Research Of Gender Archaeology On Thetombs In The Site Of Tianma-Qucun In The Western Zhou Dynasty

Site of Tianma-Qucun is located at south of Linfen City, Shanxi Province. The remains from Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn period are the most abundant, which found a lot of tombs and preserve a relatively intact human bones. Burial is the very good material on gender issues, having a unique advantage for our study of male and female social relationships and role. After identifying the sex of the owners of the tombs, we can have a very intuitive understanding on the contact between the material remains in the burial and the gender. The paper attempts to make a preliminary study on the relationship between social customs and gender and as reflected in the social life of the site from a perspective of gender archeology.This paper mainly using statistical analysis on the basis of the stage and the typology in the original report, quantitative analyzing of the17Marquis of Jin tombs as well as373medium and small nobles and civilians in the tomb, to take a comprehensive study on gender differences of the various grades of the Western Zhou Dynasty tombs. Firstly, the article makes some explanations on the basis of burial information and the age of the tombs in the site. Secondly, describes the gender identification and the hierarchy classification standards, which ensures that there is a certain foundation. The main part of the article is the analysis on gender differences in the tombs of the site of Tianma-Qucun, which performance by the burial scale and facilities as well as burial objects. The statistical analysis found that, different grade burial display that gender difference is not the same. For one thing, in the tombs of nobles grade, gender differences between men and women is obvious, the female tomb in the burial specifications, the types and quantities of bronze ritual objects as well as chariots and horses are often lower than that of men. Civilian burial, the phenomenon of female tomb grade specifications lower than that of men is less obvious. For another thing, Female burials tend to have more pottery and jade, which shows there are not all the items on the lower specification. Statistical analysis on the tombs of the different grades paid attention to the changes of each period of gender differences, finally found that the situations in late Western Zhou Dynasty and which in early and medium-term periods are very different. At last, this paper tries to examine the social background of the Western Zhou Dynasty, including three aspects:the social status and hierarchy reflected by the gender differences showed in the tombs, the relations among the Jin with neighboring ethnic minorities, and the social changes of the late Western Zhou Dynasty.Finally, the article maintains that we can pry into its social background through the analysis on the gender differences in the tombs in the site of Tianma-Qucun. Gender research provides a new way for us to understand our ancient society comprehensively.