CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

groups, each with distinct customs. Archaeological
analyzes of the remains at Yuchisi have identified
the site as a local subtype of the Dawenkou
culture. 12 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4 Unpublished, according to Wang Jihuai, the excavator.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 specialists
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 characterization
of the pictograph as true "writing." 8
The urns excavated in the Shandong region,
were all from medium- and large-size tombs and
were prominently positioned in the graves. 9 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 children.
People of the Dawenkou culture, in the two
different areas, belonged to two separate clans or
103 | DAWENKOU AND SHANDONG LONCSHAN CULTURES