Interpretation of pit features of the Shi chao site in Tainan county, Taiwan

This thesis is about to explore the usage of pit features of the Shi Chao site. There are two kinds of culture remain in the Shi Chao site, which are known as Niaosung Culture and Dahu Culture. The pit features in Shi Chao vary in their shapes and contents. This thesis is going to collect the data of the pit features from two 40m*40m regions. The research is up to discuss whether there are other ways of usage, besides the dumping purpose, of these pit features by examining their outline of shapes and inner deposit, contents, special distribution, and relationship with other features and remains. First, I will sort out different types of pit features by their relative level, mouth width and depth, and observe the attributes, such as the outline, inner stratification, and interrelationship of these types. The second is summing the accumulation of shards to discriminate the living area and dumping area. The third is to put the pit features into the areas above, combining with their own types, attributes, and contents, to interpret the function of these pit features. It shows that there are cluster gathers between pit features of Dahu Culture in Shi Chao. On the other hand, it shows more diversity between pit features of Niaosung Culture. During Niaosung period, cluster gathers present in different ways which mark the boundary of activity areas by their special distributions. It also implies that there is a specific tendency between the pit features near the burials, differing in their contents, outlines, and inner stratification.