Archaeological Perspective On The Pottery Warehouse And Granary In The Tombs From Warring States To Western Han Dynasty

Pottery granaries are relatively common funerary objects in the tombs of the Qin and Han Periods. Past researches mostly have treated these two objects as one, but few attentions put on the differences of their unearthed situation.This article is based on pottery granaries and pottery warehouses unearthed in tombs from Warring States Period to Western Han Period as the research object. And then according to their differences, this paper will research their different spatial and temporal scales of their early emergence and popular. Finally, attempt to analyze the reasons for this difference.The Introduction section describes the discovery and research, and points out the problems of previous studies and research ideas and starting point of this article. In this section, this paper firstly introduces the archaeological materials of pottery granary and pottery warehouse from Warring States Period to Western Han Period having been published so far. And then, according to the object and focus, divides previous studies into four categories. Finally, this paper sums up the problems of the previous studies, those are having not put differences between warehouse and granary into their specific researches and few researches referring to different spatial and temporal scales of their early emergence and popular and their different unearthed situations. On this basis, this paper points out the ideas and starting point of this study, that is on the basis of differences between warehouse and granary, comparatively analysing their different spatial and temporal scales of their early emergence and popular and different unearthed situations, and then attempting to analyze the reasons for the differencesChapter Ⅰ according to the reflection of literature, previous studies and excavated artifacts, defines the warehouse and granary.According to the principle of " square warehouse round granary", this paper gives a strict distinction between them, and accordingly put forward that:pottery granary is a pot-shaped grain storage pottery container who’s cross-sectional is circular or oval and appearance is a cylindrical or pot-bellied shape. Pottery warehouse is a cube-shaped or house-shaped grain storage pottery container who’s cross-sectional is square or rectangular. Both them are models funerary objects. On the basis of the distinction between warehouse and granary, this paper distinguishes the case of mistaken identity in the relational studies of archaeological presentation or report and previous studies in the past, and put it as a starting point for research.Chapter Ⅱ analyzes differences in spatial and temporal scales of the emergence and early popular of pottery granary and pottery warehouse. By carding system analysis of the pre-Qin and Western Han Period tombs which unearthed pottery granaries or pottery warehouses, this article preliminary view that the pottery granary first appeared in the Qin Tomb of the Middle Spring and Autumn Period, and only appeared in the Qin tomb in the Guanzhong area before the Western Han Period, and then, found in other places in the early Western Han Period and populared across the countryrelatively in middle Western Han Period. The pottery warehouse first appeared in the tomb in the early part of the early Western Han Period in Xuzhou, and a little later also found in the tombs of the Guanzhong region in the early Western Han Period. The places that found pottery warehouses have been expanded in the middle of the Western Han Period, and then it has been relatively popular across the country in the late Western Han Period.Chapter Ⅲ comparative analyzes some different informations,such as the graves shape and size and funerary objects and the owner of the tomb identity and other related issues, between the tombs unearthed pottery granary and pottery warehouse in the background of placed them in the tombs. According to list some typical tombs in each period from the Spring and Autumn Period when the pottery granary appeared to the late Eastern Han Period, This chapter draws a conclusion that the tombs buried with pottery granaries are generally medium-sized tombs, and mostly having a coffin and a outer coffin at the same time maintly buried with imitation copper sacrificial vessels and household potteries. In the same way, This chapter draws a conclusion that the tombs buried with pottery warehouses are generally over medium-sized or even large tombs, and mostly having a coffin and two outer coffin or two coffins and a outer coffin, at the same time their funerary objects with many types and large quantities. Finally, according to the comparative analysis of the typical tombs of the same time period, this paper draw a conclusion that the tombs that unearthed pottery warehouse are generally better than the ones unearthed pottery granaries in some aspects of tomb such as the graves shape and size and funerary objects and the owner of the tomb identity and so on. And the peoples using the pottery granary to bury with the purpose of highlighting the wealth their owned, as well as the pottery warehouse is used to highlight their social identity and status.Chapter Ⅳ is traced, that means try to seek the root cause of the difference, and to analyze some related issues. The pottery granary first appeared in the Qin Tomb of the Middle Spring and Autumn Period, and only appeared in the Qin tomb in the Guanzhong area before the Western Han Period. The emergence of this phenomenon can not be separated from the particularity in the political, ideological, economic and other aspects of the Qin people. The pottery warehouse first appeared in the tomb in the early part of the early Western Han Period in Xuzhou. The emergence of this phenomenon can not be separated from the particularity in the political, economic, funeral system of the early Western Han Period and the special geographical location of Xuzhou and Guanzhong.At the end of the chapter, the paper analyzes the relative questions about the combination of "warehouse(granary), kitchen, well", and preliminary draw a conclusion that:the process of the formation of this combination is the process that the Qin culture transform to Han culture and finally establish.Last epilogue draws a few preliminary conclusions based on the first few chapters of exposition, that the pottery warehouse and the pottery granary have different spatial and temporal characteristics of the emergence of early popular. There are some different symbolic meanings between them, and so as tombs that buried with pottery warehouses and pottery granaries. Therefore, in the future archaeological and related research, to distinguish between the two is very necessary.