A Study On The Classification Of Pottery Patterns From Houma Cast Copper Ruins

This thesis mainly attempts to systematically study ceramic models unearthed in Houma bronze foundry site, and concludes the sectioning rules about different objects during the process of casting pottery vessels in this region through analyzing and sectioning more than five hundred ceramics models collected from two great excavation achievements, to obtain some new findings about bronze casting technology in this region at that time. Besides compared ceramic models with corresponding foundrys, the thesis attaches importance to compare ceramics models with various Jin-style bronzes.The thesis is divided into five parts.The first part is introduction stating present research orientations of bronze which do more researches on bronze culture and bronze casting, but less research on ceramic models and foundrys found in bronze foundry site which still lays less emphasis on ceramic models. That is the reason to select this topic. This part also lists ceramic models unearthed in bronze foundry sites of Shang Dynasty, west-Zhou Dynasty and east-Zhou Dynasty, and tries to compare it with those found in Houma site in terms of objects and quantity. Therefore, it is essential to do sectioning research on ceramic models found in Houma site which brings positive significance to the study of foundrys, ceramic cores as well as the whole bronze foundry site. It can form some new views on the making of ceramic cores after reaching the sectioning rules about ceramic models, and obtain the making technology at that time after comparing ceramic models with the quantity of foundrys. Research methods are the combination of typology and statistics, and then ceramic models are composed of three kinds which are vessel and instrument models, small object models and separating models, to summarize its sectioning rules by means of the analysis on each kind.The second part studies ceramic vessel models and ceramic instrument models. It obtains the sectioning rules of vessels, especially the parts of leg and lid through analyzing unearthed vessel models and their individual segments, and then draws a sectioning diagram of Ding models on the basic of enormous vessels and Jin-style bronzes. As for instrument models represented by Zhong model, it restores the pictures of sectional Zhong parts, distinguishes Bo-zhong model and Niu-zhong model in view of limited models, and eventually accomplishes the picture of Zhong model. The sectioning rules of vessel models and instrument models are both individual segments made.The third part is ceramic models of small objects including weapon models, chariot models and daily commodity models. With a detailed analysis, it gets the sectioning rules of different kinds of ceramic models. The weapon models are casted integrally, with multiple pieces at a time occasionally, and most chariot models and daily commodity models are casted integrally, too.The fourth part is ceramic separating models which contain figure models, animal models, character models and ornament models. These models are widely used, for instance, some ornament models can not only be made independently, but also be regarded as main ornament or side ornament interacting with each other, without limiting by one specific object decorated by Tao-suo ornament or Yun ornament. Ultimately, it lists forms of every kind combined with detailed understandings and typical Jin-style bronzes, and gains the sectioning rules of separating models.The fifth part is conclusion. It firstly shows that how to differentiate an ceramic model from making integrally or individually, sums up the sectioning rules of ceramic models vertically in Houma site, and then comes to conclude four sectioning rules which are multiple models with one pattern, one model with one pattern, one model with multiple patterns and combined models with ornament, listing detailed objects and their quantities. It also proposes the usage of one ceramic model with multiple patterns, and then sometimes the craftsmen appropriately reuse the ceramic model or the pottery vessel. From these four sectioning rules, three new findings are found:the relationship of the size of ceramic models and social production mode, the relationship of sectioning and ornament of ceramic models, and the hypothesis of small bronzes made through real bronze works learning from the contrast of the quantities of ceramic models and pottery vessels. It then mentions the relationship of sectioning rules and bronze casting craft. Due to the emergence of new welding technology, ceramic models are not only an important part of casting process, but also directly reflect the development of casting process. In the end, the thesis points out the research orientation of ceramic models which should be raw materials, making methods, temperatures and surface appearances.