Revisiting the collective burial debate: a case-study of Yanghai cemetery, Xinjiang

Abstract

ABSTRACT The study of hezangmu, ‘collective burials’, is an integral part of long-standing debates within Chinese archaeology. Traditional interpretations, shaped by social evolutionary models from the 1950s onwards, link collective burials to descent and inherited identity and status. Our study revisits Yanghai cemetery in Xinjiang, one of the largest Bronze Age cemeteries excavated in China’s northwest, using GIS and statistical analyses. Our findings indicate that collective burial was a central aspect of Bronze Age funerary custom at Yanghai, with declining investment by the Iron Age. As a special form of collective burial, multi-layer collective burials emerged as a practical adaptation, not as a marker of special status. Their prevalence increased as ritual spending decreased. Based on our results, we suggest Bronze Age social stratification at Yanghai was shaped by local shamanistic practices.