We now have been surveying for seven days. We began four kilometers south of the known site of Yao Wang Cheng as we wanted to record some of the past settlement around the main site. We also needed a clear southern boundary, so we started to walk north from a large river, the Zhu Zi He (which translates as the Bamboo River). Experience has taught us that large river channels, in contrast to houses, roads, and even village boundaries, are the kind of landmark that is unlikely to shift significantly, at least during our lifetimes.

Chinese archaeologists have undertaken two excavation projects at Yao Wang Cheng, although to date relatively little has been published on the site. As part of these studies, the size of the site has been estimated at roughly 50 hectares (a hectare is a unit of area that is 100 meters by 100 meters). This size estimate stems from observations made on the north side of the Nan Xin He (South Xin River - Xin possibly representing a family name), where the site excavations were carried out and where the dense and long-standing ancient occupation is evident. As a point of comparison, we have mapped Longshan-period Liangchengzhen as having been almost 250 hectares.

On the third afternoon of this season's survey, all of our legs were starting to feel a bit heavy as we had not found much all day. When surveying, there is a cardinal rule, the less you find the more you walk, and this day we were covering a lot of ground. For the most part, our passes by foot had taken us through alluvial fields that were planted in winter wheat or lying fallow, although much of the land was also used to grow rice in the wetter summer months and rice stalks poked through green wheat plants in many fields. But we were not coming across many surface potsherds.

I knew that toward the end of my first after-lunch pass I would come across some topographic relief (low gently rolling ridges), and I was hopeful that just maybe some ancient hamlet or village had been positioned on it. After a day of finding nothing, it is always a relief, even exhilarating, to come across some broken pieces of ancient ceramics on the ground. Once I was certain that I really did have a few truly old potsherds in the field, I blew forcefully on the whistle that I always wear on a string around my neck to let my colleagues, especially Linda, know that I had found a site. Since Linda carries the map, it is crucial that she be informed whenever a crew member encounters something so that the find can be recorded on the map.

That afternoon all of the crew was just happy that we found a site, especially since soon after I first encountered the sherds on the slopes of a low rise, others found surface pottery as well in both adjacent fields and on the low summit of the ridge. Yet none of us suspected that this scatter of pottery, well south of where we believed Yao Wang Cheng to be, would extend and continue across low alluvial fields and on top of rolling ridges for five more days of survey eventually linking up to the known part of Yao Wang Cheng.

What does this mean and why is it interesting? Well, to begin with, we now suspect that Yao Wang Cheng is roughly three square kilometers in size, even larger (by a whisker) than Liangchengzhen. The two sites were then likely to have been equals, contemporaneous capitals of two polities that appear to have shared a common cultural tradition. We now can revisit our settlement pattern maps for the whole study region to see if it is possible to determine where the limits between these polities may have been.

Another interesting question emerged as we surveyed and found that the past occupation south of the Nan Xin River was much more extensive than anyone thought it would be. The suggestion arose that perhaps rich organic sediments (dark soils associated with prolonged human habitation) from across the river, the known part of the site of Yao Wang Cheng, were carried south of the river as a kind of natural fertilizer, thereby spreading sherds and other artifacts to surfaces where there was no past occupation below the ground. This same argument was offered up when our crews found the site of Liangchengzhen to be larger than originally thought years ago, and also when we found other sites near Liangchengzhen. Although I have no reason to doubt that sediments from highly organic locations were occasionally transported as fertilizer decades ago (especially during the Cultural Revolution in the 1960-1970s), I do not think that such soil movements can explain concentrations of artifacts on the ground today. For one thing, the large fragments of friable Longshan period sherds could not have survived (in the sizes and number that we find them) for four decades on the surface. The climate and intensity of land use in this region would not be conducive to the long-term preservation of thin ceramic pieces on the ground over decades. Freeze-thaw cycles, rain, and consistent plowing likely would turn sherds back to powder. Rather, it is much more likely that the potsherds we find on the ground were brought to the surface recently, over the last few years, either due to human action, such as farming, building, or well construction, or natural processes, like animal burrowing, earthworms, downcutting due to water flow, and other factors. Although the specific boundaries that we give to ancient sites certainly are estimates and not exact, I believe that they provide a general record of the relative size and location of past settlements across time periods and within temporal phases.

The word of today is "Yao Wang Cheng." 'Yao' refers to a family name that according to legends was associated with early rulers in China. 'Wang' means 'king,' so 'Yao Wang' refers to 'King Yao.' 'Cheng' is the word for 'city.' So overall "Yao Wang Cheng" refers to "King Yao's City."