Wikipedia

Siwa culture

Not to be confused withSiba culture.

TheSiwa culture(Chinese:Tự oa văn hóa;pinyin:Sìwā wénhuà,ca. 1350-650 BCE)[1]was aBronze Ageculture in southeastGansuProvince, China. It was discovered by Swedish geologistJohan Gunnar Anderssonin 1924 at Mount Siwa (Tự oa sơn) inLintao County,hence its name.[2]It flourished circa 14th to 11th century BC,[3]it is tentatively attributed to the cultures of theNorthern Di,Qiang,andXunyupeoples.[4][5]

Siwa culture
Area map of the Siwa culture, with main sites (): Ya’er, Lanqiao, Xujianian, Jiuzhan... Also shown: the Chinese capital ofXi'an() and theWestern Zhoufrontier outpost ofBaicaopo()
Geographical rangeupperYellow River
PeriodBronze Age
Datesc. 1300 – c. 600 BCE
Preceded byMajiayao culture
Qijia culture
Followed byOrdos culture
Shajing culture
Han dynasty
Chinese name
Simplified ChineseTự oa văn hóa
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinSìwā wénhuà

The archaeological culture is divided into two phases: the early phase associated with the sites at Lintao, Zhuoni, Lintan, and Heshui; and, the final phase during the late Shang and proto-Zhou periods associated with the Jiuzhan, Xujianian, and Lanquiao sites.[6]Siwa culture is known for producing a type of pottery that had saddle-shaped mouths.[6]

Context

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Anthropomorphic design, bronze, excavated in the tomb of Heibo ( hắc bá ), a military noble in charge of protecting the northern frontier, atBaicaopo,Lingtai County,Western Zhouperiod (1045–771 BCE).Gansu Museum.This is considered as a possible depiction of aXianyunorGuifang.[7]

The Siwa culture followed the disintegration of theQijia culture.[8]This opened a period of interaction and conflict between the Siwa and the people of theCentral Plains.[8]

The Siwa culture has often been associated with the tribes appearing in Chinese historical sources, such as the Rong (Xirong,Shanrong,Quanrong...) or theQiang.[1]These tribes, whose captives sometimes were sacrificed inShang dynastyrituals, ultimately toppled theWestern Zhou dynastyin 771 BCE.[1]The Siwa people produced relatively abundant ceramics, reflecting a rather varied diet.[1]

The neighboringXindian culturewas roughly contemporary with the Siwa culture and was influenced by it. Some scholars hold that Siwa culture descended from theQijia culture.[9]There are also those who believe that the culture was a remnant of Xunyu, which is associated with theXianyunpeople. However, questions are raised against this theory since Siwa sites are small with low subsistence levels.[10]According to Feng Li, these could not have sustained an advanced society like the Xianyun.[10]The debate remains open.[11]

The Siwa culture was followed by the appearance of Eurasian steppe cultures, particularlySakacultures such as theOrdos culture,which again interracted in various ways with theCentral Plains.[8]

Geography

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Siwa culture is divided into two types – Siwa and Anguo. The former is distributed along theTao River(Taohe) and the latter along theWei River.The Siwa type is somewhat earlier than theWestern Zhoudynasty, while the Anguo type is more or less contemporaneous with it.[12]

One of Siwa culture's main characteristics is pottery with saddle-shaped openings (Mã an khẩu đào quán),[13]It is also distinguished by its bronze objects.

Since 2006, the Siwa site (Tự oa di chỉ) is on the list of the People's Republic of China's archeological monuments.

  • A selection of Ma’an style vessels from the Zhanqi cemetery. Siwa culture
  • Siwa culture. Use-wear alteration marks of Zhanqi li vessels.
  • Siwa culture. Ma’an vessels.
  • Map of Bronze Age China; the Siwa culture area is similar to theQijia culture(#3)

References

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class=notpageimage|
General location of the Siwa culture (1350-650 BCE), and contemporary Asian politiesc. 1000BCE
  1. ^abcdTaché, Karine; Jaffe, Yitzchak; Craig, Oliver E.; Lucquin, Alexandre; Zhou, Jing; Wang, Hui; Jiang, Shengpeng; Standall, Edward; Flad, Rowan K. (29 April 2021)."What do" barbarians "eat? Integrating ceramic use-wear and residue analysis in the study of food and society at the margins of Bronze Age China".PLOS ONE.16(4): e0250819.Bibcode:2021PLoSO..1650819T.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0250819.ISSN1932-6203.PMC8084173.PMID33914818.The Siwa archaeological culture (ca. 3350 and 2650 cal yr BP) has often been associated with the tribes referenced in textual sources as Qiang and Rong: prized captives commonly sacrificed by the Shang and marauding hordes who toppled the Western Zhou dynasty. In early Chinese writings, food plays a key role in accentuating the 'sino-barbarian' dichotomy believed to have taken root over 3000 years ago, with the Qiang and Rong described as nomadic pastoralists who consumed more meat than grain and knew little of proper dining etiquette. (...) the Siwa community of Zhanqi. Use-wear analysis shows that Zhanqi community members were sophisticated creators of ceramic equipment, the ma'an cooking pot, which allowed them to prepare a wide number of dishes with limited fuel. These findings support recent isotope studies at Zhanqi as well as nuance the centrality of meat in the Siwa period diet.
  2. ^These sites are also calledMiaopingyagou yizhiMiếu bình nha câu di chỉ.
  3. ^"Bá lăng kiều tự oa di chỉ thành vi toàn quốc trọng điểm văn vật bảo hộ đan vị -- trung quốc cam túc võng".Archived fromthe originalon 2012-03-16.Retrieved2011-01-11.
  4. ^Hu, Qianying hồ khiêm doanh, "Lun Siwa wenhua" luận tự oa văn hóa,Wenwu jikanVăn vật tập khan2(1980), 123-4 of 118–24. Cited in Li, Feng (2006),Landscape And Power In Early China,Cambridge University Press. p. 187
  5. ^Cam túc nhật báo[Gānsù Rìbào,Gansu Daily].《 tẩu tiến lâm thao huyện tự oa văn hóa di chỉ 》[Zǒujìn Líntáoxiàn Sìwā Wénhuà Yízhǐ;"Entering Lintao County's Siwa Ruins" ]. 2007. Accessed 17 Dec 2013.(in Chinese)
  6. ^abLinduff, Katheryn M.; Sun, Yan; Cao, Wei; Liu, Yuanqing (2018).Ancient China and its Eurasian Neighbors: Artifacts, Identity, and Death on the Frontier, 3000–700 BCE.New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 168.ISBN978-1-108-41861-4.
  7. ^"Linh đài bạch thảo pha tây chu mộ táng lí đích thanh đồng vương quốc".www.kaogu.net.cn.The Institute of Archaeology (CASSChinese Academy of Social Sciences).There is research on the ethnic image of the northern nomadic people of the Altaic language family. It may be that this is the image of the Xianyun tribe that once posed a serious military threat to the northern border of the Zhou Dynasty. They were called "Ghost people" (Guifang) because they looked different from the Chinese. Hữu khảo chứng hệ a nhĩ thái ngữ hệ đích bắc phương du mục dân tộc nhân chủng hình tượng. Khả năng thị tằng kinh đối chu triều bắc phương biên cảnh cấu thành nghiêm trọng quân sự uy hiếp đích hiểm duẫn bộ tộc, nhân tương mạo dị vu hoa hạ, bị xưng tác "Quỷ phương".
  8. ^abcDong, Jiajia; Wang, Shan; Chen, Guoke; Wei, Wenyu; Du, Linyao; Xu, Yongxiang; Ma, Minmin; Dong, Guanghui (2022)."Stable Isotopic Evidence for Human and Animal Diets From the Late Neolithic to the Ming Dynasty in the Middle-Lower Reaches of the Hulu River Valley, NW China".Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.10.doi:10.3389/fevo.2022.905371.ISSN2296-701X.The archaeological culture in this area became more complex after the disintegration of the Qijia Culture. The collision-integration initially occurred between native Siwa Culture and Central Plains cultures, followed by Eurasian steppe cultures and indigenous cultures that later converged and exchanged again (Li et al., 1993; Wang, 2012).
  9. ^Anne P. Underhill, ed.,A Companion to Chinese Archaeology.Wiley Blackwell Companions to Anthropology. John Wiley & Sons, 2013ISBN1118325788
  10. ^abFeng, Li (2006).Landscape and Power in Early China: The Crisis and Fall of the Western Zhou 1045–771 BC.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 187.ISBN978-1-139-45688-3.
  11. ^Shelach, Gideon(2008)."Review of Landscape and Power in Early China: The Crisis and Fall of the Western Zhou 1045-771 BC".The Journal of Asian Studies.67(1): 281–284.doi:10.1017/S0021911808000259.ISSN0021-9118.JSTOR20203333.S2CID162972022.Li argues that the Xianyun cannot be identified with the archaeological remains of the Siwa culture because all the sites that are associated with this archaeological culture are small and simple, whereas the activities of the Xianyun suggest a much more complex society (p. 187). While this observation makes sense, it may have more to do with the problematic definition of the archaeological "culture" rather than with Xianyun society. Pushing the location of the Xianyun further north and identifying them with a vaguely defined "Northern Zone" tradition (p. 188) certainly does not advance our under standing of the Xianyun society.
  12. ^An Zhimin (1996),THE BRONZE AGE IN EASTERN PARTS OF CENTRAL ASIA. (PDF)Unesco.org
  13. ^"Far East Asian Art".Archived fromthe originalon 2012-07-30.Retrieved2011-01-11.

Further reading

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  • Nicola Di Cosmo (1999),The Northern Frontier in Pre-Imperial China//The Cambridge History of Ancient China: From the Origins of Civilization to 221 BC,Edited by M.Loewe and E.L.Shaughnessy.ISBN0-521-47030-7
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