ABSTRACT
In the entire Neolithic period, however, various local traditions co-existed at the same time, and not until the beginning of the Shang Dynasty, when written documents appear, and when cultural cohesion strongly suggests that a mainstream cultural tradition was established in the area with Shang cultural dominance, can we talk more substantially about a funerary culture that was the hallmark of the Shang civilization. The Shang Dynasty, apparently due to the accumulation of resources and concentration of power resulting from many generations of development, was able to deploy its resources to construct a funerary culture that echoed the growing power of the royalty. Archaeological records confirm only generally that a more or less consistent burial pattern can be detected, but to ask for an absolute consistency throughout the Zhou Dynasty and down to the Warring States period is to ignore the very complicated historical changes of this period.
