Ancient Tombs

TO THE TEACHER

OBJECTIVES OF THE UNIT: To introduce students to archaeological finds as an historical source. To encourage students to think about the connections between burial practices, forms of social organization, and beliefs about the afterlife. To present students with visual evidence of the great changes in China between 2000 and 100 BCE.

TEACHING STRATEGIES: It might be best to start with an individual tomb and ask the students to look at the objects in it. What do they reveal about the aesthetics and technology of the period? To encourage students to speculate about possible functions of the objects or the meaning of decoration added to them, the teacher can tell them that even specialists frequently propose very different theories. To encourage students to think about change over time, they can be asked to compare the five tombs.

To make this material more challenging, the teacher could introduce issues relating to twentieth century archaeology, ranging from Chinese concerns to show that China developed independently of the rest of Eurasia, to the political favor archaeology has enjoyed because it fits well with Marxist materialist theories of history. Students could discuss whether archaeologists should devote their time to the most splendid tombs, showing the finest art and technology, to more representative tombs, or to sites of cities, kilns, and other evidence of economic life.

WHEN TO TEACH: This unit is designed for a chronologically-organized course. For courses that devote a week or more to the ancient period, using all five tombs offers a good way to reinforce recognition of the enormous changes that occurred in China during those centuries. When less time is available, it might make more sense to select one tomb to use in class. The tomb of Fu Hao, for instance, could be used to supplement discussion of the Shang dynasty without using the other tombs.

In China, as elsewhere, the earlier the period the more important archaeological evidence is to our understanding of what life was like. For periods before writing, surviving artifacts offer a crucial corrective to legend and myth. Moreover, even after writing was invented, for many centuries the types of texts that survive are very limited, so that there is still a great deal to learn from artifacts. Scientifically excavated objects can be placed more accurately in time and place than early texts, which often went through a process of accretion over time, with many passages added later.

Thousands of early archaeological sites have been excavated in China, most of them graves. Learning from this archaeological evidence is at least as difficult as learning from texts. The objects are silent--we must ask questions of them before they can tell us anything.

This unit contains summaries of five archaeological sites, ranging in date from about 2300 BC to 100 BC. The tombs selected for examination were all advanced for their time. Their occupants were members of the ruling class of the period, able to afford the highest standard of material comfort, technical excellence, and artistic embellishment then available.
Think about the following issues as you examine each tomb:

	What can you learn about the occupant of the grave from the goods buried with him or her?
	Why do you think certain types of objects were selected to be put in graves? How does this change or stay the same from tomb to tomb?
	What can you infer from these graves about attitudes toward death and the afterlife? How do these attitudes change over time?
	How do the objects in these five tombs reveal changes in stylistic preference? How about media and technique?
	Do you see evidence of technological advances in either the construction or the contents of the tombs?
	What are some of the advantages and some of the limitations of what you can learn from the archaeological evidence presented in these five sites? Click to see a map showing the locations of these five tombs (given below in Teacher's Guide)

ca. 2300 BC

Neolithic tomb at Dawenkou

ca. 1200 BC

Shang tomb of Fu Hao

ca. 1000 BC

Western Zhou tomb of the Count of Yu

433 BC

Eastern Zhou tomb of the Marquis Yi

113 BC

Han tomb of Liu Sheng