PhD candidate Qi Zhou awarded NSF Dissertation Improvement Grant

Congratulations to Ph.D. candidate Qi Zhou who has been awarded a NSF Dissertation Improvement Grant (DDRIG) for summer archaeological fieldwork in eastern Mongolia. Qi and her Mongolian colleagues will undertake research to study how intensive mobile pastoralism spread across the northeastern part of the Mongolian Plateau and how this process interacted with the rise of small-scale complex societies. Archaeological mortuary sites in Dornod province of Mongolia and Hulunbuir province of Inner Mongolia are the intended study areas for this project. During the 1st millennium BC, communities in this eastern steppe region were situated between horse riding and herd dependent groups of central Mongolia and hunter-gatherer-herders of the middle Amur River basin. These Early Iron Age people of Dornod-Hulunbuir found themselves on the frontier of a rapidly diffusing intensive pastoralist lifeway moving west to east and at the same time they may have begun interactions with complex societies southwards in China. This project employs comprehensive field survey methods, targeted excavation, and advanced analytical techniques—including radiocarbon dating, pXRF bronze analysis, GIS mapping, ceramic and faunal evaluations, and stable isotope research. By integrating archaeological evidence with interdisciplinary analyses, this study aims to explain the mechanisms underlying complex community formation and social transformation in the region and will be critical for understanding early nomadic pastoral lifeways.