An Archaeological Perspective On The Erlitou Jades

This paper, through the archaeological perspective on the related jade objects, mainly explores the social hierarchy of the Erlitou culture, which is one of the most significant cultures from 1900 B.C to 1500 B.C in China. Firstly, this paper gives a classification of categorizes the jade objects of the Erlitou culture and describes characters. Secondly, this paper analyzes the social hierarchy of the Erlitou culture through the burial with jades. The burial with jades shows that there was obvious hierarchy at that time. The jades were one of the most important symbols of this social status and played an extraordinarily significant role in the Erlitou society and in the formation and development of ancient Chinese civilizations. Finally, this paper discusses the origin and development of the jade elements in the Erlitou culture and points out that there was a developing process in the formation of the style of the Erlitou jades. It absorbed a great number of former factors from other precedent archaeological cultures in the peripheral areas, including the Xinzhai culture, the Shandong Longshan culture, and so on. At the same time, it influenced many archaeological cultures in quite large area in that age.