The Eastern Zhou cemetery at Wenfengta, Suizhou City

2015 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Complete Restoration ◽  
History Of ◽  
Western Zhou ◽  
Bronze Inscriptions ◽  
Eastern Zhou ◽  
Important Site

AbstractFrom August 2012 through January 2013, the Wenfengta Cemetery of the Eastern Zhou Period, located in the southeast portion of the present-day Yidigang Cemetery in Dongcheng District, Suizhou City, was excavated. 54 burials and three chariot-and-horse pits of the Eastern Zhou Period were found, from which 582 bronzes, including ritual vessels, weapons, chariot-and-horse fittings, tools, and other types, were unearthed. Many of these bronzes were relics of the Zeng State, and inscriptions including the terms “Zeng”, “Zeng Zi”, “Zeng Sun”, “Zeng Da sima” and so on were seen on some of them. Moreover, a bronze ge-dagger ax with an inscription containing the character “Sui” was unearthed from a tomb of the Zeng State. These bronze inscriptions show that the Wenfengta Cemetery was used by aristocrats of the Zeng State during the Eastern Zhou Period. The coexistence of inscriptions concerning the Zeng and Sui States has provided more evidence to support the suggestion that the Zeng and Sui States were one and the same. Following upon the discovery of the Western Zhou-era Zeng State cemetery at Yejiashan, the Wenfengta Cemetery is another important site of great significance for the complete restoration of the history of the Zeng State.

Scribes, Cooks, and Artisans: Breaking Zhou Tradition

Early China ◽  
1995 ◽  
Vol 20 ◽  
pp. 241-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constance A. Cook
Keyword(s):  
The State ◽  
The Other ◽  
Political Control ◽  
Other Hand ◽  
Bronze Vessels ◽  
Western Zhou ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Bronze Inscriptions ◽  
Eastern Zhou

Bronze Inscriptions of the Western Zhou period show how ritualists were once dedicated to maintaining the ritual apparatus supporting the divine authority of the royal Zhou lineage. Bronze and bamboo texts of the Eastern Zhou period reveal, on the other hand, that ritualists able to manipulate local rulers reliant on their knowledge subsequently subverted power into their own hands. Ritualists such as scribes, cooks, and artisans were involved in the transmission of Zhou “power” through the creation and use of inscribed bronze vessels during feasts. The expansion and bureaucratization of their roles in the Chu state provided economic and ultimately political control of the state. This was particularly the case as the Chu, like the Zhou before them, fled east to escape western invaders.

MARITAL ALLIANCES AND AFFINAL RELATIVES (SHENG甥 ANDHUNGOU婚購) IN THE SOCIETY AND POLITICS OF ZHOU CHINA IN THE LIGHT OF BRONZE INSCRIPTIONS

Early China ◽  
2014 ◽  
Vol 37 ◽  
pp. 39-99 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria Khayutina
Keyword(s):  
Chinese Society ◽  
New Members ◽  
Weak Center ◽  
Western Zhou ◽  
Bronze Inscriptions ◽  
The Stability ◽  
The One ◽  
Eastern Zhou ◽  
Radial Network

AbstractSeveral hundred inscribed bronze objects dating from Western and Eastern Zhou periods were commissioned for or by married women. Several dozen inscriptions are known whose commissioners called themselvessheng生 (甥) of a number of lineages. In pre-Qin Chinese, the termsheng甥 designated several categories of affinal relatives: paternal aunts’ sons, maternal uncles’ sons, wives’ brothers, sisters’ husbands, and sons of sisters or daughters. The wide geographical and chronological spread of female- orsheng-related vessels, as well as dedications to “many affinal relatives” (hungou婚購) in bronze inscriptions point to the importance of marital ties in early Chinese society and politics.Focusing on the inscriptions commissioned bysheng, the present article suggests that even when concluded at a considerable distance, marriages produced long-term mutual obligations for male members of the participating lineages or principalities. Affinal relationships represented social and political capital that could be converted in terms of individuals’ careers and prestige or benefits for their whole lineages/states. In sum, starting from the early Western Zhou period, marital alliances represented a substantial integrative factor in early Chinese politics. On the one hand, marital alliances helped to consolidate the radial network of Zhou states centered on the Zhou king. On the other hand, they facilitated the construction of decentralized regional and interregional inter-state networks. The latter guaranteed the stability of the Zhou political system even when it had a weak center. As a result, the Zhou networks did not fall apart following crises in the Zhou royal house, but continued to expand by the inclusion of new members.

The Quaternary Deposits at Hoxne, Suffolk, and their Archaeology

1955 ◽  
Vol 20 (2) ◽  
pp. 131-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. G. West ◽  
C. M. B. McBurney
Keyword(s):  
Eighteenth Century ◽  
Quaternary Deposits ◽  
Direct Association ◽  
History Of ◽  
Lake Deposits ◽  
Important Site

The long history of investigations at Hoxne, Suffolk, beginning when John Frere discovered Palaeolithic implements there in the last decade of the eighteenth century, has been described by Moir. Moir himself worked on the deposits at Hoxne, and the results of his investigations, together with those of Reid, have formed the basis for our knowledge of the geology and archaeology of the deposits. From these investigations it is clear that Hoxne is an important site, for it is one of the rare places where there are interglacial lake deposits and Palaeolithic implements in direct association with ground moraines of the older glaciations. Moreover, the deposits occupy a well-known position in the East Anglian Quaternary succession.

ATMs

Paid ◽  
2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernardo Bátiz-Lazo
Keyword(s):  
Financial Services ◽  
Retail Banking ◽  
Automated Teller Machine ◽  
The Future ◽  
History Of ◽  
Important Site

This chapter investigates the history of the ubiquitous yet banal Automated Teller Machine, or ATM. There is no single inventor of the ATM. Rather, it emerged through innovation around the globe and across the industry. In order to build a successful ATM system, engineers and bankers had to overcome challenges that ranged from security and authorization to weather-proofing electronics. This chapter surveys some of those developments. Increasingly, ATMs are being designed to offer a variety of services beyond dispensing cash. In the future, the ATM may prove to an important site of automated retail banking and consumer financial services.

The Short (and Bloody) History of EC

Creepshow ◽  
2019 ◽  
pp. 33-42
Author(s):  
Simon Brown
Keyword(s):  
Comic Book ◽  
Horror Films ◽  
Stephen King ◽  
History Of ◽  
Significant Figures ◽  
Social Messages ◽  
Important Site

This chapter traces the history of the EC comics that inspired George A. Romero's Creepshow (1982). The origins of EC can be traced to the beginnings of the American comic book at the start of the 1930s. For all the EC horror titles that ran for only four years from 1950 to 1954 before finally being quashed by the establishment, their legacy, and their importance to both comic book and horror history, is undeniable. Through their political and social messages and their uncompromising images, they were an important site for subversion for American youth in a period which stressed conformity. Some of those American youth, like Stephen King and Romero, would grow up to become significant figures in American horror films and literature, and bring the influence of EC into the genre.

Wealth and the Western Zhou

1997 ◽  
Vol 60 (2) ◽  
pp. 253-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
Constance A. Cook
Keyword(s):  
Native American ◽  
Complex Societies ◽  
Pacific Island ◽  
North West ◽  
The North ◽  
Material Goods ◽  
Island Communities ◽  
History Of ◽  
Western Zhou ◽  
Big Men

In stratified societies, accumulated material goods—be they made of metal, stone, cloth, bone, or even foodstuffs—represent the wealth and privilege of the élite within a social hierarchy. Anthropologists have shown that goods symbolic of wealth generally fall between two absolutes: alienable goods (items not tied to social membership and produced for giving, trading, or selling), and inalienable goods (items tied to social membership and imbued with a sense of the sacred history of the owner; relics found or crafted specifically to be treasured and saved). (See Weiner, 1982; Appadurai, 1986: ‘Introduction’.) The value of these objects is a measure of the power of the owner over the acquisition and distribution of desired goods. The objects in turn represent the cycles of production and exchange that provide them with a social value (Webb, 1974: 351–82). This is particularly evident in redistributive economies, such as the Native American societies of the North-West Pacific and South Pacific island communities, or certain highland South-East Asian societies where goods are collected by Big Men or chiefs and redistributed at ritual occasions. Gift-giving, often performed in association with ritual feasts involving lineage representatives, both living and dead, is a feature many of these complex societies share with ancient China.

The Mudu Archaic City Site of the Spring-and-Autumn Period in Suzhou City, Jiangsu

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Joint Archaeological Team Of Instit ◽  
Suzhou Municipal Institute Of Archa
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The South ◽  
Autumn Period ◽  
The North ◽  
Regional Center ◽  
Water Gate ◽  
Spring And Autumn Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
Eastern Zhou

AbstractIn 2009 and 2010, a series of archaeological investigations were conducted in and around the Mudu archaic city site located in the southwestern highland of Greater Suzhou, Jiangsu. The excavations revealed sections of the north circumference wall at Wufeng and the water gate of the south circumference wall at Xinfeng. The surveys identified the possible locations of the east and the west circumference walls. Diagnostic proto-porcelain and stamped potsherds were recovered. It is tentatively argued that both the north and the south walls were built and in use during the late Spring-and-Autumn Period. The Mudu Site, therefore, was a large-scale walled settlement functioned as a regional center of its time. These findings are instrumental in the search for the lost capital of Wu State of the Spring-and-Autumn Period, the understanding of the relationship among the various contemporary settlement sites, cairns, earthen mounds, and caches distributed in the region, and the reconstruction of the local cultural history of Eastern Zhou.

The Headdress of the Tillya Tepe “Prince”

2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 151-183
Author(s):  
Michael Shenkar
Keyword(s):  
Cultural History ◽  
Cultural Landscape ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
Second Century ◽  
First Century ◽  
Historical Inquiry ◽  
Special Place ◽  
History Of ◽  
Important Site ◽  
Written Sources

The sensational finds made at Tillya Tepe in Northern Afghanistan close to the modern city of Sheberghān, are the primary source for reconstructing the cultural history of Bactria in the turbulent period between the end of Greek rule and the rise of the Kushan Empire. The paucity of written sources from this period (mid second centurybceto mid first centuryce), and our resulting lack of understanding of even major political and cultural events, has led to its apt characterization as the “Dark Age” of Bactrian history. In this context, a special place should therefore be reserved for archaeological finds and Tillya Tepe is undoubtedly the most important site of this period. The significance of the Tillya Tepe finds for the reconstruction of Bactrian history and its cultural landscape has long been recognized, but they still have much to offer in terms of historical inquiry. In what follows I shall attempt a new reconstruction of the headdress of a “prince” buried in Graveivand conclude that it allows us to place him within the orbit of the Indo-Parthian Gondopharid dynasty, one of the most powerful regional political entities of the period.

Western Zhou Government and Society

2020 ◽  
pp. 400-435
Author(s):  
Paul Nicholas Vogt
Keyword(s):  
Resource Management ◽  
Social Organization ◽  
Recent Work ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Practical Implementation ◽  
State Structure ◽  
History Of Political Thought ◽  
Military Administration ◽  
History Of ◽  
Western Zhou

This chapter introduces the state structure and social organization of the Western Zhou period as it is today understood through paleographical, archaeological, and textual sources. Considering the role that the Western Zhou kingdom played in the history of political thought in China, the chapter addresses the classic images of Western Zhou society and governance that have been shaped by ideological constructs, both ancient and modern, as well as how recent work and discoveries have complicated those images. It considers the theoretical underpinnings of Western Zhou kingship, social organization, resource management, and military administration, and, introducing a few of the regional (theoretical) sub-states of the Western Zhou kingdom, it addresses how the practical implementation of those concepts may have varied from time to time and place to place.

scholarly journals THE XINIAN: AN ANCIENT HISTORICAL TEXT FROM THE QINGHUA UNIVERSITY COLLECTION OF BAMBOO BOOKS

Early China ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 53-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivia Milburn
Keyword(s):  
Autumn Period ◽  
Warring States ◽  
Reliable Source ◽  
Historical Text ◽  
Spring And Autumn Period ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Western Zhou ◽  
Complete Translation ◽  
Entire Text

AbstractThe Xinian or Annalistic History is one of an important collection of ancient bamboo texts donated anonymously to Qinghua University in 2008. The Xinian covers events from the history of the Western Zhou dynasty (1045–771 b.c.e.), through the Spring and Autumn Period (771–475 b.c.e.) and into the Warring States era (475–221 b.c.e.). Since the first publication of this manuscript in 2011, it has been the subject of much research, though this has usually been focused on the sections which have important parallels within the transmitted tradition. This article proposes a new way of understanding the Xinian, as a compilation produced from at least five source texts, and provides a complete translation of the entire text. Furthermore, although the contents of the Xinian are frequently at variance with the transmitted tradition, in particular the account of events given in the Zuozhuan, in some instances it may prove the more reliable source. The Xinian also provides some information concerning the history of the early Warring States era that helps to explain events in this generally badly documented era.

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