Yuanqushangbo

Summary

This book is the repprt of the excavation of 2002-2003 at the Shangbo Site，Wangmao Town in Yuanqu County，Shanxi Province by Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology.   
The Shangbo site is located at the east bank of the Boqing River which is the largest tributary of the Yellow River in the Yuanqu Basin．According to the landform which is that the northwest part is higher than the southeast part，we selected three sections as the excavated zones．The totally excavated area is about 2750 square meters．Different features composed of houses，kilns and pits were unearthed，and lots of artifacts made of stone，bone，horn and shell were discovered．Obviously，the pottery was the most important part，and more than 200 pieces were restorable．By the excavation，the archaeologists know that the main remains of the site could be divided into five periods：the middle period of Yangshao Culture，the late period of Yangshao Culture，Miaodigou II，Longshan period and Dongzhou period..
This report is divided into eight chapters： 
Chapter one：Preface 
Chapter two：Stratum and periodization 
Chapter three：Remains of the middle period of Yangshao Culture 
Chapter four：Remains of the late period of Yangshao Culture 
Chapter five：Remains of Miaodigou II period 
Chapter six：Remains of Longshan period 
Chapter seven：Remains of Dongzhou period 
Chapter eight：Conclusion     
The site was mainly Neolithic remains．Among them，the middle period and the late period of Yangshao culture and Miaodigou II remains are popular，but Longshan remains are relatively 1ess.In order to display the primary materials as many as possible and reflect the site’s cultural situation objectively and completely，we introduce the artifacts as the unit not as the type. 
In the middle period of Yangshao Culture，the features are various which consisted of houses, kilns and pits．The house is semi-subterranean round shaped，and the kilns are horizontal pits，that is the chamber is in front of the fire box at the same level．The pits are quite a lot and most are tubular and cauldron shaped. The cultural relics include artifacts made of stone，bone and pottery.  Most of the pottery is red, followed by the brown pottery with sands inside．The usual vessels are jiandiping bottles，basins, bowls, jars，which are mainly flat bottoms．By analyzing the stratigraphy and characters ofthe typical pottery vessels，this period could be divided into two stages．The ruins of the earlier stage are only discovered in the Ⅲ zone， and the typical wares are sharp-base bottles with the fallen-belly jar shaped mouth, open mouthed bowels with the red string painted outside the rim，and stringed coarse jar. These characteristics are similar to those of Beihan site in Linfen basin which is in the early phase of the miaodigou Type. The later stage remains are widely distributed in the three zones，and the whole situation is similar to the Xiyin site which is in the period of great prosperity of the Miaodigou Type．   
In the late period of Yangshao Culture，the majority of pits are bag-shaped and tubular shaped．Pottery is the major remains，and the sandy paste category is more than the former period．Meanwhile，the number of pottery increases, but the painted potteries obviously decreases．The typical types of pottery vessels are the same as before on the whole，such as jiandiping bottles，jars，basins ect，but the shape and number had changed. Some special shape wares are appeared．Unearthed from the pit H238，the pottery vessel which looks like a frog shape is unique，which has a vivid form and the meaning is indefinite but interesting．In view of the evolution of the characters of the typical wares，such as sharp-base bottles，coarse jars，and basins ect，this period could be divided into two stages．Though there is a little gap between the earlier stage and the later stage，the discovery of the remains in the later stage provides important clues to further study the connection between the late period of Yangshao Culture and the Miaodigou Ⅱculture in the Yuanqu basin．
In the MiaodigouⅡCulture，the bag-shaped pits were prevalent，occupied roughly 50 percentage of  the all pits. Pottery as the main remains，are much more various in types of vessels than before, and several kinds are new，such as jia tripods，fuzao vessels，kecao basins ect． Other usual wares are ding tripods， shenfuguan jars，xiaokouguan jars，daipanpen basins，cups，  bottles ect．More than 50 pieces are restorable. The grey pottery is dominating．Basket-marking，cord-marking and clay strip are the representative surface decoration. The clay coiling is still the common hand forming technique to make pottery．What’s more，molding as a new forming technique has appeared which is applied to make the tripod vessels． In this period, there are some interactions between different cultural types in near areas，especially the influences of the    Dawenkou Culture in the east and the Qujialing Culture in the south are obvious．
The remains of Longshan Culture are not abundance compared with other periods．The shapes of most pits are irregular. Pottery is mainly grey，and the vessels have become much more regular and thinner than before. The typical types are li tripods，jars，shuangfupen basins，cups，yan vessels ect．The pottery making technique has greatly improved in this period，and the forming technique is diversified, which is composed of throwing，molding and coiling，and throwing is predominant． The Shangbo site is an immportant Neolithic site which has abounded cultural remains．The most important thing is that the remains of the late period of Yangshao Culture as the major part，provide supplementary  information to bridge the gap between the Dongduan Ⅳ and Miaodigou Ⅱ Culture．At the same time，large numbers of valuable materials of this site are useful to further recognize the Neolithic cultural sequences and study the distribution and evolution of Neolithic settlements in Yuanqu Basin．