The “large ash trench” is a trench-shaped remains stretching from west to east in the north of the palace city of the Shang city in Yanshi and measuring 110m in length and 14m in width. Its excavation in 1996--1997 revealed a series of cultural layers with ideal stratigraphic evidence and plentiful objects. The discovery laid a solid foundation for the pcriodization of the remains in the Shang Yanshi city, providing a three-phase seven-subphase chronological frame for the early Shang vestiges in the city, with the first and second phases represented by the main deposits in the trench. Furthermore, it affords reliable material to the study of the Xia and Shang cultures and their chronology, enriching our knowledge of the early Shang culture represented by the Erligang remains, substantiating the contents between the Erligang period and the Erlitou culture, and advancing the research on the turn from the Xia to the Shang dynasties and the demarcation between their cultures.
美国加州大学洛杉矶分校艺术史系教授罗泰（Lothar von Falkenhausen）为国际知名的东亚考古学家。有关他的学术经历和学术思想的访谈请参见《哈佛看中国》（人民出版社，2010年，201~222页）、《南方文物》（2011年2期，66~73页）《考古与文物》（2012年1期，108~112页）、《上海书评》[《东方早报》副刊]（2010年7月18日，1~2版）。2012年春，他应邀来北京大学讲学，内容涉及中国考古学、金石学、考古类型学和美术史，在北京的考古学界引起了很大反响。同年6月，罗泰前往西安为中美国际田野学校的学生授课，借此机会张良仁对他做了访谈。访谈从他在北大的讲学展开，进一步阐述了他的学术思想。2013年6月，罗泰教授再次来到西安为中美国际田野学校的学生授课，在百忙中对本文做了修改和补充。
The high-necked and stout-legged tripot Li (高领袋足鬲 ), a type of pottery vessels that is widely found at the proto-Zhou cemeteries and settlement sites in Guanzhong (关中 ),or the Wei River Valley, has been taken as a focus of intellectual attention in the previous search of proto-Zhou Culture. Some scholars claim that the culture it represents is the very Proto-Zhou Culture,while others attribute it to the culture of Qiangrong羌戎,a western neighbour of the Proto-Zhou people. This disagreement has a root in the misunderstanding of the chronology and sources of the tripod Li. That is the problem this essay intends to handle. Under the aid of the newly reported excavations at the Nianzipo Site in Changwu county, the Yijiabu Site in Fufeng and the Zhumazui Site in Liquan, this essay offers a complete history of the tripod Li discovered in Guanzhong, which can be traced back to the Upper Eriigang Phase. On the contrary, the same tripod Li unearthed at the sites of the Siwa Culture firmly to be of Qiangrong, which were previously seen as the source or prototype of the Guanzhong finds, is quite late than the latter. Moreover, the tripod Li in both areas has a common ancestor in the Keshengzhuang Erqi (客省庄二期) Culture in Guanzhong. Thus the tripod Li of the Siwa Culture borrow instead from the prototype in Guanzhong area, which tends to support that the high-necked and stout-legged tripod Li belongs to the proto-Zhou Culture.
In 1996, the Second Henan Archaeological Team, IA, CASS, excavated a tomb of the Eastern Zhou period in the northeast of the Shang city-site in Yanshi. The tomb is a rectangular earthen pit and features erected stakes around the pit. The wooden coffin contains a human skeleton in a flexed supine position. The funeral objects fall into two categories: pottery vessels and wooden ones. The former numbers six; and the latter, 13, poorer in condition. The tomb dates from the Spring-and-Autumn period and may be cultural remains of the "Shi clan." Its discovery has certain significance to studying the date and nature of the Shang city in Yanshi.
