Shang Dynasty (Archaeology)

A detailed discussion and comparison of the two dynasties - Shang and Zhou - with reference to archaeological findings.

Please note:
If you are a student at any University, and you wish to cite my essay, do so prudently. It has not been published in any journal or paper, and will not be considered a properly peer-reviewed source by your teachers. Instead, I would advise you to bounce off my ideas; use them to deepen your own inquiries into the topic.

Previous studies on the procedures for designating successors for high-level official positions in the Shang court have been exclusively based on received classical texts. Rivaling theories exist, yet none of them are particularly convincing.
This paper suggests that position titles that adhere to the formula “marker＋kinship term＋ri(sun)＋Heavenly Stem” may help us to decipher the procedures for designating successors for official positions held by members of the Shang royal house and other elite. Examples of this formulaic title include Dazu Ri-ji 大且日己, Xiaozu Yi 小且乙, Xiaozu 小且, Dafu Ri-gui 大父日癸, Zhongfu Ri-gui 中父日癸, Xiaofu 小父, Daxiong Ri-yi 大兄日乙, Xiaoxiong 小兄, Dazi Ding 大子丁, Zhongzi Xin 中子辛, Dazi 大子, Zhongzi 中子, and Xiaozi 小子. Distinguishing markers that denote the order of succession with preference given to those of higher rank (Da 大, Zhong 中, Xiao 小) may be found in the reigning names of Shang kings such as Da Yi 大乙, Zhong Ding 中丁, and Xiao Xin 小辛, as well as others who did not inherit the throne, such as Zhong Ji 中己, Xiao Ding 小丁, Xiao Ji 小己, and Xiao Geng 小庚. Some women were also designated as successors through the use of formulaic titles as seen; instances of this use may be found in the oracle bone inscriptions, for example Zhongbi 中匕, Xiaobi Ji 小匕己, Zhongmu 中母, Zhongmu Ji 中母己, Xiaomu 小母, Xiaomu Jia 小母甲, and Zhongfu 中婦 , and also in bronze inscriptions, as in the case of Xiaofu 小婦. As we know, the Shang Dynasty was a patriarchal society and thus women did not inherit throne in every circumstance. That these distinguishing markers may also be found in the titles of female elite suggests that women play some role in the transfer of priority appointment to positions.
Previous publications have touched upon some of the terms mentioned above, but these discussions pertain to only one or two these titles, and the interpretations presented are thus not relevant in the analysis of the rest of the terms. Apart from this, existing scholarly work does not pay heed to the fact that these terms also applied to women. The author advocates a holistic analysis of these terms and tries to present a consistent interpretation for this set of terms.
According to the ancestors listed in the Sangou Bing 三句兵 and in the king‘s list based on the Cyclic Sacrifices 周祭, I have summarized our findings on the distinguishing markers as below:
1. Persons whose titles include the marker da were given the highest priority in appointing successors to high-level positions. Among persons who shared the same titular marker, other factors such as age would decide who would take up the position. Next in line were those with the marker zhong, followed by those with the marker xiao, and finally those with the marker wai 外 or those without any marker at all.
2. These markers were inherited through one’s mother, which explains why women also carried these priority markers.
3. Both the royal house and other Zi clan branches used the markers.
The king‘s list generated by the Cyclic Rituals shows that in the first six generations of rule, the royal house produced heirs from within designating marker system without difficulty. Then from the reign of Zhong Ding 中丁 to the reign of Xiao Xin (a period spanning the reign of nine kings), the system was not in use. This “chaos of nine kings” recorded in the Annals of Yin in the Records of the Grand Historian. was linked to competition between brothers as they vied for the throne. This situation often resulted in the relocation of the capital city. The chaos lasted until the reign of Xiao Yi, and order finally restored under Xiao Xin. Yet even at that time, the royal house was plagued by the faults of the original system for designating successors; reform was clearly needed.
The next Shang king Wu Ding promptly adopted the new imperial titular marker di 帝. Di  was the supreme deity in the Shang religion. The adoption of marker di bonded the earthly king to the celestial Di. The Shang royal house likely did this deliberately to demarcate themselves from the innumerable Zi clansmen and emphasize the sanctity of the royal houses. The new marker was used exclusively for members of the royal house.
Other markers were used in a similar way. Persons  born without the right to inherit high offices were distinguished by the marker Jie 介. Whereas sons who branched off to establish their own lines of succession were known by the marker Bei 北 Zhang 長 signified the eldest in age. All these markers, though different, achieve the same aim as the markers for the designation of successors, and as such they are also discussed in this paper.

1 1 I wish to thank Charles Robertson for all his attention and support during this study and Isabel Cervera for her orientations. I am also grateful to Harry Mount and Jeremy MacClancy for their teachings, as well as to Valeria Camporesi, Felipe Pereda and all the professionals from UAM, because it would have been impossible to create this essay without their instruction. I thank Jesús Carrillo, my Erasmus coordinator, for his flexibility and for suggest me to study at Oxford Brookes, and Moisés Sánchez, who helped me to route my future when I was an adolescent in La Mancha. I appreciate the help of all my classmates along my formation and, above all, the understanding of my family.

內田純子（2013年12月）。殷墟西北岡1001號大墓出土雕花骨器的研究。中
央研究院歷史語言研究所集刊，84(4),601-649。

A Study of Carved Bone Objects Excavated at the Yinxu Tomb HPKM1001
Many exquisite artifacts made from various materials, such as jade, marble, ivory, and bone were discovered in royal tombs at Yinxu. Such objects were also discovered at HPKM1001 and represent the high cultural level at the first period of Yinxu. This article focuses on carved bone objects. A study of the shape and design of bone vessels reveals that three types of bone vessels for wine ceremonies were buried in HPKM1001. These were made from elephant bone with excellent carvings and include pitchers, tall cups, and dippers. The insides of these ritual bone vessels were painted red in contrast with their white bodies. These white- and red-colored bone vessels were also in contrast with gold-colored bronze vessels. Colorful ritual objects signify the authority and eminence of the nobility buried in the Shang royal tombs. The authority of carved bone objects is also represented by the trapezoidal bone plate buried in the royal tombs of the Yinxu Periods I-II. Seven carved bone fragments were unearthed from HPKM1001 and restored as carved bone objects with three different types of design. It is not known how these strange plates were used, but their importance is evident in their visual design.
The bone objects discussed in this article were made from the bones of elephant legs. It may be argued that the very rare materials used were probably more precious than those of bronze ritual vessels and that the carving technique also represents the highest level of craftsmanship of that age. It is not an exaggeration to say that they were symbols of the authority of the Shang dynasty and played as important a role in royal rituals as did bronze vessels.

本文是「甲骨文所見的動物」系列論文中的第六篇，探討了甲骨文中的「兕」、「象」兩個字。有些學認為「兕」是指「犀牛」， 本文利用出土材料、古文獻材料中的各種證據加以研究，認為先秦典籍及甲骨文中的「兕」指「聖水牛」。本文討論了甲骨文中含有 「兕」、「象」二字的辭例，也討論了構形中含有「兕」、「象」形的 甲骨文諸字，對一些疑難句詞做了解釋，著重探討了甲骨文中的「 X」 字，認為有可能讀為「隨」。

The data of animal names in oracle-bone inscriptions are very rich, but also present many problems. Based on a comprehensive collection, arrangement and study of the data of animal names in oracle-bone inscriptions and in classical documents, we examine the buffalo (si 兕) and elephant (xiang 象). First, we confirm the opinion that si refers to one kind of buffalo (Bubalus mephistopheles), not to the rhinoceros. Secondly, we interpret some sentences that contain si and xiang in oracle-bone inscriptions.

內田純子（2013年11月）。商代的酒器與青銅禮器。金玉交輝──商周考古、
藝術與文化論文集（69-92）。臺北：中央研究院歷史語言研究所。

Many questions regarding the ritual wine vessels of the Xia and Shang Dynasties have yet to be resolved. One reason for this is that their usage and the kind of alcohol have not been adequately taken into account when studying these vessels from an archeological standpoint.
This paper indicates that the first wine vessels to appear in the Erlitou period were the jue (爵) and jia (斝). They were used to warm a moderately alcoholic beverage called li (醴), which was made of cereal, opaque and mushy. According to the scholarship about Shang Dynasty brewing methods, li was probably brewed originally made in a large rimmed zun (尊) pot using fermented rice (糱, nie). Later, li was replaced by the more alcoholic chang (鬯) which was brewed with yeast (麴, qu).
The set of early bronze wine vessels the jue, jia, gu (觚), and zun were used for rituals with li. Large dippers were sometimes included in the set and used with pottery and bronze zun vessels to serve li. These vessels were most often decorated with taotie (饕餮) patterns. The designs and technology for making these patterns developed conjointly, such that these vessels can be thought of as belonging to a single series.
After Yinxu II, the most predominant set of vessels changed as jia and zun became less common and were replaced by you (卣) and hu (壺), which were lidded wine bottles with thin necks. This latter set would have been good for storage and was probably used to keep transparent chang.
Jue and gu were the first vessels to appear with inscriptions during Yinxu I. The inscriptions were positioned on either the outside of the vessel or on the round foot. It stands to reason that those vessels were used for opaque li, which explains why the designs could only be seen on the outside of the vessel. After Yinxu II, inscriptions on wine vessels were situated on the inside of the vessels. Many aspects of bronze ritual wine vessels suggest that their contents changed from li to chang after Yinxu II.

In this essay, we will find out what kind of information do the remains of human sacrifices, ritual bronze vessels and oracle bones provide us about the religion of the Shang Dynasty. At the same time, various theories and debates will also be discussed. Research question: What kind of information about the Shang Dynasty religion can be inferred from the remains of human sacrifices, ritual bronze vessels and oracle bones?

We propose a direct link from Upper Palaeolithic Ukraine to Proto-Indo-Europeans — one group becoming the Qiang and thence the Burmese Haka Chin —via complex symbols present on mammoth ivory carvings. By using Flinders Petrie’s observations on origin of symbols, we find support for Colin Renfrew’s PIE Anatolian Homeland theory (these complex symbols are found in Anatolia on artifacts c. 10,000 BC), with the first PIE waves commencing before or just after the collapse of Çatalhöyük c. 5950 BC. The patterns are found in mammoth tusk Schreger lines and are present throughout history in many cultures; the most common being lozenge, lozenge-within-lozenge, and cross/chevrons. In 1991 we bought 40 necklaces and 57 bronze belts directly from the Burmese Haka Chin. In 2012 we found Chinese websites referencing 3000-year-old ‘first-generation’ beads (第一代邦提克珠) — called ‘pumtek’ in the West — made by the ancient Qiang, thus being heirlooms of the Jiang clan (姜姓 宗亲) and their 100+ family branches. The Qiang and the Han share common ancestors. We place the most ancient beads to the Machang phase of the Majiayao Culture c. 2300 BC with them possibly passing down through 200 generations. Our investigations found 100+ beads to fluoresce green under 254nm shortwave light. Experts agree that extremely rare genuine pumtek beads fluoresce under SW light. We believe we are the first to publish and show this colour to be green; the first-generation being made from Triassic-age silicified wood of quartz-like state. White silicified wood —rare in China — was almost exclusively used. The Qiang have worshipped white quartz for millennia and have a ‘beads goddess’ in their folklore. We compared the beads with 225mya araucarioxylon arizonicum Arizona Rainbow Wood and araucarioxylon neimongense wang from China. Many fluoresced green under shortwave due to minute traces of uranium (checked by Geiger counter). Working backwards from the Chin via Han to Hongshan cultures, the Kunlun Mountains, Mehrgarh (3300 BC), Mesopotamia, PPNA Anatolia/Levant, Upper Paleolthic Ukraine, we traced the symbols on the Chin beads/bronze pieces to those found on hundreds of examples of pottery, bone, ivory, jade, oracle bone inscriptions, seal stamps etc. To Germany, Hungary, Italy by the fifth millennium BC., reaching the British Isles and China by 3000 BC — possibly brought by way of body/clothing tattoos on PIE migrations — indicating a central source of origin. They are found on ancient petroglyphs in the Americas. Fu Hao artifacts bear these symbols; we link her to the Qiang, and therefore the PIE. DNA strongly associates the Chin with the Levant via the M84 marker, mrca 7300 ybp.

Just like Indus valley and Mesopotamia, a bronze age civilization also grew in ancient china near the present Chengdu of China in the southwestern province of Sichuan. They had no writing system like other city-states of Northwest China. Chengdu is famous for being the home of China's most famous creatures, the giant pandas. The earliest kingdom in the region was called Shu, which is still the abbreviation for, and a familiar name of, Sichuan. Before a major archaeological discovery in the last century, there was no material proof that this legendary empire referenced in Sima Quin chronicle of the Grand historian ever existed. Even official history books treated this as a legendary tale of "yellow emperor" as a myth while describing the first king as "Cancong", who had exaggeratedly protruding eyes that resembled two sticks; and speculated that it might be connected with doomed Shang Dynasty of the Warring States period. The name Cancong, means "silkworm-bush", was given for his skill in raising silkworms and producing silk. The speculation was ended in 1986, after the workers in a small village called "Sanxingdui" ran across the bronze artifacts of the bygone era. The archeologist pursued this tip and started excavating sites. During this excavation, a statue of real King "Cancong" with protruding eyes

This paper examines a dozen late Shang bronze vessels that bear an elephant ornament to distinguish two basic patterns of elephant imagery: standing type and marching type. Based on a careful comparison between the elephant relief seen on the bronze vessels from the late Shang metropolitan area in the north and the elephant shaped bronze vessels from the south, the study infers that the standing type of elephant imagery seen on the northern bronzes originated in the southern artistic tradition. The marching type was an innovative creation by northern craftsmen based on the southern prototype. Recent research conducted by Chinese bronze casting specialists supports this assertion by convincingly demonstrating the existence of southern originated bronze casting technique in the Shang capital Anyang. By illustrating the corrupted and abstractive elephant imagery from the early Western Zhou period, this paper reiterates the idea that the wild elephant was not presented in the Central Plains during the Shang and Western Zhou dynasties.

This paper uses a multi-isotope approach (C, N, S) to explore the social dynamics of early Bronze Age China, focusing on communities within the Central China Plain. Building upon recent research on Yinxu, the last capital of the Shang Dynasty (Cheung et al., 2017a, 2017b), we obtained 49 samples from six contemporaneous sites both within and outside of Yinxu, including sites from the Gansu, Shaanxi, and Henan Provinces. Stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic ratios of an additional 419 individuals, and stable sulfur isotopic ratios of 118 individuals from seven other sites taken from published reports are also included to expand the geographic scope of this study. By including sites outside of Yinxu, this study is able to investigate the cultural contacts and exchanges between Yinxu and other communities, and provide novel insights into the geographic origins of the sacrificial victims found at Yinxu. Our findings are consistent with other scholars' observations that during the late Shang period, Yinxu was one of several cultural centers of Bronze Age China, where goods, ideas, technologies, and people from different cultural groups were gathered and exchanged.

Current anthropological approaches to animals have noted that the contemporary Western categories of human and animal are historically particular ones, and that different ontologies can and do organize the categorical and practical relationships between beings in a variety of ways. The ritual use of dogs in ancient China illustrates this point well. At Anyang (ca. 1250-1050 BCE) dogs played a number of roles in the significant doings of both kings and commoners and occupied a unique position in the Shang web of being-patterning with humans in some practices and with other domestic animals in others. The surprising discovery that Anyang mortuary ritual dogs outnumber those found in other contexts and that they are almost exclusively juvenile individuals argues for both the development of the Shang ritual economy and at the same time its basis on more than just an equation of economic expenditure with status. Finally, an epigraphic and zooarchaeological contextualization of dog sacrifice reveals that the Chinese archaeological practice of equating sacrificial deposits with whole interments reveals only the tip of the iceberg and full understanding of animal sacrifice in the Shang and other early complex societies must consider the full range of zooarchaeological deposits and cultural practices involving animals.

В Китае известны редкие находки металла эпохи неолита. В начале II тыс. до н.э. в провинции Ганьсу заимствуется технология плавки руды с легированием мышьяком, изредка оловом. Эта технология распространяется на восток, присутствуя в Эрлитоу II. В начале фазы Эрлитоу III на Хуанхэ проникает технология плавки сульфидов и легирования оловом. Эта традиция начинает распространяться в остальные районы Китая. На западе и севере в позднешанский период наблюдается также проникновение карасукской традиции мышьяковых сплавов.

This paper focuses on the work habits and motives of the Shang recordkeepers who wrote the divination accounts discovered in 1991 in Pit 3 at Huayuanzhuang East. These scribes, who worked under the patronage of a head of one of the princely households, collaborated with diviners sanctioned under the same mandate and the two professional groups developed and employed technologies to micromanage their workloads economically and to do their jobs coherently and efficiently. The scribes who produced the divination accounts on this homogenous and unified collection of shells and bones demonstrated accurate divination recordkeeping and displayed a unique competency and innovation in how these specialized records were designed, written out, and formally presented. More crucially, the orientation of the divination accounts indicates a control of the materials, attests to scribal literacy, and implies that they were written to be read and consulted.


《如何閱讀花園莊東地H3坑甲骨卜辭》

本文以1991 年花園莊東地H3 坑出土的卜辭記錄為材料，集中探討其商代記事者的工作習慣和動機。這一群史官與另一群卜人同時受僱於當時某一位高權重的王子，兩個專業群體共同開發出一套作業技術並付諸實踐，以經濟簡便的方式具體而微地分工合作，連貫而有效地各自做好本職。這批甲骨刻辭體現出高度的同質性和統一性，反映當時史官已能精準地記錄卜筮內容，而就這些專門記錄的設計、書寫和展現方式所見，他們具備獨特的辦事能力和創造力。更關鍵的是，從刻辭行款走向可見他們對材料的把握，體現了商代史官的知識水平，並暗示刻寫卜辭實為了日後閱讀和翻查之用。

A contextual analysis of nine Yin and Zhou bronze inscriptions shows that the bronzes were commissioned by women and dedicated to their husbands. Seven of the nine inscriptions involved the character “pi 辟.” Three of the seven inscriptions fit into the formula of “Wen 文 + kinship term + ri 日 + one of the ten stems (jia 甲, yi 乙, bing 丙, ding 丁,...etc.)” which is the standard name formula for a deceased relative. They are “Wen pi ri ding 文辟日丁” and “Pi ri yi 辟日乙” respectively. The deceased with the same types of names -- such as Wen fu ri yi 文父日乙, Wen kao ri gui 文考日癸, Wen mu ri geng 文母日庚, Wen zu yi gong 文且乙公, Wen bi ri wu 文匕日戊, Wen gu ri gui 文姑日癸 and Wen zi ding 文子丁-- are quite common in the bronze inscriptions of the Yin and western Zhou periods. In these cases, the characters behind “wen 文” are all kinship terms. Based on this comparison, the author argues that “pi 辟” should also be a kinship term. It is supported by a line in the Liji Quli《禮記‧曲禮》 which says that “In funerary ritual, ... the deceased husband should be called huang pi 皇辟.” Thus the character pi in both bronze inscriptions and classical records can denote a term used by a woman to designate her deceased husband. The same kind of usage can be found in bronze inscriptions of the western Zhou periods such as the inscriptions of Mengji Zhi gui《孟姬簋》and Jin Jiang ding《晉姜鼎》. In other inscriptions of this group, the patron addressed herself as fu 婦 without clear designation of her relationship with the dedicated. The name of the dedicated becomes gui 癸 or ri-gui 日癸 without the kinship term. Nevertheless, the context shows that the dedicated was the patron’s husband. The author suggests that the character pi was abbreviated because the other kinship term fu meaning “wife” already expressed the woman’s relationship with her husband. From this analysis, the author concludes that the primary sense of fu in the bronze inscriptions of the Yin and Zhou periods should be “wife” instead of “son’s wife” as suggested by Li Xueqin.

Working for His Majesty represents a feat of outstanding scholarship in the centennial history of studies dealing with late Shāng-dynasty China. Based primarily on oracle-bone inscriptions, jiǎgǔwén 甲骨文, the earliest extant body of Chinese texts dating from the thirteenth to the eleventh century BC, the author delves into the divinatory materials -- notwithstanding their ephemeral and biased nature by origin -- in an all-out pursuit of scholarship on labor mobilization. He does this in ways no one has done before, presenting his findings with lucidity and eloquence.

The tradition of tiger worship was originated in ancient nomadic cultures.In South China, the tradition of tiger worship has distributed in the area from Wuling to Luoxiao,and possibly reached the Wuyi Mountains.During the development of culture,the worships of wild boar and tiger have merged; and later,tiger has generally superseded wild boar as the worship object.The tiger-worshipping mountain people have affected the formation of,so-called,post-Shijiahe culture.During the Yin and Zhou periods, in the ｍｉｄｄｌｅ　ｒｅａｃｈｅｓ　ｏｆ　Ｙａｎｇｔｚｅ　Ｒｉｖｅｒ，ｅｓｐｅｃｉａｌｌｙ　ｉｎ　ｔｈｅ　Ｈｕｎａｎ　ａｎｄ　Ｊｉａｎｇｘｉ　ａｒｅａｓ，ｔｈｅｒｅ　ｅｘｉｓｔｅｄ　ａ　ｔｉｇｅｒ－ｗｏｒｓｈｉｐｐｉｎｇ　ｎｅｔｗｏｒｋ　ｏｆ　ａｎｃｉｅｎｔ　ｓｔａｔｅｓ，ｗｈｉｃｈ　ｎａｍｅｄ　ａｓ　Ｈｕｆａｎｇ　ｉｎ　ｔｈｅ　ｏｒａｃｌｅ　ｂｏｎｅ　ａｎｄ　ｂｒｏｎｚｅ　ｉｎｓｃｒｉｐｔｉｏｎｓ ｏｆ　ｔｈｅ　Ｓｈａｎｇ　ａｎｄ　Ｚｈｏｕ　Ｄｙｎａｓｔｉｅｓ.

We propose a direct link from Upper Palaeolithic Ukraine to Proto-Indo-Europeans — one group becoming the Qiang and thence the Burmese Haka Chin —via complex symbols present on mammoth ivory carvings. By using Flinders Petrie’s observations on origin of symbols, we find support for Colin Renfrew’s PIE Anatolian Homeland theory (these complex symbols are found in Anatolia on artifacts c. 10,000 BC), with the first PIE waves commencing before or just after the collapse of Çatalhöyük c. 5950 BC. The patterns are found in mammoth tusk Schreger lines and are present throughout history in many cultures; the most common being lozenge, lozenge-within-lozenge, and cross/chevrons. In 1991 we bought 40 necklaces and 57 bronze belts directly from the Burmese Haka Chin. In 2012 we found Chinese websites referencing 3000-year-old ‘first-generation’ beads (第一代邦提克珠) — called ‘pumtek’ in the West — made by the ancient Qiang, thus being heirlooms of the Jiang clan (姜姓 宗亲) and their 100+ family branches. The Qiang and the Han share common ancestors. We place the most ancient beads to the Machang phase of the Majiayao Culture c. 2300 BC with them possibly passing down through 200 generations. Our investigations found 100+ beads to fluoresce green under 254nm shortwave light. Experts agree that extremely rare genuine pumtek beads fluoresce under SW light. We believe we are the first to publish and show this colour to be green; the first-generation being made from Triassic-age silicified wood of quartz-like state. White silicified wood —rare in China — was almost exclusively used. The Qiang have worshipped white quartz for millennia and have a ‘beads goddess’ in their folklore. We compared the beads with 225mya araucarioxylon arizonicum Arizona Rainbow Wood and araucarioxylon neimongense wang from China. Many fluoresced green under shortwave due to minute traces of uranium (checked by Geiger counter). Working backwards from the Chin via Han to Hongshan cultures, the Kunlun Mountains, Mehrgarh (3300 BC), Mesopotamia, PPNA Anatolia/Levant, Upper Paleolthic Ukraine, we traced the symbols on the Chin beads/bronze pieces to those found on hundreds of examples of pottery, bone, ivory, jade, oracle bone inscriptions, seal stamps etc. To Germany, Hungary, Italy by the fifth millennium BC., reaching the British Isles and China by 3000 BC — possibly brought by way of body/clothing tattoos on PIE migrations — indicating a central source of origin. They are found on ancient petroglyphs in the Americas. Fu Hao artifacts bear these symbols; we link her to the Qiang, and therefore the PIE. DNA strongly associates the Chin with the Levant via the M84 marker, mrca 7300 ybp.

The earliest known bronze mirrors in the Central Plain of China were discovered at Yinxu (“Ruins of Yin”), referring to the last capital of the Shang dynasty in what is now Anyang, Henan Province. Though scholars have reached a consensus that these bronze mirrors were not made in Anyang and bear strong stylistic features related to steppe culture, the exact origin of these mirrors remains a contentious issue. However,
an abundant amount of material has been recovered from excavations, and the resulting archaeological information and studies on Inner Asia have become increasingly documented.
The present study begins by examining the archaeological context from the second to the first century BCE through related studies from the past and sifting the archaeological information to clarify the emergence, usage, and understanding of bronze mirrors in the Central Plain as well as the innovations introduced there. The present study proposes that bronze mirrors appeared in the Central Plain in the late Shang to early Zhou period via various routes and finally became an iconic item of Central Plain culture by the Warring States period. After recognizing the traits and functions of Eurasian mirrors, they became the object of innovation in local crafts and were not brought from a particular area
in Eurasia or following Shang or Western Zhou traditions.

The zhao-mu 昭穆 system has been frequently written about for over two thousand years, but much remains unclear about it. This paper discusses this system from its earliest possible origins to the Han, including an extended discussion on the posthumous names of the Shang Kings.

We propose a direct link from Upper Palaeolithic Ukraine to Proto-Indo-Europeans — one group becoming the Qiang and thence the Burmese Haka Chin —via complex symbols present on mammoth ivory carvings. By using Flinders Petrie’s observations on origin of symbols, we find support for Colin Renfrew’s PIE Anatolian Homeland theory (these complex symbols are found in Anatolia on artifacts c. 10,000 BC), with the first PIE waves commencing before or just after the collapse of Çatalhöyük c. 5950 BC. The patterns are found in mammoth tusk Schreger lines and are present throughout history in many cultures; the most common being lozenge, lozenge-within-lozenge, and cross/chevrons. In 1991 we bought 40 necklaces and 57 bronze belts directly from the Burmese Haka Chin. In 2012 we found Chinese websites referencing 3000-year-old ‘first-generation’ beads (第一代邦提克珠) — called ‘pumtek’ in the West — made by the ancient Qiang, thus being heirlooms of the Jiang clan (姜姓 宗亲) and their 100+ family branches. The Qiang and the Han share common ancestors. We place the most ancient beads to the Machang phase of the Majiayao Culture c. 2300 BC with them possibly passing down through 200 generations. Our investigations found 100+ beads to fluoresce green under 254nm shortwave light. Experts agree that extremely rare genuine pumtek beads fluoresce under SW light. We believe we are the first to publish and show this colour to be green; the first-generation being made from Triassic-age silicified wood of quartz-like state. White silicified wood —rare in China — was almost exclusively used. The Qiang have worshipped white quartz for millennia and have a ‘beads goddess’ in their folklore. We compared the beads with 225mya araucarioxylon arizonicum Arizona Rainbow Wood and araucarioxylon neimongense wang from China. Many fluoresced green under shortwave due to minute traces of uranium (checked by Geiger counter). Working backwards from the Chin via Han to Hongshan cultures, the Kunlun Mountains, Mehrgarh (3300 BC), Mesopotamia, PPNA Anatolia/Levant, Upper Paleolthic Ukraine, we traced the symbols on the Chin beads/bronze pieces to those found on hundreds of examples of pottery, bone, ivory, jade, oracle bone inscriptions, seal stamps etc. To Germany, Hungary, Italy by the fifth millennium BC., reaching the British Isles and China by 3000 BC — possibly brought by way of body/clothing tattoos on PIE migrations — indicating a central source of origin. They are found on ancient petroglyphs in the Americas. Fu Hao artifacts bear these symbols; we link her to the Qiang, and therefore the PIE. DNA strongly associates the Chin with the Levant via the M84 marker, mrca 7300 ybp.

The present paper explores the process of polities' formation in the region between the Yellow River and Yangze River valleys during the late 2nd millennium BCE. Taking as an example Xi, located in a river valley north of the Tongbo mountains in present-day southern Henan, as attested by excavations of the Xi lineage cemetery, it suggests that Xi represented a lineage-based polity that emerged in a strategic bottleneck on a trading route along which desired goods were transported between the south and the north. Xi could be representative of small autonomous polities that were involved in communication with the major political and economic centers of the north (Shang successive capitals in Zhengzhou and Anyang, later – Zhou centers in Wei valley), sometimes directly, but usually via third parties, whose presence and locations are gradually getting revealed by ongoing archaeological investigations. Whereas many scholars interpret the finds of elite cemeteries containing Shang-style bronze objects as evidence of Shang southward expansion, I suggest looking at small early Chinese lineage-based polities in the frame of peer-polity interaction model, whereby I consider interregional trade in metal ores as a major factor of polity formation in the region between the two major Chinese rivers.

We propose a direct link from Upper Palaeolithic Ukraine to Proto-Indo-Europeans — one group becoming the Qiang and thence the Burmese Haka Chin —via complex symbols present on mammoth ivory carvings. By using Flinders Petrie’s observations on origin of symbols, we find support for Colin Renfrew’s PIE Anatolian Homeland theory (these complex symbols are found in Anatolia on artifacts c. 10,000 BC), with the first PIE waves commencing before or just after the collapse of Çatalhöyük c. 5950 BC. The patterns are found in mammoth tusk Schreger lines and are present throughout history in many cultures; the most common being lozenge, lozenge-within-lozenge, and cross/chevrons. In 1991 we bought 40 necklaces and 57 bronze belts directly from the Burmese Haka Chin. In 2012 we found Chinese websites referencing 3000-year-old ‘first-generation’ beads (第一代邦提克珠) — called ‘pumtek’ in the West — made by the ancient Qiang, thus being heirlooms of the Jiang clan (姜姓 宗亲) and their 100+ family branches. The Qiang and the Han share common ancestors. We place the most ancient beads to the Machang phase of the Majiayao Culture c. 2300 BC with them possibly passing down through 200 generations. Our investigations found 100+ beads to fluoresce green under 254nm shortwave light. Experts agree that extremely rare genuine pumtek beads fluoresce under SW light. We believe we are the first to publish and show this colour to be green; the first-generation being made from Triassic-age silicified wood of quartz-like state. White silicified wood —rare in China — was almost exclusively used. The Qiang have worshipped white quartz for millennia and have a ‘beads goddess’ in their folklore. We compared the beads with 225mya araucarioxylon arizonicum Arizona Rainbow Wood and araucarioxylon neimongense wang from China. Many fluoresced green under shortwave due to minute traces of uranium (checked by Geiger counter). Working backwards from the Chin via Han to Hongshan cultures, the Kunlun Mountains, Mehrgarh (3300 BC), Mesopotamia, PPNA Anatolia/Levant, Upper Paleolthic Ukraine, we traced the symbols on the Chin beads/bronze pieces to those found on hundreds of examples of pottery, bone, ivory, jade, oracle bone inscriptions, seal stamps etc. To Germany, Hungary, Italy by the fifth millennium BC., reaching the British Isles and China by 3000 BC — possibly brought by way of body/clothing tattoos on PIE migrations — indicating a central source of origin. They are found on ancient petroglyphs in the Americas. Fu Hao artifacts bear these symbols; we link her to the Qiang, and therefore the PIE. DNA strongly associates the Chin with the Levant via the M84 marker, mrca 7300 ybp.

Bao (Leopard) was the hou-lord of 【合爿】 (reading unknown). His domain presumably belonged to the south-west fringes of the Shang state (at the meeting point of the modern Henan and Shaanxi provinces). Consensus hasn’t been reached yet on the Shang period hou-lord’s authority: it could
be either an appointed officer, or a dependent ruler of somewhat autonomous state, who was enfeoffed by the king or simply submitted to him. Neither of versions can be completely disproved due to the data scarcity, but the case of hou Bao seems to agree better with the latter interpretation: in the oracle bone inscriptions hou Bao plays the role of the Shang king’s loyal ally and vassal, but his domain must have enjoyed considerable level of autonomy from the central government.