中国出土的蜻蜓眼式玻璃珠研究

STUDIES ON COMPOUND EYE BEADS UNEARTHED IN CHINA

一前言 所谓蜻蜓眼式玻璃珠，是指以眼睛图案作为装饰的玻璃珠。在珠体上嵌入一种或数种不同于母体（Matrix）颜色的玻璃，形成一层或多层类似眼睛的效果，或在珠体上造出凸出表面的眼睛形状，形成“鼓眼”，颇似蜻蜓的复眼。

Glass compound eye beads appeared in the Mediterranean coastal areas as early as the second millennium BC,and entered China no later than late Spring-and-Autumn Period.This paper notes that compound eye beads unearthed in China can be classified into nine types according to the differences of manufacturing techniques,each type of which possessed unique chronological sequences as well as prevalence regions.Based on the comparisons with foreign samples,we believe that they must have had different origins.Accordingly,we cannot generalize about diffusion routes of different types into China.This article focuses on the route through which the first batch of compound eye beads entered in China.We believe that they are originated from the Black Sea coast,spread along the Eurasian Steppes by nomadic peoples from the West to the East.In the vicinity of the Altay region,one route went down to Xinjiang,and the other,to Minusinsk Basin and the Mongolian Plateau along the Altay border.Then they moved southward into Inner Mongolia,Shanxi Province and other places,and thus stepped in the Central Plains.After entered China,the compound eye beads merged into the local culture.The strong resonance stimulated Chinese artisans to imitate them with Chinese indigenous lead-barium glass,faience,pottery,jade,bone,jet,wood or ivory,etc.In this process,the incomprehension for foreign cultural background resulted in some alterations.In addition,through the analysis of functions of the unearthed samples,we realized that their function as talisman in the original context was greatly weakened or even ignored in China,but that as precious and exotic symbols of social status,ornaments of other utensils even funerary objects in the sense of traditional ritual system were attributed.This can to some extent reflect the Chinese adjusting mechanism to foreign cultural elements: use them reasonably according to their appearances.