Hezhang Kele from the Perspective of Landscape Archaeology
1. School of Humanities, Guizhou University, Guiyang550000, China
2. School of Literature and Museology, Guizhou Minzu University, Guiyang550000, China
| Abstract: | As a rising archaeological research perspective, landscape archaeology emphasizes examining remains within a natural-social context, examining the political patterns, economic networks, and cultural concepts of specific groups through settlement forms, tomb layouts, resource utilization, and ritual spaces. It is human-centered, focusing on the interdependence and mutual legacy between people and the environment, and between people and objects, exploring how humans build settlements, plan cemeteries, and extract resources in specific spaces, thereby endowing landscapes with power, beliefs, and symbols of identity in cultural terms. This paper focuses on the Hezhang Kele site in Guizhou, applying the perspective and analytical model of landscape archaeology, starting from the site and adopting a path combining a "central perspective" and "internal-external interaction": on one hand, it analyzes the long-term interaction between the Kele site and natural environments such as mountain valleys, revealing its site selection logic, livelihood patterns, and social organizational structure, and uncovering the local connotations and traditions of Kele culture; On the other hand, the site is placed within the process of Central Plains dynasties expanding into the southwestern frontier since the Qin and Han dynasties, examining the collision, borrowing, and integration of Han culture and southwestern minority cultures during the "integration" process, as well as the political, economic, and cultural exchanges between the frontier and the Central Plains, and further exploring the historical mechanisms by which the southwestern frontier gradually integrated into the multi-cultural unity pattern of Chinese culture. |
| Keywords: | Hezhang Kele; Landscape Archaeology; Archaeological Sites |
| DOI: | 10.57237/j.ssrf.2026.05.002 |
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Received: 19 July 2026
Accepted: 2 September 2026
Published Online: 11 September 2026
References
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