March 22, 2024

The 4th Tang Special Annual lecture in Archaeology

The Empire of Sacrifice: 
The Great City Yong and the Archaeology of Religion

Time: Friday, March 22, 2024 (12:00 – 5:00 pm)
403, Kent Hall, Columbia University

Keynote Speakers:
Tian Yaqi, Researcher,  Shaanxi Academy of Archaeology
Recent Archaeological Research on the City Yong of Qin Empire

Chen Aidong, Assistant Researcher, Shaanxi Academy of Archaeology
Archaeological Studies of the State Sacrifice of Qin in the Vicinity of the Great City Yong

Commentators:
Robin D.S. Yates, Mcgill University
Terence N. D’Altroy, Columbia University
Li Feng, Columbia University

The pre-imperial Qin capital, Yong 雍, occupied national headlines in China for the excavation of the gigantic tomb of the Duke of Qin in the 1990s. In the past twenty years, archaeological work in Yong has focused on studying the ecological system of the city, coupled with an effort to uncover the city’s position in the religion of Qin before its conquest of China. While the work in the city has successfully exposed the entire riverine system including canals and lakes alongside production and palatial sites, of the five sacrificial altars of Qin (秦五畤) located in the suburb, the most famous altars to Heaven of all time, archaeologists believe that they have found at least three and possibly four. While two (including the Blood Pool 血池) had already been excavated five years ago, excavations continued to be carried out on the other two religious sites in 2020-2023. There is little doubt that the new discoveries will shed important light on the mentality of the Qin Empire and on the religious tradition of early China in general. While the political and military history of the Qin Empire were the subjects of numerous studies, we are only now beginning to understand the role of religion in the formation of that empire.