Volume 20, Issue 1

From 2016 through 2018, Guangdong Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and other institutions excavated the Qingtang site, the foci of which were concentrated in Caves 1–4 of Huangmenyan locality. The excavation recovered burials and hearths and unearthed human bone fossils, lithic products, pottery wares, implements made of shell, bone, and horn (antler), as well as faunal and botanical remains, in total over 10,000 pieces. The remains of this site could be divided into four phases from the earliest to the latest, which provided important data for the studies on the cultures in South China and Southeast Asia during the transitional period from Paleolithic to Neolithic Ages.

From March 2018 to January 2019, the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and other institutions excavated the Wangjiabang cemetery outside the north moat of the Chenghe ancient city site. They recovered 112 burials and three pottery ware pits and unearthed large numbers of artifacts, including pottery wares, jade and stone yue -battle-axes, ivory objects, bamboo-woven wares, lacquer wares, pig mandibles, and so on. These burials all belonged to the Qujialing culture, the large-scale ones mostly double- or triple-chamber burials in the same graves, and many burials were furnished with tree trunk coffins. Some pottery assemblages in the grave goods also had unique features. This discovery has filled a gap of the prehistoric burials in the middle reach of the Yangtze River, and provided valuable materials for further understanding the funeral customs and social structure of the Qujialing culture.

The Lushanmao site is a large-scale settlement site from the late Miaodigou Phase II culture to the late Longshan age located in Yan’an City, Shaanxi Province. The core zone of the settlement is on a hill ridge, on the top of which four large-sized rammed-earth platform foundations are distributed, each of which had large-sized rammed-earth architecture sites on top. On the top of the excavated Da Yingpan Liang (Large Garrison Ridge), one large courtyard and two smaller courtyards were distributed. Of them, the large courtyard was facing south, which would be the earliest palace complex in an axial symmetrical plan known to date in China, and the two smaller ones would be its guardhouses. In the large courtyard, a set of roof tiles, which would be the earliest ones known to date in China, were unearthed; and jades were also found in the rammed-earth foundation or walls. These discoveries are significantly valuable for the studies on the early capital city planning, origins, and evolutions of palaces and the developments of the early ritual systems and architectural materials of China.

In 2017 and 2018, Shaanxi Academy of Archaeology and other institutions conducted a rescue excavation to the Liujiawa site, which recovered features including city site, ditches (moats), rammed-earth foundations, burials, and unearthed bronze ding -cauldrons with “ Rui Gong (Duke of Rui)” inscription, as well as bronze gui -tureens, chime bells, zheng -bells, chime music stones, jade ge -dagger axes, and other ritual and musical instruments. The scale of the site and the ranks of the artifacts all showed that the Liujiawa site was the site of the capital of the Rui state at its late stage in the early and mid Spring-and-Autumn period; the bronze chime bells and chime music stones unearthed at this site provided critical materials for the studies on the development history of ancient musical instruments and musical archaeology of China.

In 2014 through 2018, Sichuan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and History Museum of Quxian County conducted a systematic archaeological survey, detection, and excavation to the Chengba site in Quxian County. The excavation uncovered 4,000sq m in total, from which 444 various features were recovered and over 1,000 artifacts were unearthed. The functional zoning of this site has been roughly made clear; the excavations of the western gate and important building foundations of the Guojiatai city site are important archaeological discoveries of the city sites of the Han through Western Jin dynasties, and at the checkpoint site on the waterway of this period was uncovered for the first time in China. The large amounts of bamboo slips and wooden tablets unearthed in the excavation provided important materials for the explorations on the management of the central government of the Han and Jin empires to the administrative areas of commandery and district levels and the social lives of the local people at that time.

In 2017 to 2018, Hebei Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and other institutions excavated the Taizicheng city site. Assisted by coring, the fieldwork confirmed that there were 67 building foundations, 14 roads, and two drainage ditches in this city site; the foundation of the No. 9 building in the center of the south zone and the courtyard No. 3 in the center of the north zone formed a tandem arrangement of “ qian chao hou qin ” [in front, audience hall; behind, resting chambers] along a symmetrical axis. In the unearthed artifacts, there are large numbers of bricks with stamps of “ nei ,” “ gong ,” and “ guan ,” white-glazed Ding wares with an inscription “ shang shi ju ,” fragments of chiwen -dragon heads on the main ridge, etc. Seen from the ranks of the artifacts and architectural sites, this city site would be the remains of an imperial residence of the mid through late Jin dynasty, which might be the Taihe Palace for Emperor Zhangzong of the Jin dynasty to hold summer nabo -imperial encampment. The excavation of the Taizicheng city site greatly improves the studies on the site selection of imperial encampments, construction regulations, utensil assemblage for the use of imperial courts, etc. of the Jin dynasty.

In 2015, the Heilongjiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology excavated at Xiaonanshan site on the bank of Ussuri River in southeast Raohe County, Heilongjiang Province. The excavation was conducted in three zones, with nine Neolithic burials recovered in Zone III. Most burials were in northeast-southwest orientation and consisted of two parts: a cairn above ground, and a grave below the cairn. Pottery wares, lithic tools, and jades were unearthed from these burials. The cultural remains represented by these eight early phase burials are the first of their kind discovered in China and represent a new archaeological culture: the Xiaonanshan culture. The 14 C data of this culture provided dates of 7,890±30 BP and 8,150±30 BP, preceding Xinkailiu culture. This excavation has filled a blank on early Neolithic cultures in eastern Heilongjiang and provided new materials for the studies on the origination and diffusion of the jade culture in East Asia.

From 2004 to 2007, the Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology excavated the Hengshui cemetery of the Western Zhou dynasty in Jiangxian County, Shanxi Province. The excavation recovered 1,299 burials of the Western Zhou dynasty. Tomb M2158 is a large-sized burial located in the middle slightly to the west of the cemetery. It is a vertical earthen shaft pit burial in a rectangular plan, the bottom of which is slightly larger than the opening; along the four sides of the bottom of the grave, artificial second-tier ledges built of rammed earth are featured. In the middle of the bottom, a waist pit was dug. The burial receptacles consist of two inner coffins and one outer coffin. The tomb owner is an adult male 35–40 years old. In the grave, six human victims and two sacrificial dogs were found. The grave goods unearthed from this burial include bronzes, proto-porcelain wares, jades, stone and bone implements, and shell (cowry) objects. The grave goods show that the date of this burial was the early stage of the mid-Western Zhou dynasty, and its occupant was the earl of Peng, the lord of the Peng state enfeoffed by the king of the Western Zhou.

In 2016, remains of a ground-level Buddhist temple complex were found in the middle of the west zone of the Tuyoq caves in Shanshan (Piqan) County, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. This Buddhist temple complex consisted of the Buddha hall, dorms for monks, and storage facilities. In the Buddha hall, many murals of bodhisattvas, devas, and donors were found, and artifacts such as household utensils made of clay, wooden architectural components, textiles, and manuscript fragments were unearthed. The date of this Buddhist temple complex was the Qocho Uyghurs kingdom from the latter half of the tenth century to the latter half of the fourteenth century; the excavation is very important for understanding the distribution of the construction centers and the iconographical composition of the Buddhist cave temples and monasteries in the Qocho Uyghurs kingdom period.

In South China, cupstones, a kind of artifact of ancient cultures bearing unique regional characteristics, are widely distributed. Cupstones are cobbles with concave recesses (cupules) formed by direct processing or wearing for a long-time of use. According to the numbers of the sides exhibiting such recesses, cupstones can be classified into those bearing recesses on one side, on two sides, on three sides, and on four or more sides. The cupstones are distributed in two distinct areas: the inland and coastal regions. They were made and used starting during the Upper Paleolithic Age and persisted into the Warring States period and Qin and Han dynasties, and perhaps even later. These artifacts experienced a development that saw their increase over time in quantity and quality as they changed from being made in rough to finer form. The function of cupstones may not be single; they might have been used to process nuts or shells, or perhaps they functioned as implements or tools for processing stone implements, or as a kind of multipurpose artifact.

The multidisciplinary research on the Yangshao period (4200–2900 BCE) tomb M13, a joint secondary burial at the Baligang site of the Yangshao culture in Dengzhou City, Henan Province showed that there were in total 126 individuals buried in this grave. Their death crossed at least 200 years; among them, at least five individuals were from three maternal lineages, and the descent system of this group was patrilineal. There were also 138 pig mandibles buried in M13, which had been dated and shows that they were collected across over 400 years. Based on the statistics the death population at Baligang site, it is estimated that the human bones found from M13 went through a secondary burial process during which they were probably regarded as “ceremonial objects.” The joint secondary burials as M13 is seen as a result of some reburying ceremonies held at the Baligang site.

The previous studies on the bronzes were usually focused on their “assemblages”; through analyses to several typical burials in the Yinxu site, this paper presents the concept of “source composition” of bronzes, which emphasizes the source and disposition of bronzes, and pays more attention to the social backgrounds of the bronzes than “assemblages” do. This paper analyzes M303 at Dasikong, M1713 at West Zone, Fu Hao’s tomb and M1046 at Liujiazhuang Locus North of the Yinxu site, and then reveals that the compositions of the bronzes found from them may have two types, namely the single-sourced and multiple-sourced. Moreover, the multiple-sourced compositions also had various forms, which may be caused by the social backgrounds of the burials and the social relations of the burial occupants.

The production and use of bronzes had significant influences on the social developments even the formation of the early states. However, in different areas, the bronzes played different roles. By observing the different characteristics of the bronzes in the Central Plains, the Ganjiang River basin, the Xiangjiang River basin, and the Chengdu Plains, various developments of societies can be revealed. The case studies of these areas can further explain the complex relationships between the bronzes and their societies, as well as the diversity of the patterns of the developments of the ancient societies.

Coin-minting models and molds can be classified into grand master patterns, master patterns, and casting molds, based on function. The archaeological data available at present show that the bronze coin molds are mainly master patterns and casting molds. This paper makes an as complete as possible collection of archaeologically unearthed bronze molds from the Warring States period to the Qin-Han dynasty, and then classifies them based on coin-minting technology and their functions and forms. After that, the ways to make the molds and to use them to mint coins, as well as the development procedure from vertical mold assembly technology to stack-casting technology are observed. Finally, the social background of the evolution of the coin-minting technology in this period is discussed.

Based on the discussion on the shape, nature, iron-smelting products and technical characteristics of the “bowl-shaped” bloomeries of the iron-smelting remains of the Han dynasty at Liuchen Town in Pingnan County, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, this paper puts forward the issue of the origin of the “bowl-shaped” bloomeries in China, and referring to the “bowl-shaped” bloomeries found in West Asia, South Asia, Europe, and Africa and their smelting technical traditions. This paper pointed out that the “bowl-shaped” bloomeries in China had the same origin with that of the other regions of the world, which was the result of the far and wide diffusion of the “bowl-shaped” bloomeries of West Asia, and its introduction route might be from West Asia via South Asia and Southeast Asia along the Indian Ocean.

In recent years, some lokapāla statues which might be carved in the Liang dynasty of the Southern Dynasties are unearthed in Chengdu area, the features of which have some differences from that of the lokapāla statues of the northern system found in Khotan, Dunhuang and other areas; they have some similarities with the early lokapāla statues of the Northern Wei dynasty, but also have some differences. The early lokapālas in the Buddhist scriptures have only names and titles with little concrete descriptions; the archaeologically discovered lokapāla statues enriched our understandings of this motif.

After the downfall of the Tang dynasty, the Khitan-Liao empire, the Five Dynasties, and Northern Song dynasty formed the second “northern and southern dynasties” confrontation in the history of China. Also in this period, two systems appeared in the capital city planning: the “Shangjing norm” of the Liao dynasty characterized by the 日-shaped plan view and the “Dongjing mode” of the Northern Song dynasty characterized by the 回-shaped plan view. The “Shangjing norm” is the materialization of the political system of “ruling by the customs of the peoples being ruled” applied by the nomadic rulers from the northern steppes when they were managing the empire with the Han people as the majority. This seemingly reflected the ethnic discrimination of the nomadic ruling class at the beginning of the establishment of their empire. The capital designing ideas of the Jin, Yuan, and Qing dynasties were all following this norm at the beginnings of their rules. “Dongjing mode” of the Northern Song dynasty is the materialization of the “imperial sovereignty” idea emphasized by the empires founded by the Han rulers, which seems reflecting the bureaucrat system with the centralization as the characteristics. The designs of the Liao Zhongjing (Central Capital) and the Jin Zhongdu were both simulations of that of Dongjing, which showed the trends of ethnic convergence and unification. Moreover, Dadu of the Yuan dynasty and Beijing of the Ming and Qing dynasties were the symbols of the formation of the unified multiethnic empire of China.

In recent years, with the participation of genetics and other disciplines, the controversy on the origins of the domestic chicken has returned. As the resource of primary data, archaeology plays an extremely important role in this dispute. Taking an archaeological standpoint, this paper aims to establish a set of bone morphological identification standards for domestic chicken bones unearthed at archaeological remains, beginning with the bone morphology as the most basic but also the least studied aspect. By this set of standards, we reanalyze available chicken bone materials and relevant pictorial and textual materials for domestic chicken candidate samples as mentioned by previous scholars. The results show that no confirmed domestic chicken bones have been found in China’s early to mid-Holocene remains to date; meanwhile, there is no substantial archaeological evidence to support China as the earliest place of origin of domestic chicken. Future work seeking to advance research on the origin of the domestic chicken should first pay proper attention to the archaeological background; only continuing scientific analyses and exploration on the origin of domestic chicken based on scientific morphological identification will prove the most convincing methodology.