Research On The Remains In The Period Of Xia And Shang Dynasties At The Central Region Of Great Wall Area

The “the Central Region of the Great Wall Area” in the title of this paper is roughly equivalent to the southern middle area of Inner Mongolia,northern Shaanxi,and western Shanxi.The Period of the Xia and Shang Dynasties,called the Xia-Shang Period for short,was a key stage,when the bronze civilization in East Asia originated and developed and the early China formed and consolidated.Due to its special geographic location and complex cultural environment,the Central Region of Great Wall Area is not merely one of the culture origins;it also brought together races and helped technology exchanges.Starting with a comprehensive typology study of archeological remains and combing the Archaeological Cultural genealogy in the region of this period,the author discusses its development motivations and influences to surrounding areas,attempts to restore the civilizing process of the early Bronze Age in the Central Region of Great Wall Area from a social and economic perspective.This paper includes seven chapters as below:Chapter 1 is the introduction,where the author combs the research history of archaeology,summarizes the main conclusions and shortcomings of previous research,and thus introduces the objective of this paper and the methods adopted.In Chapter 2 and Chapter 3,the author explains his comprehensive research on the Archaeology cultures during the Xia-Shang Period.The research focuses on their culture connotation,chronologies,development,and its origin.The progress of culture evolution is divided into three stages: the Period of the Xia dynasty period,the period of the early Shang dynasty,and the period of late Shang dynasty.The first and second stage are combined as the “Time of Development" based on their features.The third stage is categorized as "the Time of Prosperity".In Chapter 4,the author discusses the cultural patterns' evolution of this region,The author believes that each civilizing stage is the result of local culture being impacted by external factors.Meanwhile,climate change accelerated this process.The author also emphasizes that the Archaeological culture at the Central Region of Great Wall Area played a promoting role in the progress of bronze civilization in the Eurasian steppe zone.In Chapter 5,by combining historical documents and previous studies together,the author infers the reasons of the declination of archaeological culture in this region in the early Western Zhou Dynasty and ethnic groups'affiliation.It is pointed out that the Shang and Zhou Dynasties'offensive war,especially the large scale military conquest and immigration policies of the Zhou Dynasty against the ethnic groups represented by the"Guifang(??)",was vital to the"declination"of local archaeological cultures.In Chapter 6,the author restores the economic and social features within the framework of the three-stage based on relevant materials and research results.The author analyzes the development process of local social classes,livelihoods,beliefs,and customs,comprehensively.And concludes that the social form was transformed from "chiefdom society" to "early states." at the Central Region of the Great Wall Area during the Xia-Shang period.In Chapter 7,it summarizes the main achievements and conclusions,limitations and topics worthy of further study in the future.