Study On The Origin Of Textile Materials Based On The Method Of Trace-Archaeology

The present dissertation aims to trace textile history clearly and realize a win-winsituation for both protection and archeological research of textile cultural relics. Theorigin and some related issues of textile materials are studied, and based on thecharacteristics of textile materials and problems in textile archeology, the view ofcivilized archeology is proposed, which is more scientific and more reasonable thantraditional archeological views.As high polymer materials, textile materials are easily affected by light, oxygen,temperature, humidity, and so on, then rapidly become ageing and decomposed, andfinally disappeared. Only relying on existing matters to do archeology research, themethod used for hard matters like stone artifacts, there would be no way to verify thedisappeared textile cultural relics, and as a result, the history of disappeared textilematerials would become vague and be neglected. For these reasons, the dissertationcome up with the method of trace-archeology with the view of civilized archeologybased on the method, proposes the hypotheses about tools origin of textile materials,demonstrates that complex tools represent the arrival of a new tool era, and traces theorigin and evolution of knots, costume, bone needles and writing brushes, matterswhich are closely related to fibrous materials. Futhermore, some new concepts havebeen proposed such as soft tools, twisting (spinning) tools, fabricating tools, handstone tools, complex stone tools, and so on.From the angle of anti-Whig interpretation for history, and using the method oftrace-archeology, the origin of textile materials are investigated and retraced in theform of hypotheses. The inevitability of the existence of textile materials in theancient time has been proved by the trace related to textile materials, which isreflected from shapes, usages, manufacture ways and so on of existing hard tools(e.g. stone tools, pottery, bone tools, etc.). The trace includs two parts, one is theshape-trace which reveals the shapes of textile materials, and the other is thematter-trace which reveals the existence of microscale or trace amount matters.Taking the basic survival need of human as consideration, the thesis reasonablyspeculated the production and living of the ancestor in the high antiquity, anddiscussed the combining function of soft tools (fibrous materials) and the dividingfunction of hard tools, both of which are indispensable in ancient times. Throughanalyzing the trace related to soft tools from ancient hard tools (e.g. stone balls, boneneedles, axes, shovels, etc.) and primitive art (e.g. rock paintings, pottery patterns,etc.), the two sources of textile materials as soft tools, twisting (spinning) tools andfabricating tools have been investigated, and the historical inevitability and thescientific rationality of tools origin of textile materials have been demonstrated. Theorigin time of soft tools was thought earlier than stone tools, and the origin order oftextile materials was tools, signs and finally costume.The present dissertation has discussed the important role and symbolic status ofcomplex tools in the history of tools and human civilization, and thinks it is inevitablefor complex tools to come out, because of the drawbacks of using wood tools andstone tools alone. Based on the differences of morphology and structure between handstone tools complex stone tools, it can be thought that another important symbol ofnew tools times is complex tools, in which soft tools (threads or ropes) are used tocombine the complex tools. The separation of stone tools from hands marked thebeginning of new tools times.Particularly, the view and the method of civilized archeology are discussed,which emphasizes the importance of protection and the combination of doingarcheological research and protection. The view of civilized archeology has beendefined, and the difference between the traditional view and civilized archeology isexplained. There are facts that textile cultural relics are damaged during the process ofexcavation and preservation, for the textile cultural relics are so fragile to be damagedeasily and to be protected difficultly. Based on the above fact, the traditional view ofcivilized archeology can almost be said barbaric and the basic reasons are analyzed. The dissertation has explained the urgency of adopting the method of civilizedarcheology, and by analyzing the present technologies and assumed grave situations,as well as explained the scientificity and reasonability of the view of civilizedarcheology.There are two types of textile materials, slender type and sheet type, representestypically by ropes and costume respectively. The present dissertation has discussedthe origin and evolutionary process of textile materials, which are verified in virtue ofthe origin and evolutionary process of rope knots and costume. As to rope knots,adopting the mainline of functional differentiation, using the method oftrace-archeology, the thesis reconstructed the long history of knotting. And as to theorigin research of costume, because it has always been a hot topic in academia, thethesis used the method of analyzing before summarizing, and ascertaining afterassuming, which makes it easy to avoid the mistakes of common views. And thenaccording to the facts and inference of the origin of textile materials, the originationtheory that costume originated from tools has been proposed.In virtue of circumstantial evidence, the thesis not only studys the origin oftextile materials, but also traces the origin of carriers of the trace, from which thethesis drawn support. Specifically, the thesis mainly focused on “bone needles”,belonging to hard tools, and “writing brushes”, belonging to complex tools, using themethod of trace-archaeology. Based on the relationship between functions of boneneedles and thread, the existence condition and time of bone needles have beeninvestigated, and the existence and evolution of thread have been further proved.What is more, the evolution forms and manufacture methods of bone needles havebeen speculated in theory. Writing brushes have been the foremost tools and carriersfor recording during the transmission of human civilization. By studying its formationand functions of each component, writing brushes can be identified as the most typicalcomplex tools. Therefore, according to the complex characteristic of writing brushes,the origin and evolution process of it can be divided into two periods: old writingbrushes and new writing brushes. The trace suggesting the existence of writingbrushes included sizes, strokes, colors and so on of the paintings on different carriers like cliffs, walls, pottery and ground etc. using the methods of anti-Whiginterpretation of history and trace-archaeology analysis, the existence of writingbrushes is finally proved based on the above paintings. According to the laws of thetools development and human evolution, the whole evolution process of writingbrushes, from painting by fingers to using mature tools for painting, has been deducedas well in this dissertation.In summary, by using the view of anti-Whig interpretation of history, and themethod of trace-archaeology, the origin of textile materials has been studied andtraced in the present dissertation. At the same time, the view of civilized archaeologyhas been proposed, in order to make textile archaeology and protection for textilecultural relics more civilized and more scientific than the traditional archaeology view.After analyzing and demonstrating, the reasons of the origin of textile materials havebeen ascertained, the core content and the general framework of the new view,civilized archaeology, have been clarified. On this basis, the follow-up study on theorigin of textile materials and the civilized archaeology should go further and moresystematically.