The article presents materials of An Jia tomb, one of the early medieval Sogdian burials in China. A description of the burial complex is offered, descriptions of the painted reliefs of the stone burial couch and a stone panel above the tomb door, as well as the complete commented translation of the epitaph of the deceased are provided. Two versions of interpretation of stone reliefs’ semantics are proposed: an idealized report on the earthly life to higher powers or ideas about the afterlife. The identification of specific features of the funerary rite, the stylistic and semantic analysis of images on reliefs in comparison with epigraphic data confirm the thesis about the syncretic nature of the studied complex, which combined elements of the Zoroastrian, Confucian, and Buddhist religious and worldview traditions.
The materials of elite burial complexes of the Northern Zhou period (557–581) discovered in the 1980–1990s in the vicinity of Guyuan City in the Ningxia-Hui Autonomous Region of China are analyzed in this article. Due to the epitaphs engraved on stone slabs found inside the tombs, the names of the buried individuals and the exact dates of the complexes are known: the tombs belong to high-ranking officials of Northern Zhou: Yuwen Meng (565), Li Xian (569) and Tian Hong (574). The complexes under consideration demonstrate a high degree of unification of the funeral rite, which is manifested in the similarity of tomb structures, decor and accompanying grave goods. The features of architectural structures and grave goods of these burials continue the traditions of the previous periods of the Sixteen Barbarian States and the Northern Wei. With a general similarity to the synchronous complexes of the Northern Qi (550– 577), the materials of these tombs allow to distinguish specific features of the Northern Zhou funerary practice: the absence of porcelain items, the use of ritual nephrites, and the secular nature of mural paintings. Against the background of the prevailing influence of the Chinese-Han funerary tradition, there are signs of the influence of the steppe (probably Xianbei) funeral and memorial rituals. Prestigious items imported from Iran, Central Asia, Byzantium testify to the significant role of contacts along the Silk Road in the economical and cultural development of Northern Zhou. Despite the available data from written and epigraphic sources, the problem of identifying the ethnicity of the buried has not yet been resolved. However, the version of their non-Chinese origin seems to be the most probable.
This paper presents a brief overview of studies exploring the origin of civilizations in modern archaeology of China and Japan and mostly concerning the Neolithic period. The analysis of publications shows that in Chinese and Japanese archaeology, original scholarly traditions have been developed, with their own methodological foundations and terminology. We outline the key ideas relating to the origin of civilization, elaborated by researches in China (Su Bingqi, Yan Wenming, Li Boqian, Xu Hong, Gao Jiangtao) and Japan (Harunari Hideji, Watanabe Hiroshi, Sasaki Fujio, Yasuda Yoshinori). We show that most Chinese scholars consider the formation of state a sine qua non of transition to the civilization stage. However, the problem of identifying criteria of civilization and state formation using archaeological data has not been resolved to date. Examples of archaeological markers of civilization proposed by Chinese specialists are listed. In the works by Japanese researchers, no connection between the emergence of the state and civilization has been revealed. Most Chinese archaeologists date the emergence of civilization and of the fi rst state formations to the Late Neolithic (Dawenkou, Hongshan, Liangzhu, Longshan, etc.), ca 3500–2000 BC. There are alternative hypotheses—the Early Bronze Age (Erlitou culture) and the Late Bronze Age (the Spring and Autumn period). In Japanese archaeology, there are two main positions regarding the time when civilization had formed—the Jōmon period (Neolithic) and the subsequent Yayoi period (Bronze Age). Scholarly and external (including political) factors that have infl uenced modern concepts of the origin of civilization require special historiographic research.
Purpose of this article is to characterize the tombs of the Northern Wei period discovered in the vicinity of Guyuan City, analyze the specifics of the funeral rite of these complexes and define the factors that influenced its formation.Results. The possibility of studying the funeral rite of the Northern Wei period in Guyuan is limited by the small number of known complexes, the fragmentary nature of the materials that have reached our days due to tombs looting, and the lack of scientific publications on some complexes. The tombs known to date are not numerous (only seven tombs have been discovered so far), but varied in design features and the composition of the grave goods, which is explained by the chronological distance and differences in the ethnic and cultural identity and the social status of the tomb occupants. The earliest tombs near Shiwacun Village in Xinji Township show similarities to the tombs of the period of the Sixteen Barbarian States. The burials of ordinary Xianbei who moved to the Guyuan region after its conquest by the Northern Wei testify to the preservation of their own traditions and the insignificant influence of Chinese (Han) culture on their funerary practices.Conclusion. The funeral rite of the Northern Wei tombs in Guyuan, on the one hand, inherits the burials of the Sixteen Barbarian States era, on the other hand, serves as the basis for the funeral rite evolution of the subsequent periods of the Western Wei and Northern Zhou.
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