A Research On Stone Ware Industry Of Cities During Xia And Shang Dynasty At The Central Plain

The central plain area in this essay included the central area,western area,and northern area of Henan Province which centre on Songshan Mountain.Over the years,the main excavations covered Erlitou Site,Zhengzhou City of Shang Dynasty,Yanshi City of Shang Dynasty,Yinxu Site,Huanbei City of Shang Dynasty,Xinzhai Site,Wangjinglou Site,Dashigu Site,Dongzhao Site,and etc.Affluent amount of culture relics had been unearthed from these sites that including abundant stone wares.On the basis of teased out stone wares from these sites,the author combined with the previous researching results,and also used like typological method,trace analysis method,function analysis method,and the place-origin analysis method to discuss the whole producing process of stone wares,which contain the researches of morphological analysis,fabrication process,usage process,attrition condition,trimming condition,reorganization,and abandon,from capital cities of Xia & Shang Dynasty.In conclusion,in a context of Bronze Age,author investigates problems like production and usage situation,status,and replacement situation of stone wares within these capital cities.The dissertation includes eight chapters.Chapter ⅠIntroduction.This chapter defined the range of space-time,the concept of capital city and stone wares,and relative terms of stone wares.Then it summarized the discovery condition,researching history and current situation.Finally it explained the purpose,significance and research methods of this dissertation.Chapter The Typological Research of Stone Ware.This chapter mainly doing Ⅱa typological work(classify them into different categories and types)of stone wares from capital cities of Xia & Shang Dynasty,and discuss the disadvantages of classify them into different patterns.According different forms of stone wares,the author divided it into four categories as end-edge wares,edge wares,multiple-edge wares,and no-edge wares.While according to function,the author put them into another set of categories as chopping tools,cutter tools,pendant tools,and puncture tools.From the view of the object will be manufactured,he divided them into categories as carpentry tools,earthwork tools,harvesting tools,weapons.For production phase aspect,the author classified them as stone wares of the pre-production phase,production scraps,finished products,attrited stone wares,trimmed stone wares,reorganized stone wares,and abandoned stone wares.By this analysis,author found out that we haven’t got enough evidences to classify them as different patterns.But it won’t spoil us to express its evolution.And according classified work at type status,he found that stone wares of Xia & Shang capital city sites had three development stages.Chapter ⅢThe Analysis of Manufacturing Technology of Stone Wares.The author did a normal manufacturing flow and individual manufacturing details research by observed traces left on stone wares,especially those rough stone wares.To a conclusion,he believed most of stone wares went through a process as borrowing,trimming,grinding,and sharpening.The main ways of trimming contains chipping,chiseling,and cutting.While some of stone wares also need more steps like drilling,trimming notches,etc.Different kind of stone wares has different processes.By contrasted lithology identification results and distribution of around stones,author insisted the stones which be used to make as stone wares were from basin of rivers and mountains around those cities.Chapter The Usage & Abandon of Stone Wares.Firstly,the author combined Ⅳform and trace of stone wares and relevant research result to infer out the use-pattern,wear,trimming and reorganizing situation of stone wares were excavated from Xia & Shang capital city sites.The author found spades,axes,adzes,and sickles must be used with a handle,on the contrary,knives don’t need any addition,they just are hold in hand.For the reason of most of wear traces were found on edge,trimming work focus on sharpen edges or blunted edges.Among reorganized stone wares,knives and adzes are more common,and they usually used broken sickles,broadaxes(Yue),and knives.Then author spread his research of abandon situation of stone wares from two aspects of reason and excavated location.He found the main reasons lead ancestors abandoned their tools are those tools were broken,missed,and failure reorganization(that made tools can’t reach the using standards).At last,he discussed how usage and reorganization of stone wares affected the form changing process of stone wares,and he pointed out that stone wares from Xia &Shang capital cities had a higher utilization degree.Chapter ⅤThe Analysis of Producing Location of Stone Wares From Xia & Shang Capital Cities.Combined with the stone wares producing situation of sites around cities,the author summarized species and types of ruins that about stone wares producing.His analysis shows that there didn’t exist any large-scale stone ware workshop,nevertheless,there still had some processing acts of final steps.For the raw material part,ancient lived in capital cities depended mainly on peripheral sites,but they also did some small-scale manufacturing and reorganization to complement their needs.Chapter ⅥThe Analysis of The Status of Stone Ware Industry In Production And Life.According to a contrast between the excavated cases of stone wares and bronze wares in capital cities,the author discussed about the advantages and disadvantages of stone wares.And from views of utilized degree,the proportion of the stone wares in all kind tools,the attitudes of dominators towards stone ware industry,and the settings of manual workshop,to discuss what position stone wares stranded in production and life.The author believes stone wares still had an obvious developmental advantage in production area,while it had a limited function in superstructure area.On the one hand,stone wares had a really high-usage rate and a long-term usage,as well as it stand a large proportion in agricultural tools and carpentry tools.Although stone wares of carpentry tools had been replace by bronze wares at Yinxu Period,it still was the one of most important kind of tools in production area of capital cities at that time.On the other hand,stone wares rarely appeared in the area like sacrificial wares,weapons,and daily-use wares.Rulers of Xia & Shang Dynasty attached more importance on bronze wares,jade wares,and bone wares,so that they had neglected the production and improvement of stone wares,and they didn’t build large-scale stone ware workshops anymore within capital cities.Chapter ⅦThe Comparative Study of Stone Wares Between Xia & Shang Dynasty and Neolithic Period.Firstly,the author untangled the excavation and research achievements of stone wares of Neolithic period,and then he compared the common points and different points.In the end,he proved that not only the stone wares of Xia & Shang Dynasty come from Neolithic period,but also it developed a lot in some aspects.Chapter ⅧConclusion.Give a comprehensive summary of the researching results of the whole dissertation.