Wang, Zijin, The Cat Bones Unearthed from the Han Tomb at Dabaotai, Beijing and Relevant Issues………………………………………………………………… (91)

Abstract: In the excavation to the Neolithic cemetery at Hala Haigou Village, Chifeng County, Inner Mongolia in 2007, 19 tombs and one sacrifice pit are uncovered. Except for one severely damaged tomb and one random burial pit, all of the other tombs are catacombs with rectangular vertical shafts and the chambers are dug on the longer side. No burial furniture is found. Except for M45, all of the burials are in supine flexed positions, including single, couple and multiple burials. In addition, 32 robbed tombs are cleared up in this excavation, most of which are also catacombs with rectangular vertical shafts and the chambers are dug on the longer side, with seven exceptions. The grave goods unearthed from these tombs are made of pottery, stone, bone, jade etc., most of which are pottery. This cemetery belongs to Xiaoheyan Culture and provided important materials for the researches on the latter.

Abstract: In the excavation to the West Locus of Huizui Site in Yanshi City, Henan Province in 2004, an area of 79.7 sq m was uncovered, within which 32 ash pits, two wells and one damaged house foundation with lime-plastered floor. The unearthed artifacts are made of pottery, stone, bone, shell, etc. The cultural connotation of the West Locus of Huizui Site is purely that of Erlitou Culture and its remains mainly belong to the 2nd and 3rd Phases of the latter. Just like the East Locus, the West Locus of Huizui Site was also the location for the people in Erlitou period to work and live. In the ash pits, large amounts of blocks, flakes and dusts of oolitic dolomite which are related to stone shovel making are found, suggesting that this locus has been a specialized stone shovel manufacture center.

Abstract: in the years 2002 and 2008, four Western Jin tombs at Mount Shouyang were cleared up. Among these four tombs, one was brick single-chamber tomb and the other three were single catacombs, all of which had long ramp passage. Passages of three tombs had multiple tiers on the side walls dug out of the original earth, and the tunnels between the passages and the tomb chambers were very wide. These three tombs all had two layers of sealing walls blocking the entrances, and the tomb chambers all had their longer side parallel to the passages, which was a tomb type seldom seen in this period. The artifacts unearthed from these tombs were potteries, bronzes and coins, and potteries took the bulk. Lacquer fragment with date inscription “泰始二年 (the second year of Taishi Era, 266 CE)” was also found in M1. These three tombs would have been the attendant tombs of the imperial mausoleums of the Western Jin Dynasty, and important for detecting the locations, scopes and burial rules of the latter.

Abstract: In East Asia, the technique of casting bronze mirrors with stone molds first emerged in present-day Gansu-Qinghai area at the upper reaches of the Yellow River no later than the beginning of the 2nd millennium BCE. Since then, this technique diffused eastward along the zone on both sides of the later Great Wall into Northeast China, Korean Peninsula and Kyushu region in present-day Japan and formed the tradition of stone mold-casting technique of bronze mirrors. In Japan, this technique lasted to the 3rd century CE. The technique of casting bronze mirrors with pottery molds emerged around the 9th century BCE in the core area of the domain of the Western Zhou Dynasty, i.e. the Shaanxi Plain, the western Henan and southern Shanxi Provinces, and got mature at least in the end of the third century BCE, which was the turn of the Qin and Han Dynasties; after that, this technique quickly spread to Northeast China, Korean Peninsula, and diffused into Japan Archipelago and finally ended East Asia’s tradition of stone mold-casting technique of bronze mirrors at the beginning of the third century CE.

Abstract: The 14 mausoleums in the Xibeigang royal mausoleum precinct at Anyang, Henan are all robbed for many times, the earlier ones of which were the most severe; almost all of the grave goods in the chambers were sacked away. The comprehensive analyses based on the description of the excavation reports to the early robbing tunnels revealed that these robbing tunnels have clear features of simultaneity. This large-scale robbing activities to these royal mausoleums in a relatively short time should be carried out by the Zhou people at the beginning of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and might have been related to the historic fact of Duke Zhou’s eastward expedition against Wugeng’s rebellion.