A Preliminary Study Of The Shang And Zhou Dynasties Mouthpiece

The custom of keeping things in mouth is a very important part of funeral custom during Shang and Zhou dynasties, which have been discovered a lot in archaeological material. However, there are no comprehensive analyses of the collation of Shang and Zhou dynasties made by scholars, and it’s also lack of clear understanding for the development process. In view of this, the paper make comprehensive collation and statistical analysis of manufacturers and the export of the Western Zhou Dynasty tombs, analyze the changes on time and the different geographical features in different regions at different levels reflect the tombs some characteristics as well.The paper is divided into four chapters:The first chapter is the introduction. In the introduction, the topic of spatial and temporal scales are defined; counterpart of the previous studies were made, and the idea of this study, the purpose and meaning are raised for the lack of previous studies.The second chapter make an explanation of the custom of keeping things in mouth of the Western Zhou DynastyChapter III sort out the material in accordance with the mouth, shape, quantity and mix the four aspects of archaeological material seen in the mouth with a basic feature. Overall, jade, stone, and shell are common materials, while there are only a small number of mussels. In the form, the original catchy with the shape and the shape funerary often inconsistent, mainly due to a larger portion of objects is too big to to put into full mouth of the deceased. But it also shows objectively differences between different grades. In the number of things from single-seat tomb are varies as well, with at least one and one hundred at most. This number is connect to burial patterns, therefore we cannot simply correspond the number with grades or other problems. The pattern of the custom of keeping things in mouth means the different material in the mouth, which is also called as composite custom of mouth. It is more common in complex combination of two; only one tome is combined with jade, stone, shell three materials. But there are no combination of mussels and shellfish, or mussels combination.The final chapter analyzes with their counterparts in the development process with the characteristics of the times, geographical features and grade characteristics by combining with the basic features of the custom, and draws some preliminary understanding.Finally part is the conclusion, this paper mainly summarizes some understandings in the process of analysis, and issues a preliminary view.