This book proposes a new model and scheme of analysis for complex burial material and applies it to the prehistoric archaeological record of the Liangshan region in Southwest China that other archaeologists have commonly given a wide berth, regarding it as too patchy, too inhomogeneous, and overall too unwieldy to work with.

The model treats burials as composite objects, considering the various elements separately in their respective life histories. The application of this approach to the rich and diverse archaeological record of the Liangshan region serves as a test of this new form of analysis.

This volume thus pursues two main aims: to advance the understanding of the archaeology of the immediate study area which has been little examined, and to present and test a new scheme of analysis that can be applied to other bodies of material.

Chapter 1: Introduction.- Part I: The Model and the Material.- Chapter 2: Introducing the Tools: Theory, Method, and Mode.- Chapter 3: Setting the Stage: The Geography and Burial Record of the Liangshan Region.- Part II: Applying the Model.- Chapter 4: Constructing the Grave: The Main Parts and their Combination.- Chapter 5: Placing the Dead: Interment Practices and other Rituals.- Chapter 6: Providing for the Dead: The Object Assemblages.- Chapter 7: Time and Space: Connecting the Parts.- Part III: Evaluating the Model and the Data.- Chapter 8: Connecting the Parts: Graves and Groups, Space and Time.- Chapter 9: Taking Stock and Moving Forward.- Plates.- Appendix.

Anke Hein holds the Peter Moores Associate Professorship for Chinese Archaeology at the Institute of Archaeology at the University of Oxford. She is an anthropological archaeologist focusing on pre-historic and early historic China. In 2013, she received her doctorate at the Interdepartmental Program in Archaeology at UCLA with a thesis entitled, "Cultural Geography and Interregional Contacts in Prehistoric Liangshan (Southwest China)." Her work in the region has resulted in publications in top-tier journals such as Quaternary International and Asian Archaeology, and in important Chinese archaeological journals such as Sichuan Wenwu. Her interest in questions of inter-cultural contact is reflected in an edited volume on The "Crescent-Shaped Cultural-Communication Belt": Tong Enzheng's Model in Retrospect that was published in 2014. She has been involved in archaeological and ethnographic work in the mountains of Southwest China for many years. In her newest research project,she is turning her attention to another expression of group identities reflected by focusing on patterns of ceramic production and usage in prehistoric Northwest China.