A Study On The Handicraft Industry Remains Of The Spring And Autumn Period Of Yucun Site In Ning County,Gansu Province

Yucun site is a significant site in the Zhou Dynasty,discovered in the eastern Gansu Province.During the period of 2018-2019,the excavation of Yucun site has achieved rich results,including the discovery of the remains of handicraft industry in the Spring and Autumn Period,which provides considerable materials for the archaeological research of handicraft industry.This paper systematically sorts out the handicraft industry remains,makes a judgment on the handicraft industry workshop in the site area,and analyzes the functional layout,related handicraft process flow,sacrifices and other issues in the pottery workshop of the Yucun site.Compared with the pottery workshops in the same period,it makes a preliminary discussion on the nature of Yucun site and the organization of pottery production.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,the paper is divided into four chapters.The introduction mainly reviews and summarizes the archaeological research on handicraft archaeology and sites of the Zhou Dynasty in the eastern Gansu Province,and puts forward the research significance and methods from the perspective of handicraft archaeology.It is found that although there are a certain number of sites in the eastern Gansu Province during the Spring and Autumn Period,few sites and research works have been carried out after formal archaeological excavations.In addition,the majority of sites are burial materials,and the information related to residence and handicraft industry is scarce.The cultural features are complex and diverse,including the Siwa Culture,the Qin Culture and the Rong Culture.But at the same time,the handicraft archaeology has accumulated abundant achievements in continuous development.Under the guidance of the handicraft archaeology theory,an exploration of combining handicraft theory and practice from the handicraft archaeology remains of the Yucun site.The first chapter gives an overview of Yucun site from the aspects of natural,environment,historical evolution and excavation.Taking the remains of handicraft industry in the Spring and Autumn Period in the excavation area of Yucun site in 2018 as the research object,it focuses on the classification and introduction of related handicraft remains and relics.In the second chapter,handicraft industry of the Spring and Autumn Period of the Yucun Site is identified.This paper believes that for the bone-making workshop,judgments can be made on the basis of aggregates,scraps,finished products and processing tools,and the corresponding quantity and scale.The criterion of the pottery workshop is mainly based on the production facilities of pottery kiln,supplemented by tools or corresponding technological processes,which can be determined as a pottery workshop.According to the criteria,no bone-making workshop has been found in the site yet,but some bone tools might be used as pottery tools.Using production facilities,production tools,and process flow as the judging criteria,it is determined that there was a pottery workshop in the Yucun site.The pottery workshop existed pottery burning areas,reservoir,storage pit,sacrificial areas,drying area,workshops,and abandoned areas.The third chapter combines relics to restore the production process of the Yucun site handicraft industry.It is found that the pottery making process of Yucun site can be divided into several steps,such as selecting materials,making clay,shaping and dressing,firing into kiln,reforming and reusing.After the selection of pottery clay,the muddy pottery is screened and the clay is fine and pure,while the sand mixed pottery is added with more mixing materials.Most of the pottery molding is made of clay sticks,and it is also used for wheel repairing.There are also fast-wheel shaping and kneading.The temperature and atmosphere in the kiln are controlled by the flame-lifting kiln,and the gray pottery with similar inner and outer tire colors is produced.The firing technique is relatively mature.Part of the fired pottery is used for daily life,building materials such as plate tiles are stored,some damaged pottery is restructured and reused,and the round pottery pieces are processed and transformed into pottery spinning wheels.The bone making process includes selecting and cutting bone materials,processing and forming,grinding and polishing,etc.The fourth chapter is the research on related issues of handicraft workshop in Yucun site.Making a discussion on the sacrificial phenomena that appeared in the Yucun site pottery workshop from the aspects of sacrificial sacrifice,sacrificial objects,and sacrificial purposes.It is shown that dogs and horses were buried as sacrifices to God of fire and land,expressing the wish for the successful firing of pottery,and the return of land for giving natural resources.Through a comparative study with pottery workshops in the same period,the similarities and differences of pottery tools,pottery kilns and layout planning are compared.There is no significant difference in the functions of pottery tools,which is related to the molding and dressing in pottery making activities.There are two kinds of kilns in the pottery workshops:the flame-lifting kilns and the half down-draft kilns.The shape and structure of the flame-lifting kilns are basically the same,and some of the structures of the kilns are complex and varied.In the same period,the development of the half down-draft kilns are closely related to the flame-lifting kilns,but they coexist and develop jointly.After a certain layout and planning,the layout of the inner space is influenced by the production process of pottery-making,and the pottery workshop is distributed in the city under the overall layout.Combining the overall layout of Yucun site,the scale of the existing pottery workshop site and the relics related to handicraft activities,it is inferred that the nature of Yucun site might be general city site.However,the pottery workshop of Yucun site may have formed specialization,and there may be centralized management of handicraft production.The last part is the conclusion.The paper summarizes the main contents and explains the basic understanding of the Yucun site and related viewpoints.