Analysis of Royal Sacrificial Sites Based on Landscape Archaeology: A Case Study of Circular Mound at the Top of Onggon Dabaga of the Northern Wei Dynasty

The discovery of a series of important archaeological excavations of the royal sacrificial sites shows that astronomical sites, mainly based on cultural archaeology, are direct evidence for observing human culture and belief. In order to explore the spatial and cultural characteristics reflected by the royal heaven sacrificial site, through the classification and exploration of royal heaven worship sites, this research summarizes the development trend and evolution characteristics of the sacrificial forms, such as “suburb”, “mound” and “altar”. Taking the Circular Mound at the top of Onggon Dabaga of the Northern Wei Dynasty as an example, ArcGIS, Global Mapper and satellite images are utilized to present the spatial environment, site structure and social relationship under the methods of “site restoration – information interpretation – feature induction” of Landscape Archaeology. It is found that the Circular Mound is an essential part of the frontier mountains and six-city defense system. As a sacrificial place, it has the grand and rough landscape features of the Northern Wei Dynasty and Xianbei national characteristics, and contains original view of the universe and environmental based on the concept that human is an integral part of nature. Concluding the relations between site ontology and multi-level social and environmental structure gives enlightenment on the research of systematic protection of large sites.