Imprints of Kinship

Recent excavations of bronze artifacts from the Western Zhou dynasty (1046–771 B.C.E.) provide the focus for this collection of essays, which analyze the nature and patterns of lineages emerging from the tombs of ancient lords of states and historically significant individuals located throughout China, including Beijing, Shandong, Shanxi, and Gansu. The editor and his nine contributors offer careful reconstructions of the genealogies, kinship structures, political identities, and relationship networks of leading court figures from Bronze-Age China. This rich scholarship makes important contributions to ancient Chinese archaeology by bringing to light the chronology, warfare, and legal structure of the different realms that existed during the Western Zhou period.