Sekundäre Zentren der Sechs Dynastien: Untersuchungen zu Gräbern am Yangzi-Mittellauf ((Secondary Centres of the Six Dynasties: A Study of Burials in the Yangzi Middle Reaches))

Author: Annette Kieser

Publication year: 2025

Publisher:

Abstract:
Secondary Centres of the Six Dynasties: A Study of Burials in the Yangzi Middle Reaches The Yangzi middle reaches were of central importance for the history of the Six Dynasties (220–589 CE). They formed a densely populated zone of migration and interaction in which social groups other than those in the capital were active. These were contested areas close to the frontiers and, owing to their strategic location along trade and transport routes, of enormous economic, political, and military relevance. Secondary centers emerged here that often competed with the capital Jiankang (today Nanjing). A systematic examination of the material culture of five secondary centres in the Yangzi middle reaches (the present-day cities of Echeng, Wuhan, Xiangyang, Jingzhou, and Changsha) expands and re-evaluates the predominantly text-based picture of this region, long overshadowed by research focused on Jiankang. Based on excavation reports of Six Dynasties burial complexes in these centers, the corpus of finds is analysed and, taking the written sources into account, set in its historical context.