Remains of the Western Zhou Dynasty in Shaanxi Province

Shaanxi was the birthplace of Zhou culture and the political and economic center of the Western Zhou Dynasty. At present, more than 1,100 Western Zhou relics have been found in the province (of which a small number of remains may be slightly earlier or slightly later than the Western Zhou Dynasty), far more than the Xia and Shang periods before it. From the distribution point of view, the Guanzhong region accounts for about 77% of the total, and northern Shaanxi and southern Shaanxi account for 17% and 6% respectively. In Guanzhong, the remnants of the Western Zhou Dynasty were densely distributed in the Wei River and its tributary, the Jing River,

Water, Yongshui,

　　The Shui, Qigou, Meiyang, Qishui, Fenghe and Luohe rivers are characterized by a sharp increase in number from east to west (the number of their remains, the Baoji area in central and western Guanzhong is more than 10 times that of weinan in eastern Guanzhong). Archaeological data show that the settlement sites of this period generally include settlements, production areas and clan cemeteries, and some large settlements may be the feudal states of the princes or the nobles at all levels in the Western Zhou Dynasty.

　　From the 1930s to the present, the archaeology of the Western Zhou Dynasty is mainly concentrated in Guanzhong, and the important ones are the Baoji Fighting Tai Xian zhou to the Western Zhou cemetery, the Fenghao site, the Zhouyuan site, and the Baoji

　　National Cemetery, Wugong Zhengjiapo and Changwu Nianzipo Xianzhou ~ Western Zhou Ruins, etc. More than 1,000 Western Zhou tombs have been excavated, accounting for more than half of the similar tombs in the country. The above excavations not only established a reliable chronological sequence for the Western Zhou tombs in Guanzhong, but also provided extremely rich information for the study of various topics in Western Zhou archaeology.

　　Zhou Yuanqiyi (周原岐邑) was the capital of the Zhou people during the period when the father of the ancient Duke Moved from Qi to Yufeng in the later years of King Wen, and after the establishment of the Western Zhou Dynasty, he still maintained the status of a holy capital until the Western Zhou Dynasty. The center of the site covers an area of about 30 square kilometers. In the Qishan Mountains of Zhouyuan, two east-west rammed earth walls of more than 700 meters were found, and the era of the southern wall was about the late Western Zhou Dynasty. In Qishan Fengchi, two groups of large Western Zhou building sites have been excavated, of which the group A building consists of three courtyards and halls, houses, boxes, schools, corridors, and cloisters, which may be the ruins of the royal family's zongmiao temple. More than 13,600 pieces of oracle bones were also found in the cellars of this group of buildings, of which 296 pieces of tortoiseshell were inscribed with inscriptions. In the Area of Fufeng Zhaochen, hundreds of large-scale architectural remains were found, with high pedestals and roofs, most likely the palaces or temples of the Western Zhou royal family. Around Zhao Chen, large-scale copper smelting, bone making, jade treatment, and pottery workshops have also been found. Since the Han Dynasty, hundreds of Western Zhou bronze ware cellars have been found in the Zhou Yuan area, and more than 1,000 pieces of bronze ware including the famous Lu Ding, Da Feng Gui, Mao Gong Ding, and Da Ke Ding have been excavated. In 1976, the 103 bronze artifacts of the Wei family produced by Fufeng Zhuang bai were the largest number and highest value of bronze artifacts unearthed since 1949. This batch of bronzes has 74 inscriptions, of which the historical wall plate has 296 inscriptions, recording important historical facts from the period of King Wen to the Gonggong period. Studies have shown that the production age of the Zhouyuan cellar bronze is mostly in the middle and late Western Zhou Dynasty, and the same cellar is mostly the artifacts of the same family for several generations, and the bronze inscriptions profoundly reflect the history of the rise and fall of the Western Zhou clan.

　　In recent years, hollow bricks and strip bricks from as early as the early Western Zhou Dynasty have also been unearthed in Places such as ZhaoJiatai and Miaowang in Qishan near Zhouyuan. These bricks, together with the plate tiles with tile nails or tile rings excavated from the base site of the Zhao Chen building, as well as the cylinder tiles and half tiles, are the earliest similar objects found in China so far.

　　The capital of the Western Zhou Dynasty, Fenghao Liangjing, also known as Zong Zhou, was the political and economic center of the country in the nearly 300 years of the Western Zhou Dynasty, and occupied an important position in the history of the development of ancient Chinese capitals. The central area of the Fenghao site is about 15 square kilometers, and no city walls have been found. At present, about 30 large rammed earth foundation sites have been found. These buildings are contiguous, large in scale, with shrubble roofs, and relatively well-equipped drainage facilities, which may be the palaces and temple ruins of the royal family or important nobles. The area around Fengxi Zhangjiapo and Fengdong Pudu Village is the largest public cemetery in the two Beijing areas. Cemetery zoning planning, gathering ethnic groups and burial, so far thousands of tombs have been excavated, and their shape is divided into three categories. One is a large tomb with a tomb passage, including a tomb "A" glyph and two tomb passages of the "middle" glyph, around the tomb are found often there are carriage and horse pits and horse pits, the tomb owner should be a royal nobleman or The Marquis of Qinei, the tomb of the three generations of Jing Uncle family in the Zhangjiapo cemetery belongs to this category. The second is a vertical pit tomb, the larger shape of the burial of a group of bronze ceremonial vessels, weapons, pottery, the tomb owner should be the general nobles; the smaller shape of the burial of a small amount of pottery. It should be the tomb of an ordinary civilian or ethnic group. The third is a small number of vertical cave tombs, which reflect the close relationship between the Western Zhou culture and the bronze culture in the Ganqing area. The burial style of the above three types of tombs is mainly based on the upright limbs, and there are also a small number of prostration burials or flexion burials. According to the era, the tombs of Fenghao and Liangjing can be roughly divided into four periods. The first period is the late Zhou Dynasty, which is roughly equivalent to the time of King Wen Zuofeng. The second period is the early Western Zhou Dynasty, which extended from King Wu to King Zhao. The tombs of the first and second phases were deeply influenced by the Yin people, and there was a standing waist pit, and a dog was buried in the pit, and the phenomenon of martyrdom and martyrdom was more common. The third period is the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty, that is, the period from King Mu to King Yi. The fourth period is roughly equivalent to the late Western Zhou Dynasty, that is, the periods of Li Wang, Xuan Wang, and You Wang. The tombs of the third and fourth phases basically do not have waist pits, and the phenomenon of human martyrdom has been significantly reduced.

　　The Western Zhou National Cemetery and Bronze Cellar in Baoji Rujiazhuang and Zhuyuangou have unearthed more than 2,000 cultural relics. Among them, the shape of precious bronzes such as Ding, Gui, Yuzun and Fang Mane is relatively special, which is only seen in this period. Its remains reflect the mutual exchange and integration of Zhou culture and Siwa culture and Bashu culture, which is of great significance for the study of the hierarchical structure and etiquette and customs of the Western Zhou feudal state.

　　The Western Zhou ruins and tombs in northern Shaanxi and southern Shaanxi are generally small in area, and very few are officially excavated. Most of the Western Zhou bronzes found in Yanchang, Suide, Yulin, Hengshan and other places in northern Shaanxi belong to the Central Plains cultural artifacts, and a small number of them, such as ring-headed kettles, bird-headed handles, and weapons and tools with pipes and brasses, belong to the remains of bronze culture in the northern region of this period. Few Western Zhou bronzes have been found in southern Shaanxi, but in recent years, they have been excavated from the Shi MiGui of Ankang, and the inscription records the historical facts of the Zhou Dynasty's crusade against Dongyi and Nanyi in the middle of the Western Zhou Dynasty, which has important value.