Many disagreements have been there on the issue of the natures of archaeological cultures in present-day northern Hebei Province and Beijing and Tianjin Municipalities during the Xia,Shang and Western Zhou Dynasties.Which archaeological cultures have existed in this area at that time? How have they developed and evolved during the Xia,Shang and Western Zhou Dynasties? How have the cultural patterns changed and what factors caused these changes? All of these questions are waiting for systematic discussions.Through comprehensive evaluation to the published materials,this paper pointed out that from the Xia to the Western Zhou Dynasties,many types of bronze cultures including Huliuhe Type,Datuotou Culture,Lidarenzhuang Type,the cultural remains represented by ash pit H3 at Xiaobaiyang Site,Weifang Phase Ⅲ Culture,the cultural remains represented by Chaodaogou Site at Qinglong County,Upper Zhangjiayuan Culture and so on have existed in this area.The period since the Xia through the Western Zhou Dynasties witnessed thirteen stages of changes of the cultural patterns in this area,during which the evolution of the bronze cultures showed obvious continuity and a kind of uninterrupted progress.From the Xia to Phase Ⅱ of the Early Shang Dynasty,the influence of Lower Xiajiadian Culture to the evolution of the cultural patterns in this area was far from noticeable,and the evolution progress of the bronze cultures of the Northern Frontier style in this area was advancing gradually from north to south.Also during this period,the expansion and retraction of the Early Shang Culture had important influence to the changes of the entire cultural pattern of this area.After Phase Ⅲ of the Early Shang Dynasty,the cultural penetration of Zhukaigou Culture and Baiyan Culture redirected the evolution of bronze cultures in this area;since then,the evolution progress of the bronze cultures of the Northern Frontier style in this area was changed to advance as well as decline gradually from west to east.Since the beginning of the West
Based on the cultural elements analysis of the relics unearthed from the south-central Shanxi province,the author points out that the Youyao Type does not belong to the Baiyan Culture,although they indeed demonstrate a very close relationship; while the cultural remains from the Xinghua Cemetery and the Jingjie Type in the same area can be sorted into the Baiyan Culture. The author argues that the Baiyan Culture was originated from the local Longshan Culture in the Central Shanxi and eventually formed a new type of archaeological cultural by merging the Zhukaigou Jia Type in the Northern Shaanxi and the Jiangou Type in the Northern Hebei and Southern Shanxi during the Longshan Times. The Baiyan Culture,interacting with the Shang Culture from beginning to end,gradually extended southward and northward through time,and finally some were assimilated by the Jin Culture during the Western Zhou Dynasty. The social entity of the Baiyan Culture was believed to be the ‘Di’people in the periods of Xia and Shang Dynasties.
