Western Xia Wen "Burning Horse Medal" bronze medal
The length is 18.5 cm and the diameter of the medallion is 14.7 cm
Collecting
Collection of the National Museum of China
This is the most exquisite and complete payment of the Western Xia runes found so far, and it is the identity certificate of the messenger when the Western Xia Dynasty passes on documents and orders. The medallion consists of two circular bronze medalls, each with a half-circle of raised wide edges on one side, which can be snapped together to form a whole when the two are interlocked. On the inside of this fu fu card is a decorative pattern, and the other is engraved with four Western Xia characters "敕 Burning Horse Plate".
"The Rise of the Yellow River and the Two Rivers Basin"
Yang Jianhua, Huaxia Archaeology, No. 4, 1999, pp. 17-31
This paper argues that the civilizational processes of the Yellow River and the two river basins have experienced five stages: "the beginning of agriculture", "the popularization of agriculture", "the prosperity of agriculture", "the differentiation of society" and "the initial formation of hierarchy", and explores the similarities and differences between the archaeological cultures of the two basins. It is believed that the evolution trend of the cultural characteristics of these two basins is similar, and the development trend of stone tools, pottery and metal tools is basically the same. The author notes that the course of civilization in the Yellow River Basin is longer than that of the Two Rivers Basin, and that its culture has shown a trend of accelerated development at various stages, and explains that the cultural development of the Yellow River Basin has continuity, while since the third stage of the Two Rivers Basin, cultural migration and substitution are common, and one culture is replaced by another culture with a higher level of development before it reaches the end, which shortens the time required to move towards civilization. The author also believes that the large-scale spread of the Miaodigou culture in the third stage of the Yellow River Basin and the large-scale expansion of the Obeid culture in the fourth stage of the Two River Basins laid the foundation for "the initial sense of identity of the inhabitants of the region after entering civilization."
The author also notes the difference in family forms in the course of civilization in the two basins. The phenomenon that the cultures of the Yellow River Basin are dominated by single-room buildings reflects that the grass-roots cells of the society in the region have always been mainly dependent on the core families of the villages, which has also made the interpersonal differentiation in the villages slow, and the local cultural traditions can continue. The Two Rivers Basin "unified enclosed multi-room buildings beginning with the Samara culture illustrate that an enlarged family of couples directly related by blood has become a basic unit of production and living, which makes it easy for residents of the same village to differ in wealth and status and constitute the centrifugal force of the village", thus resulting in population migration and intercultural substitution. This article also argues that the religion of the Yellow River Basin is ancestor worship with kinship overtones, and the religion of the Two Rivers Basin is nature worship. This difference is caused by the difference in cultural development patterns and family forms between the two places.
"Changes in Prehistoric Social Exchange Patterns from the Perspective of Settlement Layout I: Three Examples from West Asia"
Yang Jianhua, Archaeology, No. 5, 1999, pp. 55-64
Starting from the settlement layout and excavations of the um Dabagia site in the first half of the 6th millennium BC, the Alpaccia site from 5500 BC to 4500 BC, and the Bakun A site from 4100 BC to 3200 BC, as well as other sites of the same culture and their excavations, this paper analyzes the production and exchange scenarios of the society at that time and examines its dynamic development and evolution.
The author argues that the square-centered community layout in the um Dabagia cultural period evolved into the planning of the community layout centered on the buildings that engaged in the most important activities in the Haraf cultural period. This change "reflects the differences in status that have emerged between different activities within the same community". The production activity area of the um Dabagian culture and the Khalaf culture period is together with the storage activity area. During the Bakun A site period, the production area and the storage area were completely separated. This change "indicates that the exchange of its products takes place first on a community-by-community basis, then by the population within the community engaged in such productive activities, and finally by a monopoly of different persons or groups of people specializing in exchange". The author also argues that the specialized production of hunting, slaughtering and processing at the site of um Dabagia is caused by the special local natural environment, and that the production and exchange activities at the site are an equal division of labor within a culture. The production of pottery at the Alpaccia site is the result of long-term production competition, and the level of pottery making in different communities is different, and the emergence of products of different qualities with different functions reflects the differences between the populations. The division of labour between the production and exchange of the same product at the Bakun A site, in particular the difference between the right to store and exchange the product, shows that the difference between the division of labour is already manifested between individuals.
The source of the text is "Research Outline of the Origin of Chinese Civilization", published by Cultural Relics Publishing House in December 2003
Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Research Center for Ancient Civilizations, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, ed
Images and captions are excerpted from The Hunt for the Great Xia: A Collection of Cultural Relics of western Xia. National Museum of China et al., ed., 2004