山西临汾下靳村陶寺文化墓地发掘报告

To the north of Xiajin village southwest of Linfen city, there remains a Taosi culture cemetery measuring over 220m from the west to the east and more than 80m from the north to the south. In recent years, a large number of tombs were destroyed when a civilian brickyard dug in the cemetery clay for making bricks. In the spring of 1998,we carried out here a rescuring excavation. The excavation covered an area of about 450 sq m,where 82 tombs of the Taosi culture were discovered and 53 of them were excavated. The tombs are all rectangular earth pits with wall niches in some cases, and face southeast for the overwhelming majority. Many burials are arranged in rows. The tombs can be divided into three categories according to their size; their burial pits, coffins and funeral objects show distinct differences in rank. Funeral objects were discovered 137,which are made of pottery clay, wood, jade and stone, bones and horns, shells, and lime. Among the jade and stone artifacts are the yue battle are, arrowhead, knife, hi disc, huang semi-disc,ring and bead. In addition, 266 picked-up and taken over previousiydug-out objects are reported in the present paper. As recorded in literary documents, present-day Linfen was ancient Pingyang, capital of the Tang Yao period. The Xiajin cemetery dates roughly from the early period of the Taosi culture or a little later, just corresponding to the Yao and Shun period. Its discovery gives an archaeological clue to historians' theory of Pingyang being Yao's capital.