HAIL TO THE KING: A REVIEW OF TWO BOOKS BY DAVID N. KEIGHTLEY

Twelve years after Professor Keightley published The Ancestral Landscape, which was a fascinating, elegant summary of decades of investigations of the Bronze-Age Late Shang dynasty, he has now published another wonderful book on the same era, under the title Working for His Majesty. As the title suggests, and as he recounts in a highly personal preface looking back at the origins of this work, he returns in this book to the topic of his doctoral dissertation on Shang labor (Public Work in Ancient China: A Study of Forced Labor in the Shang and Western Chou, Columbia University, 1969).

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Some Problems Concerning China's Early Copper and Bronze Artifacts

Early China ◽

10.1017/s0362502800005447 ◽

1982 ◽

Vol 8 ◽

pp. 53-75 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Julia K. Murray ◽

An Zhimin

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Early Period ◽

Neolithic Period ◽

Shang Dynasty ◽

Late Neolithic ◽

Slave Society ◽

Close Relationship ◽

History Of ◽

The Relationship ◽

The Bronze Age

(Translator's Note: This article originally appeared in Kaogu Xuebao 1981.3: 269-284, and is translated with the author's permission.)I. The appearance of metal is a very important event in human history, marking the start of an age. From the patriarchal clan communes of the late Neolithic period to the slave society of the Bronze Age, there was a great change in the relationship between social development and production. As a result, the origin and development of metal-working is one of the important issues in archaeological research (p. 269).Early in the Shang dynasty, China had already advanced into slave society, and its brilliant bronze culture is an outstanding phenomenon in the history of the ancient world. Shang civilization evolved from Longshan foundations, and there is ample archaeological proof of the close relationship between the two. But from what origins did Shang bronze arise? Before the Shang, was there an aeneolithic period in which copper was used? These questions have not yet been satisfactorily answered. Since 1949 the new discoveries of copper objects and of bronze objects belonging to an early period have contributed important clues to the solution of these problems.

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14C DATING OF THE ERLITOU SITE

Radiocarbon ◽

10.1017/rdc.2021.72 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 1-14

Author(s):

Xuelian Zhang ◽

Shihua Qiu ◽

Lianzhen Cai ◽

Hong Xu ◽

Haitao Zhao ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Henan Province ◽

Research Progress ◽

Archaeological Research ◽

Shang Dynasty ◽

14C Dating ◽

Ancient Documents ◽

The Bronze Age

ABSTRACT This article outlines the research progress on radiocarbon (14C) dating of the Erlitou site. The Erlitou site, belonging to the Bronze Age, located in Yanshi, Henan province, China, was discovered by archaeologists in 1959 when they investigated the Xia people’s remains in the area where the Xia people lived according to the records of ancient documents. Since then, there has been a standing debate about whether the site belongs to the Xia or Shang dynasty. By the mid-1990s, several hundred discussion articles on the issue had been published, but the question was still unresolved. Therefore, evidence from the chronology has attracted a great amount of attention. The dating of the Erlitou site began in the 1970s, and since the Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project began in the mid-1990s, by application of wiggle-matching on the basis of improving the dating accuracy, the date of the Erlitou site has gradually become clear, which provides a basis for the archaeological research on the Xia and Shang dynasties.

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On the Meaning of Shang In The Shang Dynasty

Early China ◽

10.1017/s0362502800004430 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 20 ◽

pp. 69-77 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Kwang-chih Chang

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Literal Meaning ◽

Shang Dynasty ◽

Present Essay ◽

Power Group ◽

Graphic Depiction ◽

The Common ◽

The City ◽

The Temple ◽

The Bronze Age

For nearly a century scholars have debated the meaning of the oracle ¬bone graph shang 商 used by the Bronze Age theocracy in reference to itself and one of its settlements. Since the Zhou, the word shang has borne a political significance as the term for a ruling power group, yet there is no agreement as to the graph's meaning or why it stood as the eponym of China's first historic civilization. Following from Wang Guo-wei's 1923 contention that shang was first a place name — a claim attested to in inscriptions in the common phrase dayi shang (great settlement Shang), the present essay finds that this place was the hallowed site of the ancestral sacrifices of the Zi clan, and offers philological and artifactual evidence that the graph shang first depicted a rite performed before an ancestral image. Over the course of several centuries, the original, literal meaning of shang as the graphic depiction of the telling ritual, gao 吿, was generalized and extended to refer to the ancestral temple, the city where the temple was located, and finally to the Shang dynasty itself.

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Stone Vessels and Values in the Bronze Age Mediterranean

10.1017/cbo9780511499678 ◽

2007 ◽

Cited By ~ 22

Author(s):

Andrew Bevan

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

The Bronze Age

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Investigating Burnt Mounds in Clydesdale during Motorway Construction

Glasgow Archaeological Journal ◽

10.3366/gas.1998.21.21.1 ◽

1998 ◽

Vol 21 (1) ◽

pp. 1-28

Author(s):

John A Atkinson ◽

Camilla Dickson ◽

Jane Downes ◽

Paul Robins ◽

David Sanderson

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Research Strategy ◽

Archaeological Evidence ◽

Radiocarbon Dates ◽

Short Account ◽

And Function ◽

The Impact ◽

The Bronze Age

Summary Two small burnt mounds were excavated as part of the programme to mitigate the impact of motorway construction in the Crawford area. The excavations followed a research strategy designed to address questions of date and function. This paper surveys the various competing theories about burnt mounds and how the archaeological evidence was evaluated against those theories. Both sites produced radiocarbon dates from the Bronze Age and evidence to suggest that they were cooking places. In addition, a short account is presented of two further burnt mounds discovered during the construction of the motorway in Annandale.

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A Neolithic Structure and Bronze Age Activity at West Flank Road, Drumchapel, Glasgow

Scottish Archaeological Journal ◽

10.3366/saj.2003.25.2.103 ◽

2003 ◽

Vol 25 (2) ◽

pp. 103-128

Author(s):

Gavin Macgregor ◽

Irene Cullen ◽

Diane Alldritt ◽

Michael Donnelly ◽

Jennifer Miller ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Bronze Age ◽

Archaeological Research ◽

Research Division ◽

Close Proximity ◽

Archaeological Work ◽

Age Features ◽

The Bronze Age

Summary A programme of archaeological work was undertaken by Glasgow University Archaeological Research Division (GUARD) at West Flank Road, Drumchapel, in close proximity to the site of the prehistoric cemetery of Knappers. This paper considers the results of excavation of a range of negative features, including earlier Neolithic and Bronze Age pits and postholes. The earlier Neolithic features date to c. 3500–3000 BC and are interpreted as the partial remains of a subrectangular structure. The Bronze Age features may relate to ceremonial activities in the wider area. The significance of these remains is considered in relation to the site of Knappers and wider traditions during the fourth to second millennia BC.

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