East/Southeast Asia (Geographic Keyword)
76-100 (499 Records)
50 jade objects from the Late Longshan period, excavated from the Shimao (25) and Xinhua (25) Neolithic sites, were characterized mineral groups using handheld X-Ray Fluorescence (hhXRF) and handheld specular reflectance Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (hhFTIR). The objects were found to belong to three types of minerals. 22 objects found in Shimao (88%) are nephrite (19 tremolites and 3 actinolites), two are calcite and one antigorite. From Xinhua, 9 objects (36 %) are nephrite...
Chemical analyses and copy-errors: technological control and artistic behaviour in the making of China’s Terracotta Army (2015)
Built in the 3rd century BC, the Terracotta Army constitutes an unprecedented investment of technological resources as well as a huge work of art. An icon of a much larger mausoleum, the army of thousands of heavily armed warriors materialised in just a few decades under the command of the man who would become China’s first emperor. This paper presents some aspects of an ongoing project that investigates this logistical feat, paying particular attention to craft organisation, quality control and...
Chibariyo! Navigating Cultural Resources Compliance on U.S. Military Installations in Japan (2016)
Following World War II, the U.S. established military bases throughout Japan. Multiple cultural resources investigations have since been conducted at many of these facilities in compliance with applicable U.S. federal laws and regulations, the Government of Japan’s laws, and guidelines outlined by U.S. Forces Japan. Success in these projects required meetings with various stakeholders, including the Prefectural and local municipal Boards of Education in Honshu and Okinawa, Japan. These...
The Chinese Trade Diasporas in Spanish Manila (2016)
The Chinese has conducted trading activities with people who live in the Manila area before the Spanish arrived in 1571. However, the establishment of the Spanish Manila changed the regional networks and attracted much more Chinese merchants and immigrants. The Spanish colonists assigned them to live in a separated area called “Parián”, which became the oldest Chinatown in world history. In this paper, the author will use the concept of trade diaspora to examine the early history of Parián. The...
The chronology of Early Pottery in South China (2016)
Human evolution is punctuated by inventions and innovations. One of the important inventions in the development of Chinese civilization was pottery. Cooking and steaming are two of the processes that change the nature of the food. The same are parching and grilling, or chopping meat and vegetables into very small pieces. The archaeology of South China uncovered the earliest pots in the records in East Asia. In this presentation the dating of pottery bearing layers in three cave sites from this...
The Church of Todos los Santos and its associated cemetery in the Spanish colony of San Salvador, Heping Dao, Taiwan (17th century) (2017)
Archaeological excavations in the setting of the former Spanish colony of San Salvador, founded in 1626 in current Hoping Dao, northern Taiwan, have uncovered remains of a European building that can be identified as the Convent or Church of Todos los Santos, founded while the Spanish colony was active and possibly preserved afterwards under Dutch rule. Several burials have also been excavated, which constitutes a formal cemetery associated to the church. The human remains in the cemetery of...
Climate Amelioration and the Rise of the Xiongnu Empire (2017)
Climate has been debated by historians and archaeologists as one possible contributing factor for the emergence and collapse of complex societies. Recently, connections have been proposed between an ameliorating environment, surplus resources, energy, and the rise of Chinggis Khan’s 13th-century Mongol Empire. If favorable climate and increased rangeland productivity do indeed play a critical role in the politics of pastoral nomads, then we should be able to observe this in other cases too. This...
Climate change and subsistence shifts: Wet-rice agriculture in Ifugao, Philippines (2015)
The Little Ice Age was a global phenomenon beginning in the late 13th century A.D. that impacted the northern Philippines by creating more arid conditions. This was more evident in the eastern lowlands of Luzon where northeastern trade winds were typically dry. Conversely, the central highlands of Ifugao and the Cordilleras were relatively more humid due to orographic relief. These conditions, caused by periodic volcanism cooling the northern hemisphere, forced the Inter-Tropical Convergence...
Climates of History in Ancient China: Lessons from Deep-Time and Cross-Cultural Perspectives (2015)
In recent decades, studies of climate change and its impact on past societies have been colored by a veneer of political agenda and oversimplification of how ancient societies might have actually responded to changes in their environments. Although many of these climatic changes would have profoundly impacted economic systems of past societies, these social and economic systems have often demonstrated remarkable resilience in the face of such changes. Other times, abrupt environmental changes...
The Co Loa Settlement: Biography of an Anomalous Place (2017)
In the archaeological study of ancient large-scale settlements, there is considerable debate regarding definitional criteria for categories of "city" and "urban". New field studies from different world areas have enriched our understanding of the variability of past settlement configurations along dimensions of utility, meaning, space, scale, and demography. In northern Vietnam, the remains of monumental constructions of the prehistoric settlement of Co Loa still stand today. Dating to the first...
Colonial developments in a global context- complex connectivity in the Western Zhou world (2015)
The period of Western Zhou (1046-771 BCE) is often considered the genesis of Chinese civilization. As the Zhou expanded their borders and influence they developed a Chinese political tradition that would eventually formalize and consolidate the elite culture and practices of this emerging world. While Postcolonialism theory has been successful in highlighting the multi-directionality of regional interactions in the ancient world, Globalization offers a wider approach, geographically and...
A combination of ethnoarchaeology, experimental archaeology and use-wear analysis as a mean to recover testimonies of past human activities in Southeast Asian rainforests. (2016)
In order to recover the activities that took place a long time ago in the rainforests, it is desirable to have an idea of the ones which can possibly be carried out in this specific environment with the resources available. Such knowledge can be acquired by conducting field investigation among forest experts: local populations who currently inhabit it and rely on plants, animals and minerals for their daily subsistence. To be able to identify these activities in the archaeological record, it is...
Community memories? Ritual animal use of "Qijia Culture", Evidence from Mogou Cemetery, Lintan County, Gansu Province, China (2017)
This study focuses on human ritual animal use behaviors of Qijia communities, with the study of animal bones recovered from the Mogou Cemetery in Gansu Province. More than 1600 tombs have been excavated at the Mogou site. Since multiple burials with a few individuals of both sex and different ages were common and human bones were clumped together, most burials were classified as multiple and/or secondary burials. Animal offerings were also common in these burials, and animal bones were found...
A Comparative Approach to Deciphering Past Agricultural Strategies in the Tropics: The Shared Trends of Resiliency, Vulnerability, and Complexity (2017)
Tropical environments are defined by a shared suite of climatic and environmental variables. These unifying characteristics led past archaeologists to delineate these regions as incapable of fostering state level civilizations. These interpretations presumed a lack of resources required to support agricultural production at the level obligatory for the urban centers that define states. Modern studies in tropical ecology question this perspective by identifying a high degree of localized resource...
A Comparative Approach to Understanding Ancient Agriculture Complexity in the Tropics (2016)
Archaeologists have continuously struggled with understanding the complexity exhibited within relic agricultural practices. In this paper, we will explore a comparative approach to addressing this dilemma using cases studies from the charter states of Southeast Asia (CE 800-1400) and the classic Maya kingdoms of Mesoamerica (CE 250-900). Special emphasis is placed upon the use of intensive practices and their resiliency within the agricultural strategy. Comparing the similarities and differences...
A Comparative Study on Ceramic Production from Central Plain China and South China in Early Shang Dynasty (2017)
The site of Panlongcheng is located 450 kilometers south of Zhengzhou in present-day Hubei province serves as the join point between the Central Plain Culture and the Lower and the southern regions of Yangtze River. Unlike almost all of more than twenty bronzes vessel shapes are represented in the Panlongcheng finds, there are three different ceramic types discovered at Panlongcheng: Typical Central Plain style(Erligang style), local style and numerous stoneware/hardware(some glazed). In pursuit...
Comparative Techniques to Uncover Networks of Ceramic Technology in Southern Vietnam (2017)
The analysis of ceramics in Southeast Asia has evolved from typologies and broad comparative discussions of vessel forms and surface treatments. Like other material culture, studies on ceramics from mainland Southeast Asian prehistoric sites that employ archaeometric techniques have escalated in recent years. The appearance of fine, incised and impressed ceramics in southern Vietnam dating to the Neolithic period (4500-3000 BP) is closely associated with sedentary settlements, cereal...
Comparison Study of Ceramic Traditions in Neolithic Southeast Mainland China and Taiwan and Their Possible Interaction Modes (2017)
For a long time, scholars have noticed that there are similarities in Neolithic ceramics from Southeast mainland China and Western Taiwan from specific periods. The provenance study adopting XRF (X-ray fluorescence) and ICP-MS (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) of analyzing stone adzes by scholars in recent years demonstrates that people in Southeast mainland China and western Taiwan did interact during the Neolithic dating back to 7450 B.P. From these studies, it is known that...
Computer simulation of the effect of urban centers on the development of wealth inequality in pastoral nomadic society (2017)
Agent-based computer simulation is an approach that models the behavior of individual agents, allowing for the observation of emergent phenomena created by the aggregate effects of individual actions. This presentation builds on a recent series of agent-based computer simulations exploring the development of wealth inequality as a function of environmental change in pastoral nomadic societies. When simulating a pure pastoral nomadic economy, it was found that wealth inequality increased under...
Connected Kilns: Examining interconnections of Trade in Southern China and the Philippines using LA-ICP-MS (2016)
This research, part of an ongoing dissertation project, examines a network of maritime trade between imperial China and Southeast Asia by considering issues of both production and distribution through the comparison of the chemical signatures of paste from porcelain samples obtained through Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectroscopy (LA-ICP-MS). Porcelain samples have been collected in the Philippines, and porcelain and clay samples have been collected from kiln and habitation...
Conservation Recommendations for Human Skeletal Remains Excavated from Desert Oases, Cave Shelters, and Permafrost, in China and Mongolia (2017)
Tomb excavations have been documented in East Asia for over 100 years, however the focus has been on artifact collection. The systematic excavation and collection of human skeletal remains is new to this region. This study will outline three cases where there was a demonstrated need for the implementation of conservation techniques. The first case included several naturally mummified skulls from Xinjiang, Province, China. A graduate student had decided to wash the skulls to remove skin and hair....
Contact and Exchange in Northern China: A Case Study on the Tomb of a Zoroastrian Priest, Kang Ye (512-571 CE) (2015)
In 2004, the grave of Kang Ye was discovered in present day Xi’an, China. According to the epitaph, Kang Ye was a descendant of the kings of Kangju (Kang state, modern Samarkand) and a Zoroastrian priest living in the Northern Zhou kingdom. Inside the tomb were traces of ashes suggesting that Zoroastrian fire ritual had been performed. The skeletal remains were placed over a stone couch-shaped deathbed embellished with ten scenes in linear Chinese-style carvings. Currently, these individual...
Contacts between Chinese Regional Cultures and Northern Grasslands during the Early Bronze Age: a case study of turquoise-inlaid ornaments (2017)
The turquoise-inlaid bronze plaques with animal motifs excavated from the Erlitou sites are among the most conspicuous artifacts ever discovered in the Culture. This work explores issues regarding the function and origin of these items, which were worn as ornamental objects at the wrists of the deceased at the time of excavation. Through an analysis of the deposition and placement of these artifacts in the graves, it is speculated that this unique artifact type could be traced all the way back...
Continuity and Evolution in the Taiwanese Sailing Raft (2017)
The Taiwanese or Formosan sailing raft likely has considerable antiquity as well as geographic distribution on the coasts of China, Taiwan, Vietnam, and possibly as far south as the Coromandel Coast of India. The Taiwanese version is the most studied and may have the longest continuous evolution into the 20th century. These seagoing craft were initially constructed from bamboo, equipped with lug sails, and steered using center boards in a very sophisticated manner. Analysis of their performance...
Cooking up a Storm (2017)
Food is not only essential for survival but also an important element of any culture. Artifacts for the storage, preparation and serving of food and drink form a large proportion of archaeological assemblages demonstrating that this has always been the case. Understanding how these artifacts were used gives us valuable insight into our past. Organic residue analysis allows us to more accurately determine how a vessel was, in fact, used. My research looked at several vessels sourced from Thailand...