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Communities of Mortuary Practice: A Renewed Study of the Tianma-Qucun Western Zhou Cemetery

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 July 2017

Yitzchak Jaffe  and
Bin Cao
Yitzchak Jaffe
Affiliation:
Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University, 15 E 84th Street, New York, NY 10028, USA Email: yj14@nyu.edu
Bin Cao*
Affiliation:
School of History, Renmin University of China, 59 Ave, Zhongguancun Beijing 100872, China
*
Email: caobin@ruc.edu.cn
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Abstract

Western Zhou archaeology (1046–771 bc) is dominated by cemetery- and mortuary-related data. To date most studies have relied on later historical narratives and focused on the investigation of elites and their mortuary practices. This paper sets out to provide a renewed approach to the study of Western Zhou cemeteries by looking at the graveyard as a whole and with it the relationship between the commoners and nobles who were buried in them. Its case study is the important site of Tianma-Qucun, located in modern-day Shanxi province, the residential site and burial ground of the Jin state during the Western Zhou period. We provide a community-focused study of mortuary practices aimed at uncovering local-specific shared ways of doings things. This approach not only affords a refined vision of Western Zhou mortuary ritual and practice, but also one where local variation and appropriations can be appreciated as well. Thus, while common Zhou mortuary traditions should be understood to have been of greater import to Zhou elites, their impact on the lower echelons of society remains less clear. By examining the mortuary practices of individual communities, we aim to uncover these site-specific manifestations in their larger contexts.

Type
Research Article
Information
Cambridge Archaeological Journal , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , February 2018 , pp. 23 - 44
Copyright
Copyright © McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research 2017 

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