Research On Sacrificial Ruins Of The Neolithic Age

As an important demonstration of religious beliefs and worshiping conceptions in daily life,the sacrifice constitutes a special element of human society.The Neolithic Age has epoch-making signifinance in human beings' development process,after the long Paleolithic Period,the Neolithic Age,a vital phase in the development of human beings,witnessed a rapid development in the material and spirit realms of mankind.In this period,the primary spiritual life of human beings was dominated by various sacrifices,which contains rich worship and belief layers,and is closely related to the religious sacrifices of later periods.The various extant sacrifice ruins are the main sources to study the spiritual belief of human beings in this period.This dissertation examines the system of spiritual belief of the prehistory people by exploring the sacrificial ruins of the Neolithic Age.It has 6 chapters.The first chapter,the "Introduction",sketches the objectives and significance of this topic.It talks about the definition of "sacrifice" and its origins according to the the ories on primitive religions.It also gives definitions and introductions to the study objects,the time and space of the study and the methodologies.And in this chapter,the author also reviews and comments on the major previous achievements in the field of the Neolithic sacrifice ruins.The second chapter,"the sacrificial altars",is a general study of all the Neolithic sacrificial altars nationwide.According to the patterns of the altars and the archaeol ogical typology,the author classifies the altars.And based on the classification,the au thor examines the belief systems demonstrated in the altars area by area.This chapter also includes some case studies on altars which are representative.The third chapter is named "the ruins of sacrificial pits".It scrutinizes the sacrific ial pits all around China and labeled as "suspicions" some ruins which currently are not able to be identified.Based on the burial patterns and their relations with other ruins,the author divides the two main groups,"independent" and "relative",into many sub-groups.Then this chapter explores the reasons that caused various burial patterns in these sub-groups of the "independent" burials and their belief systems.The chapter also analyzes the "suspicious" group and carries a specific study on the "relative" sacrificial pits.The fourth chapter is "the above ground ruins".It first identifies such ruins accor ding to their distributions.Then the author categorizes the ruins into three groups,namely "ancestral halls","palaces" and "temples" according to the ritual function with similar ruins.He also gives the sources and reasons why some typical ruins are ide ntified and their sacrificial meanings.The fifth chapter is titled "other ruins".This chapter contains some ruins that ar e small in quantity or hard to identify.These ruins includes seven types,respectively "the sacrificial columns"?"the sacrificial areas"?" foundations"?"graves and grave yards"?"the residential burials"?"the statue of dragon"?"the tube-shaped jars and overlappingurn placed on ground".The author also explores the sacrificial meanings of the different types of ruins.The sixth chapter,the conclusion,is the summary of the whole dissertation.It summarizes the general features of the Neolithic sacrificial ruins and the holistic view of their belief systems and concludes the special characteristics of different areas.At last it points out the origins of sacrificial ruins and rites in the Neolithic Age,and it also mentions about the weaknesses of the dissertation and the directions of fut ure study in this field.The main conclusion of the dissertation contain such aspects:all type sacrificial ruins of the Neolithic Age appear to multiple beliefs,which closely related to the primitive religion based on animism.The beliefs of the altars including the nature?the ground?the sun?the mountains and ancestry?relatives?sorcerers and so on who are godhead persons,altars belong to different areas not only have differences on quantity,but also focus on different belief systems.The sacrificial pits based on burial patterns and locations there are different beliefs,the chief function of the "indepen?dent"patterns is sacrifice the Mother Earth and the Ceres which intrerrelaed to agritural production,but the "relative"patterns have explicit directity.The above ground ruins respectively appear to worship on ancestry and The Titan based on pure religion function,and complex function mix sacrifice and procedure,different patterns exist apparent religion teature.Among the other sacrificial ruins,"foundations"?"graves and graveyards" have basicially the same beliefs about corresponding "relative sacrificial pits";Jishi tomb and M45 of Xishuipo mainly indicate the sacrificial to some religious figures such as the wizard;the habitable burials demonstrate the sacrifices to and taboo of ancestors and deceased who has died by violence;the dragon-shipped figures are testimonies of the close relationship between the dragon worship and agricultural production;the "tube-shaped jars and overlapping urn placed on the ground" symbolize the special worship for agriculture?ancestors and reproduction.