Yitzchak Y. Jaffe

My dissertation reexamines the established historical narrative regarding the initial expansion of the Western Zhou polity following the conquest of the Shang in the 11 century BC. While great advancements have been made in the reconstruction of the Western Zhou history, they have not provided clear histories of regionally specific developments. Instead they have mostly emphasized the achievements of the Zhou in conquest and viewed this process as an assimilation of the local peoples into Zhou society. Analyzing archaeological manifestations of mortuary and culinary practices, I seek to investigate regional-specific cases of cultural exchange and the process through which the Western Zhou expansion created new forms of localized social identities.