Peng Chunyan, The Argument that the So-called Zuotu Ge-dagger Ax is Actually Tu Ge-dagger Ax ……………………………………………………………… (61)

ABSTRACT: In early 2010, the three institutions conducted surveys to the proto-porcelain kilns of the Shang Dynasty distributed in the middle reaches of East Tiaoxi River, in which over 20 kiln sites were found. In March through November 2010, the Nanshan (South Hill) Site among them was excavated, the uncovered area of which in total was 800 sq m. In the excavation, three kilns, eight ash pits, two storing cellars, one water ditch and several postholes were recovered; large amounts of proto-porcelain wares and some impressed hard potteries were unearthed. Nanshan Site was a kiln site of the Shang Dynasty, the products of which were almost all proto-porcelain wares and the time span of which was crossing the whole Shang Dynasty. This excavation provided important physical materials for the researches on the origins of porcelains and the producing areas of the proto-porcelain wares and the establishment of the chronological sequence of the proto-porcelain of the Shang Dynasty.

 

ABSTRACT: Since 2007, the excavations to the Dahekou Cemetery of the Western Zhou Dynasty located in Yicheng County, Shanxi Province have found over 600 burials and 20 chariot and horse pits, over 300 burials of which have been excavated. All of these burials were vertical shaft pit tombs in rectangular plan, most of which have waist pits containing dogs, some of which even had recesses on the walls. The burial furniture assemblages were single coffin, one outer coffin and one inner coffin or one outer coffin and two inner coffins. Most of the tomb occupants were in extended supine position; the grave goods of large- and medium-sized tombs were mainly bronzes and that of the small-sized tombs were mainly potteries. It is known from the inscriptions of the bronzes unearthed in this cemetery that the state clan name of the occupants of this cemetery was Ba霸 and Ba Bo (the Earl of Ba) was the paramount ruler. The excavations to Dahekou Cemetery is significantly meaningful for the researches on the enfeoffment system, ritual vessel-using system and the ethnic assimilation of the Western Zhou Dynasty.

 

ABSTRACT: In 2010, archaeological excavation was conducted to the Mudu Ancient City site located in Suzhou City, Jiangsu. The excavation recovered the remains of the north wall and moat at Wufeng Village, the south water gate (city gate through which a river or canal gets in or out) at Xinfeng Village and the east and west walls, from which proto-porcelain and pottery wares were unearthed. It is preliminarily inferred that the north wall was built in the late Spring-and-Autumn Period and the south water gate was used also in the late Spring-and-Autumn Period, and the Mudu Ancient City would be a metropolis in this period. The excavation to Mudu Ancient City site provided important archaeological clues for the exploration of the location of the capital of the Wu State and important starting point for the understanding of the various remains of the Eastern Zhou Period and the restoration of the social and cultural histories of that time.

 

ABSTRACT: In 2010, excavation was conducted to the Tuyoq Grottoes located in Shanshan (Piqan) County, Xinjiang. The excavation uncovered about 2500 sq m in total, from which remains of over 50 grottoes and attached architectures and one ground level Buddhist temple were recovered. In the remains, about 200 sq m of murals were unearthed, as well as large amounts of fragments of manuscripts, silk paintings and wooden implements. The caves of the Tuyoq Grottoes were arranged as multi-storied clusters centered by chaityas around which viharas, meditation caves and caves with other functions were opened. The two new-recovered chaityas would be opened around the fifth century and belonged to the Early Phase of Tuyoq Grottoes. The excavation to Tuyoq Grottoes provided precious materials for the researches on the ancient Buddhist cave temples and the history and cultures of the Turfan area.

 

ABSTRACT: Since 1995, four times of surveys and excavations have been conducted to the Laosicheng Site in Yongshun County, Hunan Province, which roughly made clear the distribution of the functional areas within the city site. The palace and office areas were in the center of the city site, surrounding which were the residential areas, tusi cemeteries, religious activity areas, villa and garden areas, and so on. The architectural materials unearthed from these areas were bricks, tile-ends, and eave tiles etc., the porcelain shards unearthed were mostly that of blue-and-white porcelains. The inscriptions and signatures of these porcelains had many contents related to the tusi of Yongshun County. Laosicheng Site and the peripheral architectures were mostly built in the Ming Dynasty. The excavations to Laosicheng Site is very valuable for the researches on the internal structure of the tusi society in Yongshun County, tusi system and the relationship between the central government and the minorities in the Ming Dynasty.

 

ABSTRACT: In April through July 2010, archaeological excavation was conducted to the sunken ship “Nan'ao I” of the Ming Dynasty in Shantou City, Guangdong Province. The discovered ship body was about 20 m long with 16 bulkheads and 15 compartments, the longest one of which was 7.5 m in length. Over 10,000 pieces of artifacts of various categories were recovered, most of which were porcelains, followed by potteries, bronzes and iron and tin wares, as well as over 15,000 bronze coins. Most of the porcelains were blue-and-white porcelains produced in Zhangzhou Kiln at the end of the 16th and the beginning of the 17th centuries, and the date of the sinking of the ship would be roughly the same. The discovery and recovering of “Nan'ao I” provided direct evidence for the researches on the material cultural interchanges among different civilizations and regions.

 

ABSTRACT: On January 11, 2011, “The Tenth Archaeological Forum of CASS: New Archaeological Discoveries in China during 2010” was held in the academic auditorium of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. On the forum, six scholars from Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Guangdong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the Institute of Archaeology, CASS made presentations to introduce the discoveries made by the projects managed my them, and the experts from Peking University, National Museum of China and the Institute of Archaeology, CASS made interpretations and commentaries to these new discoveries. These presentations reflected the new achievements of the fieldwork of Chinese Archaeology in 2010 and embodied the new developments, tendencies and professional level of the Archaeology cause in China.

ABSTRACT: The present report publishes the chronological data of 22 specimens dated by the ¹⁴C Laboratory of the Center for Scientific Archaeology, IA, CASS and Xi'an Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) Center, Institute of Earth Environment, Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS), from 2009 to 2010. These specimens came from the following sites: Liangzhu Site (3) in Yuhang District, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, Guicheng Site (6) at Hepingcun Village in Langao Township, Longkou, Shandong Province and Xipo Site (13) at Zhudingyuan in Yangping Township, Lingbao, Henan Province.

 

ABSTRACT: The Erlitou Site located at Yanshi City, Henan Province is a large settlement site of Erlitou Culture dated to 3800-3500 BP. According to the zooarchaeological study results, the bones of five animal species such as dog, pig, sheep/goat and cattle found in this site belonged to domestic animals. Tooth enamel samples of fauna including 10 pigs, 14 sheep/goats and 7 cattle from the Erlitou site were analyzed for strontium isotope ratio (⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr) by the thermal ionization mass spectrometry. In this paper, based on the local strontium isotopes ratio range determined by the mean ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr ratios ± 2 σ of pig enamel samples, we find out that seven sheep and two cattle from Erlitou Site fell well outside the local strontium isotopes ratio range and were considered to be non-local. The extreme distribution of the outliers suggests they came from different geographical locations.

 

ABSTRACT: Based on the morphological identification to the bones of the sheep and goats unearthed in Yinxu Site, through the statistic analyses to their Number of Identified Specimens (NISP), Minimum Number of Individuals (MNI) and ubiquities, this paper discusses the percentage of mutton in the meat consumption of the residents in the capital of the late Shang Dynasty, the percentage of the sheep and goats in the animal victims in the burials and the ratios between sheep and goats. Through the analyses to the age structure of death of these animals, the viewpoints are presented that the sheep and goats consumed by the residents of Yinxu were mostly juvenile individuals, matching the slaughtering mode of sheep and goat husbandry aimed on meat consumption, and the sources of the sheep and goats slaughtered for consumption were mainly relied on the outside supplies; the sheep and goats in the animal victims were also mainly juvenile individuals, reflecting the funeral rituals of “serving the death as they were alive”.

 

ABSTRACT: The new-published Neolithic Volume of Chinese Archaeology has a reasonable structure and clear logic, which are convenient for readers to understand; it stresses the new developments of archaeological theories, methods and technologies and pays much attention to the new achievements of multi-disciplinary studies; it comprehensively summarizes and elucidates the main discoveries and research results of the Neolithic Archaeology in all of the regions since the appearance of modern archaeology in China, constructs a relatively complete spatial-temporal framework of the archaeological cultures in the Neolithic Age of China and introduces different academic viewpoints and opinions with a disinterested mode, which is favorable for the readers to understand the history and status quo of the development of the studies on the Neolithic Archaeology of China and plays a role of a reference work somehow.