East/Southeast Asia (Geographic Keyword)
226-250 (499 Records)
Mongolia, located at a key crossroads for human migration between central, eastern, and northern Asia, is important for understanding a number of current hotly debated archaeological topics, including the possible human exodus out of northern Eurasia at the Last Glacial Maximum (24,000-18,000 cal yr BP), the emergence of microblade technology as an adaptation to extremely cold and harsh environmental conditions, and the route and process of an initial modern human migration into high latitudes...
INAA and LA-ICP-MS Analysis of Painted Pottery from the Central Area of Yangshao Culture (ca. 5000-7000 BP), Northwest China (2016)
The Yangshao Culture (ca. 5000-7000 BP) is renowned in the archaeology of prehistoric China for its large quantities of high quality painted pottery. Although the provinces of Shaanxi and Shanxi are rich in Yangshao material culture, scientific analysis has not often taken place in studies of the pottery until now. Bulk chemical analysis by INAA indicates production of painted vessels occurred at multiple sites in both Shaanxi and Shanxi provinces. Moreover, it is now apparent that several...
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...
Incorporating Image Analysis into Ceramic Thin-section Petrography (2015)
In 2002, our laboratory received a grant from NCPTT to research digital image analysis of petrographic thin sections. Two years previously we published our first paper on the application of image analysis to thin-section studies; the enormous potential of this line of research was apparent, but to fully pursue it would require a period of dedicated time and effort. The NCPTT grant gave us this time, and allowed us to purchase new software packages and upgrade our computer and microscope digital...
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...
Infant Health and Burial Practices in Late Prehistoric and Contact Period Kiyyangan, Ifugao (2015)
Infant death in Ifugao villages has only been viewed through a lens of modern ethnography. Recent excavations at the Old Kiyyangan Village site have revealed new information on the resource base, trade networks and impact of outside groups on the prehistoric and early historic Ifugao. This work has produced a small sample (16) of individuals who died at, or around, full term to the age of two years. The age, health, and mortuary profiles of these skeletons will be presented and placed into...
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 influence of European contact in the 17th century in Taiwan (2016)
This proposed research will discuss the interaction between Europeans and indigenous people in the 17th Century, which is one of the important topics of historical archaeology in Taiwan, and explore how the indigenous societies responded to the intense culture contact with Europeans. Taiwan was colonized by Europeans in the early 17th Century and was viewed as a trading base for commerce with Japan and the coastal area of China. In this period, Taiwan had become part of the global trade network...
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...
Insights from Difference: text and archaeology in Angkor (2015)
The study of Angkor was predominantly the domain of epigraphers, art historians and architects for much of the past century of research. To some degree it continues to be. This focus, to its great credit, has reconstituted a millennium of the political history of Khmer society prior to the 16th-17th C CE. The effect has however, been to prioritise a historicist viewpoint, leading to the material record of the monuments being fitted in to the expectations of textual interpretation....
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....
Interpersonal violence among the prehistoric hunter-gatherers of Cis-Baikal, southern Siberia (2015)
The large number of mid-Holocene cemeteries from Lake Baikal and its surrounding river valleys provide an unrivalled archaeological resource for the study of northern Eurasian hunter-gatherers. In this paper we present an overview of the skeletal evidence for interpersonal violence, comparing the Early Neolithic (7550–6800 cal BP) and Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age (5700–3700 cal BP), two broad periods exhibiting different mortuary traditions and subsistence practices. Despite the nomenclature,...
Interpretaciones entorno a un contexto funerario múltiple en el valle de Etla, Oaxaca, México. (2015)
En el año 2012 en el Valle de Etla, Oaxaca, México, se realizó el hallazgo de un contexto funerario múltiple, ubicado cronológicamente en la fase Tierras Largas (1400-1150 a.C.), por su ubicación se encuentra aparentemente relacionado con el asentamiento arqueológico de San José Mogote; la particularidad del depósito radica en que, aparentemente el espacio fue utilizado durante un periodo de tiempo relativamente largo –tres o cuatro generaciones- y con un uso exclusivamente funerario, dicho uso...
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...
Interpretation of Burial M33 at the Longshan Site of Liangchengzhen (2015)
A relatively rich burial, M33, was excavated in 2000 at the late prehistoric, Longshan period center of Liangchengzhen by a collaborative team from Shandong University, The Field Museum, and Yale University. The most unusual grave good was a turquoise artifact located on the left arm of the interred. This presentation provides a description of contextual, use-wear, comparative and replication analyses in order to better understand the nature of the turquoise artifact and the burial ritual for...
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...
Into the Distance: Initial observations from the Dornod Mongol Survey (2015)
We will report on the initial fieldwork of the Dornod Mongol Survey, an ongoing project in Southeastern Mongolia. This paper will discuss inhabitation and the integration and construction of social landscapes through time, touch upon our methods for recovering this data and ways in which we use it. The structure of our project allows us to challenge the frontier identity of this region in several time periods through chronological frameworks, scales of interaction and integration. Our focus...
The introduction and early utilization of barley and wheat in Gansu and Qinghai provinces, northwest China (2015)
Barley and wheat are now important cultivated crops in northwest China, especially on the Tibetan Plateau, which are suggested to have been firstly domesticated in West Asia before 10000 cal yr BP. When these two crops were firstly introduced to China that locates in the other part of the Eurasia has been widely concerned and intensively discussed in recent years. Gansu and Qinghai Provinces is a key region of the "Ancient Silk Road", where might have included important passages in "Food...
Introduction of a Practice of Horse-Riding in Fifth-Century Japan and its Political Significance (2015)
A practice of horse-riding was introduced to Japan from the late fourth century and after. Since horses were not native to Japan, Korean specialists of raising and producing hoses were invited. Recently, fifth century evidence for raising horses has been excavated at various places in Japan. In the central Osaka Prefecture near where the central polity was located, horses were carefully buried at the foot of small fifth- and sixth-century circular burial mounds, and Korean ceramics were...
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 Integrative Mechanisms Among Early Tropical States (2016)
Early archaeological discourse depicts tropical environments as unsuitable loci for the emergence of the world’s “great” civilizations. Scholars now know this to be demonstrably untrue, as evidence of early complex societies with state level organization has been identified in tropical environments throughout the world. Like their counterparts of the more arid zones, amalgamation and increased integration would have been of great importance to early tropical states. In general, states seek to...
Investigating Social Practices, Community and Interaction in the Philippine Islands during the Metal Age (2015)
Investigations of social interaction and notions of community among island societies of Southeast Asia during the Metal Age (500 BC-AD 800) are very limited, especially in the Philippines. This general lack of well-documented settlement, household and burial data, and underdeveloped theoretical frameworks interpreting the archaeological remains, impede our understanding of social organization in the period and fail to contextualize the appearance socially stratified and politically centralized...
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...