Sanmenxia Municipal Museum
The storage pit of spade-shaped coins of the Spring-and-Autumn period unearthed at Shaanzhou, Sanmenxia...........................................................04

Abstract：A storage pit of spade-shaped coins were found in Shaanzhou District of Sanmenxia in July, 2018. The coins, dating to the Spring-and-Autumn period, were 504 in total. They were delicate in craftsmanship and rich in inscriptions, which made a rare collection of such kind. Their discovery has contributed greatly to the understanding of distribution and inscriptions of spade-shaped coins, while shedding light on commercial activities then.

Anyang Municipal Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, Puyang Municipal Bureau of the Qicheng Cultural Relics
The excavation of the Northern-Qi-Dynasty burials at Gu’an village, Anyang........................................................................................................25

Abstract：The Anyang Municipal Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology excavated a series of ancient burials from 2017 to 2018. The burial M34, located in Gu’an village, is of the Northern-Qi Dynasty. It is a shaft-pit tomb with a passage. A set of lead-glazed pottery wares were unearthed. The discovery sheds light on the mortuary system of the late Norther-Qi Dynasty, the craftsmanship of the northern ceramic production, and the interactions with the west.

Zhengzhou Municipal Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology
The Song-Dynasty Burial of Mural Paintings at the Zhengzhou Foreign Language Middle School..................................................................................31

Abstract：The Zhengzhou Municipal Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology excavated a Song-Dynasty burial with mural paintings and brick carvings in 2010. It was a salvage excavation at the Zhengzhou Foreign Language Middle School. The tomb was well preserved, the discovery of which sheds light on the Song-Dynasty funeral customs and system.

Henan Provincial Institute of Archaeology et al.
The ZHANG Guixiang tomb of mural paintings at SanmenXia...................38

Abstract：A series of Tang-Dynasty burials have been excavated to the east of the northern Daling Road at Sanmenxia, Henan. Burial M61 made the largest among them, which was comparatively intact. Sixteen accompanying artifacts came light, which were made from materials such as pottery, bronze, iron, gold and shell. An epitaph was also discovered, which recorded the tomb occupants as the ZHANG Xianggui couple of the Middle Tang period. This burial has contributed greatly to the study of mortuary customs of the Middle Tang period at Sanmenxia.

DAI Xiangming
On the correlation between salt resource in southern Shanxi Province with the early civilization in the Central Plains.....................................................43

Abstract：The author traces the early exploration history of the Yuncheng salt lake, and discusses its correlation with the Central-Plains social complexity. The analysis starts from the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, when there was direct character evidence. Thereafter, it moves to secondary evidence that was relevant to the exploration of the Yuncheng salt lake up to the Longshan period. The prosperity and decline of settlements in the borderlands of the Shaanxi, Shanxi and Henan Provinces in the Yangshao period was highly related to the Yuncheng salt lake.

WANG Qing
An archaeological investigation of Taihao and Shaohao..........................54

Abstract：The middle and southern areas of Shandong Province were central to the Dawenkou culture, which should have correlated with Shaohao and Taihao in the historical documents. However, no pottery inscription had been unearthed there till 2018, when a breakthrough was made at the Yuzhuang site, Ningyang. The author, based on the new discovery, argues that the Hao clan should have come to its prosperity in the late Dawenkou period, when they innovated the pottery inscription as their emblem. Thereafter, the clan split into two sub-clans. The Taihao sub-clan was mainly in the middle and southern Shandong, as well as eastern Henan and northern Anhui, which gradually became part of the local Longshan culture. The Shaohao sub-clan migrated into southeastern Shandong during the final Dawenkou period, which came to its epic during the early Longshan period. In the late Longshan culture, it split into Gao Yao and Bo Yi.

ZHOU Zhiqing
On the burial custom of inhuming grinding stone at Jinsha.......................67

Abstract：Grinding stone artifacts make a common category of burial accompanying goods at Jinsha. Grinding stones may have been symbolic for the military or violent professions then, while marking hierarchic divisions. Grinding stone artifacts were prevalent in the ship coffin burials, the custom of which appeared no later than the early Western Zhou Dynasty, declined in the late Spring and Autumn period, and disappeared in the Warring States period. The emergence and disappearance of the grinding-stone burial custom should have been related to the major changes in the ancient Shu society from the Western Zhou to the Spring and Autumn period. With the changing regimes and ruling classes in the late Spring and Autumn, the new ruling class of Shu abandoned the old burial custom and embraced the new world

CUI Xiulin
On the archaeological discoveries and research of the whole wood coffin of the Han period in Jianghuai................................................................................76

Abstract：During the Han Dynasty, the“whole wood coffin,”made of an entire piece of wood, was common in the Han-Dynasty tombs in the Jianghuai region. In the early Western Han Dynasty, such coffins were employed in Yangzhou, Huai'an, Tianchang and other areas in eastern Jianghuai. From the middle Western Han Dynasty to the early Eastern Han Dynasty, this custom was existent in Lianyungang, Lu'an, Yancheng, Luhe, Qichun and other areas. The author analyzes the temporal and spatial distributions of the whole wood coffins, and investigates their craftsmanship, decoration, related tomb occupants, and funerary accompanying objects. A synthetic research shows that the whole wood coffin came into existence in the background of a unified empire. It was out of the influence of the one-piece wood coffin and pirogue coffin from the pre-Qin Yue legacy, combined with the local funerary custom. Its emergence was due to interactions among the Wu kingdom, Dong'ou, Minyue in the early Han Dynasty. Its distribution expanded to the whole Jianghuai region, along the inland migration of the Yue people in the middle Western Han Dynasty.