Asia: East Asia (Geographic Keyword)
26-50 (224 Records)
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. The Chengdu Plain Archaeological Survey generated two complementary datasets that provide evidence of the distribution of archaeological material across the survey region: surface survey data and coring data. These datasets are combined to create “Activity Areas,” archaeological constructs that we argue...
Coastal Resource Use During the Prehistoric Times in the Amami and Okinawa Archipelagos, Japan (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Human Behavioral Ecology at the Coastal Margins: Global Perspectives on Coastal & Maritime Adaptations" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Ryukyu archipelago, Japan, is located between Kyushu and Taiwan islands, stretching approximately 1200 km. The Amami and Okinawa archipelagos occupy the central part of the Ryukyu archipelago. Astonishingly, Homo sapiens settled these islands as early as ca. 30,000 years ago. Based...
Collapse, or Drastic Socio-cultural Transformation?: Some Cases from Japanese Prehistory (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Current Issues in Japanese Archaeology (2019 Archaeological Research in Asia Symposium)" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This paper proposes to redefine 'collapse' as a type of human responses to changes that happen to the (variously perceived, experienced and utilized) environment in which we live. It is argued that the phenomena commonly termed as 'collapses', such as the disintegration of settlement systems and the...
Communities, Violence and Fortification: A Study of Longshan Landscapes (2018)
The Late Neolithic period in Central China, known as the Longshan period, has long been associated with violence and warfare. There have been several theories as to what are the catalysts for for this period of increased violence. This paper will review the evidence of warfare and violence during this period. Using disparate spatial data this paper will investigate the implications of warfare and violence on the settlement patterning of the Central Plains of China. Through this investigation we...
Comparing Population Dynamics in the Inland and the Coastal Regions during the Chulmun Period (10,000–3500 cal BP) in Korea (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Social and Environmental Interactions on Coasts and Islands in Korea" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study examines the population dynamics during the Chulmun period (10,000–3500 cal BP) in Korea by analyzing paleoenvironmental proxies and 14C dates. It specifically focuses on the differences between the inland and the coastal regions concerning the period’s population decline phase in the context of changing...
A Complex History of Human-Environment Interaction Revealed by the Study of Metal Production Industries in Imperial China (2018)
The study of technology with archaeological science approaches is a powerful proxy for investigating the history of human-environment interactions and provides essential information which could not be revealed by other types of evidence. This great potential was however not fully exploited in previous works. Here we present an on-going project of archaeometallurgical investigation of 7th-15th century silver-lead production sites in China. Environmental history study agreed that during this...
Constructing Space: An Imperial Launched Settlement System in the Core Area of the Mongol Empire (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology of Medieval Eurasian Steppe Urbanism" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Permanent settlements of the Mongol Empire era on the Mongolian Plateau seem to be rare and only few sites have been explored so far in some detail. Well-known are Karakorum, the capital of the Mongol Yeke Ulus, Avraga near the Kherlen River, and Khirkhira in Transbaikalia. To date, there is no differentiation of settlements by form and...
Core Variability in the Middle Stone Age of East Africa (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Establishing the Science of Paleolithic Archaeology: The Legacy of Harold Dibble (1951–2018) Part II" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Harold Dibble made major contributions to the study of cores and their relation to flake morphology. Other experimental studies have shown that repeated core morphologies may be the result of a complex series of learned steps, which are culturally transmitted (e.g., K. L. Ranhorn, PhD...
Crop Processing in the Lower Yellow River Valley: From Known to Unknown (2018)
As one of the most highly-developed cultural regions in China, many aspects of the lower Yellow River Valley have been systematically studied, including climatic revolutions, cultural patterns, and subsistence strategies, among others. It is now known that the diversified environments of the Valley, including flood plains, hills and coastal regions, facilitated the development of distinctive cultures and subsistence patterns in these areas. These distinctions are principally reflected in their...
Crops, Gender, and Food Choices: Investigating the Formation of Chinese Staple Cuisines via Stable Isotope Analysis (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. The modern Chinese food system was formed over thousands of years from a diverse set of regional agricultures and cuisines. Isotopic analysis of archaeological skeletons can be used to investigate the importance of different food resources to past diets. This approach has been extensively...
Cultural Biographies of Japanese Jades: Temporal and Spatial Variability during the Jomon Period (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Two Approaches to Archaeological Jades: Source Characterization and Social Valuation" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Jadeitite from the Itoigawa source was highly valued among hunter-gatherers inhabiting the Japanese archipelago during the Jomon period, circulating widely from its discovery during the late Early Jomon (c. 4000 BCE) until the end of the period (c. 400 BCE). While there is some indication that raw...
Current Issues of Archaeological Decolonization in Hokkaido (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology and Indigenous Issues in Hokkaido Island, Japan" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Archaeologists have the authority to recognize and name archaeological sites. The Ainu, at this moment, are not guaranteed the opportunity to participate in this nomination process. Many archaeologists in Hokkaido are non-Ainu experts and are aware that they are researching the history and culture of others. However, it is not...
A Deep History of Human Activity in the Jiuzhaigou National Park (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Archaeology and Landscape Learning for a Climate-Changing World" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. China’s tuigeng huanlin, or “Returning Farmland to Forest,” program has been widely praised as the world’s largest and most successful payment for ecosystem services program, as well as a major contributor to China’s dramatic increase in forest cover. In order to the preserve the biodiversity and the scenic lakes found in...
A Design Diagram and Production Process for Ground Stone Tools at Wufengbe Site during the Liangzhu Culture Period (5300-4200 BP) in China (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Craft and Technology: Knowledge of the Ancient Chinese Artisans" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Wufengbei Site is located in the Mudu Ancient City Neolithic sites at Suzhou, Jiangsu Province, southern China. Excavations in 2016 yielded a total of 3850 pieces of lithic artifacts. Based on the concept of Chaîne Opératoire, artifacts were classified and analyzed by the hierarchical dynamic typology and use-wear...
Diet Reconstruction of Ancient Population from Banlashan Cemetry, a Neolithic Hongshan Archaeological Culture Site in China—Based on Stable Isotopic and Dental Microwear Analysis (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Hongshan culture is a famous archaeological cultures in the Neolithic Age in China, and its economic structure has always been the focus of academic attention. According to the bone material unearthed from the cemetery, the diet characteristics of the late Hongshan people can be effectively recovered through the integrating stable isotopic and dental microwear...
Dietary Histories in Early China: Gender and Food in Urban and Rural Eastern Zhou Communities (771–221 BCE, Ancient Zhenghan City, China) (2021)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2021: General Sessions" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Stable isotope analysis of human skeletal samples allows bioarchaeologists to study human diet from discrete periods of life and can provide fine-grained dietary histories of individuals. Previous research on the Eastern Zhou Dynasty identified dietary differences between adult females and males, and a study of childhood diet for two urban Eastern Zhou...
The Different Consuming Strategies between Political Center and Port City: A Case Study of the Distribution of Yue Celadon Types in Eighth- to Eleventh-Century Japan (2021)
This is an abstract from the "The Archaeology of Trade and Exchange" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. In ancient Japan, the trade of Chinese ceramics started in the eighth century. The most popular ceramics among Japanese consumers was Yue celadon. Since Yue celadon is found with a small number and limited spatial distribution of fine and coarse wares, this type of ceramics is usually considered by researchers as a luxury good that only reflected...
The Dissemination of Miaodigou Culture Painted Pottery (2019)
This is an abstract from the "Technology and Design in 4th and 3rd Millennium BCE China" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The cultural sequence of the Wei River valley, as exemplified by Miaodigou Culture of the Middle Yangshao Period, represents a pinnacle as reflected in its masterfully crafted ceramics. The classical forms are pointed-bottomed amphorae, flat-bottomed bottles, coarseware jars, deep basins, and deep bowls. Of special importance are...
Distributions and Characteristics of the Cave Sites on Jeju Island during Late Pleistocene to Middle Holocene (2023)
This is an abstract from the "Social and Environmental Interactions on Coasts and Islands in Korea" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study examines several cave sites on Jeju Island during the Late Pleistocene to Middle Holocene. Subsistence economy, occupation patterns, and cave usage durations are studied and compared. From 1.8 mya, the Jeju Island began to be formed through hydro volcanic activities. Since then, the continuous activities...
Documenting Indigeneity in the Peabody Museum’s Ainu Collections (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. The Ainu are an indigenous group currently inhabiting the Japanese island of Hokkaido. Traditionally the group practiced a hunter-gatherer lifestyle incorporating plant cultivation and trade, yet forced assimilation into the Japanese state in 1869 significantly altered this way of life. The Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology of Harvard University...
Dry-Grinding or Wet-Grinding? Use-Wear Reveals the Grinding Technique Used for Cereal Processing in Early Neolithic Central China (2019)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2019: General Sessions" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Different food processing techniques often shed light on the dietary habits and subsistence strategies adopted by prehistoric populations. Studies have shown that grinding cereals into flour took place since the Paleolithic age. Nevertheless, the grinding method employed in the prehistoric periods was often not investigated. This study discovered the different...
Early Childhood Diet during the Bronze Age Eastern Zhou Dynasty (China): Evidence from Stable Isotope Analysis (2019)
This is an abstract from the "The Health and Welfare of Children in the Past" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Diet and health are deeply intertwined, and childhood is a critical period where nutrition can have significant short- and long-term effects on the growing individual. Breastfeeding, weaning, and childhood dietary habits are culturally-mediated practices, and how a developing body is fed is a critical cultural experience with biological...
Early Globalization of the Han Empire in Its Southern Frontier and the Expansion of Iron Economic Network (2018)
Even though the framework of early globalization has been proved as effective in illuminating ancient interregional interaction in many regions, its value and contribution to the archaeological study of ancient China has been overlooked in the literature. Focusing on the Han Empire, we employed statistical methods to exam variations in assemblages and frequencies of iron objects, one type of critical state finance in the Han political economies, from burials in the southern frontier of the...
Early Millet Cultivation, Subsistence Diversity, and Wild Plant Use at Neolithic Anle, Lower Yangtze of China (2023)
This is an abstract from the "SAA 2023: Individual Abstracts" session, at the 88th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. This study examines the macrobotanical assemblage of Anle, a middle Neolithic site in the Lower Yangtze region of China. The Lower Yangtze is thought to be the origin of domesticated rice and most studies of this region to date have focused on rice domestication and cultivation within its paleoenvironmental setting. In contrast, we highlight here diverse...
Early-Middle Holocene resource use and niche construction in Jeju Island, Korea (2019)
This is an abstract from the "New Evidence, Methods, Theories, and Challenges to Understanding Prehistoric Economies in Korea" session, at the 84th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology. Study of various human adaptations and human-environmental dynamics amid Early-Middle Holocene (ca. 11,500-5,000 BP) climate changes has been a noteworthy theme in archaeological research. One of the main questions in this discourse is how occupants in various environments and landscapes have...