天象与宇宙观:新石器晚期墓葬朝向初探——以西坡和清凉寺墓地为例

Skyscape and Cosmology:Preliminary Research on Burial Orientation of the Late Neolithic Period——Take Xipo and Qingliangsi as an example

在新石器时代,许多墓葬会表现出某种朝向。本文尝试从天空景观考古学的角度探讨西坡和清凉寺墓葬方向与景观及天象之间的可能关系,认为墓葬朝向既非死亡时日落的准确方向,也非后世关注的如银河或大火星等天文现象,而是一年中最常见的日落方向。在古人的宇宙观中,太阳的运行很可能与对天地人一体化的认知有关。

During the Neolithic period,burials displayed some internal consistency in their orientation.The cemeteries at Xipo and Qingliangsi is analyzed by the approach of Skyscape Archaeology to explore their probability of the relationship between their orientation and skyscape.It is argued that it was not the precise direction of sunset at the time of death that determined the orientation of the burials or the special importance of particular astronomical phenomena known to have been important in later times(the Milky Way or Antares),rather the direction of sunsets.The conceptual west and sunset directions might have been inseparably perceived during that time.It is suggested that the throughout the year played a decisive role in the worlds of ancient people and the dead in maintaining the harmony of sky,earth and people in ancient cosmology.