Kaoguxuebao 2007-2

 

 

 

PERIODIZATION, REGIONALIZATION AND OTHER PROBLEMS

OF THE LATE PALEOLITHIC CULTURE IN NORTH CHINA

 

                                                  by  Du Shuisheng

 

 

Based on the summary of the newest achievements in the geological, geo-morphological, faunal and absolute chronological analyses of relevant sites, the late Paleolithic cultures so far generally recognized in North China can be divided into three stages, i.e. the periods of Salawusu culture, Shiyu culture and Hutouliang culture.

The first stage corresponds to the early phase of Stage III of deep-sea oxygen isotope and goes back to 50,000—35,000bp. During this period, the stone flake artifact industry prevailed across North China.

The second state corresponds to the late phase of Stage III of deep-sea oxygen isotope and goes back to 35,000—23,000bp, when great changes were taken place in the Paleolithic industry throughout North China. In Northwest and Northeast China, stone flake industry came into being; and some microliths appeared in southern Shanxi. In other regions, although stone flake industry remained the main body, the emergence of works of art, bone and antler artifacts and tombs indicate that man’s culture entered a new era.

The third stage corresponds to Stage II of deep-sea oxygen isotope and goes back to 23,000—10,000bp, when microlithic making became the principal industry of North China, with the artifacts falling into the Hutouliang and Xiachuan types.

The environmental changes of the late Paleolithic culture in North China were brought about mainly in the early phase of Stage II of deep-sea oxygen isotope. As the desert expanded and the see level descended, the stage of human activities was removed eastwards, which affected to a certain extent upon cultural relations between North China and Siberia. But in the late phase of Stage II of deep-see oxygen isotope that saw the shrinkage of the desert and the rise of the see level, the stage of human activities was removed westwards.

The demarcation between the mid and the late stages of the Paleolithic culture in North China should be put between the Salawusu and the Shiyu cultures. The Xiachuan-type microlithic culture must have originated in the area round the Bohai Bay in the prime of the last glacial epoch. The Hutouliang culture may have taken its source in Siberia and spread into part of North China in the final stage of the late Paleolithic Age.

 

 

A STUDY OF SUI JI ANNUAL SACRIFICE IN THE SHANG PERIOD

                                               by    Lian Shaoming

 

Sui Ji (岁祭annual sacrifice) was one of the most important sacrificial ceremonies in the Shang period. According to the “Shao Lao Gui Shi Li” of the Yi Li (Ritual) (《仪礼·少劳馈食礼》), it was a sacrificial activity held on certain days in the year. In ancient books it is also called “ Sui Shi岁事,” “Chang Shi常事,” “Chang Si常祀” or “Shi Si时祀,” and is recorded as a type of memorial activity held in order of the four seasons. As known from oracle-bone inscriptions unearthed from the Yin Ruins, the Sui Ji of the Shang period could be coincident with “Zhou Ji 周祭” in date with the difference that the former had animal victims while the latter had none. The Heavenly Stems of Sui Ji dates were generally the same as those of sacrificees’ day names. Before Sui Ji, divination was carried out repeatedly to select the date of sacrifice with ideal celestial phenomena and to decide the type, number, sex and color of animal victims. The ceremony was usually conducted by the Shang king in person, which is called “Wang Bin王宾” or “Wang Zhu王祝” in oracular inscriptions. Sometimes it was carried out without the presence of the king, who happened to be out on a journey. The sacrificees were mainly the Shang king’s late male and female ancestors, as well as the influencial figures that made before their death contributions of great significance in the history of the Shang Dynasty.

 

 

 

ON THE PERIODIZATION AND TYPOLOGY OF THE LAOGUANTAI CULTURE IN THE WEISHUI RIVER VALLEY

 

                                                     by    Zhang Hongyan

 

The Laoguantai culture is an early Neolithic culture assigned to ca. 8000—7000BP and distributed in the Weishui River valley. So far more than 40 sites have been discovered through many years of archaeological survey and excavation. The present paper makes a restudy of its periodization and typology on the basis of excavation data from the valley and comes to the following conclusions.

Firstly, judged by the stratigraphic evidence from the Tianshui Xishanping site and the evolutionary law of the pottery from type-sites, the developmental course of the culture can be divided into at least two phases. The early phase is represented by the remains of the Dadiwan I, lower Beiliu, Baijiacun and Xishanping I sites, while the late one, by those of the lower Beishouling, Xishanping II, Shizhaocun I sites. Each phase can be sub-divided into two stages. Secondly, as the areas of the Weishui valley differed from each other in natural environment, their Laoguantai remains show their respective regional features in a certain extent. Thus, in the light of its natural and geographical environments and cultural regional traits, the Laoguantai culture can be divided into the upper, middle and lower Weishui cultural sub-origions, which comprise the Dadiwan I and Xishanping II types, the Xuguang and early Beishouling types, and the Baijiacun and Laoguantai types respectively, i.e. each sub-region embraces correspondingly an early regional types and a late one.

 

 

 

RESTUDY OF WANJIABA-STYLE BRONZE DRUMS

   

                         by        Li Kunsheng and Huang Derong

   

    The Wanjiaba-style bronze drum is the most primitive among the types of bronze drums. Involving a serious of problems, such as when, where and from what it originated and how it evolved, it has long drawn great attention from academic circles. These objects are distributed primarily in Yunan, the unearthed totaling 47 pieces, then in Guangxi (three) and Sichuan (one); those scattered abroad comprise only eight in Vietnam and three in Thailand. In 1990, the authors published a preliminary study of them in the Kaogu No. 5 based on the then available five finds. The newly discovered by now have reached 33 items, which not only enriched our knowledge of bronze drums in quantity and distribution, but also provided a lot of valuable evidence for researching into their other aspects. On this basis the present paper makes a deep-going study on Wanjiaba-style bronze drums. First of all, it deals with their distribution, typology and chronology and the new finds by means of traditional archaeological method. Next, it researches on the fields previously untouched, such as the characteristic rhomboid-net pattern and four-legged reptile design on the inner wall and the arrowhead motif on the drum face; the source of material and the composition of metal, which are studied by means of modern scientific and technological examination and test; and European, American and Japanese scholars’ viewpoints, especially Vietnam researchers’, which are rather widely divergent from Chinese scholars’.

 

 

 

A PAINTED-PICTORIAL-STONE TOMB AT CHENPENG

IN NANYANG, HENAN

 

by

Jiang Hongjie, Hao Yujian, Liu Xiaobing and Ju Hui

 

This tomb lies east of Chenpeng Village of Wancheng District in Nanyang City. It is a brick-and-stone grave 1,215cm long in total, and consists of a tomb-passage and three side-by-side chambers, between which are partitions formed of stone pillars with intervals for leading. Each chamber has, from the front to the back, a gate, an anteroom, a door and a rear room, measuring 480cm in length, 495cm in width, and 280^o in azimuth. Its main body is structured of brick, and stone is used chiefly for building door lintels, pillars, leaves and thresholds, beams, beam pillars, supports, etc., totaling 51 pieces, and 39 pictorial stones with 83 panels (including 36 color-painted) are added to them. The mortuary objects comprise ding tripods, boxes, pots, and cooking range, mill, well, granary, chick, duck and dog models. Judged by its shape, grave goods and pictorial stones, the tomb can be dated to the Wang Mang period or the early Eastern Han.

As a sort of distinctive work of art, the pictorial stone in the Nanyang area made its first appearance in the mid to late Western Han, and the color-painted type came into being approximately at the same time. In the light of the published data, the inceptive works bears only vermilion and black. But those from this tomb are painted in seven colors, including vermilion, pink, earth-yellow, black, white and pale-green. They represent the technique of using multiple mineral pigments directly on the surface of limestone rock-carvings, which is really rare among the pictorial stones in Henan. The tomb is one of the large-scale, well-preserved painted-pictorial-stone burials. Moreover, with seldom-seen subjects, the works of art it contains provide a batch of new, valuable material for studying into the history of ancient Chinese painting and acrobatics.