Research On The Periodization Of The Siwa Culture And Some Relevant Issues

This thesis consists of four chapters,which focues on the periodization of the Siwa Culture(寺洼文化).The first chapter is introduction. First, the range of space and time of the research is defined. Then, by making a detailed literary review of the Siwa Culture, I suppose that the periodization of the Siwa Culture remains controversial. At the meantime, some new materials of the Siwa Culture were published in recent years. So it’s necessary to rethink the periodization and chronology of the Siwa Culture systemically. At the end of this chapter, the main methods used in the research along with the limitations in this thesis are illustrated.The second chapter is the research on the periodization and chronology of the Siwa Culture,which contains three parts.First,the periodization of six main sites of the Siwa Culture is analyzed respectively.By referring to the previous study which divided the Zhanqi cemetery(占旗墓地)into three periods,the Mogou cemetery(磨沟墓地)and the Siwashan cemetery(寺洼山墓地)could be divided into three corresponding periods.By means of typological research of the potteries,the Jiuzhan site(九站遗址)is divided into two periods,while the Xujianian cemetery(徐家碾墓地)is divided into three periods.By comparing the potteries found in Lanqiao cemetery(栏桥墓地)and Xujianian cemetery,it can be inferred that most burials in the Lanqiao cemetery are chronologically equal to the second and third periods of the Xujianian cemetery.Second,through pottery comparison and analyses of relevant data from radio carbon dating,the chronologies of the Siwa Culture are confirmed.The time span of the Zhanqi cemetery,Siwashan cemetery and Mogou cemetery is deduced to be within the late stage of the Early Shang Culture(早商文化)and the fourth stage of the Yinxu Culture(殷墟文化).The first period of the Jiuzhan site is considered to span from the fourth stage of the Yinxu Culture to the early stage of the West Zhou Culture(西周文化),while approximately the second period of this site is chronologically equal to the middle and the late stage of the West Zhou Culture.The time of the first and third periods of the Xujianian cemetery is thought to be roughly equal to the second stage of the Yinxu Culture and the early stage of the West Zhou Culture respectively,while the second period of the cemetery is thought to span from the third to the fourth stage of the Yinxu Culture.At last,the periodization and chronology of the Siwa Culture are summarized through analyzing the relationships among these six sites and cemeteries.In the third chapter,two issues related to the Siwa Culture are discussed.The first issue is about the origin and developmental progress of the urn with saddle-shaped mouth(单马鞍口双耳罐),which is a kind of typical pottery of the Siwa Culture.The developmental progress of this kind of urn can be divided into three stages,that is the forming stage,the developing stage and the sequentially developing stage.The second question is about the relationships between the Siwa Culture and the Zhou Culture(周文化).In the early stage,the Siwa Culture seldom interacted with the Zhou Culture.In the late stage,however,cultural communication between them became frequent.Zhou Culture affected the cultural features of the Siwa Culture considerably,while the later didn’t influence the former too much.The forth chapter is conclusion. The main academic meanings and contributions of this thesis are summarized there. Two factors that influence the accuracy of the periodization research are also illustrated in this part.