This paper classifies cave burial cluster No. A at Zhangjiabao into three layers and six groups based on the typological seriation of pottery. The relative date of this burial type is supposed to be constructed from the middle phase of Shang(商) to the middle Phase of the Western Zhou(西周).
Since the 1960s, a number of the cave burials and the stone?cist tombs have been identified in the upper valley of the Taizi(太子) River where cave burial cluster No. A at Zhangjiabao. These cave burials are characterised that a group of burials are clustered in a cave. This burial tradition has been named to Miaohoushan(廟后山) culture or Machengzi(馬城子) culture. However, the increase of archaeological evidence of the Bronze Age culture indicate that the cultural pattern of this area is not a simplistic form, but composed of various types of features including the cave burials, the stonecist burials and dwellings; therefore, this paper defines this type of the site to the cave burial in the upper valley of the Taizi River.
The cave burials had constructed in this area for a long time from the Xia(夏) and Shang period to the Western Zhou, the pre?bronze dagger stage of Western Zhou. By dividing the cave burial into three periods, cave burial cluster No. A at Zhangjiabao was dated between the middle and late period, the centred phase of this type of burial. The burial method is the secondary funeral that the cremated skeletons were collected into burial chamber. Although the graves including the stone cist burials looks like the pit burials, the burial chamber was installed in the ground level and was covered by the later deposition. Unearthed pottery is mainly composed of jars, bowls and pots. Potteries in the later phase attaches lugs. The graves of the earlier phase were prone to be interred in the inner area of cave. However, the burial pattern interred in the second stratum of burial cluster no. A at Zhangjiabao shows the opposite direction that the burials interred in the earlier phase was distributed in the outer area of cave.
Considering that the contemporary stone cist burial, the upper date of this type of burial was not earlier than the cave burial. The stone?cist burial was constructing with the cave burial, and replaced cave burial from the the Western Zhou. In this context, the material culture of the upper valley of the Taizi River had developed without interruption, and then was incorporated by Shuangfang(雙房) culture and Xituanshan(西團山) culture.
The burial structure of burial cluster no. A at Zhangjiabao shows the typical pattern of this type burial, but it is just of the cave burial sites located in this area. The cultural pattern of the Early Bronze Age in Liaodong(遼東) province will be cleared by the accumulation of burial data and the comparative investigation with other burials and the contemporarily dwelling features.