kaguxuebao2005-2

KaoguXuebao 2005-2

A BRIEF RESEARCH ON THE ORIGIN OF THE EARLY FLAT-BOTTOMED AMPHORAS FROM SOUTHWEST CHINA AND THEIR ETHNIC ATTRIBUTE
by
Xie Chong’an
The rock-cut tomb and cist burial culture prevailed once in ancient southwest China. There have long been many discrepancies of views on its origin, evolution, periodization and ethnic attribution in academic circles. Based on an analysis of the pottery flat-bottomed amphoras that constitute its major characteristic feature, the present paper points out that these typical vessels were roughly distributed in the upper Minjiang River valley, western Sichuan, eastern Tibet, northwestern Yunnan, southwestern Sichuan, and the areas to the west of the Dianchi Lake and to the east of the Erhai Lake. Most of the amphoras recorded so far are unearthed from rock-cut and cist tombs while a small number from earthen-pit, brick-and-stone and brick k-chambered burials. Those found in Yunnan are from earthen-pit and cist tombs. Through a systematic study of their typological classification, periodization and origin, the author comes to the conclusion that the emergence of these vessels resulted from the constant southward migration of nomads belonging to the Di-Qiang ethnic group in northwest China. The starting point of these vessels can be traced to the turn from the Xia to the Shang period. Latter, with the amalgamation of ethnic groups and the formation of a plural national unity in the Han Dynasty, these immigrants gradually changed their way of life from husbandry to settled farming, and in southwest China early-style flat-bottomed amphoras became extinct little by little. Therefore their lower limit was the Eastern Han period. Thus they were out of prevalence in the Eastern Han period.
The above-described amphoras fall roughly into five types and further into several subtypes and styles, which represent respective temporal and spatial links of their evolutionary sequence. Their proto-type and similar forms must have originated from the Keshengzhuang II, Qijia, Siba, and Kayao cultures in the northwest China.
The cultural source and ethnic attribution of early-style flat-bottomed amphoras in the southwest China reflect clearly that from the Bronze Age to the early Iron Age, owing to the collision of civilizations and the acceleration of their development, a migration ware was again brought about in the ethnic history of west China. The southward migration of the Di-Qiang ethnic group from northwest China was an important origin of nationalities and their cultures in ancient southwest China.

THE SECOND EXCAVATION OF ANCIENT TOMBS AT MAITUO, WUSHAN, CHONGQING
Chongqing Municipal Bureau of Culture
Hunan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology
and
Wushan County Office for the Preservation of Ancient Monuments

The first excavation at Maituo, Wushan, which revealed 19 tombs, basically clarified the cultural characteristics of the Han tombs in the cemetery and preliminarily established the periodization criteria for these tombs. Among the 13 tombs uncovered in the present, second excavation besides four Han tombs, there are newly discovered burial types that belong to the Warring States, Southern Dynasties and Song. They provided new data for further research into the cultural features of this graveyard in different periods.
The achievements in the present excavation consist mainly in the following two aspects. The first is the discovery of three tombs belonging to the late Warring States period. They represent the Chu cultural complex in an area dominated by the Qin State. The second is the revelation of an Eastern Han high-rank tomb in a good condition (M47). The tomb contains over 100 funeral objects, including objects in gold, silver, bronze and lacquer that reflect the tomb owner’s wealth, as well as rare treasures of art, such as exquisite glazed pottery tomb-figurines of dancers, lamps with toad-shaped stands, and large-sized pottery, tomb guardians, animals, human figures and statues of the Western Queen Mother that are represented in various positions. The unearthed pottery models of buildings, such as those of theatres and watchtowers delicate in workmanship and clear in layout, are valuable to studying Han architecture. These finds provide precious data for systematically studying Han period production technology, culture and art, building style, religion, and burial customs.

ARCHAEOLOGICAL SURVEY, PROSPECTION AND EXCAVATION OF THE ANTERIOR HALL SITE OF THE EPANGGONG PALACE
Epanggong Palace Archaeological Team Jointly Organized by the Institute of Archaeology, CASS, and the Xi’an Municipal Institute of Archaeology and the Preservation of Ancient Monuments

The Epanggong Palace site of Qin period lies to the south of the Weihe River and to the west of the old Zaohe River course that extends 13 km west of Xi’an City. It stands opposite to the Qin capital Xianyang across the river. From October 2002 to December 2004, the Epanggong Palace Archaeological Team made a prospection on the anterior hall site, covering 350,000 sq m, and revealed an area of 3,000 sq m by trial and extensive excavations. The results include a rough understanding of the limits of the hall and the layout of its auxiliary buildings. It can be confirmed that the rammed earth foundations of the hall represents just the anterior hall of that of the Qin Epanggong Palace. What merits special notice is that there are no fire traces on the site of the anterior hall of the Qin Epanggong Palace, which forms a clear contrast to the archaeologically excavated Nos. 1－3 palaces in the Qin capital Xianyang that were destroyed by a great fire. Thus the excavations prove that the historically handed-down belief taking the Qin Epanggong Palace to have been fired by Xiang Yu is actually incorrect. There are no any building remains on the excavated hall foundations, which demonstrate that the anterior hall was not completed and that the Qin Epanggong Palace was destroyed not by fire.

A DISCUSSION ON THE SHANG PERIOD PALACE-FOUNDATIONS ONTHE PANLONGCHENG SITE
by
Du Jinpeng

The large-sized rammed-earth building foundations on the Panlongcheng site at Huangpi are remains of early Shang period palace complex.
The No. 1 Panlongcheng palace consists of four rooms with wooden-framed walls. The two rooms in the middle each have two doors on the northern and southern sides respectively; while the two end rooms have only southern doors. So the No. 1 palace must have been in the center of the whole building complex. The roof supported by peripheral columns and wooden-framed walls can be reconstructed to be hipped and single- or double-eaved. The hypothesis that the No. 1 palace may have had projecting-eaves columns has not been confirmed.
The No. 2 palace is an open hall without peripheral walls and room division; its roof is supported by peripheral columns only. The idea of reconstructing it as a building with pilasters and multiple rooms seems to lack archaeological evidence.
The remaining vestiges show that there were side corridors in the two flanks of the main hall of the No. 2 palace. Referring to the Shang period palace material unearthed from the Shang city-site at Yanshi and other localities, it can be inferred that either of the Nos. 1 and 2 palaces must have had an eastern corridor and a western one, and, in addition, the No. 2 palace must have had a southern corridor with a gate house.
The Nos. 1－3 palaces of the Panlongcheng site formed three compounds located one behind another, and belonged to the type of court-and-living building complex. Among them the No.2 palace was the outer court for holding great ceremonies, the No. 1 palace was the inner court for handling daily administrative affairs, and the No. 3 palace was the king and queen’s living place. To the southeast of the No. 2 palace remains a group of rammed-earth house-foundations, which must have been left over from another type of palace building, possibly an ancestral temple.
The remaining city-walls at Panlongcheng must have belonged to the peripheral city-walls. The palace area is in the northeast of the enclosed area, accounting for 1/4 of the total. If there were enclosing walls around the palace area, they must have been to the east of the northern gate of the peripheral city-walls and to the north of the eastern gate.