The Discovery Of Early Ironware In Xinjiang And Its Significance

Xinjiang,located in the northwest of China and bordering on Central Asia,is an important channel for cultural exchanges between China and the West,and also a relatively larger geographical and cultural unit.Its prehistoric era refers to the long-term historical period before Zhang Qian’s visit to Western Regions in the Han Dynasty.Xinjiang entered the early Iron Age at the end of 2000 BC.According to the author’s statistics,more than 600 pieces of prehistoric ironware have been found in Xinjiang in recent decades.In this paper,the prehistoric ironware unearthed in Xinjiang have been sorted out comprehensively.The characteristics of early ironware in different regions of Xinjiang have been explored in combination with the early archaeological culture of Xinjiang.The development process and evolution of early ironware in Xinjiang have been understood.The role of ironware in promoting economic and social development in the early Iron Age in Xinjiang has been explored and the human culture behind the ironware has been discussed.Finally,from a macro point of view,the author put forward his/her personal views on the dissemination of ironware and ironmaking in China and the contribution of ironmaking technology to the development of Chinese feudal civilization.This paper is divided into five chapters.The first chapter is the introduction,mainly expounding some basis,including the goal and significance of the selected topic,an introduction to the natural geographic conditions of Xinjiang and previous archaeological work,a review of current academic research,thoughts and methods of the research,etc;The second chapter sketches the cultures from Bronze Age to Early Iron Age in Xinjiang,to pave the way for post--research;The third chapter will comprehensively present the prehistoric iron ware unearthed from the Xinjiang archaeology,and carries out the partition,the historical division and the detailed classification and the statistics;At the beginning of chapter four,it discusses the relevant doctrines of the academic circle on the origin of iron ware in Xinjiang,and on the basis of preamble analysis,it divides the development process of prehistoric iron implements in Xinjiang into three stages: germination stage,development stage and peak stage,and investigates the relationship between them and the early iron ware culture in Xinjiang;The fifth chapter gives some personal views about the contribution of iron spread to the east and iron smelting technology to the development of Chinese feudal civilization.