Volume 13, Issue 1

In February through June 2011, Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Suizhou Museum excavated Yejiashan Cemetery of the Western Zhou Dynasty. The excavation uncovered areas of 3700sq m in total, from which 65 tombs and one horse pit were recovered and over 700 pieces (or sets) of artifacts including bronzes, potteries, proto-porcelain wares and jades were unearthed. Some bronzes bore inscriptions of “Zeng 曾”, “Hou 侯 (marquis)”, “Zeng Hou 曾侯 (Marquis of Zeng)”, “Zeng Hou Jian 曾侯谏 (Marquis of Zeng named Jian)” and so on. The styles of the grave goods and the inscriptions on the bronzes showed that this cemetery was the family cemetery of the Marquis of Zeng in the early Western Zhou Dynasty. The excavation of the Yejiashan Cemetery has academic significances for the researches on the relationships between the Zeng and E States and Zeng and Chu States to the east of the Han River in the early Western Zhou Dynasty.

In 2009 through 2011, Nanjing Museum conducted rescue excavations to the tombs of the Han Dynasty at Dayun Hill in Xuyi County, Jiangsu, which uncovered a rather well preserved mausoleum precinct of the feudatory kings of the Western Han Dynasty. In total, three main tombs, 11 attendant tombs, two chariot-and-horse pits, two weaponry pits and the mausoleum architecture remains were discovered. Among them, Tombs No. 1 and No. 2 yielded large amounts of lacquer wares, bronzes, gold and silver wares and jades including jade coffin and jade burial suits sewn with gold wires, etc. Referring to the historic literature and the archaeological materials, the occupant of Tomb No. 1 was confirmed to be Liu Fei, the first generation of the feudatory king of Jiangdu Kingdom of the Western Han Dynasty and the mausoleum precinct of the Western Han Dynasty at Dayun Hill was that of the first generation of the feudatory king of Jiangdu Kingdom.

In October 2010, the Shandong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology conducted a rescue excavation to a tomb of the Western Han Dynasty (numbered M2) near Lingsheng Lake in Dingtao County. This tomb was in a 甲-shaped plan; the grave built of rammed earth above the ground was roughly square, and the walls were lined with wooden planks; the wooden coffin chambers were protected with large amounts of accumulated sand on all sides and lined with wellbaked gray bricks on all sides and the roof. The coffin chambers were a large-scale “ huangchang ticou ” wooden architectural complex consisting of three main chambers - a front chamber, a central chamber, and a rear chamber - as well as side chambers, doorways, corridors, outer storage chambers and ticou walls (built of cypress heartwood timbers laid horizontally, with their stacked ends forming the faces of the walls). Many bricks bearing writings in red or black pigment or inscriptions were unearthed from this tomb. This is the best-preserved largescale “ huangchang ticou ” tomb found to date in China. It can be seen as representative of the most mature form of the “ huangchang ticou ” burial system and as a transitional stage to the tomb format consisting of a large brick chamber with ambulatory. It constitutes very valuable material for research on the use of the “ huangchang ticou ” burial system during the Han Dynasty.

On August 19 through 25, 2011, Cultural Relics Conservation Institute of Tibet Autonomous Region and the China Tibetology Research Center made systematic surveys to the three grottoes in Zone I of Chang mo Grottoes. The Grotto 1 in Zone I is a single-chamber statue grotto in Ω-shaped plan, on the west, north and south walls of which clay sculptures and murals are found. Grotto 2 is a multi-chamber grotto, in which remains of clay sculptures and murals are found. Grotto 3 consists of two adjacent single-chamber grottoes, in both of which only murals are found. The discovery of this grotto group has very important reference values to the researches on the developments of the early Buddhism and Buddhist art in Tibet, even the progress of the Tibetan social history in the early Second Propagation of Buddhism. The sculptural format of Vajradhatu Mandala in these grottoes provided precious materials for the researches on the diffusion of Vajradhatu Mandala in Tibet, the development of Tibetan Vajrayana Buddhism and other relevant issues.

In 2010, the Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology excavated the Xiahe Site located at Xiahexi Village in Baishui County, Shaanxi Province. The outstanding findings included three large-sized house structures featuring pentagonal plans, inner and outer walls, and lime-plastered floors made from calcareous nodules ( liaojiang ). F1 was the largest of the three structures. The assemblage of material remains comprised mainly potsherds, as well as some stone, bone and shell artifacts. The potsherds from F1 showed pottery assemblage of pointed-bottomed bottle, bowl, basin, jar, zeng -steamer and lid. That from F2 showed pottery assemblage of pointed-bottomed bottle, bowl, basin, jar and vat. The style of material remains chronologically placed the Xiahe occupation to the late Miaodigou Phase. The findings are significant to the study of architecture, settlement pattern and economy of the Yangshao Age.

This paper discusses the characteristics and significance of the three large pentagonal semi-subterranean houses of the Miaodigou Phase (F1, F2 and F3) at the Xiahe Site in Baishui County, Shaanxi Province. The construction of these houses comprised six steps. The living floors were plastered with lime made from calcareous nodules obtained from the local loess formation. F1 was built on the primary earth surface; wherein F2 was built on the foundation of F3, which was previously burnt to the ground. The living floor of F1 occupied 304.5sq m, making it the largest house structure of its archaeological phase ever found. We maintain that these structures might have been used for religious and communal occasions. The findings of these remarkably large houses are significant to the understanding of the manipulation and organization of resources in the Xiahe community. Furthermore, the technological achievements indicted by them are deemed to be the precursor of palatial architectures in China.

The Hualong Cave Site of Paleolithic Age in Dongzhi County, Anhui Province yielded rich animal fossils, bone implements bearing clear processing traces and use-wears, and more than 100 pieces of stone implements. On the animal fossils, the animal gnawing marks and artificial cutting traces were found together; the stone implement assemblages and the preservation features of the animal fossils implied that these animal bones were utilized by the human beings, but these human beings were not hunters but scavengers eating remnants of the preys left by the predator animals. The stone implements of Hualong Cave Site were mainly made of siliceous rock and the choppers took smaller proportion than scrapers, showing the characteristics of the lithic industry in the late Paleolithic Age.

In 2007, Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology conducted survey and trial excavation to the Xiaowu Site in Lingbao City. The trial excavation recovered two tombs of early Yangshao Culture. Both of the tombs were rectangular earthen pit tombs of multiple secondary burials. The M1 of them yielded 79 individuals of human skeletons, and M2 yielded 17 individuals. The M1 was one of the large-scale multiple secondary burial tombs of the Yangshao Culture yielding the most individuals of human skeletons found to date. In the Sanmenxia area, the secondary burials of the Yangshao Culture are rare; these two secondary burial tombs found in Xiaowu Site are the first discovery of this type of burials of early Yangshao Culture in this area, and also the second collective discovery of multiple secondary burial tombs of early Yangshao Culture at the joint area of Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan Provinces in the recent several decades, so they have significant academic values.

In 2008, Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and other institutions excavated Zhangxiwan Site, which is the latest and the easternmost Neolithic city site in the middle reach of the Yangtze River known to date. Based on the features of the potteries unearthed in the city site, the cultural remains of this city site can be divided into three phases corresponding to the early, middle and late phases of Shijiahe Culture. The city walls began to be built roughly in the early phase of Shijiahe Culture, but it was abandoned in the middle or late phases of Shijiahe Culture. The discovery of Zhangxiwan City Site provided important materials and brand-new prospect for the understandings to the development processes of the prehistoric cities and the deep causes of their construction and abandonment and the process of the civilization during the prehistoric period in the middle reach of the Yangtze River.

In 2008, Hubei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and other institutions excavated Yejiamiao City Site, which brought to light an important discovery of prehistoric city and settlement archaeology in the middle reach of the Yangtze River in recent years. The whole city site consisted of the Yejiamiao City Site, Jiashan Site and the auxiliary settlement sites at Yangjiazui and Hejiabu Villages. Based on the characteristics of the city walls, moats and the potteries unearthed at the cemeteries, the cultural remains in this site can be divided into three phases corresponding to the early phase of Qujialing Culture, late phase of Qujialing Culture and the early phase of Shijiahe Culture. The city walls and moats were constructed in the late phase of Qujialing Culture; the cemetery of Jiashan Site was used from the early phase of Qujialing Culture to the early phase of Shijiahe Culture; the urn burials in the cemetery were the most unique and rarely seen in the middle reach of the Yangtze River.

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 650sq 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 burials. 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, yongzhong -bells, bells, ge -dagger axes, plaques, belt ornaments, linchpins, axle hubs, horse bits, cowries, chariot bells, knives with ring-shaped pommels, and so on. The decorative patterns had totally 19 types. The artifacts and remains related to bronze casting are furnace wall fragments, 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.

The Xiongjiazhong Graveyard is situated on a low hill to the west of Zhangchang and Zongbei Villages in Chuandian Town, Jingzhou City, Hubei Province. It is 550m long from the north to the south and 200m wide from the west to the east and is composed of main tombs, auxiliary tombs, human victim burials, sacrificial pits and chariot-and-horse pits. From March to December 2008, the Jingzhou Municipal Museum excavated there six horse pits, three small chariot-and-horse pits, and a larger part of a large-sized chariot-and-horse pit (the “grand chariot-and-horse pit” which was numbered CHMK1 by the excavators), in which various types of chariots are orderly arranged in two rows. Judged by the unearthed bronzes and the date of the whole graveyard, the chariot-and-horse pits were probably built in the mid Warring-States Period. The grand chariot-and-horse pit at Xiongjiazhong is also the largest among those discovered so far throughout China. So its excavation is of great value to the study of the chariot system in the Warring- States Period.

In June through August 2006, Xuzhou Museum excavated the M1 at the Heitou Hill in the eastern suburb of Xuzhou City. This tomb was a vertical stone shaft pit tomb of the early Western Han Dynasty; it had an earthen mound above the grave and attendant burials were found around it. In the rammed earth fill of the grave, five layers of sealing stones were found; the burial furniture was wooden coffin, in which two human remains were found, showing that this tomb was a couple joint burial. From this tomb, large amount of exquisite grave goods were unearthed, including potteries, bronzes, jades and agate objects, iron objects, bone and wooden objects, etc. The eight seals among the grave goods were the official and private seals of the tomb occupants, from the text of which we know that the name of the male occupant of the tomb is Liu Shen, and estimate him as a member of the royal family of the Chu Feudatory Kingdom of the Western Han Dynasty.

In April 2009, Datong Municipal Institute of Archaeology excavated a mural tomb of the Northern Wei Dynasty at Yunboli Neighborhood in the south of urban Datong City. This tomb was a single-chamber tomb comprising the long ramp passageway, the sealing wall, the entrance, the corridor and the chamber built in the popular style of the Pingcheng period of the Northern Wei Dynasty. The grave goods unearthed from this tomb included glazed potteries, stone implements, silver and bronze wares, iron implements and bone objects; the motifs of the murals were feasting and hunting scenes, honeysuckle patterns and dragon and phoenix designs, the contents and styles of which all have features of Tuoba Xianbei ethnic group.

In 2010 through 2011, the Sino-Japanese Joint Archaeological Team organized by the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties (Nabunken), Japan, recovered the foundation of the southwestern corner structure (numbered Architectural foundation No. 5) of the Northern Wei Dynasty Palace City to the west of Changhe Gate. This excavation not only found the exact location of the southwestern corner of the Northern Wei Dynasty Palace City and the orientations, scales and structures of the palace wall and drainage system but also made us more clearly understand the first building date and the continuation of use of this section of the palace wall. This discovery is significantly meaningful for the researches on the layout of the Northern Wei Luoyang City and the evolution of the planning of the capital cities in ancient China.

In January 2012, a rescue excavation was conducted to a Buddhist sculpture hoard in the Ye City Site of the Northern Dynasties located in present-day Linzhang County, Hebei Province, from which a bunch of important academic materials was recovered. Among these recovered artifacts, 2895 sculptures (intact or damaged) have been registered and numbered, plus almost 3000 fragments. Most of these sculptures were made of white marble, and one tenth of them bore inscriptions. Their dates were mainly the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi Dynasties, with few exceptions belonging to the Northern Wei and Tang Dynasties. This hoard is the one yielding the most Buddhist sculptures found since the founding of the People’s Republic, and this discovery showed the position of the Ye City as the centers of the Buddhism, culture and art in the Central Plains and North China during the late Northern Dynasties.

In 2009, Xinjiang Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology conducted rescue excavation to the cultural remains in front of the Bezeklik Thousand-Buddha Caves located in Turfan Basin. The excavation recovered 54 remains including caves, house foundations, stupas, etc. The date of these remains was the Qoco Uyghur Period. The artifacts unearthed from these remains were potteries, wooden and stone implements, iron and bone objects, textiles and manuscripts; in some caves, murals and ground paintings were found. This excavation provided new data for the researches on the Bezeklik Thousand- Buddha Caves.

The term “archaeology of traditional industry” refers to the archaeological researches on all of the processing, manufacturing and mining industries before the occurrence of the modern Industrial Revolution. The putting forward of this concept has profound backgrounds of theory and time. The traditional industry had very diversified specialties, which could be classified into 25 categories. The researches on the archaeology of traditional industry mainly include the materials, tools and apparatuses, techniques and operation sequences, products, the circulation and consumption of products, producers, methods of producing and managing, industrial distribution and structure, social economy and social culture, in total the contents of these ten aspects; the research methods mainly include basic archaeological methods, multi-disciplinary cooperative researches and multi-perspective researches, etc.

At the time of the Dongzhuang and Miaodigou Types of the Yangshao Culture, the archaeological cultures in most regions within present-day China formed for the first time into a cultural community with the Central Plains as the center. The new period during which this cultural community existed is known as the Miaodigou Age. Seen as a whole, the Miaodigou Age was formed under the influence of the powerful expansion of Dongzhuang and Miaodigou Types of Yangshao Culture around 4000 BCE, the completion of which marked the formation of the “Early Chinese Cultural Sphere” or the “Early China” in a cultural sense.

By careful analyses to the available data to date, this paper discusses the issues on the custom of burying dogs in the burials in the prehistoric times, including the temporal and spatial distribution of dog burials, the different characteristics of the dog burials in different times and regions, the intentions of burying dogs in the human burials and the changes and evolutions of them, and so on, by which this paper suggests the origins of this custom and the cultural inheritance of the cultures in the historic period reflected by the appearances of this custom, and finally puts forward new clues of searching for the place of origin of the Shang civilization.

In 2006 through 2009, 17 tombs and one chariot and horse pit of the Warring-States Period were excavated at Majiayuan Cemetery in Zhangjiachuan County, Gansu Province. From these tombs and the pit, over 30 chariots in various types and with diversified decorations were unearthed. This paper tries to restore these chariots based on their remains and the records in the relevant historic literature, and discusses the functions of the newdiscovered parts and ornaments as well as the evolution of the double-wheeled and single-poled chariots.

The local-styled tombs of the Warring-States Period to the Western Han Dynasty recovered at Kele Site in Hezhang County, Guizhou Province had rich cultural connotations and distinct features, the “head encasing” burial custom of which was especially unique. These tombs showed sharp differences to the Han-styled tombs in the same cemetery and other regional cultural remains in peripheral areas and represented a new archaeological culture in the Xinan Yi (Southwest Barbarians) Region of the Warring-States to the Qin-Han Periods, which could be named as “Kele Culture”. The putting forward of the concept of “Kele Culture” and the research on it had great academic significance; they will positively influence the archaeological researches on the Xinan Yi Region of the Warring-States to the Qin-Han Periods and lay firm foundation for the in-depth archaeological exploration of Yelang Culture.

Erlitou is an important site of pre-Qin cultural remains at which the earliest bronze casting workshops in China known to date were discovered. Based on the observation and analyses of the bronzes, pottery molds and foundry ladles, this paper discusses the bronze casting techniques of the Erlitou Site. The most noticeable characteristic of the bronzes unearthed at Erlitou is that their walls are thin but even, showing that at the time of the Erlitou Culture, bronze casting techniques had reached a rather high level: rational mold division and precise mold positioning techniques had appeared; the mold designs of some bronzes with simple shapes had fallen into patterns that saw continued use throughout the Bronze Age; the mold designs of bronzes with complex shapes (especially jue cups) were not stereotyped and unchanging; and defects occurring in the casting process were corrected with a burning-on technique which was the incipient form of the cast-joining technique, an extremely important feature of pottery mold casting. The material components of the pottery molds and their processing techniques; the pottery mold positioning technique; and the pouring cups and foundry ladles found at Erlitou prove that the Erlitou Culture was capable of casting small bronze vessels with thin and even walls. These technical achievements reflect the fact that in the early Bronze Age, sophisticated pottery mold casting techniques existed in China, laying a firm technical foundation for the high development of bronze casting techniques during the Bronze Age.