Democratic People's Republic of Korea (Country) (Geographic Keyword)
551-575 (842 Records)
The Middle Yangshao cemetery at Yangguanzhai is the first cemetery of this period ever found in the Loess Plateau of China. This paper presents the results of an analysis of the oral health of this population, which found lower rates alveolar abscesses, occlusal wear, antemortem tooth loss, caries, calculus, and linear enamel hypoplasias than would be expected in a typical Neolithic agricultural population. This sheds light on the diet of the Yangguanzhai population. The paper also places the...
Organic Artefacts and Organic Residues in Island Southeast Asia and Australia: Seeking Intangible Behaviours in the Deep Past (2017)
Exploring intangible behaviours—such as the decoration of oneself, or the manufacture of clothing or baskets— in the deep past is often beyond the reach of archaeologists. The microscopic examination of use wear and residues, however, allows researchers to gain significant insights into such ‘invisible’ behaviours. Organic artefacts recently excavated from sites located in both northern Australia and Timor-Leste (Island Southeast Asia) were microscopically examined for use wear and residues, and...
The Origin of Metallurgy in China: Retrospect and Prospect (2019)
This is an abstract from the "New Thoughts on Current Research in East Asian Archaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Early metallurgy is considered one of the most essential factors to the development of Chinese civilization, and the controversy concerning its origin has been going on for decades.With increasing number of early bronzes found in the past decades, scholars keep renewing their views on this topic, and as a result, the controversy...
ORJACH :Teaching Japanese Archaeology and Culture Online (2017)
New technologies must be utilised and our new online resource is a ''great tool''and invaluable for teachers and students. The aim of the online project is to increase awareness to the rich Japanese cultural Heritage and archaeology. ORJACH is providing fantastic educational resources and ''fun'' materials for teachers in the form of lesson plans, worksheets and a hands on finds box for use in primary and secondary schools via an online interactive gateway. I will be demonstrating the successful...
Osteoarthritis, Labour Division, and Occupational Specialization of the Late Shang China – Insights from Yinxu (ca. 1250 – 1046 B.C.) (2017)
This study investigates the prevalence of osteoarthritis of commoners at Yinxu, the last capital of the Late Shang dynasty (ca. 1250 – 1046 B.C.), to study lifeways and stress of early urban populations in ancient China. A total of 197 adult skeletal human remains from five sites were analyzed to examine eight joints of upper and lower limbs in addition to three indicators of spinal osseous changes. The clear sex difference of elevated osteoarthritis prevalence in males indicates a strong gender...
"The Other Half of the Sky": Competitive Anarchy in Contact-Era Palau (2018)
This paper explores the way in which contact-era Palauan society negotiated between hierarchy and heterarchy to ensure long-term sociopolitical stability, developing and deploying a theory of competitive anarchy. The evaluation critiques the frequent correlation of complexity with hierarchy and centrality and does so through a geostatistical analysis. This investigation begins with the development of a proposed model of Palauan sociopolitical structure, derived through ethnographic descriptions...
Overcoming Variability in Zooarchaeological Data Quality (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Numerous paleoclimate proxies from Aotearoa New Zealand indicate the Little Ice Age (ca. 1450 – 1900 CE) caused marked changes in local conditions that could have affected the productivity of marine fisheries. Considering the critical relationships that have always existed between fisheries and Māori economic, social, and spiritual life, any changes in...
An Overview of Technological Changes in the Pottery of the Early Holocene Shangshan Culture, Zhejiang Province, China (2018)
This presentation provides a preliminary overview of the diachronic modifications that occurred in the Shangshan ceramic technological tradition (approximately 11,400 to 8,600 cal. BP). It is hypothesized that Shangshan peoples engaged in low-level cultivation of rice and began the process of bringing this crucial cereal under domestication. The authors explore the relationship between changes in Shangshan pottery technology, culinary practices, and the emergence of rice cultivation as factors...
Palaeoeconomies in the East Alligator River Region, Australia (2017)
The East Alligator River Region has undergone considerable environmental change throughout the Pleistocene and Holocene, with changing sea levels dramatically altering the ecosystems of this region. Current archaeological models for this region indicate that people adapted their economic activities to successfully exploit these shifting environments. Molluscs have played an important role in the economic activities of these groups and often comprise large portions of the regional assemblages,...
Paleo-sediment Coring Studies in Micronesia: A Review and Critique (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. Paleo-sediment coring studies by archaeologists, pioneered in Micronesia by Steve Athens and colleagues, including myself, in the 1980s, are reviewed and assessed for their contributions to archaeological science in the western Pacific within a CRM context. It is suggested that while data generated...
Paleoclimate data and behavioral change in the highlands of Papua New Guinea (2017)
Climate variability generates both opportunities and limitations for subsistence strategies, as well as related settlement patterns and technologies. While not the only driver of behavioral change, climate is a critical force in shaping patterns of past behavior. This paper presents the results of lithic analysis of three sites from the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea that span 20,000 years of occupation. Additionally, the findings from a summed probability distribution analysis of...
Paleoethnobotany of Yangguanzhai (2017)
Yangguanzhai is a valuable resource for paleoethnobotanists to understand human-plant interactions in Neolithic northwestern China due to its excellent conditions for the preservation of macro-botanical materials. In recent years, several palaeoethnobotanical studies on Yanguanzhai have been carried out on site, yielding many results that greatly contribute to our understanding of Neolithic agriculture in the region. Presented in this paper are the results of two systematic flotations conducted...
A Paleolithic Bird Figurine from the Lingjing Site, Henan, China (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Carving a figurine requires the ability to mentally visualize a volume in matter and create symmetries in a three-dimensional space. During the Paleolithic, such objects were likely made to be transported, curated, manipulated, and hung on clothing. Thus far, no instances of three-dimensional portable art were documented in East Asia before the Neolithic. We...
The Paleolithic Site Marita in Eastern Siberia:New discoveries and new situation (2017)
Mal'ta is located in southern part of Eastern Siberia, near Baikal. This site has been known as unique Paleolithic settlement, including a double human burial of two children, 30 human figurines carved from ivory and 15 dwelling clusters. While the original interpretation of Mal'ta was that of a single cultural layer, recent investigations have identified over 10 cultural layers, dated between the OIS 3 to OIS 2 stage. Since 2010, we have been continued the Russian- Japanese Joint research for...
Paleopollution and Environmental Consequences of Bronze Craft Production during the Shang Periods in Anyang, China (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Geoarchaeology" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The aim of this study is to understand the relationship between bronze production and paleopollution during the middle and late Shang periods (1450-1045 BCE) in Anyang. Archaeologists have discovered several bronze workshops operating during these periods. These workshops were located among residential areas, and the long-term bronze production activity at Anyang could...
Pandemic Parallels: The Black Feminist Necropolitics of Excavating Cholera in the Time of COVID (2021)
This is an abstract from the session entitled "Black Studies and Archaeology" , at the 2021 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology. “The despair and deplorable conditions within which the black community continued into the realm of death and burial.” While Steven J. Richardson offered these words in 1989, their essence still rings true today. Over the past decade, skeletal remains of nearly thirty individuals have been discovered underneath the 3300 Block of Q Street in...
A Pattern of Islands: Ethnography, Remote Sensing, and Community Archaeology in Kosrae and Pohnpei, Micronesia (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Knowledge of navigation and island living among indigenous people of the western Pacific Ocean retain lifeways, legends, and oral history about their migrations in the region. Western enlightenment theories of Pacific migration persist in describing this migration as a wave or diffusion of peoples seeking new lands. However, among islanders, it is...
People in Construction: Insights from Ethnographic, Historic, and Archaeological Accounts in China (2017)
Labor recruitment and management are essential to accomplish massive public construction in ancient times, as in today. Archaeologists across the world have examined ethnographic accounts and conducted experiments to understand labor costs and organizational structure for construction and maintenance of large architectural projects. Common conclusions are that the workforce in monument construction during the pre-Iron age could have been easily recruited by non-state level polities. However,...
The People of Solomon: Performance in Cross-Cultural Contacts between Spanish and Melanesians in the SW Pacific 1568–1606 (2018)
In 1568, 1595 and 1606 Spanish expeditions out of Peru explored the Solomon Islands (S.W. Pacific) with the intention of establishing colonies. The motivations for these voyages were an uneasy amalgam of ambitions for Imperial and familial advancement, attempts to find the gold mines of Ophir, and religious fervor for converting indigenous populations. Despite repeated historical retelling, little attention has been paid to the structures of the cross-cultural encounters described in the...
Peopling of Jeju in the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene (2017)
Paleolithic sties in Jeju Island have been found in the Quaternary sediment layers that are related to volcanic activities. Accordingly, research has been closely related to the geological investigation on sediment formation and volcanic activities. This presentation focuses on two Paleolithic sites, Oeododong along the north coast and Sangsugae cave along the south coast. The Oedodong site contains choppers and is dated to 32,000 BP; the Sangsugae cave site represents the Terminal Pleistocene,...
The Perplexing Complexity of Some New Guinea Communities (2017)
At contact, a number of New Guinea communities boasted considerable ‘horizontal’ complexity – very large populations (up to 2,500 people) and ceremonial arenas that engaged even more. Many also constructed monumental architectures of organic material and staggering size. These communities included complex fisher-foragers and Big-man horticulturalists, organizations that are commonly identified as only minimally hierarchical. Certainly, their hierarchical institutions were insufficiently...
Petrographic Analysis of CPAS Ceramics: Long-Term Continuity and Change in Chengdu Plain Pottery Production (2023)
This is an abstract from the "The Chengdu Plain Archaeology Survey (2004–2011): Highlights from the Final Report" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Although ceramic analysis is sure to be a critical line of evidence for understanding the development of complex society in the Chengdu Plain (Sichuan province, China), only a small number of technical studies have been carried out on pottery from the region. Ceramic sherds collected by the Chengdu Plain...
Photogrammetry, Provenance, and Preservation of Tangible Heritage in the Khangai Mountains, Mongolia (2017)
This study presents results from the photogrammetric documentation of rock art in western Mongolia. Unlike many traditional rock art documentation techniques practiced in Mongolia, photogrammetry presents unique advantages for the study and preservation of cultural heritage. These include the production of a digital 3D model, preservation of color and original lighting conditions, ease of documentation, and the inclusion of contextual information such as surrounding features, panel orientation,...
Physiological stress, activity patterns and the emergence of social complexity in early China (2017)
Because of a lack of artifacts or archaeological features which can indicate social status, the Early and Middle Neolithic periods ca.7000-4000 BC in China are considered to be relatively egalitarian periods. Differences within and among settlements became pronounced in the third millennium BC. The adaptation of agricultural lifeways might be a cause of social complexity. However, it requires further investigation into how and why this happened. In the case when there are not enough artifacts to...
Pig Management in Neolithic North China: Foddering and Social Change in the Western Liao River Valley (2019)
This is an abstract from the "From Tangible Things to Intangible Ideas: The Context of Pan-Eurasian Exchange of Crops and Objects" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Recent models for pig domestication in China have suggested that initial domestication was contingent upon millet cultivation, which allowed for foddering through agricultural surplus. For this study, a combination of bulk collagen carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis and compound...