The Research About Custom Of Buried Animals In Bronze Age In Gansu And Qinghai

The custom of buried animals prevailed in the Bronze Age in the area of Gansu and Qinghai. This paper made a deep study of this custom in the region of space-time evolution. And on this basis to discuss the origins of the custom development process, caused by the custom of changing economic factors as well as the relationship with the culture of the surrounding area.The above researches showed that the temporal and spatial variation of buried animals in Gansu and Qinghai regions mainly represented as follows: From the time, the species and quantities of buried animals increased more than the early stage,buried animals tend to be fixed;in the space, custom of buried animals went through a diffusion process,from Hehuang region to the Hexi Corridor, Huangshui spread to the Gansu northeast, buried animal species and funeral patterns changed with the spatial variation in the above areas.The custom of buried animal in Gansu and Qinghai begun in Qijia culture,and buried with pigs prevailed in the early stage of Qijia culture, later the number of sheep increased,on the contrary,the number of pigs decreased.Then funeral customs with animals were popular in the the Four dams culture, Cayo culture, Siwa culture and Manholes culture. In the early stage of Four dams culture prevailed burial with sheep, pigs, horses as well as dogs,most of tombs buried with sheep,buried with dogs took the second place,and the custom of burial with animal declined in the later stage of the Four dam culture.In the tombs of Cayo culture where were poplar buried with dogs、cattle and sheep in the early stage, and buried with horses、sheep and cattle later.Siwa culture prevailed sheep,and later prevailed to use cattle、coat、horses and pigs buried in the tombs,the quantities of cattle were at most, sheep、horses and pigs successively.The early tombs of Manhole culture mainly buried with sheep, followed with pigs and horses.and in the later stage,it prevailed burial with sheep, cattle and horses. The buried animals often used some parts of animal bodies, such as pigs’ mandibles were common in the funerary, and skulls of sheep, cattle, horses and dogs were rear,instead the lower limbs of the animals above were common in the tombs,the whole animals buried in the tombs were found occasionally.The position of the buried animals closed to racking platform and one side of the tomb owners’ bodies.The buried animal species experienced transformation process in Gansu and Qinghai,mainly from pigs to cattle, horses and sheep, and regional economic mode of production in Gansu and Qinghai may lead agriculture to farming and animal husbandry or animal husbandry. Customs of buried animals in Gansu and Qinghai may caused by the buried customs of Jiahu type in the Peiligang culture spread west to Yangshao culture,then spread from Yangshao culture to Gansu and Qingha.Through the comparison of burial objects and custom, the burial custom in Gansu and Qinghai had close cultural relationship with the Central China、the South Central of Nei Monggol and the eastern area of Xinjiang.