近十年中国骨器研究综述

A Review of Bone-Tool Research in the Last Decade

骨器研究逐渐成为近年来中国考古学关注的课题。本文梳理近十年以来中国骨器研究的新成果,并着重对新石器和青铜时代的骨器研究进行归纳和分析。在新石器时代,无论是地域还是年代上,骨器制作的程序和方法均比较相似,片切割和磨制为主要加工手段,"因材作器"是这个时期骨器生产的显著特征。青铜锯的应用是青铜时代制骨手工业的技术性革命,极大地提高了骨器制作的效率,并对当时的生产关系产生重要影响。二里头遗址制骨所使用的铜质工具很可能是铜刀,而非铜锯。中国最早使用青铜锯的年代很可能不在夏代,而在商代早期,约公元前1600年左右。青铜锯的使用和城市化的发展,为青铜时代制骨作坊的规模化、专业化和规范化生产提供了必要的技术和市场条件。

Studies of bone tools have drawn more and more attention in recent years. The author reviews bone-working research in the past ten years, with an emphasis on that of Bone working in the Neolithic Age and Bronze Age. In the Neolithic Age, similarities can be observed in bone-working techniques, regardless of the chronological changes and regional variations. The related techniques then featured slice cutting and polishing. When it came to the Bronze Age, the introduction of bronze saws changed bone-working technology fundamentally, which greatly increased the efficiency and relations of production. The bone-working tools employed at Erlitou should have been bronze knives, rather than bronze saws. The earliest application of bronze saws in production may date back to the early Shang Dynasty around 1600 BC, rather than the Xia Dynasty. Urbanization and bronze-saw employment, which provided the indispensable market and essential technology, contributed considerably to the specialization, standardization and mass production of bone working in the Bronze Age.