Page 104 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

groups, each with distinct customs. Archaeological
analyzes of the remains at Yuchisi have identified
the site as a local subtype of the Dawenkou
12
culture. Accordingly, these pictographs, although
identical, were not clan signs; they were probably
emblems or names for certain sacrificial rituals. 13 XY

1 Yu Xingwu 1973, 32.
2 Ren 1974; Shandong 1974, 72 - 73 and 116 -119.
3 Major reports of these discoveries are Huang 1979;
Wang Shuming 1986,1987, and 1991; Li Xueqin 1987;
Shandong 1991.
4 Unpublished, according to Wang Jihuai, the excavator.
5 Shandong 1991, 206. For additional pictographs, see Liang
1995; Wang 1995.
6 Gao 1979,115 -116; Shandong 1991, 202.
7 For example, Qiu 1978!}; Gao 1984; Li i986b; Cheung 1981.
For the opposite view, see Wang 1981, 28 and 42; Wang
1991.
8 Keightley 1989,197 -198; Boltz 1994, 44 - 52.
9 Wang Shuming 1989, 371 - 372; Shandong 1991, 206.
10 Shao 1978; Gao 1979,114.
11 Wang Shuming 1989 and 1991.
12 Liang 1995; Wang 1995. For general information on the
site, see Zhongguo Anhui 1994; Wang 19973.
13 For a full discussion of this suggestion see Yang Xiaoneng
1999.

After two decades of research and debate, most
scholars now agree that the Dawenkou incised
symbols are true pictographs. 7 The interpretation of
individual pictographs is still underway. Some spe-
cialists have argued that the Dawenkou pictographs
are akin in form and nature to "clan emblems" of
later bronze inscriptions and the forerunners of
Chinese writing, while rejecting the characteriza-
tion of the pictograph as true "writing." 8
The urns excavated in the Shandong region,
were all from medium- and large-size tombs and
9
were prominently positioned in the graves. Their
placement suggests a significant function, although
the precise purpose of the vessels, which are
identified by some scholars as components of ritual
sacrifice 10 and by others as wine-making utensils, 11
remains the subject of debate. The urns at Yuchisi
served as burial containers, used primarily for chil-
dren. People of the Dawenkou culture, in the two
different areas, belonged to two separate clans or

103 | DAWENKO U AND SHANDON G LONCSHA N C U L T U R E S