A Preliminary Study On Sacrificial Remains From The Bronze To Early Iron Age In Xinjiang

Sacrifice is defined as sacrifice in Shuowen Jiezi.The image of Oracle Bone Inscriptions is holding meat on the desk,that is,offering sacrifices with objects."The Analects of Confucius · eight Yi" mentioned: "sacrifice is like being,and sacrifice to God is like being".It can be seen that both words mean the communication between a certain behavior and supernatural existence.There are more or less records about the content of sacrifice in ancient and modern times,Chinese and foreign nationalities.Although the forms of sacrifice are different,their essence is the communication between human beings and their thought or imagined supernatural existence through some means or ceremony,in order to achieve some demands or wishes,and the preserved sacrifice remains are the material carrier carrying this means or ceremony.It can also be said that sacrificial behavior is the medium of communication with supernatural existence.Xinjiang is located in the northwest of China.Because it borders many countries,it has been an important channel for cultural exchanges between China and the West since ancient times.Early Xinjiang was dominated by nomadic and animal husbandry groups,and the social organization was dominated by clan settlements.The Bronze Age to the early iron age was the key period for the change of social system and ideas in Xinjiang,and the form of sacrificial activities was a more intuitive embodiment of ideas.Different from the systematic and comprehensive sacrificial system in the Central Plains,the sacrificial remains of nomadic and animal husbandry people have strong regionality and nationality.Through the sacrificial remains,we can see through the life and some codes of conduct of nomadic people,which provides a unique perspective for the study of nomadic society.Therefore,this paper will comb,classify and study the sacrificial remains within this time and space,and analyze the sacrificial remains in different time periods The location characteristics,shape and structure of different types of sacrificial relics are analyzed and studied,and the sacrificial relics are preliminarily discussed and analyzed in combination with literature,This paper can be roughly divided into four parts.The first chapter is the introduction.Firstly,in the introduction chapter,it defines the relevant concepts of the article,briefly introduces the academic history related to the study of sacrificial relics,and describes the research object,research purpose and significance of this paper.The second chapter divides the study area into seven districts according to the topographic and geomorphic characteristics of Xinjiang,combined with the distribution of cultural relics and the actual situation of archaeological culture,and combs and introduces the main sacrificial relics found in each region.This paper lists 90 relics.The third chapter is the classification research on the sacrificial relics found in the seven communities mentioned above.According to the existence types of sacrificial relics,the sacrificial relics are divided into "relics" and "relic phenomenon".Through the classification research and analysis,it is inferred that the sacrificial objects of the people at that time mainly included ancestors,gods and so on.The fourth chapter studies the phased characteristics and evolution process of sacrificial relics in this space-time range,and compares them with the sacrificial relics in the surrounding areas at the same time,so as to analyze the communication and influence between them.The fifth chapter discusses other contents related to sacrificial relics.The sixth chapter is the conclusion,which summarizes the main content of the full text and puts forward the shortcomings of this paper in the research of writing.The main conclusion of this paper is: the types of sacrificial remains of people under different career modes from the Bronze Age to the early iron age in Xinjiang are also different.Commonality: under the thinking ability of the people at that time,there were many belief objects,including supernatural beings such as ancestors,heaven,earth,sun and moon,and sacrificial supplies including animals and meat.Heterosexuality: the development of the sacrificial system of people in different regions is different.In some regions,people’s sacrificial remains are more related to the places of daily life,while some people reflect the atmosphere under the primitive religious belief a little earlier,and there are more items with the meaning of Shamanism in their sacrificial remains.