kaogu 2006-1
(Archaeology)
No. 1, 2006
Contents
Anyang Archaeological Team, IA, CASS, Tomb No. 60 at Locus East of Huayuan-
zhuang within the Yin Ruins in Anyang, Henan -------------------------------------------( )
Shandong Linzi District Bureau of Culture and Tourism, Excavation of Tombs of
the Warring States and Western Han Periods at Xujia Village in Linzi, Shandong ---( )
Archaeology Department of Wuhan University and Three Gorge Affairs Office under the Bureau of Cultural Relics, Hubei Province, Excavation of the Site and
Tombs at Wangjiahe in Badong County, Hubei -------------------------------------------( )
Collaborative Archaeological Team from the Xi’an Tang City Team, IA, CASS,
and the Xi’an Municipal Institute of Cultural Relics Preservation and Archae- ology, Objects of Tang Jianfu Temple Unearthed from the Eastern Court of Xiaoyan
Pagoda, Xi’an ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------( )
Chen Honghai, A Study of Disturbed Secondary Burials in the Prehistoric Culture
of the Gansu-Qinghai Region ----------------------------------------------------------------( )
Xu Xinxi, On the “Earthen Drums” from Huangtulun, Minhou ---------------------------( )
Dong Shan, A Study of the Xiang Shou Ge Dagger-axe ------------------------------------( )
Liu Pujiang, A Study of the “Epitaph of Yelü Yuanning” of the Liao Period -----------( )
Fu Luowen and Yuan Jing, A Study of the Faunal Remains from the Zhongba Site
in Zhongxian County, Chongqing -----------------------------------------------------------( )
Zou Fudu, A Fundamental Work in the Study of Chu Characters: A Review of the
Collection of Chu Characters -----------------------------------------------------------------( )
Anyang Archaeological Team, IA, CASS, Tomb No. 60 at Locus East of Huayuan-
zhuang within the Yin Ruins in Anyang, Henan
KEY WORDS: Anyang Huayuanzhuang Tomb No. 60 Phase I of the Yin Ruins
ABSTRACT: Tomb No. 60 at Locus East of Huayuanzhuang within the Yin Ruins is a double-person joint burial with bronze and pottery objects. It is a seldom encountered phenomenon that almost all the bronze and pottery articles are broken and laid beneath the coffin. Their typological features suggest that the tomb dates from Phase I of the Yin Ruins culture. The excavation of the tomb provided new evidence for studying the burial custom in the Yin Ruins period, as well as significant data for further researching into the periodization of the Yin Ruins culture and the relationship between the Phase I of Yin Ruins and the periodization of the cultural remains from the Shang city-site north of the Huanshui River.
Shandong Linzi District Bureau of Culture and Tourism, Excavation of Tombs of the Warring States and Western Han Periods at Xujia Village in Linzi, Shandong
KEY WORDS: Xujia Village in Linzi Warring States period tomb Western Han shaft tombs
ABSTRACT: In October 1998, the Shandong Linzi District Bureau of Culture and Tourism carried out a rescuing excavation of the Warring States period tomb and 41 Western Han shaft ones discovered southwest of Xujia Village. Among the latter burials M39 contains a chamber built of hollow bricks, which are rather large in size and bear stamped double-dragon design, a seldom-seen feature for the local cultural remains. M1 is a large-scale Warring States period grave. It looks like the character “甲” in plan, has an outer coffin and an inner one in the chamber, and contain ritual pottery on the tomb bottom and in the chamber niche. These are also rarely discovered features among the Qi tombs of the Warring States period. The tomb-owner must have belonged to aristocracy. The excavation of these tombs furnished material data to studying the tomb form and burial institution of the Warring States and Western Han periods.
Archaeology Department of Wuhan University and Three Gorge Affairs Office under the Bureau of Cultural Relics, Hubei Province, Excavation of the Site and
Tombs at Wangjiahe in Badong County, Hubei
KEY WORDS: Badong County Wangjiahe stone-chambered tombs Eastern Han to Ming-Qing period multi-burial
ABSTRACT: In 1999 to 2000, the Archaeology Department of Wuhan University and other institutions excavated three large-sized stone-chambered tombs at Wangjiahe, Badong County. These graves are all of multi-burial and contain 11 to 14 human skeletons in two or three layers. In date they cover long periods from several hundred to more than a thousand years, belonging to the Eastern Han and Three Kingdoms, Western and Eastern Jin, Southern Dynasties, Sui, Tang, Northern Song, Ming or Qing period. The unearthed objects total 217 pieces, including silver, bronze, iron, pottery, glazed pottery, porcelain, colored-glazed, bone, stone and lacquer wares. The excavation is of great significance to inquiring into the burial custom in the Yangtze Three Gorges region.
Collaborative Archaeological Team from the Xi’an Tang City Team, IA, CASS,
and the Xi’an Municipal Institute of Cultural Relics Preservation and Archae- ology, Objects of Tang Jianfu Temple Unearthed from the Eastern Court of Xiaoyan
Pagoda, Xi’an
KEY WORDS: Xiaoyan Pagoda Tang Jianfu Temple ash-pit pottery and porcelain
ABSTRACT: In the summer of 2003, the Collaborative Archaeological Team from the Xi’an Tang City Team, IA, CASS, and the Xi’an Municipal Institute of Cultural Relics Preservation and Archaeology excavated a mid and late Tang ash-pit in the pagoda courtyard of the former Jianfu Temple within the Xiaoyan Pagoda, Xi’an. The unearthed objects include pottery holy-water vases, animal-mask bricks and “凤”-shaped ink-slabs, and white and celadon porcelain bowls and pillows of Xing, Ding, Gongxian, Huangpu, Changsha and Yue wares. These data constitute important evidence for understanding the material living in the Jianfu Temple of Tang Chang’an City.
Chen Honghai, A Study of Disturbed Secondary Burials in the Prehistoric Culture
of the Gansu-Qinghai Region
KEY WORDS: Gansu-Qinghai region prehistoric times tombs disturbed secondary burial
ABSTRACT: In the Genus-Qinghai region, one of the characteristic features of prehistoric tombs is the disorder and incompletion of the human skeletons they contain. Previously this phenomenon was called secondary, disordered-bones, partially-disintegrated or disturbed secondary burial. A detailed examination of its variations and their formation courses suggests that this burial custom can be called by the joint name “disturbed secondary burial.” Based on the statistic analysis of its occurrence among the prehistoric tombs in the Gansu-Qinghai region, this practice can be taken to have been the main burial custom in prehistoric Gansu and Qinghai. It was unceasingly expanded in distribution and increased in its proportion among the contemporaneous tombs, and the Yellow River valley west of Lanzhou was all along its central area.
Xu Xinxi, On the “Earthen Drums” from Huangtulun, Minhou
KEY WORDS: Minhou Huangtulun earthen drum sacrifice Minyue ethnic group Shang-Zhou period
ABSTRACT: The pottery drum, i.e. the “earthen drum” mentioned in literal records of Pre-Qin times, has been unearthed from the Shang-Zhou Huangtulun site in Minhou, Fujian. It was used as a musical instrument in sacrifice to the god of farming and in the mid spring and mid autumn when the season changed. Its occurrence in Minyue indicates that Central Plains ritual and some musical instruments had been introduced into this area by that time, which can be taken as a piece of evidence that there were long relations been the two regions.
Dong Shan, A Study of the Xiang Shou Ge Dagger-axe
KEY WORDS: Xiang Shou ge dagger-axe inscription Chu State naming years after representative events
ABSTRACT: There is a Chu State ge dagger-axe in the collection of the Lianyungang Municipal Museum, Jiangsu. Its inscription contains the phrase “Xiang Shou year,” which refers to the year when Xiang Shou, envoy from the Qin State to the Chu State as the Historical Records: “Biography of Gan Mao” states in the sentence “Xiang Shou came to Chu.” Taking into account the words “Xiangcheng Gong 襄城公”(the feudatory of Xiangcheng) and “Jing Zhui 競脽” in the ge inscription, it can be inferred that Xiang Shou’s being sent to Chu was concerned with the Qin troops capturing Yiyang of the Han State in 307 BC, and that the Chu ge under discussion must have been made in 306 BC. The interpretation of the inscription on the Xiang Shou ge may contribute to clarifying the dates of other years named after representative events in the Chu State.
Liu Pujiang, A Study of the “Epitaph of Yelü Yuanning” of the Liao Period
KEY WORDS: Liao Dynasty epitaph Dongdan State institution of appointing members of a family to official positions for generations
ABSTRACT: In Aohan Banner, Inner Mongolia, archaeologists discovered the “Epitaph of Yelü Yuanning.” The tomb-owner was Tiela’s fifth-generation grandson Yelü Xiluo recorded in the History of the Liao, who acted as Zuopingzhangshi of Zhongtai-sheng 中台省左平章事 (one of the heads of the local government Zhongtai-sheng) in the East Capital 东京 (which was in the territory of the Dandong State) in the 16th year of Tonghe reign (AD 998). According to the epitaph, the Dongdan State the Liao court established to dominate the survivals from Bohai still existed in the Tonghe reign. Among the members of Yelü Yuanning’s family, at least four persons belonging to three generations held official posts in Zhongtai-sheng, Dongdan State. This indicates that this family enjoyed for generations the privilege of being appointed to official positions of Zhongtai-sheng, and that the institution of appointing for generations a family’s members to official positions was implemented not only in the northern bureaucracy of the Liao Empire.
Fu Luowen and Yuan Jing, A Study of the Faunal Remains from the Zhongba Site in Zhongxian County, Chongqing
KEY WORDS: Chongqing Zhongba site archaeozoology
ABSTRACT: The Zhongba site is one of the important sites recently excavated in the Yangtze Three Gorge Reservoir area. Its cultural deposits measure above 10 m in thickness for some plots, and the contents provide very rich material for comprehensively researching into the historical and environmental changes of this area from the late Neolithic period to the final phase of Bronze Age. In 1997 to 2002, archaeological excavation revealed cultural remains concerning those changes and specially organized salt production. Among them are quantities of animal bones. The results of their study suggest that, as time went on, fish was becoming more and more important, and the multiformity of mammals increased simultaneously. This tendency was concerned with the change of the then organization of salt production. Meanwhile, the study involved the environmental evolution in the vicinity of this site from the late third millennium BC to the late first millennium BC.
Zou Fudu, A Fundamental Work in the Study of Chu Characters: A Review of the Collection of Chu Characters
KEY WORDS: A Collection of Chu Characters traits suggestions
ABSTRACT: The Collection of Chu Characters is a reference book as well as a research work. It features scientificalness and properness in compilation style, richness and comprehensiveness in content, extensive collection and precise acceptance in decipherment, novelty and meticulousness in research, and pursuit of exactness and truth to the original in grapheme. The book meets the expectation for a monograph with rich data and research fruits in this field, and will promote studies of Chu characters and even the whole ancient Chinese writing, as well as their evolutionary history, cultural connotation and social background. Meanwhile, the reviewer expresses his opinion that the book might be further consummated. For example, in the use of inscriptions, still more deep-going discussions would be made for identifying the state affiliation of bronzes and clarifying the relationship between Chu State inscriptions and Chu-system ones.