青海贵德山坪台卡约文化墓地

THE KAYAO CULTURE GRAVEYARD AT SHANPINGTAI IN GUIDE COUNTY, QINGHAI PROVINCE

贵德县下刘村山坪台卡约文化墓地是1981年7月青海省文物普查试点工作中发现的。发现时因平整土地和水电工程,部分墓葬已被破坏,随即由青海省文化局文物处和海南藏族自治州群众艺术馆共同组成清理发掘小组,配合工程进行清理发掘。小组成员有青海省文化局文物处赵生琛,海南州群众艺术馆刘青彦、王小平、石瑛等同志。自1981年10月上旬至12月上旬,共清理发掘墓葬九十座,出土文物共计六二九件。青海省文物考古队高东陆、吴平和海南藏族自治州群众艺术馆刘青彦等同志进行整理工作,由王国顺同志绘图、刘青彦同志摄影。

The Kayao Culture graveyard at Shanpingtai, Guide County, Qinghai Province, was excavated in October, 1981 and altogether 90 tombs were uncovered, with 629 pieces of funeral objects unearthed.The graveyard is located in the delta area at the confluence of Luanquanhe River into the Yellow River and situated about 70 m above the Yellow River.The tombs are either earth pits or urn burials. There are 55 rectangular earth pits with 2 of them having small caves and 3 oblong ones. The tombs of urn burial total 30. The rest two tombs are in poor condition of preservation and therefore don't allow determining their category.The earth pits are generally 2—3 m long, 1.7—2 m wide and 1 m deep. The wooden coffins in them are mostly made of two halves of a log and in rare cases made of planks. These tombs are almost all of single burial and only 2 of them are joint burials of the mother and her child.The funeral objects unearthed are mainly pottery vessels, which are found in 27 tombs, one or two pieces in each tomb, and most of which are of daily use. They are all small in size, including the pot, basin and the like. Besides eartherware, there are stone axes, hammers and spinning whirls, bone awls and arrowheads and bronze bells and earrings.All the urn burials are tombs of children. The tomb chambers are generally oblong earth pits. The urn coffin is made of a large basin and a large jar. Most of the children's tombs have only one urn coffin containing the remains of a single child. Cases of one tomb containing two urn coffins or of one urn coffin containing the remains of two children are rare.The Kaoyao complex at Shanpingtai belongs to the Dahuazhongzhuang Type and chronologically corresponds roughly to the late Shangsun Type and the early and middle Dahuazhongzhuang Type.