拓跋鲜卑建立北魏政权，入主中原，拉开中国王朝历史南北对峙的大幕。北朝时期，政权更迭频繁，丝绸之路繁荣，人群交往呈现出前所未有的态势，在南北文化碰撞交融和东西文化交流互鉴的格局中，根植于中华文明沃土的北朝文化在传承中创新发展，培育出自身丰富而独特的内涵。以此为背景，本文选择北朝时期作为考察时段，以随葬灯具作为切入点，尝试从微观探究北朝丧葬文化的发展。
本文在前人研究的基础上，突出对灯具出土墓葬语境的回置，着眼于对北朝墓葬出土灯具的源流、功能性质、纹饰内涵的探讨，通过对北朝墓葬出土灯具进行系统整理和考古类型学分析，探讨每一类型灯具的流行时间与兴衰演变情况，进而对北朝墓葬随葬灯具从样式与功能两方面进行溯源分析。在此基础上，文章结合灯具在墓葬中的摆放位置、随葬品组合、墓志和文献对墓主的相关记载等信息，指出在东魏北齐时期随着丧葬礼仪的不断完善和墓葬制度的建立，随葬灯具被赋予等级身份等级标识的功能，以灯随葬的墓主通常都具有一定的身份地位，且随葬灯具的数量和材质与墓主的身份地位密切相关。
北朝时期是佛教大发展的时期，在上层统治者的推动下，佛教对北朝社会产生广泛影响，人们的信仰观念发生巨大变化，在丧葬领域有明显呈现，随葬的莲花纹灯具即是例证。灯是佛教寺院六种主要供具之一，燃灯亦是佛教中的重要仪式。本文把随葬灯具放置于北朝佛教大发展的背景下进行深入考察，认为莲花纹灯具成为表现当时思想观念以及丧葬行为变化的物质载体，进而通过莲花纹灯具以及出土莲花纹灯具的墓葬及墓主信仰的综合分析，探讨佛教信仰在不同时期对不同阶层群体的丧葬观念、行为产生的影响，揭示佛教与传统丧葬在对待死亡的态度和处理死亡方式上发生的互动。

Tuoba Xianbei established the Northern Wei and entered the Central Plains of China, opening the curtain of the North-South confrontation in Chinese dynasties history. During the period of Northern Dynasties, regimes changed frequently, the Silk Road prospered, and crowd interaction had taken on unprecedented proportions. In the pattern of North-South cultural collision and East-West acculturation, Northern Dynasties culture rooted in the fertile soil of Chinese civilization was innovating and developing in the course of inheritance, cultivating its own rich and unique connotations. With this as background, the paper chooses Northern Dynasties period as the research period and uses the burial lamps as an entry point to explore the development of funerary culture in Northern Dynasties from a microscopic perspective.
On the basis of previous research, the paper focuses on establishing a burial context and discussing cultural origin, functions and properties, ornament connotations of lamps unearthed from Northern Dynasties tombs. Through the systematic collection and archaeological typological analysis of lamps unearthed from Northern Dynasties tombs, the paper explores the epidemic time and the ups and downs of lamps per type, and then analyses the cultural origin of the burial lamps in terms of both style and function. On this basis, combining with the information of the placement of lamps in burials, the combination of funeral objects, the epitaph and historical materials, the paper states that with the continuous refinement of funeral rites and the establishment of funeral system in Eastern Wei and Northern Qi Dynasties, burying lamps were given the function of identifying hierarchical status and persons who used lamps as funeral objects usually had a high status, furthermore, the number and materials of the lamps were closely related to the person's status.
Northern Dynasties were a period of the great development of Buddhism. Driven by the upper class rulers, Buddhism had a wide influence on the society of Northern Dynasties, and people's beliefs and concepts changed dramatically. It is evident in the funerals, as exemplified by the buried lamps of lotus flower design. Lamps are one of the six main offerings in Buddhist monasteries and lighting lamps is an important ritual in Buddhism. The paper places burial lamps in the context of the great development of Buddhism in Northern Dynasties for in-depth investigation, argues that the lamps of lotus flower design had become a material vehicle for the expression of ideas and concepts as well as changes in funerary behavior. Furthermore, through the comprehensive analyses of lamps of lotus flower design, tombs where lamps were unearthed and person's belief, the paper discusses the impact of Buddhist beliefs on the funeral concepts and behaviors of different classes at different times, and reveals the interaction that occurs between Buddhism and traditional funerals in terms of attitudes towards death and methods of dealing with death.