Archaeology In Taosi: The Empirical Analysis Of Technique

Taosi is an important archaeological site dating to the late Neolithic period in the middle reaches of Yellow River. It is located in the Linfen Basin situated in the lower reaches of Fen River. This site faces to the Fen River and is back on to the Taer Mountain. It was the ideal place for settlement due to its higher terrain with sufficient water, and its humid climate and lush vegetation during the Neolithic period. Also the texture of loess there is helpful to build cave dwellings in which is warm in winter and cool in summer.Since the late of 1970s, many important archaeological remains were discovered, including large tombs which were presumed to be the king rank, a rammed-earth enclosure which covered 280 ha area, a large-scale rammed-earth terrace functioned as astronomical observatory and palatial foundations with rows of column holes. Moreover, large quantities of delicate artefacts were unearthed, including fragments of bronze artefacts, polychrome pottery, jade ritual artefacts, wooden/lacquer artefacts and stone Qing, etc. Based on these discoveries and the written records, Taosi was regarded as the Tang Yao tribe by scholars and the Taosi site was considered as Ping Yang, the capital of Yao record in Chinese legend.This thesis focused on studying the history of technology and tried to reflect the technology level during the Taosi Culture by analysing the old and new discovered artefacts. These artefacts included lithic artefacts, rammed-earth, lime fragment, pottery shards, bronze ring, hammer stones, etc. from archaeological excavations at Taosi, an surface survey on the lithic artefacts at Taosi, an investigation on mining and metallurgy sites and excavations on the cave dwellings sites in Kelan and Ningwu. This thesis not only collected as comprehensive materials as possible, but also analysed them by applying new measure method and new instruments. Based on these analyses and the comparison with the old data, the technological level during the Taosi Culture was tried to be recovered. A replication experiment was designed. After the tool assemblages and Chaine Operatoire possibly used at Taosi were presumed, a corresponding tool assemblage was produced and was used to manufacture the stone tools on the same raw materials in the experiment as those used at the Taosi Culture. The experiment process was record in detail. By comparing with the lithic artefacts discovered at the site, the technology and production mode in the lithic production at Taosi were discussed.Concerning the technology on the pottery production, an analysis on chemical elements was carried out. It was concluded that the plastic raw materials used in the pottery production was local red clay. Also the shaping technology and decoration technology etc were studied by analysing the traces on pottery. Moreover, the firing atmosphere was recovered by analysing the shapes of kilns and testing the temperature of the leftovers in the kiln.As for the technology of jade production, it was concluded that the only 10% of the stone and jade artefacts buried in tombs were made of tremolite possibly from Xinjiang, and the rest were made of marble or serpentine from nearby mountains. Moreover, it was presumed that film cutting was possibly the main cutting method in jade production by studying the jades from the tombs at Taosi, Qingliangsi and Xiajin. Also drilling and hollow drilling exist. No decoration but polishing was used.As for the technology in the bronze production, by analysing the metal components of the four bronze artefacts unearthed from Taosi, the earliest arsenic bronze in prehistory was discovered. As well the prehistory molding technology was studied by observing the bronze the bronze artefacts and comparing with the stone models unearthed from the Dongxiafeng site and the pottery models from the Erlitou site.The architecture technology and architecture level were discussed by analysing the architecture remains uncovered at Taosi. Lime and gypsum were considered to be used in the architecture decoration. Well and tiles have been invented during Taosi. Typography technology was applied in the construction of rammed-earth enclosures and palaces, etc.By studying the technology of stone tools, pottery, jades, metallurgy and architecture, a few important achievements on technology were listed and a technology perspective of creation in accordance with environment and using only was summarised.Based on the technology research, the production organisation was also discussed. Some social phenomena were tried to be explained by the way of application of technology and development. It was concluded that the development of technology impeded the social division, exchange and trade, and further led society to be more complicated. Also the development of technology promoted the appearance of the writing, calendar, bronze ritual artefacts, musical instruments and jades, so that civilization was occurred. Moreover, the development of technology made it possible for army, city and even King to occur, as led state origin.