Beijing The Pinggu Liu River Shang Tombs

In August, 1977, a grave has been discovered at Liujiahe village at Pinggu. There were 40 costful Cultural Relics in this grave, for example, 16 bronze Ritual Vessels, a copper tomahawk with iron blade, gold armlets, gold earrings, jade axes and so on. It's in about the middle age of Shang dynasty. The discovery of the grave fills up the blank of archeology in Shang dynasty in Beijing, and it provide an important practical material for studying the politics, economy and culture of Beijing in Shang dynasty.Once the grave was discovered, it arouse the investigators'extensive attention. The essay which is based on the study of the grave in Liujiahe, is trying to get a new understanding of the grave's age, character, the mastership and so on.There are three chapters. The first chapter includes the summarization of the study. This chapter generally introduces the status quo of the Liujiahe grave's study, including the culture attribute, the master's race and identity, the age of the grave and some relating aspect. The second chapter is analysis. The bronze Ritual Vessels in Liujiahe grave were compared with bronze ware in other place and also was the copper tomahawk with iron blade, copper masks, gold armlets and trump earrings. The author is trying to solve the age problem and have a new inderstanding. In the third grave, it has a comclusion to the study of the first and second chpters. The bronze Ritual Vessels in the grave was close to the bronze ware in Shang dynasty, so the age should be the interim between Erligang to Yinxu. Because the heading of the grave and the embedding habit are the character in Shang race, we can summarize that the Liujiahe grave has a close relationship to the Shang race and the mater of the grave must be their merchants to there. According to the history, in age of Erligang to Yinxu of Shang culture, there are an big scale of expansion of Shang culture. The upper class of Erligang of Shang culture has occupied in Beijing, Weixian and the southern part of it, so the master of the Liujiahe grave possibly went to Beijing from Shang dynasty. It has been proved by ethnology. The grade of the grave is uncommonly high, so the master must be a noble who was appointed govern the place or a monarch who was complying with or conquered by Shang dynasty.