| Haidai area is an archeological term, with the Huang and Bo Sea in northeast. And many literature and archaeological excavations have proved that innumerable rivers and lakes densely cover this area from ancient times. Such abundant water resources not only has been nourishing the people here, but also providing plenty of aquatic plant and animal resources, including all kinds of shellfish recourses. Dongping Lake and the Southern Four Lakes in south west of Shandong Province are the atrophied giant lakes long time ago. There were giant lakes in the north of Shandong, such as Judian-Qin Shuipo, Hei Zhongpo and Biehua Lake, atrophied for the changes of the climate, the recession of the marine transgression and the over-exploitation of human been. Many literatures and archeological excavations have proved the facts, especially huge quantities of shellfish remains have been uncovered in Haidai area, no matter freshwater mussels, clams or sea shellfish.As we all know now, the mollusks are not only delicious, but also rich in plenty of nutrients necessary to human body, such as protein and DHA, and other mineral materials. And the shells are good materials to be made into ornamentation for their solidity shapes and gorgeous decorative patterns, or to be made into kinds of tools to ease their life and work. The most important reason should be the shellfishes are easy to dredge for human, men and women, old and young alike.Shellfishes have been used by human as food and materials of tools from the very beginning of human history to now. During archeological excavations, numerous shell-made ornaments and tools were unearthed. The functions of shell-made artifacts have changed with the improvement of social productivity and progress of science and technology. During the early period of the Neolithic Age and the before, shells were mostly made into the ornaments decorated different body parts, also made into different types of tools for a variety of purposes, such as for collection and hunting. But such functions in production domain have changed gradually; we can find more shell-made artifacts in the non-productive sphere. Especially during the periods of Shang and Zhou, one of the most important transformation is some kinds of natural seashells assumed the role of the equivalent exchange in the commodity exchange field due to their rare and valuable, they are called cowries. That’s why such seashells therefore became the symbol of wealth at that time. Some other natural seashells were ornamented on the chariots and horses, highlighting the luxury and the social statues of the owners. The functions of decoration using shells had extended into more spheres of the life. For example, various forms of shell-made pieces were inlaid in the lacquer articles; this is the traditional technology of lacquer article inlaid with mother-of-pearl.Such functions of excavated shells have been focused and studied by the academic predecessors from different angles, such as traditional document and archeology. Therefore, this paper researches the unearthed shells from a quite new point and adopts a new technology to focus on the seasonality of shellfish dredging. We sliced the excavated shells in relatively a good preservation, count the growth lines and observe the characteristics of growth lines it the end of the shells. Then, the data is compared with the existing research results. At last, we can make a conclusion on the time these shells were caught, which is also the time the people did such economy activities. At the same time, from the point of view of the environmental archeology, zoo archeology, archeobotany and geological geography science, we try to combine with other science disciplines achievements to explore the micro-water environment at that time and the exploitation of the shellfishes by the ancestors.Finally based on combining the ancient literature, academic predecessors’research results with the archeological achievements, we try to investigate the diversity of the function of shellfishes during the Xia, Shang and Zhou periods through analyzing several rare forms of the unearthed shellfish-pearl, Murex-purple and the lacquer ware inlaid with mother-of-pearl. The ultimate purpose of this study is to as far as possible contribute to the development of environmental archaeology and recovery the ancient society of the Haidai region in the pre-Qin.This paper is consisted of six chapters. Chapter I is Introduction. In this part, we firstly tell the reason for choosing the research subject. The successful experimental study on the seasonalities of shell-collecting in Nan Heya Site encourages us to extend the research to the sites unearthing quantities of shells in Haidai area of pre-Qin. Then, in order to thoroughly understand how the ancient people exploit and make full use of shells, we review the main four functions of shells, there are:food and medicinal materials, tools for production and living, money and ornaments. In the third part, we review the existing research achievements on excavated shell remains. And we find many work can be done further. In the next part, the time and area scope, purposes, methods and resources relative to this paper is cleared here. At last, we introduce the water resources and mollusks resources in modern times in order to ease the study of the ancient micro-water environment.Chapter II mainly focuses on different methods of researching on the seasonalities of shell-dredging. Firstly, we look back the history of the seasonalities of shell-collection home and abroad. And then, three common used methods:Demography, Carbon and Oxygen stable isotope analysis and Growth-line Analysis. The last one is what we apply in this paper, so we carefully introduce the theory, methods, and typical cases in archeological researches as well as the experiment process.Chaper III focuses on the experimental case studies of the seasonalities of gathering shells. Quantities of Meretrix meretrix in good conservation have been unearthed in Nan Heya site which was a site for boiling salt during the Middle Western Zhou. Applying to measurement, Opaque or Translucent and growth lines analysis, we observed the abdomen margin growth line features, and compared the studies of modern clams, and Japanese research achievements. And we come to the conclusion at last that the unearthed clams were got in autumn and winter, which most likely had a close relationship with the local boiling salt activities there.In the fourth chapter, we research the seasonalities of shell-gathering of other sites on the basis of the successful experience above. These sites are Beiqian Site in Qingdao (mainly during the early Dawenkou culture), Tonglin Site in Linzi(during Longshan culture), Da Xinzhuang site in Jinan(during the Shang dynasty), Chenzhuang site in Gaoqing(during the Western Zhou dynasty), Nan Heya site in Guangrao(of the Western Zhou dynasty), etc. Firstly, we introduce site survey and unearthed shellfishes, then conduct shell section research, analysis of dredging season. We It also analyze the relics unearthed the remains of shellfish. They can well reflect the natural environment, especially the micro water environment, and the position of the shellfish collecting in production activities of different periods. We think that, the seasonalities of shellfishes collecting is closely related to the site’s geographical environment, settlement, scale, population as well as the different times ancients profession model. Along with the development of times and social progress, our ancestors relied on farming more and more, gathering shellfish resources is average in a year, suggesting that we dredge shellfish only as a year-round supplementary food resources. This phenomenon shows that, at least in terms of meat, on the one hand, the ancients in software the dependence of the shellfish and other aquatic resources reduce gradually, on the other hand, as a part of human diet of the pre-Qin period, but it never gone in the fishing acquisition activities, under some special conditions of production activities (such as boiling salt), shellfish still occupies very important position in the die multiple site analysis can prove it.In the fifth chapter, we mainly analysis the variety functions of shells. Firstly, we do some researches on the excavated shells from different sites of the Neolith Age, and some special phenomena of shells may be related closely to religions and ceremonies. Next, we mainly focus on the colorful functions of the shell-made artifacts unearthed from tombs. For example, pearls, Murex-purple and the lacquer ware inlaid with the Mother-in-Pearl are seldom excavated in our sites. But the Haidai area has been rich in various waters, so it’s our duty to pay more attention to some particular materials when we unearth the sites along waters. The last chapter is the conclusion; this part summarizes the previous chapters, lists some issues needing further study, and suggests perspectives for future study. |
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