Research On Dongdazhangzi Cemetery

Dongdazhangzi cemetery was rated as one of the "Ten Major Archaeological Discoveries" in 2011. It has been highly concerned by academic circle because of its special geographical position in northeast of China, and the mixture of Yan culture and aboriginal culture.By now, we have excavated 47 graves. Among them, the relics in the M40 and the M47 are mainly typical imitation copper potteries from Yan, which is quite different from other graves in culture connotation. This article doesn’t write about them.The core of this article to research is era and layout of Dongdazhangzi graveyard. The paper is divided into five parts. First, the introduction is about the background and significance of choosing this topic. This part will introduce the basic case of the graveyard, the present situation of research and methods of writing and research in general. The first chapter is structural classification of graves. According to dividing all of graves into rock-filled ones and soil-filled ones, this chapter is to research the size, sacrificing and burial objects, and come to the conclusion of "different kinds of funeral customs maybe the reflection of different crowds". The second chapter is mainly about the change and evolution of relics in shape. It is an induction of all the relics, also a systematical presentation of complete material. Use words, photographs and tables to show the change process of potteries and bronze vessels. The third chapter means to talk about related issues. Firstly, basing on the results of classifying and sorting typical objects, to build the group sequence of typical graves, then divide the cemetery into two periods——early and late by combination. Secondly, with the help of the space distribution of typical objects and graves in the cemetery, we try to infer the forming process of the graveyard, and divide the cemetery into 4 areas. Lastly, according to former research achievements, judging the era of the two periods is late Spring and Autumn Period to the early Warring States Period and middle and late Warring States Period. Finally, all the results and findings are summarized in epilogue; this part also includes deficiency of this article, and aim in the future.