East/Southeast Asia (Geographic Keyword)
351-375 (499 Records)
The courtyard building, enclosed by walls or corridors, was a typical architectural pattern in ancient East Asia. According to archaeological excavations, such as in the Yanshi and Huanbei Shang city sites, and the Zhouyuan Zhou capital site, this pattern emerged early in China, before the emergence of Qin-Han Empires (ca. 221 B.C.E. to 200 C.E.), and then was used widely in high-class buildings such as palaces and ancestral temples. Comparison of the high-class courtyard buildings of the Shang...
Paleoenvironment and the Hunter-Herder Transition in Northwestern Mongolia (2016)
New paleoenvironmental proxy data indicate a series of changes in hydrology and environment from the terminal Pleistocene through middle Holocene in Uvs Province, Mongolia. Recent archaeological surveys, excavations and GIS-based analyses suggest these changes may correlate with alterations in technology and land use that are arguably consistent with the temporal span thought to represent the adoption and/or in situ development of pastoralist economies across the region. These correlations are...
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...
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...
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,...
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,...
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...
Placing Intramuros in global history: Insights from the ceramic consumption in Spanish Manila (2017)
Manila was a critical link between Asia, Europe, and the New World during a pivotal period in world history; however, little attention has been paid to its colonial live. This paper aims to fill this void by re-examining consumption patterns of various types of ceramics excavated from sites in the Spanish walled city. The result shows that the Spanish colonists consumed better products than other subordinate groups and demonstrated their power by using customized Chinese goods rather than their...
Plant Residues from the Pre-Austronesian Tanshishan site (c. 4300 BP) and Their Interpretation (2017)
A mid-Neolithic expansion of farming cultures into the coastal areas of Fujian province, located opposite Taiwan on the other side of the Taiwan Strait, occurred around c. 4300 cal BP. Crops including foxtail millet and rice formed part of these farmers' diet, and plant remains such as bamboo, possibly used for wooden cooking implements, were also common in sediments and residues at these Longshan-period sites. Plant residues from pottery fragments excavated from the Tanshishan site, located in...
Plant Resource Utilization at the Shunshanji Site in Jiangsu Province Based on the Analysis of Plant Remains (2015)
Shunshanji is an important Neolithic age archaeological site in Jiangsu province. However, until now hardly any paleo-ethnobotanical research has been accomplished. In this paper, microbotanical remains such as starch grains and phytoliths were used to investigate the ancient plant utilization at this site. In addition, carbonized seeds from portulacaceae, rumex, chenopodiaceae, asteraceae were recovered through flotation analysis. Both stone tools and pottery vessels yielded plentiful starch...
Political Process, Polity Formation, and the Role of Urban Centers in Inner Asia (2017)
By 200 B.C.E. the eastern steppe regions of Inner Asia saw the development of expansive and complex political systems usually referred to as empires. The origins of these polities and the processes of consolidation can be described within the concept of a political community, reflecting the actions of competing groups in expansive social network. For Inner Asia, community was linked to issues of mobility, dispersed control hierarchies, and the economics of multi-resource pastoralism. Together,...
Porcelain, Kilns, and Chiefs: LA-ICP-MS Analysis of Sherds in the Pre-Colonial Philippines and Southern China (2015)
This research examines issues of production and distribution of Chinese porcelains in the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties by comparing chemical signatures of porcelain sherds and clay collected from sites in Fujian, China both to each other and to sites of dispersal within Philippine chiefdoms in Tanjay, Cebu, and Manila. This research examines how patterns of long distance trade were negotiated within the Philippines at one end of the network and the variations in production strategies,...
Portable XRF Analysis of the Pigments of Majiayao Pottery from Dayatou, NW China (2017)
The site of Dayatou is located on a terrace bluff in the Tao River Valley in Gansu province, Northwest China.In 2015, the Tao River Archaeological Project team conducted systematic collection across the surface of the bluff and recovered thousands of Majiayao culture potsherds. To identify the technology and provenances of these potsherds, in the 2016 field season we used a portable XRF in a handheld configuration to analyze the chemical elements of the black paint decorated on 124 selected...
Post-AD 1600 Origins of the Ifugao Rice Terraces: Highland Responses to Spanish Colonial Aims in the Philippines (2015)
Local wisdom and nationalist sentiments would have us uphold the long-held belief in the age of the Ifugao Rice Terraces, pegged at ca. 2,000 years old. Recent findings by the Ifugao Archaeological Project (IAP), however, indicate that landscape modification (terraced wet-rice cultivation) intensified between c. AD 1600 and AD 1800, suggesting increased demand for food, which could indicate population growth, a period that coincided with the arrival and subsequent occupation of the Spanish of...
The Potentials of Anthracology and the Study of Archaeological Parenchyma in Vietnam Archaeology (2017)
Archaeobotanical studies in Southeast Asia has been gradually developing in the archaeological scene in providing interpretation of the past. In this paper, a macro-botanical study of Vietnam, focusing on the anthracology (wood charcoal) and archaeological parenchyma, was initiated. The principles and methods used by the archaeologists in other regions in the analysis of wood charcoal and parenchymatous plant tissue are applied in the analysis of the plant remains recovered in the archaeological...
Pottery, Shellmounds, and Monuments: Environmental Impacts and Landscape Management of Hunter-Gatherer-Fisher (HGF) in Jomon Japan (2016)
The Jomon Period in Japan (ca. 16,500-3,000 BP) is one of the world’s earliest ceramic-making cultures. The Jomon sustained a hunter-gatherer-fisher (HGF) economy for an extensive period of time until the introduction of the wet rice paddy system from the Asian continent. Three major factors characterize the Jomon cultural landscape: pottery, shell mounds, and stone/wood monuments. This paper will discuss the roles these elements played in the alteration of the landscape. First, despite the...
Prehistoric Human Adaptation to Tibetan Plateau Environment indicated by 151 site in the Qinghai Lake Basin (2017)
Current study indicates that Northeastern Tibetan Plateau (NETP) is one of the first widely occupied places by prehistoric people on the Tibetan Plateau. This makes NETP very important to understand the human history on the plateau and human adaptation to high elevation environment. Hence, 151 site, a paleo- to Epi-Paleolithic site in the Qinghai Lake basin on NETP, was chosen to excavate. Thousands pieces of animal bones, hundreds pieces of stone artifacts and several possible hearths were...
Prehistoric Human Impacts to Isands of Amami and Okinawa, Japan (2016)
Islands colonization by Homo sapiens is relatively recent phenomenon in the history of Homo sapiens (modern human or human afterwords). While modern human successfully colonized five continents by 10,000 years ago, only handful islands were colonized by 10,000 years ago. Most islands were successfully colonized after 10,000 years ago. Islands seem to be one of the most difficult environments for modern humans to successfully colonize. However, once Homo sapiens successfully colonized island...
The Prehistoric Jomon and Ideological Conflict in Contemporary Japan (2016)
This paper aims to suggest an alternative perspective to understand the "Jomon" in contemporary Japan within the context of public archaeology, paying attention to the contact zone between archaeology and the public. Contemporary Japanese society includes an ideological conflict with regard to an international cooperation with East Asian countries, a nuclear plant politics, and a modern history education under the situation of the post-cold war equilibrium and globalization. The conflict is not...
Prehistoric Painted Pottery of Xinjiang (2015)
Ever since the 1970s, painted pottery has been discovered in large quantities at cemeteries and occasionally settlements on the southern and northern foothills of the Tianshan Mountain. Organizing them into four Early Iron Age (ca. 1300-200BC) regional cultures: Yanbulake in the Hami region, Subeixi in the Turfan region, Chawuhu in the Kaidu Valley, and Yili Valley in the eponymous region, this paper characterizes the stylistic distinctions of the painted pottery of them. The Yanbulake culture,...
Preliminary analysis of prehistoric settlement patterns in the mid reaches of the Dadu River (2015)
Some of the largest and most important prehistoric archaeological excavations conducted during the last ten years in Sichuan , were those in the Hanyuan Valley in the mid reaches of the Dadu River. So far, ten prehistoric sites have been excavated, revealing hundreds of housing remains, burials, trash pits and other features containing thousands of ceramic objects, stone tools, and bone objects. Utilizing this wealth of new material, this paper presents an analysis of the Neolithic settlement...
Preliminary Analysis on the Health Status of Human Skeletal Remains from Ali Region of Tibet (2017)
The Tibet Autonomous Region is located on the Tibetan Plateau,which is one of the most active areas in the development and interaction of ancient cultures. Human remains from Gur-gyam cemetery (1800±BP) in Gar County(often known as "Ali"), Ngari Prefecture of the western Tibet Autonomous Region of China is a group of inhabitants during the Xiang Xiong Kingdom period. It lies in front of a modern Bon monastery of Gur-gyam, which affirmed the capital of the ancient Xiang Xiong Kingdom based on...
Preliminary bioarchaeological analysis of the Qijia culture Mogou site (2400-1900 BCE), Gansu Province, China. (2015)
At the Mogou site 1000 graves were excavated from 2008-2011. A preliminary bioarchaeological analysis was done on 154 individuals. The male to female sex ratio is the same as other Qijia sites, with more males than females. The sample population was heterogeneous with 8% of the individuals originating from the west (Xinjiang), north (Mongolia), and east (China) of the region. This may be a result of the site being situated on trade routes from the West into China. Analysis was done on trauma...
A Preliminary Discussion on the Migration of Early Xianbei and Their Subsistence Adaptations (2017)
The Xianbei tribe, prior to establishing their political regime, embarked on a journey of migration from the now-Northeast China to the "Central Plain"; and archaeologically, we observe their burials en route. Past studies focused on identifying the Xianbei from other tribes, but in the era of ethnic fusion, the in-congruence of burial goods with ethnic identity poses a range of complexities. This paper shifts focus to look at the Xianbei from an economic perspective to depict the social...