Cult ural Migration and Integration Reflected by Ancient Jade Artifacts from the Archaeological Perspective

Jade artifact is a kind of significant artifact with core values in ancient China. After the social development produced the hierarchical differentiation and ritual jade artifact, we can discuss the question about cultural migration and integration implied by jade ritual artifact through the phenomenon of cultural exchange between different ethnic groups. To answer the question about cultural migration and integration between two cultural ideologies under ancient cultural exchange, it is necessary to provide evidence that there are many identical types and shapes of jade artifacts between the origin of cultural migration and the place where cultural integration takes place instead of just a few jade artifacts for exchange or gift. In fact, the cultural interaction is caused by communication and transmission of two kinds of cultural ideologies. This paper provides three different examples to illustrate the different types of cultural interaction in prehistoric times: (1) the culture exchange reflected by the jade artifacts produced between the late period of Hongshan Culture and Lingjiatan Culture might be related to cultural migration and integration; (2) many Liangzhu Culture jade artifacts found in Lingnan area hinted that a branch of Liangzhu Culture migrated to Lingnan area and merged with the local culture; (3) yazhang from Erlitou Culture unearthed from the Sanxingdui Culture sites in Chengdu Plain, the coastal areas of Fujian Province, and the region of Pearl River Delta and its imitations discovered that were produced in these areas indicated the cultural integration of Xia survivors and local residents.