The Study On The Cult Remains In The Region West Of Dongting Lake And Handong Area During The Neolithic Period

With the change of the focus of archaeological research, cognitive archaeology attracted scholars’ attention gradually. But as various reasons, it is still at its exploration stage. This thesis is just a study on the cult remains in the region west of Dongting lake and Handong area, and it will use the method of analogue and settlement pattern analysis, which trying to interpret the meanings of the sacrifice remains from the aspects of ceremony and belief system. Ceremony system includes the sites、manners、tools and participators in the acts of worship. Belief system involves the worship objects、purposes and believes in the ritual. Meanwhile, using the diachronic comparing, the thesis explores the changes of the ancients’ reverence mind and its reasons in these two regions during the Neolithic period.The thesis has five parts.The first part is an introduction, which shows the background and significance of this study, and then it explains the whole framework as well as the methodology which is applied in my thesis.The second part defines the region west of Dongting lake and Handong area. And then introduces the environments and the orders of neolithic cultures in the two regions simply.The third part defines the cult remains in theory, and then describes the cult remains in these regions as the order the archaeology cultures separately.The fourth part focuses on the meanings of the cult remains. I will interpret the ancients’ reverence mind during Neolithic period with the method of analogue and settlement pattern analysis from the aspects of ceremony and belief system. Furthermore, I will analyze the diachronic changes of them and its reasons.The fifth part is the conclusion, which summarizes the whole comments and deficiencies of this thesis.