Gary Feinman, Linda Nicholas, Gwen Bennett, Hui Fang, Fengshi Luan, Haiguang Yu, and Fengshu Cai) Regional Survey and the Development of Complex Societies in Southeastern Shandong, China. Antiquity 76:745-755.

2000   An Analysis of Mortuary Ritual at the Dawenkou Site, Shandong, China. Journal of East Asian Archaeology 2(1/2):93-127.

1998  (With Gary Feinman, Linda Nicholas, Gwen Bennett, Fengshi Cai, Haiguang Yu, Fengshi Luan, and Hui Fang) Field Reports: Excavation and Survey - Systematic, Regional Survey in Southeast Shandong Province, China. Journal of Field Archaeology 25(4):453-475.

1996  (With William Meacham) Archaeological Investigations on Chek Lap Kok Island. American Antiquity 61(1):165.