Archaeological Research On Pottery Inscriptions In Zhengzhou During The Warring States Period

As the materialized carrier of social politics,economy and culture,the pottery inscription has a very high research value.Different from the previous research on pottery inscriptions,this paper focuses on the archaeological information contained in pottery materials,and preliminarily obtains the periodic characteristics and space-time evolution law of pottery inscriptions by combing the pottery inscriptions of the Warring States Period in Zhengzhou.On this basis,the regularity of pottery inscriptions is combined with the social phenomena at that time,the specialization of handicraft industry,the rise of private handicraft industry and the name system of the common people class,trying to supplement and support the social development with pottery materials.The first part of this paper discusses the source and importance of the topic,the current state of scholarly research on pottery inscriptions and the evolutionary sequence of pottery during the Warring States period,and general frameworks and methods.On the second part,the existing Warring States pottery inscriptions were carefully arranged and preliminary analysis.The pottery inscriptions in Zhengzhou are distributed around the main city sites,such as Zheng-Han Gucheng,Guancheng Gucheng,Yangcheng Gucheng,and Xingyang Gucheng,etc.Since Zheng-Han Gucheng is the capital of Zheng and Han State successively,the unearthed pottery inscriptions are extremely rich,which is the key area of this study.The third part,the author combined with previous studies,according to the shape of artifacts,artifacts combination and other archaeological information,corrected and refined their age.Then,the main types and stage characteristics of pottery inscription are judged from the time and space dimensions.Pottery inscriptions can be divided into eleven basic types according to content,including place name,worker’s name,office name,administrative division unit,attribute,institution,device name,owner name,event,count and the Eight Diagrams,among which worker’s name,place and count are more common.In addition to the single nature of pottery inscriptions,various types can also be combined with each other to form a new composite form.The fourth part is based on the previous combing and research,discusses the related issues,and draws a preliminary conclusion.The management system of handicraft industry was gradually improved during the Warring States Period,at the latest in the later Warring States Period,there was a complete three-level supervision system in Zheng-Han Gucheng and its surrounding areas.The emergence and development of private handicraft industry is the inevitable result of the collapse of ’ square-fields system ’and ’ patriarchal clan system ’ and the development of social productivity.It became an important part of the socio-economics of the late Warring States period.Market pavilion pottery inscriptions should be the product of the establishment and promotion of market pavilion system from Qin State,reflecting the institutional connotation of local administration in the late Warring States period.The names of the common people come from the kinship within small family units,with the process of social complexity,people begin to use family or place names as their surnames,so as to achieve the needs of distinguishing individuals.In the early time,the surname and gens had the function of distinguishing marriage background and identifying social status.Aristocratic class had names and gentes,and common class only had names.Until the disintegration of the patriarchal clan system in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty,surnames and gentes were mixed.The conclusion part briefly summarizes the full text and generalizes the relevant social phenomena reflected by pottery inscriptions.