Qin Xiaoli,

The Research on the Annular Ornaments of  Neolithic Age …………… (151)

Shi Jingsong,

The Researches on the Artifacts Unearthed From the Sacrificial Zone of Jinsha Site …………………………………………………………………………(183)

Han Guohe and Zhang Xiangyu,

The Periodizational and Chronological Researches on the Medium- and Small-sized Tombs of the Western Han Dynasty in Xi'an Region ………… (213)

Zhouyuan Archaeological Team,

The Excavation of the Bronze Casting Remains in Locus West of Zhuangli Village at Zhouyuan Site in the Springs of 2003 and 2004…………………………………(245)

 

    As one type of the ornaments in various types and forms, annular ornaments showed strong diversity in quantities, materials and wearing customs. In this paper, the annular ornaments unearthed from over 150 Neolithic sites distributed in six regions are collected and analyzed. Firstly, the changes of materials and types along with the time and space and the distribution in the burials and sites of these annular ornaments are subject to quantitative analysis. Secondly, through the observation to the wearing positions and the measuring of the diameters of the annular ornaments, the similarities and differences of the wearing methods and the genders and ages of the wearers in these regions are compared and the social rites and etiquettes, ornament wearing customs and social cultural backgrounds reflected by the results of these comparisons were stated.

    The pottery rings, a type of annular ornaments peculiar to the Neolithic Age, were widely distributed and unearthed in large amounts and diversified forms; moreover, the special discovering positions -- not in burials as grave goods or body ornaments of the dead -- implied their special natures different from that of rings made of jade, stone, bone, shell, etc. This fact might reflect that the pottery rings had nothing to do with the ritual activities showing statuses. The ritual activities of the ornament wearers usually corresponded to their social statuses when they were alive; however, the large amounts of jade or stone rings unearthed from the tombs were not worn on the wrists but placed at the shoulders, abdomens, heads of the tomb occupants. These annular ornaments which were out of body ornamenting functions had strong of ritual nature, and their materials and quantities were decided by the statuses and positions of their owners as other ritual implements. In this situation, these rings played a social role of symbolizing ritual activities. On the contrary, the pottery rings were suitable for the women and children to wear, and they could be made into many beautiful and variable types, so their functions may be pure body ornamenting.

 

 

    In the Sacrificial Zone of Jincha Site in Chengdu City, many golden wares, bronzes, jades, stone and wooden implements and ivories dated as from the late Shang Dynasty to the Spring-and-Autumn Period were unearthed. These artifacts have strong similarities to those unearthed from the sacrificial pits in Sanxingdui Site in Guanghan County, which showed that the culture represented by the artifacts found from Jinsha Site and that by the artifacts found from Sanxingdui Site had identity and continuity.

    Similar to those of Sanxingdui Site, the artifacts unearthed from the Sacrificial Zone of Jincha Site also emphasized power and the sun worship; however, these artifacts were left by many times of actually conducted sacrificial ceremonies, and the ceremonies held in different times and themes had different artifact assemblages and burying methods. This reflected that in the time of Jinsha Culture, the sacrificial activities were different from those of Sanxingdui Culture, the latter of which were making large amounts of artifacts representing the worshipped deities, sacrificial ceremony participants, sacrificial ceremony scenes and so on and offering them in the ancestral temples or deity temples.

    The categories and quantities of the bronzes unearthed from Sacrificial Zone of Jinsha Site were both much fewer than that of Sanxingdui Site; moreover they were made in small sizes and thin bodies with forging technique and decorated with openwork or color painting, and were usually replaced by stone and wood carvings, jades and lacquer wares. Referring to the component analysis results of the bronzes, we can infer that the bronzes of Jinsha Site had these features was because at the time of Jinsha Culture, the raw materials for making bronze was scanty. The insufficiency of resources might be a new clue for us to understand the abandonment of Sanxingdui Site and the rising of Jinsha Site.

    The relics of Jinsha Sacrificial Zone showed clear local features and the culture represented by them bore more independence. This is different from the archaeological discoveries at Zhuwajie in Pengzhou City, the bronzes among which bearing Shang and Zhou styles showing that the Shang and Zhou Cultures had influenced other places on Chengdu Plain outside the Jinsha Site. Moreover, the relics with features like those of the artifacts from Jinsha Site disappeared since the Western Zhou Dynasty, and the whereabouts of the culture represented by them became a new research issue. However, some features of the Zhuwajie bronzes were inherited by the Ba-Shu Cultures in the Eastern Zhou Period.

 

 

    During the Western Han Dynasty, Xi'an region was the political, economic and cultural centers of the empire; the splendid history of this period left plentiful and valuable cultural heritages, among which the tombs were one of the most important components. This paper makes systematic periodizational research on the medium- and small-sized tombs of the Western Han Dynasty in this region based on the published materials and the past researches done by other scholars with the methods of archaeological typology.

    The Western Han tombs had many types, but could be generally classified into two large groups: vertical shaft tombs and cave tombs. The large- and medium-sized tombs were mainly the vertical shaft tombs but were gradually transforming to cave tombs; the small-sized tombs were mostly cave tombs. The general evolution trends of the Western Han tombs were from earthen shaft or earthen cave tombs to brick- or stone-chamber tombs and from single-chambered to multi-chambered tombs.

    The grave goods of the Western Han tombs had countless types and categories, but this paper only selects the typical potteries, bronze mirrors and coins to analyze. The potteries were mainly fine grey pottery and glazed pottery with fine red body, while sandy potteries were very rare. Their types were mainly ritual vessels simulating bronze ones and funeral objects simulating daily utensils, the most time-sensitive types of which, such as ding-tripods, cases, fang-square wine jars, vases with garlic-shaped rim, vases, jugs, jars, barns, stoves, zun-wine vessels, are subject to the typological analyses. Bronze mirrors and coins are important to date the tombs, and the coexistences of these two items with the tomb types and the typical grave good assemblages is also one of the central topics of this paper. These coexistences showed that the Western Han tombs in Xi'an region could be dated into four phases, and the Phases III and IV could be again dated into the early and later Stages, respectively: Phase I corresponded to the end of the Qin Dynasty through the early Western Han, the latest to the reign of Emperor Wendi; Phase II corresponded to the reign of Emperor Wendi to the early reign of Emperor Wudi (before the fifth year of Yuanshou Era, 118 BC); the early stage of Phase III, the later reign of Emperor Wudi to the early reign of Emperor Xuandi and the later, the later reign of Emperor Xuandi and the reign of Emperor Yuandi; the early stage of Phase IV, the end of Emperor Yuandi's reign to the time before the founding of the Xin Dynasty by Wang Mang and the lager stage, the Xin Dynasty or somewhat later.

 

 

     The Zhouyuan Site was one of the political centers of the Zhou people in the Western Zhou Dynasty, the archaeological excavations to which provided important data for the researches on all of the aspects of the society of the Western Zhou Dynasty, such as burials, chariot and horse pits, bronzes, oracle bones, etc. In the springs of the years 2003 and 2004, the two terms of excavations of Zhouyuan Archaeological Team to the Locus West of Zhuangli Village uncovered 650 sq m in total, from which 27 burials, one chariot and horse pit and 57 ash pits of the Western Zhou Dynasty were excavated. This report mainly introduces the ash pits and the potteries and bronze casting implements unearthed from these ash pits and strata. The analyses to the potteries showed that the excavated remains were formed in the later stage of the mid Western Zhou Dynasty to the late Western Zhou Dynasty. The pottery molds were found in six strata, 25 pits and the fills and looting tunnels of four tombs. Most of the molds were abandoned fragments after stripping, and the original types and patterns of 587 pieces of them could be identified. Most of these molds were outer molds and few of them were inner molds and cores. The molds for casting chariot and horse fittings took the first position in amount, followed by that for casting miscellanies, vessels, weapons and tools. The identified types are ding-tripods, yong-bells, bells, ge-dagger axes, plaques, belt ornaments, linchpins, axle hubs, snaffles, cowries, chariot bells, knives with ring-shaped pommels, and so on. The decorative patterns of these molds are yunlei (cloud-and-thunder) pattern, human figure, bird design, dragon design, kui-dragon design with the head turning back, tiger head design, ox head design, animal mask design, fish-scale pattern, double-ring pattern, whorl pattern, nested triangle pattern, nested heart-shaped pattern, cowry pattern, pentagonal pattern, spiral pattern, diagonal line and vertical line patterns, totally 19 types. The artifacts and remains related to bronze casting are furnace linings, pottery pipes, mushroom-shaped clay struts, etc. Bronze slag and small bronze items were also found in the remains. The materials fetched in these excavations are very valuable for the researches on the bronze producing techniques, work organizations and product circulations of the Western Zhou Dynasty.