In Shaanxi Province During The Qin Dynasty Pottery Earthenware Vessel Preliminary Study

This paper first make a thoroughly collection of excavation briefs and reports on Pottery Yan(Ancient Cooking Utensil) of the late Longshan and Shang and Zhou period in Shanxi area. Then it apply ways of archaeology stratigraphy and typology to study on Pottery Yan in Shanxi area based on the layers of the excavation and the coexist objects, and make a list of the temporal and spatial distribution and the development of the sharps of Pottery Yan in different area and different period. At last, it does a contrastive analysis between the two areas and other places(south-central of Inner Mongolia, Shannxi and Henan etc) on Pottery Yan.With the typology study on Pottery Yan of Shanxi, this paper gives following preliminary observations.Firstly, the Pottery Yan is divided into five periods of Shanxi area preliminary. The first period starts from late Longshan to Xia, and it mostly produced Pottery Yan with contracted mouth. And they are found primarily in the north of Shanxi. The second period starts from underlayer of Erli Mound to Yinxu I(the ruins of Yin), and this period mostly produced Pottery Yan with apart feet and wide flared mouth, which are now found primarily in north of Central Shanxi Plain. The third period starts from YinxuⅡto YinxuⅢ, and it also produced Pottery Yan with apart feet and wide flared mouth mostly, and also with substantial amount of Pottery Yan with linked feet. These Pottery Yan are now found primarily in whole Central Shanxi Plain with large amount. Then the fourth period starts from Yinxu IV to early Western Zhou, which had a decrease of Pottery Yan with apart feet and a increase of Pottery Yan with linked feet. The whole quantity went down. And they are found mostly in west-east of Central Shanxi Plain. And the last period is middle and late Western Zhou, and the whole quantity sinked rapidly with less apart feet Pottery Yan and more linked feet Pottery Yan. And the distribution area is the same as the fourth period.Secondly, there are at least two sources of Pottery Yan in Shanxi. One is south-central of Inner Mongolia, and this one diminished gradually in early Xia and were replaced by Pottery Yan with wide flared mouth. The other one is north-central of Henan, and it was introduced with culture of Shang to Central Shanxi Plain, then with the extent was spreading, the Pottery Yan with contracted mouth were replaced. And it interacted with local culture of its peoples to form the Pottery Yan with Central Shanxi Plain feature.At last, there are following three use of Pottery Yan. One is used as cooking utensil or used as coffin, and they also can be used as imitated copper and pottery sacrificial vessels to buried with the dead. And as coffin they were only used in north of Shanxi(Xinhua of Shenmu site), and as imitated copper and pottery sacrificial vessels they were found only in Fengxi grave.Pottery Yan are hardly found in building lot and grave of Yinxu II III, they are mostly found in ash pit.