The Research On Pottery Urns In The Lower Reaches Of The Yellow River And The Yangtze River In The Late Neolithic Age

Cultural diffusion and communication has always been a hotspot in archaeological research of neolithic ages in China.With the development of archaeological theory and the change of research orientation,the interpretation of cultural communication is also changing.Influenced by the chiefdom theory of "New Evolution",Li Xinwei paid more attention to the phenomenon of cultural communication of the upper class.He mentioned that the communication between the archaeological cultures about 3500BC-3000BC has changed qualitatively,especially embodied in the establishment of the elite's exchange network.Sacrificial jade,pottery urn,ivory bracelets etc.which are widely distributed in various cultural areas,have the similarity of shape or ideology.They are all important evidence of social elite's exchange network.Inspired by Li Xinwei,this paper chose pottery urn for research,and attempted to create a new interpretation of the cultural relationship and social cultural significance of pottery urns from the chiefdom theory orientation.Apart from the introduction and conclusion,the thesis is divided into four chapters.The first chapter,the interpretation changes of cultural communication phenomenon,introduced the cultural diffusion theory of Social-Cultural-Historical School and the elite's exchange network of chiefdom theory respectively.And then summarized their advantages and disadvantages in analyzing cultural communication,to build a theoretical foundation for the analysis and interpretation of the following chapters.The second chapter,the typology research on pottery urns of the lower reaches of the Yellow River and the Yangtze River.In this chapter,a typological analysis is made on the pottery urns in the lower reaches of the Yangtze river and the Yellow River respectively,to investigate the cultural evolution trajectories of the two regions.On this basis,comprehensive application of the shape features,pottery makings,origin and other materials was made to speculate preliminary on the cultural relationship between the pottery urns of the lower reaches of the Yangtze river,the Yellow River and the Jianghuai area.The above study showed that in the early days of prevalence,pottery urns of the two regions showed a certain similarity in the pattern and decoration,which may be the result of cultural transmission.However,since then,pottery urns of these two regions have presented divergence of cultural characteristics.The third chapter,archaeological contextual analysis and function analysis.This chapter summarized and analyzed the archaeological context of the pottery urns of the lowers reaches of the Yangtze River and the Yellow River,and tried to interpret the cultural function of pottery urns in different archaeological context.On this basis,a comparison on differentiation of function was made to discuss the cultural relationship of pottery urns of different regions.As a daily-use item unearthed in household sites,pottery urns may be used as receptacle to preserve food and idle vessels,and also may be related to cooking.As funerary objects unearthed in tombs,the pottery urns from the lower reaches of Yellow River and Yangtze River have different burial forms.The different burial forms and its variation reflect the differences and changes of the function of pottery urns in these two regions.The underlying causes of those differences should be related to religious belief,etiquette system,social characteristics,social development stage etc.The fourth chapter,the social elite's exchange embodied on pottery urns.Integrated the complex society of Songze,Liangzhu,Dawenkou culture,this chapter attempted to make a further explanation of the deep-seated reasons for the gradual change of the pottery urns' function in the third chapter from the characteristics of the prehistoric society in respective regions.The morphological and functional changes of pottery urns showed unique cultural characteristics and social evolution process of the two regions.On the basis of sorting out the local cultural or ideological function of pottery urns in the lower reaches of the Yangtze river and the lower Yellow River,in this chapter,a comprehensive comparison of pottery urns' social and cultural significance was made to interpret the social elite's exchange as well as the important role of it for civilization and society.The study has showed that pottery urns and its characterization of symbols reflect lots of similarities between the faith in fire.This could be a reflection of ideological communication between multiple areas in the late neolithic ages of China.