Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Isl (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
226-250 (563 Records)
This paper is mainly about a study report of several iron smelting sites in Shandong and Henan province. By analyzing archaeometallurgical remains from large-scale iron production sites, this presentation tries to clarify issues under-addressed in previous excavation reports and shed new light on the iron technology, production organization, and the management of Iron Offices of the Han Empire that led to the developmental peak of iron industry in Chinese history.
Human activity accelerating the rapid desertification of the Mu Us Sandy Lands, North China-Evidence from Micro-charcoal Assemblages (2017)
Over the past several thousand years, the arid and semiarid regions of China have experienced a series of asynchronous desertification events in its semiarid sandy and desert areas, but the precise identification of the driving forces of such events has remained elusive. Identified are two rapid desertification events (RDEs) at ~4.6 ± 0.2 ka BP and ~3.3 ± 0.2 ka BP from the JJ Profile, located in the eastern Mu Us Sandy Lands. These RDEs appear to have occurred immediately following periods...
Human Adaptation and Natural Resource Usage in Prehistoric Southern Ryukyu islands, Southwestern Japan (2017)
This study aims to discuss about the strategy of prehistoric human adaptation to the island environment, especially focus on the natural resource usage. I introduce the case of southern part of Ryukyu islands—the southwestern part of Japan archipelago, where the first long-term human settlement had occurred about 4,300 years ago. Prehistoric people in southern Ryukyu islands had a unique material culture (absence of pottery, use of giant clam shell adzes), which was dissimilar to the surrounding...
Human Ecodynamics in Central East Polynesia (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Research and CRM Are Not Mutually Exclusive: J. Stephen Athens—Forty Years and Counting" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Our understanding of Pacific paleoenvironments, how they changed with human arrival, and further transformations in the post-settlement period owes much to the research and insights of Steve Athens. This paper considers palaeoenvironmental records from central East Polynesian islands in relation to...
Human occupation during the penultimate glaciation in China’s Western Loess Plateau: The technological evolution and adaptive variability of the Yanghsang (2017)
The newly excavated Yangshang site generated a high-resolution record in China's Western Loess Plateau which demonstrated that ancient humans occupied this region since MIS-7. Nearly 1700 stone artifacts and more than 330 animal remains were unearthed in 2013. Although the site was dominated by the quartz based core/flake tradition, same as most lower Paleolithic sites in Northern China, the core reduction analysis and raw material economic study among the long term cultural sediments indicate...
Hunters in transition: Mesolithic societies of temperate Eurasia and their transition to farming (1986)
This resource is a citation record only, the Center for Digital Antiquity does not have a copy of this document. The information in this record has been migrated into tDAR from the EXARC Bibliography, originally compiled by Roeland Paardekooper, and updated. Most of these records consist of a document citation and other metadata but do not have the documents themselves uploaded. If you have a digital copy of the document and would like to have it curated in tDAR, please contact us using the...
Hunting and/or Gathering: Gender and Fishing Practices in Polynesia (2017)
Fish and fishing occupy an intersection between meat and not-meat, hunting and gathering. As such, it does not fall into a clean division of labor by gender. Fish were acquired, processed, and distributed according to distinct sociocultural and sociopolitical codes of conduct that could result in death if not properly carried out: either accidental death from ciguatera toxicity or execution as punishment for breaking kapu/taboo. Tuna is well-known to be one of the most prized animals in...
Ichthyoarchaeological Analysis of ScMo-350 on Mo’orea, French Polynesia (2018)
ScMo-350 is located on Mo’orea Island, northwest of Tahiti in French Polynesia. Our ichthyoarchaeological analyses assess which fish taxa were utilized by the pre-contact Ma’ohi, and how those taxa may have changed over time. Our diachronic approach investigates fishing activities over a c. 1,000 year period, between AD 900-1800. We broadly divided this beach ridge site into four excavation blocks to aid in spatial analyses of the recovered artifacts. Fish specimens were heavily concentrated in...
Ideas of Immortality and the Clay Buddha Image from Yibin, Sichuan, China (2017)
In 2012, the Sichuan Provincial Institute of Archaeology excavated a group of cliff tombs in Nanxi County, Yibin; grave M12 at this site revealed a clay Buddha image. This paper argues that this is the base of an object dating between the late Eastern Han and the Shu Han period (AD 25-263) that is similar to the bases of money trees molded in the shape of a seated Buddha or Queen Mother of the West. The image thus likely developed from the image of the Queen Mother of the West as seen at the...
Identification of Adhesive on Bone-Handled Microblades from the Houtaomuga Site in Northeast China (2017)
With the emergence and development of composite tools in the Upper Paleolithic, adhesives became one of the most widely used materials by early human societies. Of particular interest is to know which animal/plant species were being exploited for glue manufacturing. The Houtaomuga site, located in northeast China, provides favorable materials for the identification of organic residues; and a few bone-handled microblades were collected from this site. In this study, we scraped micro adhesive...
Illuminating the Obscure: Using Legacy LiDAR Data to Define and Interpret a WWII Airfield on the Island of Tinian, Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI) (2018)
Tinian International Airport in the CNMI is a repurposed portion of West Field, a WWII U.S. airbase constructed in 1944 for B-29 operations against Japan. In 2017, HDR conducted a cultural resource inventory for proposed airport infrastructure improvements, focusing on West Field and the adjacent Japanese-built Gurguan Point Airfield. Survey was complicated by dense secondary forest that obscures the two airfields, rendering many features invisible from the air. To assist with mapping these...
Incipient Metallurgy in Western Yunnan: current study and issues (2017)
This work discusses results from current studies and issues on the production and use of early Yunnan metals, as well as possible interaction between western Yunnan sites and their counterparts in surrounding regions. Archaeological materials from recent excavations at western Yunnan sites witness the earliest signs of copper-base metallurgy in Yunnan dating around the middle of the 2nd millennium BC; they offer illuminating data for studying the step-by-step development of metallurgy in the...
The Industry of Empire: Investigating the Spatial and Technological Organization of Angkorian Iron Production around Phnom Dek, Cambodia (2017)
Intensive surveys around Phnom Dek, the ‘Iron Mountain’, in central Cambodia have revealed the presence of a massive iron production landscape dating between the 9th and 20th centuries. Using a combination of site morphology, spatial distribution, field pXRF analysis and in-slag radiocarbon datin,g this paper attempts to reconstruct these industrial-scale iron smelting practices with particular emphasis on the Angkorian period (9th to 13th c.). The results will inform on the localized...
The Influence Holocene Changes in Hydrological Conditions and River Course Migration of the Jing and Wei Rivers on the Yangguanzhai Settlement (2017)
Yangguanzhai is located in Xi’an, Shaanxi, at the confluence of the Jing and Wei Rivers. There is an evidence that during the Holocene, the area experienced two major hydrological changes: first, in the middle Holocene, the Jing and Wei Rivers experienced a long period of elevated water levels; and second, over the course of the Holocene, the Wei River moved north while the Jing River moved south. This research used a stratigraphic analysis and GIS to reconstruct the change of the river courses...
The innovations which travelled to the Philippines. An approach to the biological conquest of the islands (XVI-XVIIIth centuries) (2017)
Every process of discovery, conquest and colonization, regardless of its magnitude and historical implications, entails a transformation in those societies in which it takes place. The Philippines, as it had already happened to other parts of the world before, was no exception. The conquest of the Philippines Islands by the Spanish Monarchy supposed the transformation of a very important part of the indigenous population of the islands. In this occasion we studied the biological conquest of the...
Integrating Archaeological and Historical Information to Identify Agricultural Features and Reconstruct Traditional Hawaiian Irrigation Networks in windward Kohala, Hawai‘i Island (2017)
Where landscapes have been modified by recent development, identifying surface archaeological features requires a different analytical approach. In windward Kohala, Hawai‘i Island, after more than 150 years of land conversion to commercial agriculture features that comprised traditional Hawaiian irrigation agriculture have been mostly obscured. To address this, several sources of information were collected including historic documents and maps, previous and recent archaeological surveys, and...
Interactions between Hominins and Mammalian Faunas in Southern Asia (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Human Interactions with Extinct Fauna" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. As early humans and Homo sapiens migrated out of Africa, they encountered diverse communities of mammalian faunas in Asia. Here we document hominin migrations out of Africa over the last 500,000 years, discussing the degree to which humans interacted with faunas in Arabia and South Asia. Climate change seems to be the primary reason for the demise...
An Interactive Scenario of Agricultural Intensification and Environmental Evolution: A Case Study at Sanyangzhuang Site (2017)
Over the last 10,000 years, agriculture has gradually been intensified, and become the globally dominant way of subsistence. However, the relationships between agricultural intensification and environmental evolution are not fully clarified. Deeper understanding of the issue may be gained through research at Sanyangzhuang, a rural settlement site in present Henan Province in central China. Many agriculture features, such as ridge-and-furrow fields, have been recovered in three strata....
Interpretation of "Figure with Green Facial Expression" Unearthed in Pit No.2 in Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum (2017)
There are various opinions about this kneeling archer which was unearthed in Pit No.2 at Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum known as the "Figure with Green Facial Expression". This paper holds a view that it should be called the "Figure with Cyan Facial Expression"; and combined with the ideological and cultural backgrounds and perception of colors, so to express the humanity and politics of Chinese color theory under the influence of Yin-Yang and Five-element thoughts. Seen from the...
An Intersite Comparison of Human Skeletal Trauma in Shang Dynasty China (2017)
Participation in the near-constant military campaigns of the Late Shang dynasty of China may have constituted an important social role for much of the population. Archaeologists have employed mortuary analysis and a close-reading of contemporaneous oracle bone inscriptions to help elucidate the nature of warfare and its participants. A large-scale bioarchaeological analysis of human skeletal remains could not only provide valuable insight on the relationship between weaponry as grave goods and...
Investigating Breastfeeding/Weaning Practices and Adult Mobility Patterns during the Western Zhou Dynasty (1122 – 771 BC) at Boyangcheng, Anhui Province, China (2017)
In a first for Chinese archaeology, breastfeeding/weaning practices were investigated at the Western Zhou Dynasty (1122 – 771 BC) site of Boyangcheng, Anhui Province. Ribs and long bones were analyzed to examine short and long term dietary changes in each individual. The adult δ13C and δ15N results indicate that mixed C3 (possibly rice) and C4 (millet) terrestrial diets with varying levels of animal protein were consumed. The elevated subadult δ13C and δ15N results reflect that solid foods were...
Investigating the Methods and Practice of Ritual Horse Sacrifice and Butchery in Late Bronze Age Mongolia. (2017)
Although archaeological data link late Bronze Age cultures with the emergence of mobile herding in eastern Eurasia, the practices and social function of domestic horse sacrifice remain poorly understood. We investigated slaughter and butchery evidence from 18 sacrificial horse burials from the Deer Stone-Khirigsuur (DSK) Complex, a late Bronze Age Mongolian culture linked with the first emergence of horse herding and transport in the eastern Steppe. Using digital microscopy, we analyzed each...
Investigating the Religious Landscape of Epicenters in Pre-Industrial Tropical States (2017)
The landscape of an epicenter has been built and modified to suit the needs of the people, both non-elite and elite. Epicenters consist of administrative, ceremonial, and residential features within a central precinct, often encircled by a moat or wall. Rulers of early tropical states would use religious propaganda to promote their power and legitimacy, which in turn created the purposeful and sacred design of the epicenter. By using the comparative method, this paper will examine the...
Investigating the Socio-Ecological Entanglement of Integrative Mechanisms among the Charter States of South and Southeast Asia (2017)
The prime objective of the Socio-Ecological Entanglement in Tropical Societies (SETS) project is to produce a comparative study of socio-ecological dynamics in a variety of low-density tropical urban civilizations through cross-cultural and trans-disciplinary investigations. This paper highlights the contribution of the SETS’s integrative mechanisms sub-project, whose primary goals are to examine, evaluate, and compare the integrative mechanisms evident within a sample of charter states in South...
An Investigation of Genetic Differentiation in Early Domestication of Oryza Sativa Based on InDel Molecular Marker Method (2017)
The origin of Oryza sativa and its genetic differentiation during domestication is a long-lasting problem attracting wide attention of agronomists, archaeologists and geneticists etc. An array of hypotheses have been raised to interpret how wild rice evolved into today’s domestic varieties. However, most studies of rice genetic diversity based on modern samples represent a biased sampling of germplasm from a restricted time period in rice evolution, so that important germplasm for understanding...