Volume 19, Issue 1

During the years 2012 to 2017, archaeological excavations were conducted at the localities of Cave 3, Cave 4 and Hilltop of the Nanshan (South Hill) Site. A total of 450sqm was excavated, revealing eight burials, two large-scale cisterns, about a dozen ash pits, and near 100 postholes. The excavation yielded more than 1000 artifacts made of pottery, stone and bone, as well as large amount of charred grains. The excavation uncovered important material for the discussion of prehistoric behavioral models, subsistence, human migration, cultural interaction, environmental evolution, the origins and development of the prehistoric cultures of Fujian and Taiwan, as well as the origin and dispersal of Austronesian groups.

In 2016 and 2017, rich remains of the mid and late phases of the Dawenkou Culture were found at the Jiaojia Site in Zhangqiu District, including rammed-earth walls, ditches (moats), burials, house foundations and a pottery kiln, from which pottery wares, jades, turtle shell objects and so on were unearthed. The discoveries of the rammed-earth walls, the ditches surrounding the walls and a set of high-ranking burials, plus large quantity of high-quality artifacts – jades, white pottery and color-painted pottery wares indicated that during the mid and late phases of the Dawenkou Culture, the Jiaojia Site was a large-scale settlement with the properties of the political, economic and cultural centers in the ancient Ji River valley in northern Shandong; the systematic examination and interpretation to this site will be significantly meaningful for the complete understandings to the cultural connotation, regional relationship and social nature of the Dawenkou Culture.

In the years 2015 through 2017, archaeological excavations were conducted to the Gujun Site in Xingtang County, which recovered burials, chariot-and-horse pits and sacrificial pits, house foundations, water wells, ash pits, kilns, ash ditches and other features, from which artifacts made of gold, bronze, jade, stone, bone, horn and antler, shell and cowry, pottery, etc. were unearthed. The date of this site was from the late Spring-and-Autumn Period to the mid and late Warring-States Period, in which the city site, burials and residential areas were existing together; their dates, locations and cultural connotations are all closely related to the Xianyu tribe and Zhongshan State, especially the chariot-and-horse and animal victim pits with unique form were the first archaeologically discovered remains of this type. The discovery of the Gujun Site reflected the convergence and evolutions of the cultures of the ethnic groups in the Northern Frontier Zone and the Huaxia System, and provided important materials for the researches on the processes of the Sinicization of the northern ethnic groups such as Rong and Di and the configuration of the Chinese nation as a pluralistic integration.

In 2014 through 2017, Jilin Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Research Center for Chinese Frontier Archaeology of Jilin University excavated the god temple site for the Changbai Mountains. The main body of the site was an enclosed unit in rectangular plan surrounded by outer walls, in the middle slightly to the north of which is a courtyard centered by an 工-shaped hall and surrounded by covered walkways; outside the courtyard, architecture and water well remains were found. The artifacts unearthed from this site were mainly architectural component parts; based on the jade tablets bearing the characters “ guichou 癸丑” unearthed from this site, this site is estimated to be the temple built in the Jin Dynasty for worshipping the god of the Changbai Mountains. The layout and construction rules of this site matched that in the historical textual records, providing valuable materials for the studies on the official-style architecture of the Jin Dynasty. This site is the first case of the state mountain sacrificial ceremonies found beyond the Central Plains area, which is significantly meaningful for the understandings to the layouts of the shrines and temples of the gods of the “ yue (sacred mounts) zhen (mounts for pacifying the directions they are located) hai (seas) du (rivers)” in the Song and Jin Dynasties and the development of the ritual system of the Jin Dynasty.

The eighth season of excavation at the Jiahu Site in the autumn of 2013 uncovered eight house foundations, 25 ash pits and 97 burials, along with hundreds of artifacts made of pottery, stone, bone and ivory. One of the most intriguing findings was the burial of two adult males underneath the living floor of a house foundation 2013F5 belonging to Phase I. They yielded rich grave goods that included bone flutes, engraved ivory plaque, a set of turtle shells, and other high-ranking artifacts. They are, to date, the first ever in-house burials found in Chinese archaeology. In addition, the other burials also yielded large amount of turquoise ornaments and exquisitely engraved ivory plaques. These findings are significant to the study of the prehistoric funeral practice and social differentiation during the early and middle Neolithic Age of China.

The tomb M1017 is located in the southwest of the Dahekou Cemetery of the Western Zhou Dynasty in Yicheng County, Shanxi Province. It is a rectangular vertical earthen pit tomb equipped with one wooden coffin chamber and one wooden coffin. The occupant (estimated to be a male) is interred with the head to the west, underneath whom is a waist pit. The grave goods unearthed from this tomb are made of bronze, gold, tin, pottery, shell, etc. Bronzes take the bulk of the grave goods, including ritual vessels, musical instruments, weapons, tool, chariot and horse fittings, and so on; the 50 bronze vessels are concentratedly set between the coffin chamber and coffin in front of the occupant’s head. The bronze ritual vessels include 13 ding -tripods and fangding -quadripods, seven gui -tureens, one li -cauldron, four dou -stemmed bowls, two basins, one yu -basin, two spoons, seven jue -cups, two gu -goblets, three zun -vessels, three you -wine jars, zhi -cup, jia -wine vessel, lei -wine jar, pot, ladle, pan -basin and he -pitcher, one of each of them. Many bronzes bear inscriptions of “ bo 伯 (earl)” or “ Ba Bo 霸伯 (Earl of the Ba State)”, hinting that the occupant of this tomb might be a lord of the Ba State. The date of this tomb is the early stage of the mid Western Zhou Dynasty.

In March through July 2017, School of History and Culture of Shandong University and other institutions conducted the second term of excavation in the Ancient City Site of the Zhu State, which recovered over 350 features of various types belonging to the Spring-and-Autumn and Warring-States Periods and the Han and Tang Dynasties. Among them, the water well J3 was in a cylindrical vertical pit shape and lined with rectangular bricks and pottery well curbs; the artifacts unearthed from it included pottery wares, iron implements and bronze weighing instruments of the Xin Dynasty (Wang Mang Interregnum, 8–23 CE). The main period of using of J3 was the late Western Han Dynasty, and it was abandoned at the end of the Western Han Dynasty to the Xin Dynasty. The unearthing of the bronze weighing instruments from J3 provided important materials for further exploration to the issues about the measurement system of the Xin Dynasty; the unearthing of the bronze coin master pattern provided important materials for the exploration to the monetary reform in Wang Mang Interregnum. The excavation of this year provided rich data for the establishment of the chronology and cultural genealogy of the site, clarification of the functions and properties of the excavated area and exploration of the evolution of the settlement pattern of the site.

In April and May 2011, Qingdao Municipal Institute of Cultural Heritage Conservation and Archaeology and Huangdao District Museum excavated the Tushantun Cemetery located in Huangdao District, Qingdao City. The excavation cleared three mounds and recovered seven tombs beneath them. Of these seven tombs, M6 and M8 are vertical shaft stone pit tombs with brick-timber coffin chambers and ramp passages, the burial receptacles of which are nested double-coffin and double-coffin chamber, and the grave goods unearthed from which include bronzes, jades, lacquered wares, pottery and porcelain wares and implements made of bone and horn (turtle scute). The types and styles of the tombs and grave goods all show that the dates of these two tombs are the late Western Han to the early Eastern Han Dynasty. The excavation of these tombs provided important physical materials for the studies on the burial system, geography and material culture in the coastal area of southeastern Shandong during the Han Dynasty.

In September through November 2015, Liaoning Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and other institutions excavated Yelü Hongli’s tomb of the Liao Dynasty. This was a large-scale brick-chamber tomb consisting of the passage, ventilation shafts, entrance, corridor and tomb chamber; albeit having been looted in early years, many grave goods including silver wares, bronzes, iron objects, porcelains, wooden objects, jades, stone implements were unearthed, as well as architectural components and stone epitaph, and wooden coffin and bier were also preserved. This tomb located in Han Derang’s family cemetery, which was a part of the attendant burials of the Xianling and Qianling Mausoleums of the Liao Dynasty, was a tomb with exact date and yielding rich artifacts, and this was rare in the elite burials of the late Liao Dynasty, so it is significantly meaningful for the study on the burial system of the Liao Dynasty.

In 2016, the Tongmuling metallurgical site was excavated, by which the multi-metal smelting remains centered by zinc-smelting ones were recovered, including zinc-smelting furnaces, calcining platforms, house foundations, storage cellars, mud-kneading pits, refining stoves, etc., and associated house foundations, from which smelting implements such as retorts, condensers, condensing bags, condensing bag lids, refining pots, cushions and iron rods, as well as utensils for daily use were unearthed. This site is the best-preserved zinc-smelting site found to date in China having the clearest structure and functions and yielding the richest artifacts, which is very meaningful for the researches on the arrangements, functions and smelting techniques of the zinc-production sites of ancient China.

Since 2012, the Institute of Archaeology of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Institute of Archaeology of the Academy of Sciences of Uzbekistan organized joint archaeological team and conducted five terms of archaeological survey and excavation to the Mingtepa Ancient City Site in Uzbekistan. The excavation showed that the Mingtepa Ancient City Site is a large-scale city site with nested inner and outer cities; confirmed the coexistence relationships among the architectural sites with high rammed-earth platform foundations, city walls, gates, roads and handicraft workshop remains, which are the scientific evidences for the in-depth researches on the layout and cultural connotations of the inner city; the burials found on the east wall of the outer city provided rare data of the terminus ante quem of the abandoning of the outer city.

Bottoming burials with cinnabar emerged in Phase II of the Erlitou Culture of the Xia Dynasty, which might be an important step of the interment ceremony of the Xia people, especially the elites, with the meaning of laying foundations for the burials in order to bless the deceased in the afterworld. This funeral custom became more common, which might be because of the northward expansion of the Erlitou Culture into southern Shanxi that involved absorbing or replacing local cultural elements. In the early Shang Dynasty, cinnabar-bottomed burials continued to exist, which supports the traditional belief that “Shang people followed the regulations of Xia”. By the time of the late Shang Dynasty, the popularity of waist pit burials increased while the ability of the Shang people to control the cinnabar resource declined, and consequently we see fewer cinnabar-bottomed burials.

Based on previous studies and detailed excavations, this paper makes restorations for some parts of horse chariots unearthed at Majiayuan Cemetery of the Warring-States Period in Zhangjiachuan County, Gansu Province, and explores the manufacturing skills and assembling methods of these chariots and their parts and fittings. Moreover, this paper also analyzes oxcarts unearthed at the same cemetery and discusses their adaptation and modification to the horse chariots and their influences on the development of ox-drawn vehicles in later periods.

In 2012, large amounts of white marble Buddhist statues of the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi Dynasties were unearthed from the Buddhist sculpture hoard at Bei Wuzhuang in Ye City Site. This paper makes a comparative study on a bodhisattva statue in meditation seated in half-lotus posture (resting right ankle on the knee of pendent left leg and holding right hand upward) among them and another sculpture of the same type and made in the same period unearthed at the Xiude Monastery site in Dingzhou; from the double-tree, stupa and coiling dragon designs shown by them, this paper explores the commonalities and differences of the Buddhist arts in these two areas. Moreover, this paper reveals that this motif emerged earlier in the Ye City area than in the Dingzhou area, and diffused to the latter after it became popular in the Ye City area. By these conclusions, this paper infers that the white marble meditating statue seated in half-lotus position with the date of the second year of Wuding Era (544 CE) in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, USA was produced in Ye City area.

Initial animal domestication in early Neolithic China may have resembled the behavior of raising animals as pets for entertainment. During the domestication process, the ecological characteristics and living habits of each animal and the subjective demands of ancient people jointly led to the formation of animal raising behaviors for utilitarian purposes. These commensal interactions involved both the actions of ancient people and the cooperative reactions of the animals themselves. Domestication processes were gradual and involved multiple repeated and progressive co-evolutionary developments.