Population dynamics and imperial expansion in eastern Shandong (China) during the last millennium BCE

Abstract

We examine the long-term history of eastern Shandong, China, with a focus on shifts in settlement patterns. We expand on prior work where our focus was a series of basins on the southeastern Shandong coast where we first implemented systematic archaeological settlement pattern surveys. Here, we broaden the vantage through the addition of more recently surveyed regions, some contiguous with the initial focal region and others not, as well as evidence from archaeological excavations and textual sources. This broadened lens adds context to earlier publications on the Shandong coast by illustrating how settlement patterns and population changes in the coastal basins were not necessarily equivalent with the other investigated regions. Directional shifts in interaction patterns beyond the coast are documented. Imperial incorporation of the coast into the Qin-Han empires was coincident with an episode of demographic and economic growth.