On Dongtaibu Culture

Located in north central of Shanxi Province with Taiyuan Basin and Xinzhou Basin as the centers, and in southeast Shanxi with Changzhi Basin as another center, Dongtaibu Culture is a branch archeology culture on the west side of Taihang Mountain, whose stage roughly corresponds to Erlitou Culture. The last stage has been entered into Shang period.Covered into "Guangshe Culture" before, Dongtaibu Culture wasn't distinguished from Shang Relics until 1990s some scholars made a clear identification and named it "Dongtaibu Culture", however, such definition received little response, on the contrary, different opinions formed no consensus but a so extremely complicated and disordered situation that whether there was a branch Erlitou archeology culture in Jinzhong region became a question.Based on newly discovered data and materials, this thesis aims to redefine "Dongtaibu Culture" by means of five parts.The first part begins from discovery and research, which combs out the discovering and researching process in detail, discusses many controversial problems, analyzes the pros and cons of all kinds culture naming and finally figures out the relevant content and regional difference of Dongtaibu Culture.The second part sets on the zoning and stage, which divides Dongtaibu Culture Region into three geographical units, namely, Taiyuan Basin, Xinzhou Basin, and Changzhi Basin, composites the present data and materials, by means of systematical work on the separately regional culture evolution series and its different characteristics, then finds out the different stages and types of Dongtaibu Culture.Another part turns to culture exchange. Through the external culture discrimination in Dongtaibu Culture and its spreading out to the surroundings, the third part discusses the culture exchange situation between Dongtaibu Culture and its surroundings including the south central of Neimenggu and north Shannxi, both sides of Yanshan Mountain, the region of north Henan and south Hebei, and the region of west Henan and south Shanxi, as well as some other related problems. Analysis on cultural factors also helps to clear the practical distribution regions of Dongtaibu Culture and its influence regions.The forth is mainly about the direction of Dongtaibu Culture. Based on the related research, this part demonstrates the final trend of Dongtaibu Culture and exposes its decline reason.The last part is the conclusion.