On the basis of the evidence provided by Yunnan provincial Institute of Archaeology, archaeologists explored the site of Duizi in Yongsheng county of Yunnan province.
The so-called Duizi site is located at Taoyuan village, Yongsheng county, the city of Lijiang of Yunnan province and is situated on a terrace on the left bank of the Jinsha River, where it rises to a height of approximately 1200 meters above sea level. It was first excavated in 1973.
During a second period of general, nation-scaled investigations of cultural relics, the site was confirmed again and re-excavated.
Because of flooding caused the hydroelectric Power Station in the neighborhood of the site, the Yunnan provincial Institute of Archaeology conducted rescue excavations in 2010.
These excavations have yielded 18 houses, 140 tombs, and a great amount of artefacts.
An area of 10,000 square meters was excavated at this time, which included houses, built tombs and burial pits. Of the tombs (140 in total), there appears to be four categories, including pit tombs, stone-lined tombs, stone-constructed tombs and urn tombs.
The pit tombs were commonly rectangular-shaped, oriented from south to north. The ceramic assemblages included in these tombs were jars, pots and bowls.
While the stone-lined and stone-constructed tombs, which were surrounded by natural slabs and pieces of stone, may provide evidence for the practice of secondary burials.
Urn tombs usually buried children, which were in oval shape with ceramic pot as burial appliances, and oriented from east to west, in the same direction as that of stone-lined and stone-constructed tombs.
One of the house foundations that were found supplied evidence of the construction of pile-dwelling, since there were a series of postholes arranged regularly.
Another 17 houses were semi-subterranean building in square shape with round corner, remaining a height of 10 to 30 centimeters. Layers of burned earth were found within the houses at a depth of approximately 3 centimeters.
More than 30 pits were also discovered, which typically appear to have been round-shaped and a few of which contained deposits of burned earth.
Thousands of artefacts were bagged and labelled. Their categories were considerably diverse, including a wide range of materials, such as ceramic, stone, bone, bronze, iron, teeth and shell.
The ceramics could be classified in the form of jars, bowls, bottles, high-standed vessels, pans, and spindle-wheels.
The stone-tool assemblages include axes, adzes, awls, knives, battle-axes, needles, arrowheads, bi disk, rings, bracelets, pebble and grinding-stones.
Bone tools include awls, hairpins, rings and earrings. Bronze tools include knives, swords, spears, arrowheads, pins, fish-hoops, bells and bracelets.
The occupation of the site of Duizi appears to have been from the Neolithic period to northern and southern Han Dynasties.
Analysis of the different strata may provide valuable information forarchaeological classification in the near future, and for the understanding of the activities of the ancient people in the middle region of the Jinsha River.
Source: Chinese Archaeology [July 05, 2011]
The so-called Duizi site is located at Taoyuan village, Yongsheng county, the city of Lijiang of Yunnan province and is situated on a terrace on the left bank of the Jinsha River, where it rises to a height of approximately 1200 meters above sea level. It was first excavated in 1973.
During a second period of general, nation-scaled investigations of cultural relics, the site was confirmed again and re-excavated.
Because of flooding caused the hydroelectric Power Station in the neighborhood of the site, the Yunnan provincial Institute of Archaeology conducted rescue excavations in 2010.
These excavations have yielded 18 houses, 140 tombs, and a great amount of artefacts.
An area of 10,000 square meters was excavated at this time, which included houses, built tombs and burial pits. Of the tombs (140 in total), there appears to be four categories, including pit tombs, stone-lined tombs, stone-constructed tombs and urn tombs.
The pit tombs were commonly rectangular-shaped, oriented from south to north. The ceramic assemblages included in these tombs were jars, pots and bowls.
While the stone-lined and stone-constructed tombs, which were surrounded by natural slabs and pieces of stone, may provide evidence for the practice of secondary burials.
Urn tombs usually buried children, which were in oval shape with ceramic pot as burial appliances, and oriented from east to west, in the same direction as that of stone-lined and stone-constructed tombs.
One of the house foundations that were found supplied evidence of the construction of pile-dwelling, since there were a series of postholes arranged regularly.
Another 17 houses were semi-subterranean building in square shape with round corner, remaining a height of 10 to 30 centimeters. Layers of burned earth were found within the houses at a depth of approximately 3 centimeters.
More than 30 pits were also discovered, which typically appear to have been round-shaped and a few of which contained deposits of burned earth.
Thousands of artefacts were bagged and labelled. Their categories were considerably diverse, including a wide range of materials, such as ceramic, stone, bone, bronze, iron, teeth and shell.
The ceramics could be classified in the form of jars, bowls, bottles, high-standed vessels, pans, and spindle-wheels.
The stone-tool assemblages include axes, adzes, awls, knives, battle-axes, needles, arrowheads, bi disk, rings, bracelets, pebble and grinding-stones.
Bone tools include awls, hairpins, rings and earrings. Bronze tools include knives, swords, spears, arrowheads, pins, fish-hoops, bells and bracelets.
The occupation of the site of Duizi appears to have been from the Neolithic period to northern and southern Han Dynasties.
Analysis of the different strata may provide valuable information forarchaeological classification in the near future, and for the understanding of the activities of the ancient people in the middle region of the Jinsha River.
Source: Chinese Archaeology [July 05, 2011]
