UCLA

It is a widely accepted fact that the cultural interaction between Northwest China and its westerly Eurasian counterparts about 2000 BC generated far-reaching impacts on both sides. Through the study of material culture in its archaeological contexts it is often possible to identify what goods were exchanged by way of which routes. However, less attention has been paid to exploring the cultural mechanisms that explain the nature, extent and specific cultural processes behind these cultural interactions. Taking Northwest China as its point of departure, this dissertation attempts to understand long term developments in Bronze Age Central Eurasia from a multi-scalar spatial perspective by focusing on the socio-economic dynamics among the region’s various cultural communities.

Based on analysis of currently available mortuary data, I reconstruct the middle-range oasis societies along the Hexi corridor, characterized by a low degree of social differentiation and an agnate-centered or patrilineal organization. Meanwhile, the comparative analysis on contemporaneous cemeteries also reveals the underlying heterogeneity of these middle-range oasis communities, which gave rise to social tensions and was enmeshed with mobility and interaction on a regional scale. In addition, a dynamic social life is reflected by the social practice of communal activities and gatherings at both intra- and inter-community scales; this can also be observed archaeologically through the lens of a study of drinking vessels. Seeking to understand material-culture distribution patterns in Northwest China with a focus on the Qijia culture and its neighbors from a bottom-up perspective and with an emphasis on human agency, I interpret their interactions by means of a trade-diaspora model. Moreover, I revist the longstanding controversy over the Seima-Turbino technological phenomenon and reveal the underlying socio-economic processes in the transmission of metallurgy across Eurasia through an investigation of the development of metallurgy in the Eurasian Metallurgical Province. Comparative study of the Andronovo cultural-historical community in present-day Siberia and Kazakhstan and analogous remains in Northwest China suggests the formation of interregional economic complexity under the stimulus of metallurgy under the Andronovo horizon. By scrutinizing this interconnected economic network, this dissertation provides an alternative perspective for understanding the macro-cultural processes that developed throughout the first half of the second millennium BC, both in Northwest China, (which is culturally a part of Central Eurasia), and in the East Asian heartland.