中国古代都城考古学研究的几个问题

Liu Qingzhu,Some Problems of Archaeological Researches on Ancient Chinese Capitals

The ancient Chinese capital was developed from a single palace city to the coexistence of a palace city and an outer city and finally to the triple-city form with a palace, an inner and an outer cities. The city gates of a capital were its marking buildings; the main gates of the outer, inner and palace cities were generally on a straight line, which was the central axis of the capital. The main streets leading to the city gates along with other roads formed the “skeleton” of the whole city and demarcated its different areas. Ceremonial buildings constituted an important part of an ancient capital; the change of their location in the capital and the alteration of their form reflected the transformation of their political position. Archaeological researches on ancient capitals should be carried out by combining the macroscopic with the microscopic and pay great attention to material evidence of a political nature in both field excavations and indoor studies.