小孩子死后半坡先民把他们装入瓮棺安葬

小孩子死后，半坡先民把他们装入瓮棺安葬，这是当时的习俗。孩子死后不能葬在村子的公共墓地里；先在房屋周围的某个地方挖个洞，将瓮罐埋在那里，然后把尸体放入，再在口上盖一个碗或盆——这要看瓮罐有多大了。罐上的圆孔，据说是相信灵魂不灭的半坡人为死去的孩子的灵魂留下的一个自由出入的通道。

把孩子葬在房屋周围表示母亲对死去孩子的爱。她们认为孩子太小不能独立生活，还需要照顾；另一方面，也说明半坡当时有着严格的丧葬制度，既然孩子早早就去世了，他们就不能算作氏族的成员。

到目前为止在半坡遗址共发现了73个瓮棺。显然，由于恶劣的自然环境，当时的婴幼儿死亡率是相当高的。

这里我还要向为大家介绍一下相关出土文物。

The burial of children in jars is a custom of the Banpo people.When children died，they were not buried in the communal cemetery of the village. People first dug apit somewhere near their house into which they placed a pottery jar，and then laid the corpse inside，and covered the mouth of the jar with a pottery bowl or basin，depending on the size of the jar.But why did they leave holes in the burial jars for the dead children？Because the people of Banpo Village believed that the souls of the dead children were immortal，they deliberately made some holes in the jars to allow the souls to escape.

Burying the children near the house was probably an indication of the mothers'affection for their lost children.Perhaps mothers thought that their children were too small to live by themselves，and they still needed to be taken care of.On the other hand，it is believed that there was a strict rule for burying the dead in Banpo.Since those children died very young，they were not considered as full members of the clan.

So far 73 children's burial jars have been excavated.Obviously，the infant death rate was very high in those days because of the tough natural conditions.

I will introduce other unearthed artifacts for you.