Small And Medium-sized Han Tomb In Henan

Through the systematic arrangement, based on the form, burrial equipment, its features and with the help of the administrative division of the Han Dynasty, this thesis divides all middle-sized and small Han tombs of Henan into six districts and seven stages.The six districts are the westem,nothern,central,south-western,southem,and eastern parts of Henan province.The seven stages are the early,middle and late parts of Western Han Dynasty,the xingmang interregnum and the early,middle and late parts of the Eastern Han Dynasty.Thanks to the above classification,the author concludes the rule disclosed by the development of the middle-sized and small Han tombs of Henan,outlines the characteristic of every district and presents an initial probe into its cause and the expressed historical cultute and funerary custom.The law ruling of the development of the middle-sized and small Han tombs of Henan can be outlined as that with the passing ot time,the shape and the equipment of the tombs become closer to this world and farther from the underworld.The early flat top of the chamber was then built. The inceptive one-room chamber then owned_several rooms to provide a larger space with a plan closer and closer to this world.The ritual combination of tripod,box and flask is popular burial equipment of early Wesrern Han Dynasty.The worldly vessels such as models of kitchen gamary began to be seen in middle and late western Han Dynasty and gradually played a major part .For offering activity inside the chamber ,the vessels such as unlegged table,eared cup,spoon,and cylindrical wine container were played in the front or central room of the chamber in the late Western Han and early Eastern Han Dynasty and into the middle and late Eastern Han Dynasty the widely practiced burrial equipment are the pottery models of poutry,cattle,court and pigsty with toilet and figurines of singer,dancer or actor which were caused by manor economy and countryside life. In western Henan,the tombs were variously formed,the shaft passage and flat chamber top were longer practiced.Several minor rooms were very frequently added and there were a lot of burial equipment with great repertory and long-used vitual combinatioaln northern Henan,the tombs were simply builtthe burial equipment were much less than that western Henan.But the design of triangles or concentric rings inscribed on the pottery from the tombs in Anyang, is a distinctive local feature and the figurins or flasks,shapped like parrots and yielded by the tombs of some districts have not or little been found in other districts . In the central Henaruthe tombs were also simply shaped with big hollow or small baked brick as the principal building material, the latter usually printed with geometric or rope like design.The ritual combination of burial equipment,the complete sample of which had become scare in the middle and late Western Han, was shortly imployed. The urns with wide shoulder inscribed concentrically with several circles,double floored Boshan incensery and kitchen with posterior fire wall pressed with a chymn design have been solely unearthed here.In the south-western Henaruthe tomb form and burial equipment is greatly different from that of the central part .There is no tomb with shaft passage and a chamber built by horizontally dug into the underearth.The tombs with a brick chamber were all directly built on the bottom of a shaft dug beforehand.The chamber types of two rooms arranged side by side,a square high anterior room and two low posterior ones juxtaposed and a high anterior one with dome like top and a few lateral ones and two differently sized rooms concentrically arranged are all solely yielded in this districtThe burial equipment combination of granary, kitchen,pen with toilet,poultry and cattle and grain processing outfit pottery models had been widely followed in the middle and late Western Han Dynasty and the frequently installed Boshan like lid of tripod,box and gramary make them different from that unearthed in the central.The widely practiced stone coffins or chamber the...