Back to the Earth: Construction and Closure of a Late Shang Dynasty Structure.

Summary

Excavations at the locus of Tongle Huayuen in the Late Shang Dynast (ca. 1250-1046 B.C.E.) capital site of Yinxu, near the modern city of Anyang, uncovered the remains of a small aboveground earthen structure (2015ALNF1). The recovery of wall and ceiling remains, much of which displayed considerable fire-reddening, from refuse pits associated with building foundations provided the opportunity to examine non-elite, non-palatial architecture in greater detail than has generally been possible at Shang Dynasty sites, due to the frequently poor preservation of earthen building materials. Comparison of these remains with those recovered from the palatial courtyard buildings at the Middle Shang city site of Huanbei, as well as the published descriptions of the remarkably preserved Early Shang structures at Gaocheng Taixi, provides valuable insight into the variation that existed within Shang Dynasty building practices and draws attention to avenues for future research. In addition, heating sediments dating to the Shang Dynasty under controlled conditions allows exploration of the conditions under which 2015ALNF1, and the palatial structures from Huanbei were abandoned and destroyed, which may have involved some kind of ritual closing activity.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Lifeways in Bronze Age China

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16342