A Preliminary Study Of Bronze Bell-shaped Ornaments In The Eastern Zhou Period In The Northern Parts Of China

Bronze bell-shaped ornaments of the Eastern Zhou period in the northern parts of China are classified into five main categories:cylindrical,conical,concave,spherical and beads-joint.Among them,cylindrical type A is very popular in Gan Ning,cylindrical type B is the Central Plains popular artifact,and cylindrical type C was found in Inner Mongolia region at first, and then was spread to Gan Ning and Northern Hebei region.Conical, concave, spherical bell-shaped ornaments are mainly popular in Northern Hebei region from early to middle.These ornaments show the phenomenon spread from East to West.Bell-shaped ornaments in the form of joint beads are also mainly popular in Northern Hebei region,and such artifacts and their variants were found in Inner Mongolia regions in the early stages.It is visible that there is a certain relationship between Northern Hebei region and Inner Mongolia region in the early stages.Bronze bell-shaped ornaments of the Eastern Zhou period in the northern parts of China are worn on the body of a person or animal,or decoration in the wagon.These ornaments can be used as a purely decoration,and also have some practical functions.In addition to outside the unclear status of cylindrical bell-shaped ornaments, other types of bell-shaped ornaments are mostly popular in women.Among them,spherical bell-shaped ornaments perhaps only worn by women.Concave bell-shaped ornaments are very popular in the upper-layer groups,spherical bell-shaped ornaments are only popular among the people in the lower class,and conical and beads-joint bell-shaped ornaments are present among all classes of people.Bronze bell-shaped ornaments of the northern parts of China account for only a minority part in Gansu-Qinghai region.Bell-shaped ornaments of the Gansu-Qinghai region remain on their own system,which are different from northern areas.In Gansu-Qinghai region,there are a number of bell-shaped ornaments of northern areas,which indicate the cultural penetration from northern areas to Gansu-Qinghai region. The influences of bell-shaped ornaments of northern areas to Gansu-Qinghai region are much larger than bell-shaped ornaments of Gansu-Qinghai region to northern areas.