Explore The Remains Of Baiyin Changhan Fire Pond

As one of the important remains in archeology,fire pits have been widely found in ancient sites around the world.It has brought a wealth of research questions in archeology.Some archeologists attempted to draw an analogy between ancient fire pits and its ethnographic counterparts.By using ethnographic cases,such as the ethnographic records on the features and functions of the modern fire pits,they could interpret the ancient ones.But there are some limitations in the process of the ethnographic comparison.For example,the ethnographic material of the modern fire pits in the north-eastern China is insufficient,it causes that we can not use the ethnographic records to answer the questions of the ancient fire pits excavated in the same region.Therefore,some fire pits can not be explained by employing such a method.Without the support from ethnographic studies,we have to expand our horizon into the context of the ancient fire pits to obtain more useful information.In this paper I used the data of 58 fire pits from the residential structures at the BaiYinChangHan site.By inspecting the interior spatial pattern of the household structures,I attempt to find out the spatial relationship between the fire pits and the other remnants,the functions of the fire pits,and the corresponding human behaviors happened in the past.Based on the analysis,six types of spatial pattern were revealed,including"Point-surface","Focal-point",“Radial-circle","Chain","Semi-open-ended" and "Remains-distinguishment".These patterns reflect a variety of spatial features and different cultural connotations of the residential fire pits.Furthermore,I tentatively correlate the household behavior patterns to the first five patterns I just mentioned.The "Point-surface" and "Semi-open-ended" pattern suggest to the "domesticity pattern".The "Focal-point"pattern seems to correlate to the "rally-group pattern".The "Radial-circle"and "Chain" pattern probably correspond to the "craftsman-group pattern".These different patterns of household behavior can help us understand the structure and complexity of the ancient society.