Guava Cat Archaeology: Papers in memory of Prof. Pochan Chen

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jade DAlpoim Guedes. R. Kyle Bocinsky. Sturt Manning.

The timing and mechanics of the spread of agriculture to the Tibetan Plateau—one of the most challenging environmental contexts on Earth—is a focus of recent work and debate. In research on the spread of agriculture, researchers have sought evidence for the earliest, furthest or highest occurrences of diagnostic elements. However, the case of the Tibetan Plateau illustrates a key flaw in current work: archaeologists have often uncritically interpreted the presence of plant domesticates at...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Gwen Bennett.

Archaeological and historical data, combined with GIS analysis gives us new perspectives on 11th c. medieval period envoy missions from the Song Dynasty (960-1279) to the Liao Empire (907-1125) Middle Capital in Chifeng Inner Mongolia, China. The envoys’ routes can be recreated on maps, and optimal route and viewshed analyses give us insight into the Liao’s concerns about these foreign missions crossing their territory and how they addressed them. Furthermore, population estimates can be made...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Chieh-fu Jeff Cheng.

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...

DOCUMENT Citation Only YI-LING LIN.

This paper will discuss recent analysis of worked animal bone discovered at the late Shang Xinanzhuang site, and the manufacture strategies and raw materials manipulations within different locations in Anyang, Henan. Xinanzhuang is considered to be associated with the industrial-scale boneworkshop at Tiesanlu site because of the close proximity between the two sites. Previous studies on bone artifacts from Tiesanlu provide some understanding of craft production systems during the late Shang...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ellen Hsieh.

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...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Yitzchak Jaffe.

For his last SAA paper, Professor Chen Pochan talked about the Dian Yangfutou cemetery in Yunnan. He presented the results of an analysis that provided new meaning on its social structure. The Dian culture was an important entity on the periphery of the Warring States and early Han world, but apart from several references in Chinese historical documents little is known, but much is assumed, about them. Chen's study complemented previous Dian mortuary research with site-specific practices in...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Rowan Flad. Pochan Chen. Yitzchak Jaffe. Andrew Womack. Jing Zhou.

In May and June 2015, archaeologists from the Gansu Provincial Institute of Archaeology, Harvard University, Peking University, Yale University, and National Taiwan University, conducted archaeological and geophysical survey at two important sites in the Tao River drainage: Dayatou and Siwashan. Whereas Siwashan is the type site of the Siwa Culture, and has long been known as an important archaeological site, Dayatou has previously not undergone any published systematic research. Furthermore,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Kuei-chen Lin. Pochan Chen.

This paper offers an overview of the development of typology in Chinese archaeology. In particular, we focus on how it has influenced and yet distinguished itself from typologies developed in western disciplines—and especially on how Chinese archeologists have relied largely on objects’ appearances to define types. In this manner, they have eagerly used typology in dating and defining archaeological cultures. The philosophy of classification, by which such typologies have been established, has...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Mu-Chun Wu. Maa-Ling Chen.

This research showcases how Geographic Information System (GIS) serves as a heuristic interface to visualise obscure spatial concepts and further facilitates researchers to explore how these concepts influence people’s perception of and interaction with the landscape. The abandoned slate-stone settlements of Paiwan are one of their most distinct icons. However, their spatial location and their relation with the wider regional landscape were not thoroughly investigated. This research utilises...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ling-yu Hung.

This paper focuses on the use of GIS (geographic information systems) to examine mortuary practice in the Yangshan cemetery (ca. 4300-4000 BP), Qinghai Province, Northwestern China. The abundant graves unearthed in the Yangshan cemetery are valuable sources for investigating local social and economic organization. However, mortuary practice at Yangshan appears to be complicated, including graves containing single or multiple individuals, individuals deposited in extended or flexed position,...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Ling Qin. Dorian Q Fuller.

An eastern crescent zone of the Middle to Lower Yangtze and upwards to Shandong can be defined as a zone of Globalization processes in the Neolithic that was eventually broken down into a number of cores in a world system. The globalization model operates through Neolithic networks, that had no clear political centre but nevertheless promoted shared practices and cultural values over large distances. This is illustrated by the spread of food cultures: crops, cooking methods and ceramic...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Li-ying Wang.

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...

DOCUMENT Citation Only Jiun-Yu Liu.

The origin and expansion of Austronesian, a language group disperses from Easter Island to Madagascar, is a long-term discussed issue in Taiwan and Southeast Asia. For the movement of people and materials, the migrationist models have dominated the explanatory frameworks in the South China Sea, a broader area of my proposed research region. In this proposed research the concept of trade diaspora is applied to examine the possibility of frequent bidirectional movement of materials and people...