Research Fields

• The beginning of agriculture and sedentary way-of-live in North China
• The development of complex societies in China
• Interregional interactions among prehistoric societies in China and Mongolia
• Systematic regional archaeologic surveys
• Long-walls ('great walls') in China and Mongolia

About

Gideon Shelach-Lavi is the Louis Freiberg Professor of East Asian Studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is an Archaeologist who specializes in the archaeology of North China, where his is conducting field work. He recently completed the Fuxin Regional Archaeological Project in Liaoning province, China and has started a new regional project in Shandong province. He is also directing the Long-Wall project in Northeast Mongolia, which is funded by an ERC advanced grant (see: https://thewall.huji.ac.il/ ).

 

Selected Publications

Shelach, G. 2015. The Archaeology of Ancient China: From Prehistory to the Han Dynasty. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Shelach-Lavi, G., Honeychurch, W. and Chunag, A (2020). “Does extra-large equal extra-ordinary? The ‘Wall of Chinggis Khan’ from a multidimensional perspective.” Humanities and Social Sciences Communications 7, 22. https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-020-0524-2

Shelach-Lavi G., M. Teng, Y. Goldsmith, I. Wachtel, C.J. Stevens, O. Marder, X. Wan, X. Wu, D. Tu, R. Shavit, P. Polissar, H. Xu, D.Q. Fuller (2019) “Sedentism and plant cultivation in northeast China emerged during affluent conditions.” PLoS ONE. 14(7): e0218751. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0218751.

Shelach-Lavi, G. and Tu Dongdong, 2017. “Food, Pots and Socio-Economic Transformation: The Beginning and Intensification of Pottery Production in North China.” Archaeological Research in Asia. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ara.2017.10.001

Shelach, G. and Y. Jaffe , 2014. “The Earliest States in China: A long-Term Trajectory Approach.” Journal of Archaeological Research. 22 (4): 327-364. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10814-014-9074-8

 

Selected Awards

1998-2003, Chiang Ching-kuo Foundation Grant for the Project: Regional Lifeway and Cultural Remains in the Northern Corridor (in collaboration with Prof. K. Linduff and Prof. Zhang Zhongpei). $145,000

2001-2004, Israel Science Foundation grant for the study, Social Change and the Rise of Pastoral Economy in Northeast China c. 2200-600 BCE (no. 893/01). $97,600.

2003-2008, NSF award for Chifeng International Archaeological Research Project. Award Number BSC-0106048 (co-PI with K. Linduff and R. Drennan). $166,000.

2009-2011, National Geographic Society, Committee for Research and Exploration, Origins of Agriculture and Sedentary Communities in Northeast China (grant no. 8614-09). $19,920.

2011-2015, Israel Science Foundation grant for the research, The Origins of Agriculture and Sedentary Communities in Northeast China (no. 502\11), $ 267,430 (234,000 NIS a year for 4 years).

2017-2021, Israel Science Foundation grant for the research, What’s Cooking? Long-Term Changes in Diet Habits, Economic Strategies and Social Organization in East China (no. 728/17;  300,000 NIS a year for 4 years; Total 1,200,000 NIS).

2020-2025. ERC Advanced Grant "The Wall: People and Ecology in Medieval Mongolia and China" (proposal no. 882894) (EUR 2,499,75).

 

Teaching

Introduction to the History and Culture of Traditional China

Art and Architecture in China

Personal, social and group identities in China

Roads, boarders and walls: the archaeology of movement and space (MA)

“Use the Past to Serve the Present” – Representations and Manipulations of the Past in Modern China (MA)