East/Southeast Asia (Geographic Keyword)
26-50 (499 Records)
This research explores the historical development in the Lakulaku River Basin in the eastern section of Yushan National Park in Taiwan from the 18th century to the present through a landscape archaeological perspective. The Lakulaku River area has a complex history. Indigenous Bunun group, Qing Empire from China, and Japanese colonial government had once occupied this region, leaving the traces of human activities that change the natural landscape. This research analyzes these traces of human...
Archaeological Study of Ostrich Eggshell Beads Collected from Shuidonggou (2017)
Ostrich eggshell beads and fragments collected from Shuidonggou (SDG) reflect primordial art and symbolic behavior of modern humans. Based on stratigraphic data and OSL dating, these ostrich eggshell beads probably date to the Early Holocene ( 10 ka BP). Two different prehistoric manufacturing pathways are usually used in the manufacture of ostrich eggshell beads in the Upper Paleolithic. According to statistical analyses of the characteristics of ostrich eggshell beads, Pathway 1 is identified...
Archaeological survey of mound sites in Southwestern Shandong, China: Plants and people (2017)
The surveyed area, Heze city of southwestern Shandong, China is located at the lower reaches of the Yellow River. Most archaeological sites in this region were deeply buried, from 3m to more than 10m. Very few archaeological works especially excavations had been taken due to the depth. Our survey of 2012-2015 revealed that these sites had been continuously occupied for a long history. The occupation started from Beixin culture (c. 5000 -4100 BC), continued to Dawenkou culture (c. 4150-2650 BC),...
Archaeological tourism and social values, a case study in China (2016)
Today the increasing commercialization of cultural heritage draws archaeology and tourism into ever-closer contact. With the fast development of tourism, archaeological sites are utilized for their multiple potentials as revenue generators, public education providers, national identity promoters, and many other roles. It should be noted that these potentials are defined by the various values that a society attributes to its archaeological heritage. That is to say the values of archaeological...
Archaeology as Heritage Resource: Foundations for Successful Archaeological Tourism, Achievements and Challenges from Petra to Angkor (2015)
Global heritage tourism is at an all time high with tourism numbers expected to increase in the coming years. The challenges associated with managing heritage sites are as countless as they are complex. Heritage resources are finite non-renewal assets that provide critical links to the past, a source of identity, knowledge, and cultural values that enable communities and individuals to better understand and navigate the present. The management of archaeological resources, as part of heritage...
Archaeology of Iron in the Lingnan Region and the Imperial Strategy of the Han Dynasty in its Southern Peripheries (2017)
Although the imperial strategy of the Han Empire in its southern peripheries attracts significant scholarly interests, how to synthesize the issue of ethnic integration and imperial expansion within the study of material culture is still widely under-addressed. Especially, how the Han’s control over the movement and distribution of iron—a strategical resource for agricultural and military conquest—is almost overlooked in the literature. This presentation presents the latest statistical studies...
Archaeology of Salmon Ceremony in the Japan Sea Coastal Regions: A Comparative Study with the Northwest Coast of North America (2017)
As in the Northwest Coast of North America, salmon may have played a critical role for the development of subsistence and political economies as well as ritual systems during prehistoric and historic northern Japan. This paper explores the Jomon salmon ceremony in the Japan Sea coastal regions based on the analyses of the (1) ecology of salmon, (2) rock arts (petroglyphs), (3) salmon remains and their archaeological contexts, (4) zoomorphic stone figurines (clubs), and (5) ethnohistory...
Archaeometallurgy, Environment & Landscape in Upland Laos: its impact on 'world-views' during the transition from the Bronze Age to early states in SE Asia. (2015)
Recent excavations have shown that mining for copper ore in upland Savannakhet Province, south-central Laos, began at least 2500 years ago. We suspect that it may have begun even earlier. This paper considers who might have been living in this area prior to the introduction of mining and smelting technology and how the relationship between these prior occupants and their environment might have changed with this new technology. The scale and nature of the impact would have differed, depending on...
Archaeometric Analysis of Hunter-Gatherer Pottery from Northeast Asia (2015)
Traditional archaeological analysis of pottery remains in East Asia has often emphasized macroscopic features of pottery including decoration, vessel form and paste composition. While these features are important in characterizing the cultural and technological aspects of pottery, microscopic and archaeometric analyses have the potential for enhancing traditional pottery research in this region by developing novel insights into social processes such as the transmission of information and...
Artifact Density and Predictive Modeling in Old Kiyyangan Village (2017)
This presentation explores the possibility of predicting house pad footprints in the Old Kiyyangan Village, Ifugao, Philippines by looking at the density of artifacts in upper levels of excavation units. Knowing the artifact density in upper levels would help future excavations at the Old Kiyyangan Village site when digging new units. I hypothesize that there would be a higher artifact density between 30-50cm below datum in each trench which are on the edges of a house platform. In addition, I...
Artificial cranial modifications of human remains from archeological sites in China (2017)
This paper explores artificial cranial deformation from two archaeological sites in China. Jilintai cemetery (2500 – 2000BP) is located in Yili region, northwestern Xinjiang, and Yingpan cemetery (2000 – 1500BP) is located in Yuli county, northeastern Xinjiang. A total of 253 crania (202 from Jilintai and 51 from Yingpan) were examined in this study. Crania were measured according to the Standards Book, and 11 angles and 6 indices were calculated. Statistical analyses include discriminant...
Back to the Earth: Construction and Closure of a Late Shang Dynasty Structure. (2017)
Excavations at the locus of Tongle Huayuen in the Late Shang Dynast (ca. 1250-1046 B.C.E.) capital site of Yinxu, near the modern city of Anyang, uncovered the remains of a small aboveground earthen structure (2015ALNF1). The recovery of wall and ceiling remains, much of which displayed considerable fire-reddening, from refuse pits associated with building foundations provided the opportunity to examine non-elite, non-palatial architecture in greater detail than has generally been possible at...
Background to Drastic Increase in Yayoi Period Sites in Japan (2015)
This paper intends to explain how a small number of small-scale Jomon societies in western Japan evolved to large-scale agricultural societies that characterized the Yayoi Period. Traditionally, Japanese archaeologists have approached this issue from the standpoint of settlement archaeology. This paper contributes to understanding this phenomenon based on lithics and their contexts of discoveries. By analyzing the assemblages of chipped stone tools and debitage, it becomes possible to approach...
Backgrounds of emergence of the early states in central and northern China (2015)
Traditionally Erlitou was considered the capital city of the first kingdom——the Xia dynasty, in Chinese history. However, an increasing amount of archaeological data in the past decades have suggested that Taosi was the first state-level society earlier than Erlitou emerging in central China. With the amazing discoveries of the Shimao walled site in north Shaanxi province in the past several years, I offered that Shimao was another early state appearing in northern China, which was approximately...
Battlefield Archaeology in Ancient Europe and Southeast Asia: The Challenge of Remote Histories and Personification of War Events (2017)
Archaeological studies of 'warfare' in their cultural settings have multiplied over time and include analyses of fortifications, military equipment, warrior paraphernalia, and human skeletal trauma, usually spanning broad time scales and including diverse archaeological contexts (e.g. town walls, weapons production workshops, cemeteries) that are often remote from the actual locales where warfare is carried out. In contrast, 'battlefield' archaeology focuses on relatively temporally compact...
Bayesian analysis of the uncertainty in the radiocarbon dating measurements (2015)
The goal of the study is to investigate the uncertainty of radiocarbon dating measurements. To study the variability of the measurements, the samples from the same specimen were sent to different radiocarbon dating labs and the estimated dates from various labs were obtained as data for analysis. Through a Baeysian analysis of the data, we could estimate the variability of the labs as well as variability between labs. SAA 2015 abstracts made available in tDAR courtesy of the Society for...
The Bead Strings with Jade Huang Pendents of the Zhou Period of China: Revived Tradition or Adopted Fashion (2015)
Among the numerous neck/chest ornaments consisting of jade huang pendants (arc-shaped jade pieces) in Chinese archaeological finds, two distinct groups are most noteworthy: the Neolithic (5th-3rd millennia BCE) necklaces from the lower Yangzi valley and the early 1st millennium bead strings of Western Zhou period in the mid and lower Yellow River Valley. Due to the fact that huang pendant is mentioned in Chinese texts as important ancient ritual paraphernalia, these unique artifacts have become...
Beads Associated with Infant Jar Burials/Supine Child Burials: Evidence of Social Inequality in Early Ifugao Culture (2017)
Beads have been used as social markers in many Southeast Asian cultures. The Ifugao Archaeological Project excavations conducted between 2011 and 2012 recovered beads associated with infant jar burials at Old Kiyyangan Village, an early Ifugao site in the Philippines. Preliminary analysis shows that prestige beads were concentrated in burials located near the center of the village. Case studies from Southeast Asian sites in Thailand and Cambodia show similar distributions of material types and...
Beauty and Adornment in Fertile Lands and Desert: Toiletries from burials of Han China and her Western Neighbors (2015)
This paper presents preliminary research that compares toiletry sets and other items of personal adornment from burials within the political boundaries of Han dynasty China (206 BCE-220 CE) to those found at contemporaneous sites near the westernmost periphery of the empire. Toiletry sets of the Han elite are commonly enclosed in rounded lacquer cases and include items such as bronze mirrors, combs, boxes with cosmetic powders, hair accessories, and other personal possessions. Comparison of...
Beginning of Agriculture and Immigrants from the Korean Peninsula in Prehistoric Japan (2015)
In Japan a transition from the hunting-gathering Jomon economy to the food producing Yayoi economy took place at some point in the first millennium B.C., and this transition resulted in considerable cultural change. It is widely accepted among Japanese archaeologists that this transition was greatly facilitated by immigration from the southern Korean peninsula who had already practiced agriculture, including wet rice cultivation. In order to approach relationships between the Korean immigrants...
The beginning use of iron in ancient China and the Early Silk Road (2017)
This paper analyses iron objects and iron making remains from the eastern Silk Road area, such as Xinjiang, Qinghai, Gansu, Ningxia and Shaanxi provinces, and found that there are several characteristics about the development of iron technology: 1. iron production not only related to geographical distribution of ore resources, but also to state pattern. 2. Iron played a vital role in everyday life. 3. The development and transmission of iron metallurgy had some relation to the evolution of...
Behavioral ecology of Neolithic transformations in Taiwan: Ceramics and settlements (2017)
Six thousand years ago, encounters between Paleolithic Taiwanese foragers and seafaring farmers of Mainland China ushered in a new agricultural lifeway. Two hallmarks of the early Taiwanese Neolithic are sedentary settlements and red cord-marked ceramic wares. How quickly did foragers adopt these cultural traits? Did they adopt them together or separately? Archaeological data from the Neolithic transition are scarce, but ethnographic information suggests that the rate of change is affected by...
Bell-shaped Storage Pits and Social Evolution in the Yuanqu Basin, North China (2015)
Control and manipulation of stored food was an important force driving human social evolution. Among the more distinctive forms of storage facilities are bell-shaped pits, which have a global distribution and were common in ancient north-central China. In this paper, size variation of 86 bell-shaped pits, spanning the Neolithic to Early Bronze Age in China’s Yuanqu Basin, are examined in relation to other evidence of sociopolitical complexity and change. The data show a significant increase in...
Between Control and Influence - Early Globalization processes in Bronze Age China (2017)
The traditional narrative of the Zhou expansion (1046-771 BCE, roughly 800 before the formation of the first Chinese empire in 221 BCE), has been to view it as a military enlargement and conquest and as leading, consequently, to the establishment of a polity controlling a large territorial state. To date, most studies have viewed the finding of Zhou artifacts in a given region as indicating Zhou political control over that area or even that actual Zhou people inhabited the region. This paper...
Between Manufacturing and Disposal: The Lives of the Pots in the Neolithic and Metal Age Settlements of Southern Vietnam (2015)
Studies on pottery from archaeological sites in Southeast Asia are largely orientated towards aspects of manufacturing and typology. Emphasis is on the identification of transregional similarities and differences of form, decoration, and composition to establish patterns of human migration, contact, and identity. Less emphasis has been directed towards understanding what happens to different pottery vessels between their manufacturing and disposal, as well as their actual functional use. For...