The Stone Structure Of The Jinsha River Tombs Research

This thesis inquires into the stone-constructed graves which are mainly located in the middle Jinsha River valley. It covers the area marked by the Lancang River in the west; the Yuanjing River, Ailao mountain and Dianchi lake in the south; the Niulan River in the east; the Yalong River, Gongga Mountain and Daduhe River in the north. This is present-day the north and northwest of Dian(Yunnan province) and the southwest of Chuan(Sichuan province).The stone-constructed graves in the middle Jinsha River valley are a distinctive and wide-ranging culture. So far, more than four hundred of such graves have been discovered, which are mainly distributed over the platforms and some narrow basins near the Jinsha River valley and its branches. They can date back to the local late Neolithic Age(2000-1350BC), and ended in local late Bronze Age or the early Iron Age corresponding to the late Xihan dynasty. They cover about a thousand years. The diversification of their development patterns and richness of their culture contents contribute a lot to the study of the Neolithic culture and the Bronze culture, including its origin, types, regional characteristics, and the relationships among various ethnic groups in the whole Jinsha River valley.On the basis of region-division and period-division, this paper offers arather complete inquiration into the stone-constructed graves by analyzing and comparing cultural factors. Conclusions are as follows:Firstly, there are more differences than similarities among the stone-constructed in the three regions.Funeral objects mainly include pottery and bronzes. The pottery in the northwest region of Dian are popular with two-ear and one-ear vessels, whose time trace of development is obvious. Most bronzes are weapons which are lack of evolution track. The underground graves were built by piling up stones. The majority of the bodies were alone, bending their arms and legs, but some with straight ones. The development in the north region of Dian seemed to be more unsteady. It assumed a jumping trend. Pottery experienced a process from without ears to with ears, and then returning to the former pattern, while the bronzes were rich both in number and kinds. Weapons, tools and various decorations almost account for the same percentage. The underground graves, at first, only had one room, and then more rooms were available. Later there had been more rooms in different grounds, and at last, the grave tunnels were also dug. The burial bodies changed from one body with straight arms and legs into dozes of disintegrated bodies together twice and finally one which was buried twice. In the southeast region of Chuan, the pottery were distinguished by pots with spout and ring-feet pots. Vessels with ears existed all the time, but have never been popular. The major bronzeswere small artifacts such as hairpins, bracelets, rings and bells. Bones and stones were rather prevailing. The on-ground graves built by piling up stones and by erecting stones coexisted in a long period. The burial patterns included dozes of people being buried together at the same time and dozes of people being buried together at different time. Besides, there were mounds, grave tails, tunnels and pits for the funeral objects outside the graves.We can analyze the few similarities from two aspects: First, In different regions, at different periods, there were always pottery with ears although they were not exactly the same. Some were decorated with little pins or streaked on the shoulders and bellies. At the bottom, there remained a strip of leaf veins. Jades and agates were found in all the regions. These similar grave goods show that the cultural factors based on a common foundation were inherited in different stone-constructed tombs, but they were not caused by the specific cultural communications. Second, although the burial systems were rather independent in the three regions, all the graves have something in common. At first, they all were erected stones as walls, later, some of them were built by piling up stones. At...