Archaeology of Early China

A Western Zhou period cemetery near Hengshui zhen 横水鎮 in Jiang 降 county, southwest Shanxi, was discovered in 2004. A comprehensive report about the excavations of the whole site has not yet been published, but some observations can be made based on preliminary reports about the tombs of Pengbo Cheng 倗伯爯 and his spouse Bi Ji 畢姬. Inscriptions discovered elsewhere reveal that Peng 倗 was a lineage of the Kui 媿/Gui 鬼 surname. Some received texts associate Kui/Gui-surnamed lineages with the Di 狄/翟 group of northern non-Zhou peoples. According to the Chinese historiographical tradition, the Di remained autonomous from the Huaxia 華夏 cultural and political community, which was dominated during the Western Zhou period by polities ruled by lineages of the Ji 姬 and Jiang 姜 surnames. The new discovery shows that a small non-Zhou polity, not referred to in transmitted literature, existed quite close to the eastern residence of the Zhou kings at Chengzhou 成周 and just to the south of Jin 晉, one of the major Zhou colonies ruled by a lineage of Ji surname. Moreover, rulers of Peng had marital relations with Bi 畢, another distinguished Ji-surnamed lineage closely related to the Zhou royal house. Thus, the case of Peng can be very instructive for understanding geopolitical and cultural relations in China during the Western Zhou period. In the following, I briefly introduce the tombs of the Peng ruling couple and the inscriptions on their bronzes, and then proceed to discuss the following four issues:
• the date of tombs M1 and M2 of the Peng cemetery;
• the relationship of Peng with non-Zhou peoples, as it can be observed based on the analysis of material remains and onomastic evidence;
• the integration of the Peng lineage into the Zhou political and social network;
• the role played by Yigong 益公, mentioned in the inscription on the Pengbo Cheng gui 倗伯爯簋 tureen, in the acquisition of allies among non-Zhou peoples.
In the conclusion, I use the case of Peng to discuss some general issues in the relationships between Zhou and non-Zhou polities of central China during the late tenth to the early ninth centuries B.C.

The transition to farming is often written in the language of progress. The search has been for the oldest sedentary farming settlements, the processes of plant and animals domestication and the profound societal alterations that accompanied the choice to change lifeway. Perhaps because most of us come from long-standing farmer ancestry, we tend to assume that farming is a superior and more secure way of life. Is there any data to support this? Evidence from southern Africa since the 1970s has shown that the Kalahari hunter-gatherers living in what is a comparatively harsh environment have/had a relatively easier life, with considerably more leisure time and a longer life expectancy than those living in early farmer groups (Lee and DeVore, 1976). Many hunter-gatherers in East Asia will have had even more comfortable and leisure filled lives than those of the Kalahari Bushmen. It is therefore important to ask the question as to why East Asian hunter-gatherers took up farming and whether all hunter-gatherer groups made this choice swiftly and willingly. I use evidence from studies into hunter-gatherer interactions with farmers in sub-saharan Africa to consider this question. It was originally hoped that groups such as the Bushmen of southern Africa, the Pygmies of central Africa and the Hadza/Sandawe of East Africa could give us glimpses into a universal hunter-gatherer past. Revisionist studies since the 1970s have sought to undermine this hope and have emphasised that early research recorded the end product of at least two millennia of interaction, influence and change from being amongst pastoralists and farmers. Archaeology has made significant contributions to this debate, providing evidence for the nature and extent of interaction, continuity and change. Today we are therefore well-positioned to consider the specifics of how hunter-gatherer groups responded to the coming of livestock keepers and farmers in different parts of Africa. This paper will review African interaction models so as to consider their implications for East Asia. I do not provide a general model for interaction, indeed I would be ideologically opposed to any attempt at this kind of universalism, but I seek to provide a convincing glimpse of the kinds of real-world complexity and contextuality in the choices made by East Asian hunter-gatherers in their responses to the presence and influence of farmers.

ABSTRACT:
This article presents a brief review and analysis of one of the most interesting features of the Sanxingdui Bronze Age culture, which is widespread in the Sichuan province of the PRC – bronze anthropomorphic statues, found in the sacrificial pit JK2. The authors refer to full-size human figures at least 50 cm tall (but not their parts, e.g. heads) assembled from pre-cast details, as “statues”. Smaller items cast in one go, they propose to call “figurines”. The ways of production of anthropomorphic statues are described; they are linked to one of the stages of technological evolution of Sanxingdui bronze casting, and myths and rituals reflected by anthropomorphic statues are discussed.
There are three bronze anthropomorphic statues from Sanxingdui, all three found in the sacrificial pit JK2: a big statue of a man standing on a pedestal, the upper part of a human figure with zoomorphic headdress, and the lower part of a skirt-dressed human figure with bird talons instead of feet, holding two snake-like creatures. Long ears and trunk (or horn) on top of the zoomorphic headpiece and hands of the upper part of the human figure were precast and inserted into the intentionally left holes of the main pour (body, head and headdress) cast in a two-sectional mould. After that, precast details were soldered in place with cover pour. Two snake-like creatures with birds’ heads were precast and brazed to precast feet with birds’ talons, and the latter were fixed in the mould for casting of the lower part of the skirt-dressed human figure. The method of casting of the human figure with zoomorphic headdress and bronze masks of A and C types is the same. The skirt-dressed human figure with talons was produced in the same way as bronze “spirit trees” No 2 and No 1. They all belong to stage II of the technological evolution of Sanxingdui bronze casting.
The skirt-dressed human figure with talons closely resembles representations of Garuda – a personage of Indian mythology. The whole composition may illustrate one of the two episodes, described in ancient Indian epic “Mahabharata”. In one case, Garuda has transported his half-brothers Naga serpents to a nice island amidst the ocean. Another story tells of how Garuda has stolen the elixir of immortality Amrita for Naga, after tearing to pieces two dragons that guarded it, with his talons. The zoomorphic headdress on top of the head of a human figure copies the head of a fictional animal from the lowest level of the so-called “sacred altar”, also found in the JK2 sacrificial pit. It may depict the Lord of the Underworld in his anthropomorphic form, or be the evidence of the existence of a ritual in Sanxingdui, resembling Japanese Gigaku theatre or Cham performance, with this personage as its main hero.

РЕЗЮМЕ
В статье представлены уникальные находки культуры Саньсиндуй, относящейся к эпохе бронзы и распространенной в пров. Сычуань (КНР) – бронзовые антропоморфные статуи, встреченные в жертвенной яме JK2 на эпонимном памятнике. Авторы считают статуями ростовые изображения человека (а не отдельных частей его тела, например, голов) общей высотой не менее 50 см, смонтированные из предварительно отлитых деталей. Отлитые в один прием изваяния меньшего размера они предлагают называть статуэтками. Конструктивные особенности бронзовых антропоморфных статуй Саньсиндуя позволяют синхронизировать время их создания с бытованием бронзовых масок типов A и C, а также бронзовых «деревьев духов» № 2 и № 1, поскольку при их изготовлении применялись одни и те же технологические приемы. Статую человека с птичьими когтями на ногах, в которых зажаты змееподобные существа с птичьими головами, предложено интерпретировать при помощи древнеиндийского мифа о Гаруде. Статуя в зооморфном головном уборе рассматривается как иллюстрация к мистерии о владыке саньсиндуйского подземного мира, подобной по форме современной мистерии цам.

La interacción entre el clima y la historia no es un asunto de un solo evento central, sino una danza intrincada de retos y respuestas que involucran ecosistemas cambiantes, tecnologías, y sistemas políticos, culturales y sociales en evolución. Respecto a todos estos cambios, el patrón global es consistente: la historia entera de la civilización ha sido un proceso continuo de dialogar en aceptar la vulnerabilidad a grandes tensiones ambientales a cambio de la resistencia a las de menor escala.