Volume 15, Issue 1

This paper puts forward a new interpretation about the casting techniques of Western Zhou bronze inscriptions, especially those cast in raised grids. In fuller consideration of the various phenomena seen on the bronzes, this paper suggests a nine-step workflow in which transitional molds were employed to produce the real casting core with raised texts to be used for final casting. This new theory not only fully explains the production of long inscriptions with sunken texts and raised grids, but also explains the technical details behind a number of recently discovered special inscriptions.

The Xichengyi Site covering areas about 35ha in total is located in the middle of the Hexi Corridor. In the excavations from 2010 through 2013, areas covering 1350sq m have been excavated, the remains recovered from which were dated as around 4100-3600 BP, lasting from the late Machang Culture, the Xichengyi Phase II period and the early Siba Culture. 351 features including house foundations, ash pits, pottery kilns and burials were recovered and over 2000 pieces (sets) of artifacts were unearthed, which revealed the origins of Siba Culture and preliminarily established the development sequence of the prehistoric cultures in the Heishui River Valley. The discovery of large amounts of remains and relics of metallurgy provided important materials for the researches on the early metallurgic technologies in Hexi Corridor. The discoveries of barley, wheat, mace head, adobe houses and so on are very meaningful for the explorations to the early cultural communication between the East and the West.

From August 2012 through January 2013, the Wenfengta Cemetery of the Eastern Zhou Period, located in the southeast portion of the present-day Yidigang Cemetery in Dongcheng District, Suizhou City, was excavated. 54 burials and three chariot-and-horse pits of the Eastern Zhou Period were found, from which 582 bronzes, including ritual vessels, weapons, chariot-and-horse fittings, tools, and other types, were unearthed. Many of these bronzes were relics of the Zeng State, and inscriptions including the terms “Zeng”, “Zeng Zi”, “Zeng Sun”, “Zeng Da sima” and so on were seen on some of them. Moreover, a bronze ge-dagger ax with an inscription containing the character “Sui” was unearthed from a tomb of the Zeng State. These bronze inscriptions show that the Wenfengta Cemetery was used by aristocrats of the Zeng State during the Eastern Zhou Period. The coexistence of inscriptions concerning the Zeng and Sui States has provided more evidence to support the suggestion that the Zeng and Sui States were one and the same. Following upon the discovery of the Western Zhou-era Zeng State cemetery at Yejiashan, the Wenfengta Cemetery is another important site of great significance for the complete restoration of the history of the Zeng State.

In recent years, systematic detections have been conducted to the remains of the roads, gates and gate towers and walls within the Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum precinct and larger scope, by which the comprehensive layout of the mausoleum precinct is more deeply understood; the discoveries of the outer storage pits, attendant burials, sacrificial architectures and other remains are significantly meaningful for the understanding to the imperial burial system; especially, the discovery of the large amount of architectural remains are very important for the research on the evolution of the mausoleum precinct system. The excavations of the pit K9901, the architectural remains within the inner mausoleum yard, the attendant burials within the inner mausoleum yard and the Terracotta Army Pit No. 1 provided new materials for recovering the process of the funeral ceremony of Emperor Qin Shihuang and understanding the structural system of the mausoleum architectures.

The remains of seven bridges in three groups across the Wei River to the north and northeast of the Chang’an City of the Western Han Dynasty discovered successively since 2012 filled in the blank of the archaeology of the bridges across the Wei River. Among the seven bridges, the Chucheng Gate Bridge No. 1 had huge size, which was the largest wooden structure bridge of the same period known to date. The 14C data showed that the Chucheng Gate Bridge No. 4 was built in the late Warring-States Period; the Chucheng Gate Bridge No. 1 was built in the Western Han and at least rebuilt for two times in the Eastern Han and the Three-Kingdoms Period and Western Jin Dynasty; the Luocheng Gate Bridge was built around the late Western Han through the early Eastern Han and the Chucheng Gate Bridge No. 3 was built in the Tang Dynasty. The coins of the Qing Dynasty unearthed in the excavated area of the Chucheng Gate bridges hinted that at latest in the Kangxi Era of the Qing Dynasty, the Wei River was still in the course of the Han through the Tang Dynasties, and the large-scale northward moving of the course of the Wei River would be after that period.

In July 2012 through August 2013, four earthen shaft pit tombs with wooden chambers were excavated in a cemetery of the Western Han Dynasty located in Tianhui Town, Jinniu District, Chengdu City. All of the four tombs, which had been looted and disturbed, were in similar sizes and same south-north orientation, and could be classified into two types by the presence and absence of the bottom chambers. 620 pieces of grave goods were unearthed from these tombs, most of which were lacquered wooden wares and pottery wares, as well as some bronzes and iron objects. The most important discoveries are the over 50 wooden tablets unearthed from M1, the jade seal and four loom models made of bamboo and wood unearthed from M2 and 920 (numbered) bamboo slips and lacquered human figurine with marks of meridians and acupuncture points unearthed from M3. The bamboo slips unearthed from M3 were mostly medical works, the contents of which were about medical theory, meridian and pulse, diagnoses, causes and symptoms of diseases and the treating of diseases, etc.

In March 2012, two brick-chamber tombs (numbered as 2013YCM1 and 2013YCM2) of the Sui and Tang Dynasties were found at Caozhuang Section of Situ Village in Xihu Town, Hanjiang District, Yangzhou City, Jiangsu. From March through November of that year, a joint archaeological team conducted detection and excavation to these tombs and the surrounding area, but no traces of graveyard were found. In M1, a stone epitaph with text of “Epitaph of the late Emperor Sui Yangdi” and so on was unearthed, the legible contents of which generally match the records in the historic literature. From the two tombs, the diexie belt decorated with 13 sets of jade plaques and gold plates, gilt bronze pushoudoorknockers, jade zhang-scepter, bronze chime bells and chime music stones and crown with phoenix design and other high-ranking and high quality grave goods were unearthed, as well as large amounts of elaborately and true-to-life made pottery human and animal figurines. The discoveries of the stone epitaph and the high-ranking and high quality grave goods fully proved that these two brick-chamber tombs found in Caozhuang are the final graves of Emperor Yangdi and Empress Xiao of the Sui Dynasty.

In 1988 and 1989, Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology conducted excavation to the Mount Dagudui lithic quarry site. The excavation unearthed about 11000 lithic products, most of which were flakes, followed by spear-shaped blanks, knife-shaped blanks, spade-shaped blanks, hoe-shaped blanks, adze-shaped blanks, chiselshaped blanks, cores, hammer stones and kitchen-knife blanks, etc. Mount Dagudui Site is very close to Taosi Site, and the shapes and categories of the stone products unearthed here are almost the same as those unearthed at the Taosi Site, and its 14C dating data are also within the chronological scopes of the Taosi Site, therefore this site is attributed to the Taosi Period. As the only lithic quarry site of the Neolithic Age found in the Linfen Basin to date, Mount Dagudui Site is significantly meaningful for the researches on the stone tool production, resource utilization and the communication among the sites in the Taosi Period.

Mount Dagudui Site is a lithic quarry site during the time of Taosi Culture. Large amounts of lithic blanks and halfproducts are found at this site, the materials of which are all the stones of metamorphic sandstone, and the spearshaped blank is the typical sample of these lithic products. In the angle of the lithology of the lithic products, this paper discussed the relationships between the Mount Dagudui Site and Taosi Site, as well as that among the other sites of the same period in the Linfen Basin, and further discussed the lithic resource utilization mode of the Mount Dagudui Site.

From August to October 2007, the Research Center for Chinese Frontier Archaeology of Jilin University and Jilin Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology conducted a joint rescue excavation in the western part of the Shuangta Site in Baicheng, Jilin Province. Remains from the Phases I and II of the site belonged to the Neolithic Age. The remains of the Phase I include pits, ditches, postholes, potsherd deposits and burials. The surfaces of most of the pottery wares are plain and the shapes are not very regular, and part of the wares’ surface showed that they were constructed by clay barcoiling method. The 14C analysis of the human bones and the TL measurements of the potsherds showed that the date of these remains was at least 10ka BP, which are the earliest Neolithic remains discovered so far in Northeast China. The remains of Phase II found in this excavation were only four burials. The grave goods include pottery wares and jades; the style of the jades is very similar to that of the Hongshan Culture, but the pottery wares have distinctive local characteristics very different from that. The tombs’ structures and the burial customs have even greater differences with that of the Hongshan Culture. Therefore, these remains certainly belonged to a new archaeological culture.

In March through December 2009, Anyang Archaeological Team of the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences conducted excavation to the remains of the Shang Dynasty at Wangyukou Locus South. The excavation recovered roads, house foundations, wells, ash pits, sacrificial pits, burials, etc. The family cemetery represented by tombs M103 and M94 was the main achievement of this excavation: the bronzes unearthed from these two tombs bore inscriptions with the same name as that of the diviner “ ” in the oracle bone inscriptions. Therefore, this cemetery might be the family cemetery of diviner “ ”. These two tombs belonged to Phases II and III respectively, the different characteristics shown by which provided rare materials for the researches on the positions of the diviner groups and the changes of the diviner in the Yinxu Period.

In 2012 and 2013, the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Shandong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Bureau of Cultural Relics, Linzi District conducted excavation to the remains of a mirror-casting workshop located to the south of Kanjiazhai Village within the large city of the Linzi City Site of the Qi State in Zibo City, Shandong. The recovered remains included casting pits, house foundations, wells, ash pits, kilns, paths and infant burials, the dates of which were mostly the Warring- States Period through the Qin and Han Dynasties; the ones related to the mirror-casting were casting pits, house foundations, wells and some ash pits. The pottery molds unearthed in the excavation were the face molds and back molds of mirrors. The stratigraphy, spatial structure and accumulation status as well as the large amount of mirror molds unearthed from the site all reflected that this site was a mirror-casting workshop site. The stratigraphic relationships and the unearthed artifacts showed that the date of this workshop was the Western Han Dynasty. The excavation of this mirror-casting workshop site provided valuable materials for the development of the relevant researches and can be seen as a great breakthrough of the researches on the bronze mirror-casting industry and technique of the Qin and Han Dynasties even the entire ancient China.

The mausoleum precinct of the Jiangdu Feudatory Kingdom at Dayun Hill is a well-preserved mausoleum precinct of the feudatory kingdoms of the Western Han Dynasty; the occupant of tomb No. 1 (M1) in this precinct was Liu Fei, the first generation of the feudatory kings of Jiangdu Feudatory Kingdom. M1 was a vertical stone shaft pit tomb in Φ-shaped plan with huangchang ticou (walls built of cypress heartwood timbers laid with their stacked ends forming the facing of the walls) structure. The tomb chamber had been looted in early years, but large amounts of grave goods including bronzes, iron implements, gold and silver wares, lacquer wares, jades, glass wares and pottery wares were unearthed. The excavation of M1 provided important materials for the in-depth researches on the burials of the feudatory lords of the Han Dynasty and their system.

Weiling Mausoleum located to the southwest of Xinzhuang Village of Zhouling Town, Weicheng District, Xianyang City, Shaanxi Province is the mausoleum yard of Liu Shi, the Emperor Yuan of the Western Han Dynasty. From November 2008 to June 2009, Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology and Xianyang Municipal Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology jointly conducted comprehensive investigation and exploration to the Weiling Mausoleum precinct, which covered an area of about 5sq km. The investigation and exploration confirmed the types of the burials of Emperor Yuan, Empress Wang and Zhaoyi (“lady of bright deportment”) Fu, discovered the scope of the precinct and the road network in it as well as the large amounts of architectural remains and storage pits, and basically grasped its shape, planning and structure, all of which are academically important for the researches on the types of the imperial mausoleums of the Western Han Dynasty and the relevant systems and regulations.

In 2010, a joint archaeological survey team organized by the scholars from China, the United States and Canada conducted archaeological survey in the southern and western parts of the Lake Dian Basin. The surveyed areas involved three towns, which were Kunyang in Jinning County and Haikou and Biji in Xishan District, Kunming City, covering areas of about 74sq km. The survey methods included onsite survey, core observation and hand coring test. The survey discovered two microlithic sites, 21 sites of the Bronze Age, five sites containing remains of both the Bronze Age and the Han Dynasty and one site of the Han Dynasty.

In 2007 through 2008, Academia Turfanica of Xinjiang excavated 30 burials at the Singim Cemetery. These burials can be classified into three types: rectangular shaft pit burials with ledges, rectangular shaft pit burials without ledges, and rectangular shaft burials with side rooms. Their grave goods consist of wooden wares, pottery wares, metal artifacts, leather and wool goods, silk garments; well-preserved mummified corpses and wheat seeds are also unearthed. The burial types, unearthed grave goods, and 14C data indicate that these burials date to between 2050 and 2200 BP, which overlapped with the Western Han Dynasty.

Referring to the results of the special surveys on the saltmaking archaeology in northern Shandong Province in recent years, the settlement pattern and the distribution rules of the salt-making workshops of the late Shang through Western Zhou Dynasties could be revealed. These workshops tended to be built in the places with the “yangzi” terrain (hillock or mound surrounded by wet lowland) or lacustrine landform, where the sweet water could be easily fetched. Through the comparative studies with the relevant situations in the Eastern Zhou Period, the issues such as the production organization and social attribution of the salt-making workshops of the late Shang through the Western Zhou Dynasties could be further explored. At that period, the salt-making industry was small-scaled production activities conducted by separated workshops without unified management, and this was exactly the fundamental cause for which the location selection of the salt-making workshops was heavily restricted by the natural resources.

This paper focuses on the bronze chickens unearthed in southwestern China dating back to the time from the Shang to the Han Dynasties. Among them, one bronze rooster from the pit No. 2 at the Sanxingdui Site looks similar to domestic chicken in appearance. Since it was unearthed together with bronze birds symbolizing the Sun, we may deduce that the bronze rooster probably symbolizes an idea that rooster crows at sunrise. In addition, most other bronze chickens unearthed in southwestern China are used as staff-head. This pattern perhaps is related to the fact that rooster crows and can be used for timing. The author concludes that the study of these bronze chickens, including their typology and archaeological background within the context of the biological habits of relevant animals as well as corresponding cultural phenomena, can to a certain extent help us identify the species of such animal-shaped artifacts and further supplement the identification criteria of domesticated animals.

In 2011 and 2013, 65 Western Zhou tombs of the Zeng State were excavated at the Yejiashan Cemetery in Suizhou City, Hubei Province. Among them, M1, M28 and M27 and M65 and M2 are the tombs of the earliest three generations of rulers and spouses of the early Western Zhou Dynasty. The bronzes unearthed from the Yejiashan Cemetery exhibit not only the characteristics of the common Western Zhou style in typological morphology and assemblage, but also local features reflecting local production. In the technical sense, the bronzes from the Yejiashan Cemetery bear special traits in modeling and molding details: some are of the style other than that of the Zhou, and others are imitations of the same type of bronzes. The characteristics of the bronzes of the Zeng State indicate that in the early Western Zhou Dynasty, the Zeng State has the capability of producing bronzes as it does during the transitional period from the Western Zhou through the Eastern Zhou Period.

Great progress has been made in the study of the measurement of the Han Dynasty by the efforts of scholars of several generations. Increasing new discoveries have refreshed our understandings as well. The discoveries and analyses of rulers of the Han Dynasty indicate that the commonly used rulers at that time were made of bronze, bone and wood. Their materials and decorations varied in terms of date and region, and were often found as grave goods in the burials of women. The actual length of the unit “chi” was generally 23cm during the Western Han and Xin (Wang Mang Interregnum) Dynasties and was usually 23.4cm in the Eastern Han Dynasty. It could be seen as the standard measurement during that time. Archaeological research should calculate and understand the size of objects and architecture of the Han Dynasty based on this scale, but had better not be restricted by it. Therefore, an archaeological study with scientific perspective of measurement should adopt measurement concepts in historical context to investigate and analyze cultural remains and features, rather than deal with it stereotypically.

Analysis of the faunal assemblage unearthed from Xinzhai since 2002 suggests that the number of caprids (sheep and goats) increased rapidly starting in Phase II. The percentage of caprids in the Number of Identified Specimens (NISP) and Minimum Number of Individuals (MNI) counts is second only to pigs, which indicates that caprids were one of the most important domestic animals at the site. Age profiles based on tooth eruption/wear and epiphyseal fusion showed that a large percentage (more than 70%) of caprids lived to adulthood through older ages while less than 30% of them were killed between the ages of six months to two years old. This pattern is similar to what has also been found at the site of Taosi. At both Xinzhai and Taosi, caprid kill-off patterns are more similar to what is expected due to wool exploitation rather than meat exploration. Therefore, people in the China’s Central Plains utilized animal resources in diverse ways at the end of the Neolithic.