EAANnouncements 21
Spring 1997
Contents
SEAA actives:
President: Prof. Gina L. Barnes, East Asian Studies, Univ of Durham, Durham DH1 3TH,
England. Fax +44-191-374-3242; email: [...]
Vice President: Prof. Sarah Nelson, Dept. of Anthropology, Uni. of Denver, 2130 South Race,
Denver, CO 80208, USA. E-mail: [...]
Secretary: Dr. Yangjin PAK, Dept of Archaeology, Chungnam National University, Taejon, Korea
Treasurer: Mr. Simon Kaner, Dept of Archaeology, Univ of Cambridge, Downing St., Cambridge
CB2 3DZ, England; e-mail: [...]
Korea Treasurer: Dr. Insook LEE, #204-33 Kaenari Apt., Yeoksamdong, Kangnam-ku, Seoul
135-082 Korea. Tel/Fax +82-2-553-8027
Japan Treasurer: Dr. Kojiro MIZOGUCHI, Graduate School of Social and Cultural Studies, 4-2-1
Ropponmatsu, Chuo-ku, Fukuoka 810 Japan. Fax +81-92-731-8745, e-mail: [...]
China Treasurer: Ms. Jianjun YANG, c/o Liaoning Provincial Archaeological Research Institute,
Liaoning Provincial Museum, Shenyang, Liaoning, China. Fax +86-24-282-5842
Korea Representative: Dr. Insook LEE (see above)
Japan Representative: Prof. Hideo KONDO, Dept History, Faculty of Letters, Tokai Univ,
Kitakaname 1117, Hiratsuka, Kanagawa, Japan. Tel. +81-463-58-1211x303, Fax +81-463-83-8198
China Representative: Dr. WANG Tao, Art & Archaeology Dep., SOAS, Univ of London, Thornhaugh
St., London WC1H 0XG, England. Tel. +44-171-637-6192, Fax +44-171-436-3844
European Representative: Dr. Mark Hudson, Dept of Archaeology, Faculty of Letters, Okayama
University, 3-1-1 Tsushima, Okayama 700 Japan. Fax +81-86-255-9903
North American Representative: Dr. James Grayson, Centre for Korean Studies, Sheffield
University, Sheffield S10 2UJ, England. Tel. +44-114-282-4390, Fax +44-114-272-9479
Journal Editor: Prof. Lothar von Falkenhausen, Art History Dept, Dixon Hall, UCLA, Los
Angeles, CA 90024-1417, USA. Fax +1-310-359-1689, e-mail: [...]
EAANnouncements Editor: Prof. Gina L. Barnes (see above)
China Round-up Editor: Dr. Francis Allard, Dept of Anthropology, Univ of Pittsburgh,
Pittsburgh, PA 15260 USA. Fax +1-412-648-2792 c/o Prof. Linduff
Japan Round-up Editor: Dr. Mark Hudson (see above)
Book Reviews Editor: Mr. Simon Kaner (see above)
AAS Liaison (Association for Asian Studies) Prof. Kathy Linduff, Department of Fine Arts,
128 Frick Fine Arts Bldg., University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA. Fax +1-412-648-2792,
e-mail: [...]
SAA Liaison (Society for American Archaeology) Dr. Francis Allard (see above)
IPPA Liaison (Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association) Mr. Magnus Fiskesjö, Institute of
Anthropology, Unnan Univ, Kunming, Yunnan Province, 65001 PRChina. Fax +86-871-516-5031. [in China
for PhD fieldwork during the academic year of 1996-97]
SEAA activities:
From the editor......
SOCIETY ORGANISATION: Welcome to the first issue of EAANnouncements under the newly formed
'Society for East Asian Archaeology'. The Officers of SEAA are happy to report that the
Constitution, circulated for ratification in the autumn issue of the newsletter was indeed ratified
by a majority of returned ballots. Only one substantive comment was received with the ratifications:
in Article 10 of the Constitution under "Regional Treasurers", "the local EAAN account" should read
"the local SEAA account." Please correct your copy, and if you wish further details on the
balloting, contact the SEAA Secretary, Dr. Yangjin PAK.
Congratulations are in order to Mr. Simon Kaner, who was the only nominee for the post of SEAA
Treasurer and is therefore deemed elected unopposed.
Just for your information, despite the change in name of our organisation from EAANetwork to SEAA,
the name of the newsletter will not undergo radical change. It will remain as EAANnouncements in
short form; however, the full title will drop the word 'network' to become "East Asian Archaeology
Announcements." (This is important for libraries and other institutions that have subscriptions and
must catalog the newsletter.) Finally, the local branches affiliated with SEAA will retain their
acronyms as jEAAN, amEAAN, and euroEAAN; these are the East Asian archaeology networks in Japan,
North America and Europe respectively. If any other regional group wants to establish a local
network, please contact your humble SEAA President to discuss the logistics.
CONFERENCES: The advantage to having an active local network is the ability to have periodic
meetings and opportunities for geographically close colleagues to experience face-to-face
interaction-an important antidote to the anonymous internet transactions to which we are
increasingly subjected. Calls for papers went out in the last EAANnouncements for papers to be given
on East Asian archaeology at the Joint East Asian Studies Conference held in Durham, England, 2-4
April 1997. We are happy to report that enough people have responded, primarily from Europe but also
from the United States, so that we can hold our first founding meeting of euroEAAN, which up till
now has just been a mailing list. A report on the conference interaction will be mounted in the June
newsletter.
Prof. Kathy Linduff (Univ Pittsburgh) also organised the local amEAAN meeting, now in its 7th year,
in conjunction with the Association for Asian Studies meetings in Chicago (13-16 Mar 97). The AAS
has been asked to transfer their Affiliate status from EAANetwork to amEAAN so that the local
meeting can go on being held in conjunction with future AAS meetings. At the moment, Kathy is
serving as the AAS Liaison Officer of SEAA, but if North American participants want to formalise
their status more firmly and choose officers, etc., for amEAAN, this should be discussed at a future
amEAAN meeting.
It has been discussed for some time now whether AAS should be the forum for amEAAN meetings rather
than the Society for American Archaeology (SAA) meetings. This year, for the first time, we will
also have an SAA Liaison Officer, Dr. Francis Allard, who attended the SAA meetings in Nashville and
is assessing the possible avenues for long-term affiliate activities in conjunction with the annual
SAA conference. A Roundtable Luncheon on Asia will again be sponsored by SAA, bringing together many
archaeologists dealing with East and Southeast Asia.
Our final Liaison Officer is Magnus Fiskesjö, who will be liaising with the Indo-Pacific Prehistory
Association. IPPA holds their conferences every four years. The last conference was held in Chiang
Mai, Thailand in January 1994, and the next conference was scheduled for January 1998 in Malaysia.
However, the timing of this conference has been changed and will instead be held in July 1998 in the
town of Melaka, Malaysia. Our intrepid Liaison Officer is currently in the depths of southwestern
China but can be reached via FAX +86-871-516-5031 for discussion of the meeting.
The next SEAA conference, after our successful first "World Conference" in Hawaii in spring 1996, is
scheduled for the year 2000, to alternate with IPPA every four years. Europe has been suggested as
the next venue for congregating. If any SEAA member has other thoughts or further suggestions,
please communicate them to the SEAA Vice-President, Prof. Sarah Nelson, who has constitutional
powers of overseeing the "World Conference".
In all these events, we thank you for your continued interest, support, and participation which
makes the efforts to put East Asian archaeology on the world map all worthwhile.
MEMBER NEWS
Most address information has been omitted from this issue of Member News. A Membership Directory of SEAA members will be included in the June issue of EAANnouncements. Only those who have paid their 1997 dues will be listed, whether as part of EAAN or SEAA. If you want your name to appear in the Membership Directory, be sure you have paid your annual dues; contact the new SEAA Treasurer, Simon Kaner (address on back page of this issue) for appropriate forms, etc. Deadline for payment to be included in the Directory: 15 May 1997.
Francis ALLARD (Univ Pittsburgh) writes, "I returned some weeks ago from China and northern Vietnam, where I spent a total of 4 months moving/jumping from one museum/site to another. I gave a few talks in Guangzhou and one at a conference in Guilin. I [also] spent some time 'digging up' some Neolithic burials in northern Vietnam. I spent a bit of time visiting Dian sites and seeing a lot of the new material excavated." See his contribution to FIELD REPORTS.
Martin BALE (Univ British Columbia) is doing an MA degree in East Asian archaeology this year after finishing a BA Hons. at the University of Regina. He writes, "I became interested in Plains and US Midwestern archaeology while [at Regina]. I also took some classes at Indiana University in the U.S. By that time, I was interested in cultural interaction between cultures like the Late Prehistoric NW Plains and the Mississippian- influenced cultures that influenced Plains cultures in Minnesota and Iowa. After graduating, I lived for a while in Korea and began to be interested in Korean prehistory and protohistory. I made a few connections and excavated at Korean Iron Age and middle Neolithic sites in SE Korea."
Charlotte BELL (McGill Univ) is interested in Korean archaeology generally; presently, she is researching the introduction of Buddhism into Korea and is considering Korea as a secondary state for her thesis topic.
Lester J. BILSKY (Univ Arkansas at Little Rock) is a historian who studies the Zhou-Qian Han period. He has written on the state religion of the period and has recently been working on its environmental history. He writes, "I find knowledge of archaeological work indispensable."
Tzehuey CHIOU-PENG (Univ of New Mexico) teaching Asian Art from an art historical viewpoint. Her research focuses on 1) kettledrum culture and metallurgy in southwest China and Southeast Asia, 2) peripheral cultures in prehistoric China; and 3) theories on cultural interaction of non-literate cultures.
CHOO Youn-sik (SNU, Seoul) is now an Affiliated Lecturer in Archaeology at Seoul National University. He has recently written an article (in Korean) entitled "Cambridge and world archaeology" for the journal of the Korean Ancient Historical Society, Hanguk Sanggosa Hakbo 22: 97-110, 1996.
Erika EVASDOTTIR (Harvard Univ) is doing a joint PhD in Archaeology/ Anthropology and is busily working on her dissertation entitled" The socio-politics of archaeology in China." She completed the preliminary research for the thesis last summer (1996).
Wayne FARRIS (Univ Tennesee) is just about ready to submit his book manuscript on "Sacred texts and buried treasures; essays in the historical archaeology of ancient Japan" to University of Hawaii Press. It should be out this time next year.
William W. FITZHUGH (Smithsonian Institution) is particularly interested in Arctic archaeology and its East Asian connections, northeastern Siberia and circumpolar archaeology and anthropology, and Ainu history and material culture.
Yuri FUKASAWA (Needham Inst., Cambridge) has been awarded a research grant from April 1997 by the Iwate Prefectural Museum for further research on "Ainu iron project: Iruekashi and Pipaushi".
Minna HAAPANEN (Univ Helsinki) is a student of Sinology and archaeology. She is working on her Master's thesis and hopes to join a project about Shang-dynasty archaeology.
Tracy HOFFMAN (Harvard) has been writing a doctoral dissertation on the early Bronze Age. Her interests include the development of social complexity, and gender in archaeology.
Simon HOLLEDGE (Tokyo) writes that he has a new e-mail address:
[...]Rose KERR (Victoria & Albert Museum) writes, "It is with great sadness that I have to tell you that Lisa Bailey was killed in a car accident on the evening of December 10th."
Lisa was a Ph.D. student at SOAS, University of London who was just putting the finishing touches on her thesis, "Adorning the dead: mortuary differentiation in Korean and Japanese tombs of the 5th and 6th centuries", while holding a job as Asst. Curator in the V&A. The field of early Korean art and archaeology is much deprived of the contributions of a promising young scholar, and everyone mourns her untimely passing.Tom KOMPIER (Cambridge MPhil in East Asian Archaeology) has defected to the business world; he now has a job in Tokyo and can be reached at:
c/o Mr. Naito Takashi
Column Minami-Aoyama 802
Minami-Aoyama 7-1-5
Minato-ku, Tokyo 107 Japan
Tel. +81-3-5485-7887
FAX +81-3-5485-7835Insook LEE (Kyonggi Provincial Museum), since taking up a new job as Curatorial Chief in the Museum, has travelled to Richmond, Virginia to discuss exchange programs with the Virginia Museum of Art, and she participated in the AAS Roundtable on "The impact of material analysis on the study of Asian art & culture" in Chicago in March.
Alfonz LENGYEL (Sino-American Field School of Archaeology in Xi'an) has recently presented papers on the "Art of LIAO Bing-xiong" at the Popular Culture Association in Chicago, and on "The philosophy of LIAO Bing-xiong" at the Mid-Atlantic AAS in Pittsburgh.
Tracey Lie Dan LU (ANU) is a PhD candidate researching the transition from hunting and gathering to agriculture in China.
Atsuko MIYAJI (Kyoto Univ) is a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) Research Fellow in Archaeology. She is conducting her research at the Nara National Cultural Properties Research Institute in Nara.
Martin MORRIS (Univ Chiba): "I received my doctorate from Tokyo University (D. Engineering, Architectural history) in March 1995 and took up my current post at Chiba in April 1996. I'm in the Architectural History Seminar, and at present I'm running lecture courses on urban history and Western architectural history (undergraduate) and a postgraduate course on the development of domestic architecture (England and Japan). The Architectural History Seminar is also currently involved in field research into minka in Yamanashi Pref. and shaji kenchiku in Chiba pref. (doubling as practical experience courses for students on the Master's course). My own research into the history of Japanese domestic architecture continues. An article entitled "The kitchens of Early Modern elite residences and commoners' houses" (in Japanese), summarising part of my doctorate, appeared in Kenchikushi Gaku in July '96. I'm currently also trying to open up a second front on Japanese settlements, especially Medieval Kamakura and Monzen Machi. Other areas of interest include reconstruction of the built environment based on archaeological and pictorial evidence, architectural conservation, architecture and the environment and comparative studies."
Yoshihiro NISHIAKI (formerly of Tokai Univ) writes to say that he has moved to the University Museum of Tokyo University and can be contacted there.
John OLSEN (Univ Arizona) participated in a workshop of the King's College Research Centre, Cambridge, England in March 1996. The workshop was part of a 4-year project on "Human Diversity" begun by Dr. Rob Foley and Prof. S. Brenner to encourage inter-disciplinary discussions and collaboration on establishing the patterns involved in the evolution of human diversity and the underlying bological, ecological and cultural processes. The 3-day workshop discussed human diversity in the various contexts relating to the palaeoenvironmental, cultural and behavioural aspects, evolutionary geography, prehistory and palaeodemography, genetic perspectives, palaeobiology and dispersal, archaeology and aspects of mathematical modelling.
Hyung Il PAI (UC Santa Barbara) writes that between 13 Dec 96 and 20 Mar 97, she has been away in Korea and Japan on research leave. She also reports that her book manuscript has been accepted for publication by the Harvard Council on East Asian Studies. Congratulations!
Margarete PRÜCH (Geisenheim-Johannisberg, Germany) is very busy finishing revising her dissertation for publication. In March, she attended a conference on East Asian and European Lacquerwares in Munich. Thereafter, she will be travelling to Guangzhou for 12 days.
Jim A. RAILEY (Washington Univ, St. Louis), who has a fieldwork report in this issue of EAANnouncements, gives us a bit of background on his activities. In the fall and spring 1993-4, he participated in fieldwork at the Bancun site (Neolithic) in Henan with the National Museum of Chinese History Team; he viewed this as preparation for Ph.D. work. Between Sept 94 and Nov 95, he carried out his dissertation fieldwork in China; he looked at early Neolithic to early Bronze Age (Erligang) socio-political evolution through settlement patterns (using GIS) and pottery form and production. At present, he is working on his dissertation and doing part-time teaching at Washington Univ, and he anticipates completing his PhD by this summer. See FIELD REPORTS
Lynne SCHEPARTZ (Univ Cincinnati) co-directs-together with Sari Miller-Antonio (Cal. St. Stanislaus) and HUANG Weiwen (IVPP, Beijing)-a team excavating the Paleolithic cave site of Panxian Dadong, in Guizhou province, China. The first season of full excavations was July-August 1996, and the next season is scheduled for August 1997.
Don WAGNER (Univ Copenhagen), after returning from Cambridge to Denmark, is now once again teaching Classical Chinese as an External Lecturer at the Department of
Asian Studies (Asien-Instituttet) of the University of Copenhagen. He also writes, "I have put my publication list on the web in lieu of a 'home page'. Most of the publications concern the history of science and technology in China, especially mathematics and metallurgy. I am beginning to put some of the publications themselves on the web as well, but that will take a while." See the list at: http://www.coco.ihi.ku.dk/~dbwagner/WANG Wenjian (Harvard Univ) has recently carried out field work at the Chengtoushan site in Hunan, China, which is one of the earliest walled sites in China. He is continuing to write on the organization of pottery production in the Qujialing culture around 3,000 BC for his doctoral dissertation.
Charles WATKINSON (Tano Kyoiku Iinkai) graduated from Cambridge with a BA in Arch & Anth in 1993, and continued on to do Pre-hellenic fieldwork in Greece between 1993-5 while working at Oxbow Books in Oxford. From July 1996 he has been in the Japan English Teachers (JET) programme, affiliated with the Tano Board of Education in Kochi Pref. on Shikoku Island. He hopes to do some archaeology while there.
Richard L. WILSON (ICU) is Director of the Centre for Archaeological Research at International Christian University and team chief of two excavations goups which are now conducting post-fieldwork analysis and cataloguing for two sites in Tokyo: Takehaya High School site (an Edo-period commoner's site) and Mukogaoka High School site (Jomon and Edo-period commoner's site. See FIELD REPORTS). He is also conducting an archaeological and scientific study of ceramic wares associated with Ogata Kenzan (1663-1743). As with J.E. Kidder Jr. before him, he also runs an annual excavation of Jomon-period sites on the ICU campus, using undergraduates in the archaeology class.
Mariko YAMAGATA (Tokyo Univ) acted as Joint Director with Ian Glover (Institute of Archaeology, UCL) for the excavation project at Tra Kieu, Quang Nam-Da Nang province, Vietnam from Jan 93-March 96. The excavations were conducted at the ancient Cham city of Simhapura in co-operation with the Institute of Archaeology, Hanoi and the National University of Hanoi. Radiocarbon dates from two trenches on Buu Chau Hill at Tra Kieu show that occupation goes back into the late centuries BC and that both Indian and Han Chinese influences are apparent in the ceramics and building materials used, confirming the place of Tra Kieu as the earliest known site of Cham culture.
Zhijun (Jimmy) ZHAO (Univ Missouri PhD) writes, "I have been awarded a one year postdoctoral fellowship from Smithsonian Institute; and I have now moved to the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, located in Panama. I am working on a project entitled 'Environmental reconstruction in the middle Yangtze region, China'. I just came back from China, where I did, successfully, lake coring in the Dongting Lake and the Boyang Lake." His fieldwork contact numbers are:
Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 2072
Balboa, Republica de Panama
e-mail: [...]Bettina ZORN (Museum für Völkerkunde, Vienna) is preparing for a June 1997 exhibition from the collections of Heinrich von Siebold and son; v. Siebold the elder conducted field research in the 1870s-80s in Japan. The collection contains some archaeological and ethnographical (Ainu) materials but mainly consists of everyday items. The exhibition will tour four Eurpoean museums: Leiden, Munich and two museums in Vienna.
FIELD & RESEARCH REPORTS:
For articles to appear in this section, they should be limited to 500-1000 words and submitted
to the Editor by the issue deadlines stated on the front cover of EAANnouncements: mid-January for
the Spring issue, mid-May for the Summer issue, and mid-September for the Autumn issue. The editor
reserves the right to edit or decline to print. Please report research here!!
The Mukogaoka High School site, Tokyo
by Richard L. Wilson
When construction is undertaken in the Tokyo public school system, the Metropolitan Board of
Education often sets aside funds for a salvage excavation of the site. I have had the good fortune
to serve as team chief for several such excavations, and here I would like to report on a recent
one. The Mukogaoka High School Site, located at 1-11-18 Mukogaoka, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, was excavated
from from March through September of 1995. Analysis of the artifacts started in October 1995 and is
expected to conclude in March of 1997. The size of the site was 2500 sq. meters. The chief field
archaeologist for the site was NIIZATO Yasushi, and the liaison curator for the metropolitan
government was MIYAZAKI Hiroshi.
The Mukogaoka site rests on a geological formation called the Hongo plateau, an area with numerous
sites from the Jomon, Yayoi and Kofun periods. In the Edo period (1615-1868), the site was
sandwiched between roads that were known historically as the Nakasendo and Iwatsuki Kaido
(Hongo-dori). It is known from historical documents that after 1683, the area was established as a
barracks for two groups of lower-ranking samurai: the Osakite-gumi and the Omochi-gumi. Both of
these groups served as a personal police corps for the shogunate.
Although no prehistoric features were found at the site, the excavation uncovered numerous features
from the Edo period, including ditches, walls, underground chambers, pits, wells, post holes, etc.
for a total of 210 recorded features. Almost all of the uncovered artifacts were from the Edo period
and later, although a small number of Jomon, Yayoi and Kofun period sherds was discovered. Edo
period and later artifacts, mostly ceramics, filled 1400 boxes. With the exception of the group of
Chinese ceramics mentioned below, the artifacts were representative of late Edo period commoner and
low-ranking samurai sites. Earthenware, nearly all of which was locally
manufactured, included small dishes, lighting devices, and toys. Stoneware finds included kitchen
and tableware from Hizen, Seto-Mino, and Kyoto; large unglazed stonewares were of Tokoname
manufacture. The majority of porcelains were from Hizen (Arita), with a smaller number from
Seto-Mino. Other artifacts included metalwork such as coins and smoking pipes, stone artifacts such
as whetstones and inkstones, and food remains, particularly shells.
From feature P-199, an underground chamber converted into a disposal pit, a large number (119
restorable pieces) of Ming-dynasty Chinese ceramics was unearthed. Accompanying artifacts suggest
they were disposed in the early eighteenth century after being damaged in a fire. These underglaze
cobalt and overglaze enameled porcelains, of a type commonly thought to have been manufactured in
the first and second quarters of the seventeenth century at the kiln center of Jingdezhen, included
only one large dish but many middle-sized dishes, small-sized dishes and bowls-some in large sets
(as many as 20 identical pieces). The group also included a set of small dishes in the so-called Old
Kutani style, two tea bowls from Choson-period Korea, a fragment of Ding ware from the eleventh or
twelfth century, and an ash-glazed stoneware bowl of the so-called yamachawan type, probably
manufactured in Aichi prefecture in the fourteenth century. These finds, which appear more like a
private collection or dealer's inventory than in-use items, attracted a lot of attention in print
and electronic media, and they were exhibited in a large show at the Edo-Tokyo Museum in autumn
1996.
Just who assembled these ceramics, and under what auspices, remains unresolved. A discovery of this
magnitude might be anticipated in an excavation of a daimyo residence, but not in this neighborhood,
which records suggest was occupied by low-ranking samurai. Speculation has focused on the role of
the aforementioned Osakite- and Omochi-gumi, whose activities may have ranged beyond the usual guard
duties to include confiscation, storage, or even burglary. On the other hand, one also has to
entertain the possibility that the land, while nominally occupied by samurai, may have been rented
out to a merchant.
These are the headline-grabbing parts of the dig, and they have tended to consume the thoughts of
visitors, administrators, and increasingly the staff, but there were many other noteworthy aspects
of the site. For example, we uncovered occupation-specific underground chambers (cellars which were
probably used for fermentation in the making of sake). Also, the features from the Meiji period were
in relatively good condition, allowing a glimpse into everyday ceramics from the third and fourth
quarters of the nineteenth century. Of particular interest was the penetration of tea drinking into
Tokyo life, marked by the large number of dobin (large teapots) and kyusu (small side-handled
teapots).
We are also attempting to make sectional diagrams and design details using digital technology in
place of the labor-intensive hand methods. The site report, with an English summary, will probably
be published in late 1997-early 1998.
Archaeology Research Center, International Christian University, Tokyo
Institute of Archaeology, University College, London
The Southern Yuanqu Basin Project
by Jim Railey
The Southern Yuanqu Basin project was conducted by myself (as PhD field work) in cooperation with
archaeological teams from the National Museum of Chinese History, Beijing. This research focuses on
long-term sociopolitical evolution from the Early Neolithic through Early Bronze Age (ca. 6500-1100
BC). The Yuanqu Basin is situated in the mountainous Huanghhe corridor of Yuanqu County, Shanxi and
Mianchi County, Henan. The planned construction of the Xiaolangdi Reservoir will inundate most of
the
southern portion of the Yuanqu Basin, and archaeological teams from both the National Museum and the
Institute of Archaeology, CASS, have been carrying out investigations in this area for over a
decade.
My research was one result of a cooperative relationship established between the Committee on
Scholarly Communication with China (CSCC) and the National Museum. My field work was generously
funded by grants from Fulbright-Hays, NSF, CSCC, and Sigma Xi, and was facilitated by my Chinese
colleagues who were such gracious hosts. I began my field work in October 1995 and concluded a year
later. In the field, I gathered attribute data from over 2,000 pottery vessels and conducted a
settlement pattern survey of the southernmost portion of the Yuanqu Basin. The pottery data will be
used as one indicator of sociopolitical and economic organization, and the survey data for the basis
of a GIS-based settlement pattern study.
The settlement pattern survey covered a 14-km segment of the Yellow River, and approximately 5-6 km
along the lowermost portions of two tributary streams. Chinese teams had previously identified a
large number of Neolithic and early Bronze Age sites in the area. However, this survey information
had not been recorded in a detail; so the first step in my survey involved interviews with team
members and recording of their verbal information on detailed topographic maps.
The second step involved a "ground-truthing" inspection of the known sites, to record site size,
temporal components, and relative density of materials. Determining site size was often frustrated
by prevailing conditions at many of the sites; considerable destruction from both agricultural
practices and natural erosion was a problem at virtually all sites, and many of the sites are at
least partially covered by modern villages. Nonetheless, I was able to gather usable information on
the relative size of sites and individual components.
The final step of my survey involved a reconnaissance of selected areas where no sites were
reported. In this effort, I encountered only very occasional and lightly concentrated materials from
the time span under investigation. This result confirmed my Chinese colleagues' claim that they had
already identified all of the "sites" (i.e. sites with substantial deposits). Much of the material
encountered in my sampling reconnaissance was very fragmentary and non-diagnostic with respect to
specific time periods. Moreover, centuries of ground-disturbing agricultural activity in the area
frustrated assessment of these small
sites; local peasants reported that they frequently excavated earth from areas containing
substantial prehistoric village remains and moved it to less productive fields, the obvious result
being much artificial re-deposition of archaeological materials. For these reasons, I am restricting
my settlement pattern analysis to the substantial sites reported by my Chinese colleagues and ground
truthed by myself.
My analyses are still in progress, but preliminary observations suggest the several patterns and
settlement/sociopolitical trends in the project area. Throughout the time span under study, sites
are restricted to the second and third terraces, and are typically situated along steep terrace
edges that provided a measure of defensive security, a wide-angle
viewshed of the surrounding floodplain, close access to water, and access to potential farmland on
both the floodplain and elevated terraces so that risks of crop damage from flooding or drought
could be more or less evenly divided. The area was very sparsely inhabited during the early
Neolithic Peiligang period, with only a few hamlets and very small villages identified. Independent
village polities were established and persisted through the Early Yangshao and Miaodigou I periods.
The growth of supra-village polities apparently commenced in the late Xiwang period and probably
involved several chiefdom cycles as villages struggled for local predominance. The process
culminated with the establishment of a walled Erligang town that served as either the center for a
local chiefdom polity, or as an outpost of the Early Shang state.
Dept of Anthropology
Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA
Director, Tang City Excavation Team, CASS Institute of Archaeology, Beijing
Investigations into the Bronze Age of South China and Northern Vietnam
by Francis Allard
I recently travelled through southern China and northern Vietnam with the objective of
collecting new information on the Bronze Age of these regions, in particular that pertaining to the
Dian of Yunnan, the Dongson of northern Vietnam and the many tribes inhabiting Lingnan (Guangdong
and Guangxi). The discovery of numerous wealthy burials associated with these various groups points
to the presence of hierarchical Bronze Age societies which clearly differed from those of north
China and which emerged prior to their incorporation into the Han state. A comparison of the grave
goods even suggests that interaction among some of these areas may have played a role in their
respective developmental trajectories. Unfortunately, attempts to understand how these groups
functioned internally are hampered by the nature of the historical record (provided by the Han and
of limited scope) and by an archaeological record comprised mostly of burial evidence. The following
report summarizes some of my observations made in the course of visiting sites, museums and speaking
with local archaeologists. I am of course unable to elaborate on some of the findings because the
information remains as yet unpublished in China.
I travelled to a basin located north of Nanning (southern Guangxi Province) where a number of Bronze
Age sites have been found. These include Yuanlongpo (the largest pre- Han burial site in Lingnan
with 350 graves) and Andengyang. The close proximity of these sites to copper ores, their relative
isolation and the fact that their material culture (stored in the Provincial museum in Nanning)
exhibits strong local features all point to mostly
self-sustaining systems. While river valleys and mountain passes provide access from this region to
either the Red River delta in northern Vietnam or the Dian lake region in eastern Yunnan, there is
little evidence of strong Dongson or Dian influence.
I travelled the route linking Nanning to the Dian region. The passage through the mountainous region
of northwest Guangxi proved somewhat arduous. Although the narrow valleys do provide access to a
wide river (Nanpan Jiang) flowing from eastern Yunnan, the route along the rivers and streams
remained tortuous (even more so when one is travelling by bus!). In evidence here, as well in other
mountainous parts of southwest China and northern Vietnam, are numerous ethnic groups, some of these
now living in relative isolation at higher elevations. Travelling through these areas, one is faced
with the thought that direct trade between distant polities in the past could have been hampered by
the problem of negotiating passage through numerous narrow valleys occupied by various ethnic
groups.
I visited Bronze Age burial sites in the Lake Dian region (Yunnan) and was made aware of on-going
fieldwork at many of these. I was also able to see the material recently excavated at the well-known
necropolis of Shizhaishan. Talks with local archaeologists leave in no doubt the possibility of
finding other rich burial sites scattered in this region. Travelling between these burial sites, it
also becomes apparent that they tend to be located in separate basins, suggesting the control of
distinct productive areas by local leaders who may have rarely if ever achieved long-term hegemony
over the whole region. Certainly, achieving a better understanding of Dian socio-political structure
will require that settlements be investigated, a task that local archaeologists have begun to
undertake. In this same region, for example, a large stratified occupation site has recently been
excavated, and it is hoped that others will follow.
Similarities between Dian and Dongson material culture have long been recognized. In recent years,
archaeologists have located and excavated in southern Yunnan a number of sites (a few of these
published) whose bronzes display 'intermediate' features, but none of which appear to be associated
with systems as socio-politically complex as either the Dian or Dongson. I met with local
archaeologists in Gejiu who enthusiastically told me of the recent excavation of nearby Han dynasty
smelting and burial sites. One of these sites yielded a bronze lamp and vessel very similar to
artifacts excavated from Dongson burials, suggesting interaction between the Dian and Dongson area
following the Han takeover. The importance of Gejiu lies in the fact that it is located near the
Yuan River, known as the Red River in Vietnam. Certainly, the Gejiu area is rich in tin ores and the
apparent absence of large tin deposits near the Dongson centers encourages us to contemplate the
possibility of Gejiu tin being traded down river to the Red River delta. Certainly, the next step
should be the analysis of Dongson bronzes and the sourcing of their component minerals.
I end by mentioning the recent discovery of five groups of buried bronze drums (total of 19) in
Laocai, a Vietnamese town located on the Red River at the border with China. These drums are
believed to date from the late first millennium BC to the second century AD. Importantly, although
there is still disagreement as to which stylistic features are associated with which group, it is
possible to recognize both Dian type and Dongson type drums, with a few displaying what appear to be
intermediate features. In the Laocai region itself, a total of 17 Dongson stray find sites have been
located, further underscoring the importance of the Red River as a communication route between the
Dian and Dongson. It is my opinion, however, that presently available information on the Dian,
Dongson and intermediate areas remains insufficient to prove the operation of direct trade links
between the Red River delta and the Dian region. The presence of numerous native groups along the
way and the absence of significant numbers of traded goods all point to the possibility of indirect
or down-the-line exchange taking place. It remains to be seen whether materials such as Gejiu tin
may, in fact, have been intentionally traded, although this would not be evidence of direct contact
between the Dian and Dongson.
Dept of Anthropology
University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260 USA
Excavation Practicum of SAFSA in Xi'an, Shaanxi, China
by Alfonz Lengyel
The Sino-American Field School of Archaeology (SAFSA) at Xi'an Jiaotong University is
co-sponsored by the Fudan Museum Foundation (USA) and the Shaanxi Provincial Archaeological Research
Institute (SPARI). The Chinese field director is assigned by the latter Research Institute according
to the period of the site.
Since 1991, the excavation practicum has been located at different sites around Xi'an in conjunction
with salvage excavations. One site was part of a prehistoric village similar to Banpo but located
near Tongchuan. According to Chinese law, every excavation must be immediately followed by
cataloging, labwork and conservation. Until now, the SPARI laboratory has conducted these
post-excavation studies, and the preliminary reports have also been published by them, incorporating
our practicum work. In the 1996 season, the Research Institute and SAFSA unearthed three tombs and
one of the 'offering chambers' of the tomb complex of Qin Shihuangdi, the first Emperor of China.
During the summer of 1997, however, we will conduct field resistivity survey in collaboration with
the Department of Archaeological Sciences, Bradford University, England. The survey for the field
school will be led by Dr. Cathy Batt from Bradford; its objective will be to discover the
underground 'palace' tomb of Qin Shihuangdi. During the fieldwork, archaeological lectures will be
given and analogy studies will be directed towards the Qin period of China.
SAFSA vigorously conforms to the current Guidelines and Standards for Academic Archaeological Field
Schools of SOPA, which are discussed in lectures. Students are prepared for field work through
directed reading at home prior to departure to China. Before arriving in Shanghai to start the
analogy studies in the Shanghai Museum, the students must take a quiz of over 100 short questions.
During the analogy studies, guest lectures are always directed towards the targeted historical
periods, while lectures and practicals follow a course outline. Further museum work is conducted at
Hangzhou and Xi'an. College credits for Chinese cultural history and field work in archaeology can
be earned through this program.
German researchers in Xi'an have established a modern conservation/preservation laboratory at SPARI
with funds donated by German-Chinese joint-business ventures. Under my directorship, the Fudan
Museum Foundation hopes to raise funds to establish an archaeological prospecting station and
laboratory also at SPARI. Hopefully, Americans will respond generously, also returning some of their
profits from using cheap Chinese labor.
Fudan Museum Foundation, 1522 Schoolhouse Road, Ambler, PA 19002 USA
DISSERTATION ABSTRACTS
M.A. & M.Phil. Degrees
Storage and its implications for the advent of rice agriculture in Korea: Konam-riby
Christopher J. NORTON, M.A. Dept of Anthropology, Univ of Arizona, 1996
Even though archaeology is an expanding field in Korea, attempts at reconstructing subsistence
strategies in the Neolithic and Bronze Age are few (e.g. Sample 1974; An 1991a). Research directed
towards explaining change in subsistence patterns are even fewer. The attempt is made here, through
faunal analysis, to address the latter question. There is unambiguous variation in subsistence
strategies in the Korean Neolithic and Bronze Age. During the former cultural stage, inhabitants
relied heavily on wild game and fish; but by the Bronze Age, subsistence shifted towards rice
agriculture.
The site of Konam-ri, located off the west coast of the Korean Peninsula, contains both Neolithic
(ca. 1,500 BC) and Bronze Age (800-500 BC) occupations. Based on comparative study, the faunal
remains associated with the two occupations suggests the subsistence strategies differed markedly.
It is argued in this thesis that increasing population pressure may have been the causal factor
leading to the change in subsistence.
PhD Degrees
A Study on the Kuk in the Samhan Society
by KWON O-Young, Ph.D., History Dept, Seoul National University, 1996 (in Korean)
[Ed. note: the original romanisations in this abstract have been transformed into McCune-Reischauer
in accordance with international standards and the South Korean Government's adoption of the
modified MCR system in 1984. The word 'kuk' means 'state'; C. guo, J. koku/kuni]
The objective of this dissertation is to investigate the differences of the political unit kuk from
various levels of the social units which had existed before and after Samhan, by analyzing the
composition and internal structures of kuk. This study is the work associated with placing the stage
of Samhan appropriately in the development of ancient Korean history.
The beginning of agriculture (especially rice farming), the increase of the population and the
occurrence of surplus products during the Bronze Age forced the change of the villages which first
appeared in the Neolithic period. Consequently, some villages, by being related closely and joined
together, were transformed to an economic unit-community (ŭp-rak). With the cultural development,
communities were then developed into a larger political unit kuk . This development first appeared
in the river valley of Kum River in the southern part of Korean Peninsula. Chung-kuk and Chin-kuk
found in the historical materials belong to the development. Chung-kuk and Chin-kuk were related
with the kuk of Ma-han. The kuk formed with the settlement of migrants of Wiman Chosŏn around the
1st century BC were connected to the kuk of Chin-Han and Pyŏn-Han.
The community of Samhan was composed of many villages. One of them played as the center of the
community and many small-scale villages were distributed like satellites around the central village.
A large-scale central village was composed of many household complex units which were not different
from the small-scale villages. The households consisted of a married couple and children. Each
household cooked their own food, whereas the household complex unit carried out production
activities and the storage of surplus products together. This explains why the frame of household
complex unit still remained in spite of the increasing self-sufficiency rate during the Bronze Age.
The villages of Samhan were formed into a larger community because they could not exist individually
due to the lack of the technologies like construction and maintenance of irrigation facilities and
the low level of diffusion of metal farming instruments which were indispensable to the agriculture
including rice farming. In this context, the community consisting of many villages functioned as an
unit system primarily by economic factors. Manufacture and supply system of pottery, execution of
farming rituals, formation of cemetery, and endogamy also contributed to the continuous existence of
communities.
The reason that several villages were again transformed into a political unit kuk can be found from
the function of kuk-ŭp. Kuk-ŭp played the economic function like farming and supply of iron and
salt, political-military function and religious function.
Inner power structure of kuk-ŭp seemed to be related with the management of the bu system in the
beginning of Three Kingdoms Period. The power structure such as dominance-obedience relation between
the villages, differences between the villages producing the ruler of the community and the others,
and gathering and falling apart between villages was found by analyzing the gathering of old tombs
in Pannam in Naju County.
Kuk-ŭp was first not different from general community, but, due to the factors such as the size of
arable lands, plentiful iron resources, the central role of trade, incoming migration and the
conquerer, kuk-ŭp dominated and strengthen the control of the general communities. However, a
community could not easily dominate the position of kuk-ŭp. The situation that two communities
compete for the position of kuk-ŭp was ascertained from the analysis of the remains of Yangdong-ri
and Taesŏng-Dong in Kimhae County. The analysis of the old tombs of Taegu area showed that the
penetration of the forces outside led to the encroachment of the hundreds-year-old kuk-ŭp status of
a particular community by general communities. The strong control of communities by the kuk-ŭp are
exemplified by the relation between Mŏngch'ŏn Castle (the kuk-ŭp of Paekche-kuk ) and the general
community at Misa-ri site, and the relation between kuk-ŭp of Saro-kuk and Hwangsŏng-dong community,
a special site manufacturing iron instruments.
The hierarchy of communities consisting kuk, together with the inequality across individuals and
classification phenomena, could be observed from the remains. The old tombs of Samhan period showed
the occurrence and deepening of the inequality in low-level units comprising the community since the
Bronze Age.
The ruler to be called a king inside the kuk, i.e. shinje, was present. Its character was the kind
of priest-king before Samhan period, but being gradually changed into the ruler with secular and
political power. This fact is ascertained from the king's tomb of Changwon Taho-ri and Kyŏngju
Sara-ri recently excavated.
There existed an inequality in the relations between kuk. The differentiation of large kuk and small
kuk was defined by the size of labor power, arable land, water resource, iron farming instruments
and arms. The kuk near the Chunan area were found to be superior in the Mahan area. This kuk seems
to be Mokchi-kuk found in the old materials. Mahan society consisting loosely of equal-power kuk was
reformed around the latter half of the 3rd century since the power relation between Mokchi-kuk, the
leading kuk of kuk near Kumkang River area, and Paekche-kuk, the leading kuk of kuk near the Han
River area, had changed by the latter's superiority. Kuk located on the line connecting Taegu,
Kyŏngsan, Yungchon and Kyŏngju were large kuk in the Chin-han area, and they were reformed with the
expansion of Saro-kuk of Kyŏngju. In the Pyŏn-han area, the superiority of kuk in Changwon and
Kimhae areas was distinct. But Kuya-kuk of Kimhae failed to be dominant in the Pyŏn-han area. This
led to the loose alliance of Kaya. This situation was associated with the expansion of Paekche and
Shilla and the limit to the development of Kaya.
The jades of the Liangzhu culture: an iconographical study
by SALVIATI, Filippo, Ph.D., SOAS Art & Archaeology Dept, Univ London, 1996
Initially discovered in the thirties but thoroughly excavated only in the past fifteen years, the
Liangzhu culture (ca. 3300-2200 BC) is one of the major late Neolithic cultures which flourished in
the Eastern and Coastal regions of China-Lake Tai and Yangtze delta area-and which developed
peculiar cultural traits which distinguish it from other neolithic cultures distributed in Central
and Northern China. One of the most characteristic diagnostic marks of the Liangzhu culture is its
highly developed jade industry. The Liangzhu jades-which did not have a utilitarian function but
were fashioned in the shape of 'ritual' objects or ornaments used to establish the rank and status
of the owner-are decorated with motifs carved on them, mostly including variations of 'face' or
'mask' motifs and images of birds. These motifs form the main focus of my thesis, in which I have
approached the material mainly from an iconographical point of view, trying to establish the role
played by these images within the framework of the Liangzhu culture itself and in the more general
context of early Chinese art. Through a detailed examination of the archaeological material, I have
been able to determine that the most recurrent images carved on the Liangzhu jades must have played
a central role in the religious beliefs of the Liangzhu culture, although the reconstructions of
such beliefs can only be, at present, highly tentative, in the absence of substantial information
such as that provided by written sources, lacking for the period under study. The Liangzhu mask and
bird motifs, while seemingly derived from prototypes elaborated by previous Neolithic cultures which
antedated Liangzhu in the same geographical area where it developed, can also be found amongst the
iconographic repertory of other Neolithic cultures contemporary to Liangzhu, thus pointing to the
existence of an "East China cultural complex" within which Liangzhu played a major role, probably
also by influencing, through interaction, other cultures. The long-term influence of Liangzhu art
and, eventually, of religious practices such as the use of jade items in burial practices, is
currently one of the most important issues, subject to continuous updating and revision. It is,
however, clear that the Liangzhu theriomorphic motifs was one of the sources of inspiration for the
Shang dynasty (16th-11th c. BC) taotie, and that the particular frequency of bird and bird-related
images associated with anthropomorphic ones could have laid down, as I argue in my thesis, the
foundation for beliefs and images such as those embodied in and represented by the xian, feathered
or plumed beings particularly common in Han (206 BC-AD 220) art.
Rice domestication in the middle Yangtze region, China: an application of phytolith analysis
by Zhijun ZHAO, Ph.D., University of Missouri-Columbia, 1996
Rice, Oryza sativa L., is an important cereal crop. Yet where and when rice was domesticated remains
an issue today. According to prior archaeological record and wild rice investigations from China,
the middle Yangtze region in China was proposed in this study as a likely place where rice was
domesticated. The objective of this study is to report reliably identified botanical data from
carefully excavated and well documented archaeological sites to provide further evidence for the
process of rice domestication in the middle Yangtze region.
Using an ecological approach, which incorporates an examination of biological characteristics of
rice, the paleoenvironmental record, and related cultural contexts, a hypothesis is developed to
explain why and how rice was domesticated in the middle Yangtze region. The hypothesis is then
tested through studies of several archaeological sites, and a detailed analysis is made of plant
remains relevant to issues of the timing and nature of rice domestication. The results support the
hypothesis in many respects. Wild rice was distributed in the middle Yangtze about 12,000 BP, and
wild rice collection was a component in local subsistence during the Late Paleolithic. The first
domesticated rice emerged in the Early Neolithic, around 9000 BP. The transition to rice
domestication, characterized by coexistence of domesticated rice and wild rice, lasted until around
8000 BP, after which domesticated rice finally replaced wild rice in subsistence. In addition,
Pengtoushan rice is identified as products of truly domesticated rice. This study also provides some
information about the transition to rice agriculture: data suggest a possible increase in the use of
rice during the early Middle Neolithic (ca. 6500 BP). This study contributes to the enrichment of
the knowledge of the issue of domestication in general and the transition to rice domestication in
China in particular.
Phytolith analysis is employed as the research method in the study. A new method of rice phytolith
identification developed at the Paleoethnobotany Lab of the University of Missouri permits the
identification of rice at critical time periods and sites. The successful application of this new
method contributes positive information to issues of importance of phytolith analysis in archaeology
and paleoecology.
A study of the Bronze Age culture in the Northern Zone of China
by PAK Yangjin, Ph.D., Dept Anthropology, Harvard University, 1995
This thesis first discusses various Bronze Age cultures in the Northern Zone of China during the
second and first millennia BC, with particular attention to their spatial and temporal
distributions, subsistence economies, and cultural relations to one another. This study proposes the
term 'Northern Zone' to identify the unique cultural area on the northern frontiers of China during
the Bronze Age, characterized by its distinctive cultural, economic, and ethnic attributes. The
thesis surveys archaeological complexes located in northeast, north-central, and northwestern China,
and traces their cultural changes and developments over two thousand years. Through diachronic and
synchronic comparisons, such issues as the development of bronze metallurgy, the emergence of
pastoral nomadism, and the interaction between people of the Northern Zone and their neighbors are
discussed. As a case study, archaeological data from the Yuhuangmiao cemetery are analyzed to
investigate the mortuary sysbolism and social organization of a bronze age society that existed in
northern Beijing in the first millennium BC. In this analysis of the Yuhuangmiao society, several
quantitative methods are used to illustrate that this society had at least three tiers of social
hierarchy and that it was characterized by achieved social status and social differentiation based
on age and gender. The analysis of diverse Bronze Age cultures in the Northern Zone, combined with
the case study of the Yuhuangmiao cemetery, provides an opportunity for a fresh understanding of the
nature of these so-called 'peripheral' societies, their subsistence economies, and their dynamic
interactions with neighboring societies.
Development of chiefdom societies in the middle and lower Yellow river valley in
neolithic China: a study of the Longshan culture from the perspective of settlement patterns
by Li LIU, Ph.D. Dept of Anthropology, Harvard University, 1994
This thesis is an attempt to apply concepts of chiefdom(as a theoretical framework) and settlement
archaeology (as an analytical method) to the study of the Longshan culture (2500-2000 BC) during the
late Neolithic period in the middle and lower Yellow River valley of northern China.
These investigations focus on such features as social stratification, mode of production, ritual
practice, settlement hierarchy, regional interaction, and demographic parameters. Settlement pattern
data are analyzed on three levels: household, community and region. Study of household settlement
patterns (Chapters 2 & 3)-including contextual analysis of faunal remains, artifacts, and
features-is based on data from excavations conducted at the Kangjia site in Shaanxi province in
1990. Study of settlement patterns at the community level includes two parts: 1) development of
residential patterns from the pre-Longshan to the Longshan period (Chapter 4), and 2) social
hierarchy as reflected in grave furniture and spatial organization of burials in several Longshan
cemeteries (Chapter 5). Analysis of regional settlement patterns focuses on such topics as
settlement hierarchy, settlement location, population parameters, and regional interaction (Chapter
6 & 7).
Three types of chiefdom systems-unified, competing, and underdeveloped-are identified in different
regions based on settlement pattern and other archaeological evidence. The earliest state seems to
have developed from one of the varieties of competing systems, which were not the most complex
chiefdom organizations existing at that time in northern China.
Religion and ritual activities (ancestor worship and shamanism), long-distance exchange of elite
goods, population growth, and inter-group conflict all played important roles in the development of
chiefdoms. Inter-group conflict, however, was probably the most significant factor responsible for
the emergence of the earliest state in China.
JOBS & GRANTS
Grants Received
Japan Foundation Grants 1996/97
Archeological Institute of America: "National Lectureship in Japanese Archeology." Apr '96-Mar
'97.
Ho, Puay Peng (Assoc. Prof. Chinese Univ of Hong Kong): "Architectural exchanges: Japanese Buddhist
monasteries from the 6th-8th centuries and their mainland prototypes." Institute for Research in
Humanitites, Kyoto University, Jun-Oct '96.
Kuzmin, Yaroslav V. (Research Assoc. Pacific Inst. of Geography): "Cultural chronologies of the
Stone Age in Russian Far East and Japan: a comparative study." Kokogakuin University, Sept-Nov '96.
Meshcheryakob, Alexander N. (Sector Head, Institute of Oriental Stuidies): "Informational life in
Asuka and Nara Japan." Nichibunken, Kyoto, Oct '96 - Jan '97.
Faulkner, Rupert (Deputy Curator, Far Eastern Collection, V&A Museum, London): "Japanese food
culture and the evolution of vessels: the case of Seto and Mino ceramics 1550-1650." Nezu Institute
of Fine Art, Mar-May '97
Wangdi, Dechen (Civil Engineer, Ministry of Home Affairs, Bhutan): "The acquisition of techniques
for the conservation of buildings classed as cultural properties." Cultural Properties Protection
Dept, Agency for Cultural Affairs, Aug '96-Feb '97.
Dei Negri, Jasmina (Collaborator, Museum of Oriental Arts Venice, Ministry of Cultural Properties):
"Specialization of lacquering techniques in order to deal with restoration of urushi objects."
Tobunken, Oct '96-Mar '97.
Lyaw Oo Lwin (Research Officer, Dept of Archaeology, Myanmar): "Excavation at Historic Cities."
Nabunken, May-Nov '96.
Pant, Deepak (Teacher, Dept of Architectural Engineering, Tribhuvan Univ, Nepal): "Recording and
preservation techniques of timber structures." Kobe Design Univ, Jul-Dec '96.
Tsjeroenova, I.J. (Conservator, Teyler Museum, The Netherlands): "Specialists in preservation and
restoration of cultural properties." Ishikawa Pref. Museum of Art, Oct '96-Mar '97.
Khan, Muhammad (Curator, Archaeological Museum, Harappa, Pakistan): "Cultural property specialists."
Shiga Pref. Univ, May-Nov '96.
Vu, Huu Minh (Conservator, Hue Monuments Conservation Center, Vietnam): "Research on the method of
preservation and conservation of Japanese wooden architecture and museology." Minpaku Oct '96-Mar
'97.
Nguyen, The Hung (Expert, Dept of Conservation & Museology, Ministry of Culture & Information,
Vietnam): "Laws of Japan: protection and management of the cultural properties." Geidai, May-Nov
'96.
Teneva, Nadejda (Head Curator, National Ethnographic Museum, Bulgaria): "The system of
administration, planning, and presentation in museums in Japan." Ancient Orient Museum. Dec '96-May'
97.
Benavides Calle, M.B. (Sub-Director, National Museum of Archaeology, Anthropology and History of
Peru): "Applications of the new museographic technologies of Japan to Peruvian museums." May-July
'96.
Japan Foundation grants fiscal 1994
Okpoko, Alex (Univ Nigeria) "Archaeology and cultural heritage management in Japan"
Nguyen, Giang Hai (Nat. Centre for Social Sciences & Humanities) "Comparative study of the metal age
between Japan and Vietnam: Yayoi and Dongson culture"
Ermakova, Liuodmilla M. (Institute of Oriental Studies, RAS) "Research and translation of the
Nihongi"
Fan, Zai-xuan (Dunhuang Institute) "Wall painting conservation"
Lu, Zhi-rong (Shanxi Prov. Archaeological Institute) "Excavation of a 2nd-c. BC Japanese village
[Hyogo Pref.]
Kim, Gyu-ho (Hoam Art Museum) "Study of conservation science for metal artifacts"
Ndoro, Webber (Nat. Museums & Monuments of Zimbabwe) "Conservation of archaeological and historical
sites"
Toyota Foundation
Kitagawa, Hiroyuki (Nichibunken) "A reconstruction of environmental changes at the beginning of
agriculture"
Korea Foundation
Sasse, Werner (Hamburg Univ) "Korean linguistic history: language of Silla"
CICC/CCK Grants (Association for Asian Studies)
Dunstan, Helen (then Indiana State Univ): a translation grant for three issues of Chinese
Environmental History Newsletter.
Shaughnessy, Edward (Univ of Chicago): translation grant for the Shigaku Zasshi review of
scholarship for publication in Early China.
EXHIBITIONS & MUSEUM NEWS
This section may include overlaps with "Newsletter, EAAA" listings; for fuller information about art historical showings, subscribe to Newsletter, East Asian Art & Archaeology, Dept. Art History, Univ. Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109-1357, USA.
BRITAIN
Ever since the expansion of European trading interests into Asia in the 16th century, the arts of
India, China and Japan have played an important role in western culture "East Meets West", a display
in the newly refurbished Silver Galleries at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London, examines the
relationship between the arts of Asia and Europe, particularly in the realm of metalwork. 15 April -
2 November 1997.
The Burrell Collection in Glasgow was host to the "Treasures of the Warrior Tombs: Golden Age of the
Russian Steppes" between 29 Nov 96-31 Mar 97. Drawn from the Museums of Rostov and Azov, these
materials are on exhibit for the first time outside Southern Russia. The artifacts include
exquisitely crafted necklaces, plaques, clothiing ornaments, weapons and riding equipment, including
a bow case and quiver (Gorythus) covered in sheet gold and highly decorated with images of the
Scythians at war, and an ornamental gold scabbard from the 4th c. BC. An accompanying publication is
available at FAX +44-141-332-9957.
CHINA
The new Shanghai Museum was opened on 12 October 1996. FAX+86-21-6371-1071
EUROPE
At the Museum Voor Volkenkunde, Rotterdam, "Uzbekistan: heirs of the Silk Road" is showing January -
July 1997. It includes over 40 previously unpublished new acquisitions from the Han to Yuan
dynasties, originating at the Linden-Museum für Völkerkunde, Stuttgart. An English catalog is
available for DM 50.
HONG KONG
The Art Museum of the Chinese University of Hong Kong celebrated its 25th anniversary in a special
exhibition from its collections of "Chinese art treasures in academia", 22 Nov 96-16 Jan 97.
JAPAN
The National Museum of Ethnology in Osaka has opened new exhibits on South Asia and in the Vision
Plaza and Objects Plaza. The Southeast Asian exhibits have been renewed, and so have the Language
exhibits. The adjunct opening occurred on 14 November 1996.
The 1996 Exhibition of New Archaeological Discoveries touring Japan since June 18th will close on
February 23rd, in preparation for this year's exhibition. Materials excavated during the fiscal year
(April-March) are introduced to the public beginning in June. Venues include the Tokyo National
Museum, the Tohoku Historical Museum, the Gunma Prefectural History Museum, the Kochi Prefectural
History & Ethnology Museum, the Hiroshima Prefectural History & Ethnology Museum, Oita Prefecture
Crafts building, Shiga Prefectural Ando-jo Archaeology Museum, and the Yamanashi Prefectural
Archaeology Museum.
The Tokyo National Museum was showing "National Treasures from Kofukuji Temple" 14 Jan-16 Mar 1997.
KOREA
The National Museum's temporary headquarters in Seoul were officially opened to the public on 13 Dec
1996. They are housed in the annex building in Kyongbok Palace, southwest of the Japanese-built
building which had been used for the Museum these past 20 years or so until it was torn down last
summer. The temporary Museum has 6,000m2 of exhibition space and a total of 4,500 art pieces will be
displayed in 18 permanent and 2 special exhibition halls. These include the halls of Prehistory,
Koguryo, Paekche, Silla, Kaya, United Silla, Koryo celadon, Choson white porcelain, Buddhist
sculpture, painting, metalic handicrafts and historic data. New displays, such as the life-size
model of Changchon Tomb #1 from Koguryo and the tiger-shaped buckle recently excavated from Kyongju
will change periodically. Foreign exhibition halls (e.g. Central Asia, Japan and China) will be
closed for the time being and their relics will be featured in special exhibitions. In the lobby of
the Museum are displayed two miniatures of Kyongbok Palace, which were built recently, both
measuring 4m wide and 12m long. The first features the royal palace in 1888, before the Japanese
destroyed most of its 330 buildings and the main street, where the buildings of six government
ministries were situated. The second shows the palace in 1945, after the Japanese damaged it to
establish their colonial government headquarters in front of the palace's main building.
(condensed from Korea Newsreview 14 Dec 96: 29)
PHILIPPINES
The Ayala Museum in Manila will be showing "Ancient Blue and White wares from archaeological sites
in the Philippines" March to June 1997. The exhibition is organised by the Oriental Ceramic Society
of the Philippines; contact: Allison Diem, PO Box 8080, Dasmarinas Village, Makati, Manila.
TAIWAN
The National Palace Museum opened a special exhibition on "Circular Jades" in January 1995, and two
other exhibits on "Artifacts from a Late Shang dynasty royal tomb" and "Shang dynasty bronze
inscriptions" are continuing indefinitely. The permanent installations include "Bronze ritual
vessels of the Shang and Chou dynasties", "Oracle bones of the Late Shang dynasty", "Pre-Han
pottery", "Pottery between the Han and Sung dynasties", and "Chinese jades through the dynasties."
UNITED STATES
The Denver Art Museum has acquired a Tibetan sand mandala as a permanent part of its Asian
collection. It was created from September 10-22, 1996 by monks from the Seraje Monastery and
exhibited in situ. Sand mandalas have served to illustrate Tibetan Buddhist scripture for over 2000
years; this one is of the protective deity Hayagriva, who is believed to be a wrathful manifestation
of the Buddha of Great Compassion. He is usually depicted as black in color with four heads with
three eyes each, a halo and aura of flames, and multiple arms each wielding a weapon.
Also at the Denver Art Museum, the exhibit "Honoring the soul: ancient Chinese tomb figures" is
being shown from 27 Jan 1996-14 Dec 1997. It is the third in a series of rotating, thematic displays
from the extensive Sze Hong Collection of Chinese Art. The tomb figures date mainly from the Tang
dynasty.
The Phoenix Art Museum also has been showing "Tang dynasty tomb figures loaned from the Robert B.
Mayer Memorial Collection" since April 1995 with indefinite closing. The exhibition consists of
Chinese tomb sculptures from the early 8th century that represent military and civil officials, and
some of the Museum's holdings of 18th century Chinese imperial court robes and textiles.
The Brooklyn Museum of Art in New York reopened its Chinese galleries on November 8, 1996. The new
installation, titled "Returns to the Past," contains approximately 120 paintings, calligraphic
works, ceramics and other art objects from the Neolithic period to the Qing dynasty.
LECTURES
Society for Asian Art, San Francisco
9 Dec 94 "Western exotica in China", by Al Dien (Stanford)
Asia Society, New York
11 Mar 95 "Chinese archaeology today", by Al Dien (Stanford)
Asian Art Society for the South-West (England)
23 Oct 96 "The Jomon age of Japan: 10,000 years of the world's oldest known pottery," by Edward
Field
Circle of Inner Asian Art, SOAS, Univ of London
12 Mar 97 "Kushan Bactria-Tokharistan: problems of history, culture and art", by Boris Stavisky
(Russian State Univ for Humanities, Moscow)
23 Apr 97 "Interchange and counter-influences in silk textiles from China (10-14th c.)", by Krishna
Riboud (Musée Guimet, Paris)
7 May 97 "The Otani Collection in Seoul," by PAK Youngsook (SOAS, Univ of London)
3 Jul 97 "The forgeries of Dunhuang manuscripts conference: results," collective report
Institute for Asian Studies, New York
6 Nov 96 "Korean potters in Japan," by Robert Moes (Band Graduate Center, NY)
12 Nov 96 "Non-Chinese cultures along the Old Silk Road," by Trudy Kawami (Arthur M. Sackler
Foundation)
22 Nov 96 "Early Chinese ceramics: Neolithic-Han," by Robert D. Mowry (Harvard Univ Art Museums)
2 Dec 96 "Musical instruments along the Old Silk Road," By Bo Lawergren (Hunter College)
14 Dec 96 "Gallery Tour: new galleries for Chinese art at the Brooklyn Museum," by John R. Finlay
(Asst. Curator of Asian Art)
Michigan Chinese Society of Liberal Arts, Science & Technology, Ann Arbor
23 Nov 96 "Hundred years of archaeology in the Tarim Basin," by Dolkun Kamberi (Univ.
Pennsylvania)
Center for Chinese Studies Faculty Research Seminar, Univ Michigan, Ann Arbor
26 Nov 96 "Art and artifacts unearthed along the ancient Silk Road," by Dolkun Kamberi (Univ.
Pennsylvania)
The British Museum Lecture Series, London
25 Sept 96 "The spiritual worlds of ancient China," by Jessica Rawson (Merton College, Oxford)
3 Oct 96 "Chinese ideas of life and death," by Michael Loewe (Clare Hall, Cambridge)
16 Oct 96 "The bronze cultures in ancient China," by WANG Tao (SOAS, Univ London)
Universität Heidelberg, Germany
3 June 96 "Bronze works of art from Dian and their sculptural peculiarity in the interplay of
shaping and image creation," by Magdalene von Dewall
Kunsthaus Lecture Series, Zürich
24 Apr 96 "The mystery of Sanxingdui: traces of the 'Shu culture' dating to the Shang dynasty in
Sichuan," by Roger Goepper (Universität Köln)
8 May 96 "Courtly display for the next world: tomb and tomb furnishings of the Shang royal consort
Fu Hao," by Helmut Brinker
25 June 96 "Shamans and ancestors: religious meditation in Neolithic and Shang China (ca. 5000-1000
BC)", by David N. Keightley (Univ California Berkeley)
19 June 96 "Linking past, present and future: Chu art of the Warring States period," by Jenny F. So
(Smithsonian Institution)
3 July 96 "Tomb paintings and tomb sculptures of the Han period (206BC-220 AD)," by Jan Fontein
NOTEWORTHIES
Notes in the current issue are referred to as NOTEWORTHIES No. 00, while those in a previous issue will be referred to as NOTEWORTHIES 00-00, with the issue number before the dash and the note number after the dash.
- CHINESE DISCOVERIES
- 20,000 year-old site with traces of human activity discovered in Beijing
At the end of last year, 20,000 year-old evidence of human activity in the lower palaeolithic was discovered from a construction site on Dong1-fang1 Square, at Wang2-fu3-jing3 Blvd., Beijing. This evidence includes:
• a deposit of little pieces of burned black charcoal;
• splinters of flint (made with a bone implement? = ren2-gong1 da3-zhi4
xing2-cheng2 de0 gu3-zhi4 sui4-shi2 sui4-pian4) found nearby;
• some fireplaces (yi4-xie1 huo3 shao1 guo4 de0 yi2-ji4); and
• fossils.
The total area of activity of early humans at this site is estimated at 2 sq. km. The discoveries were made by Yue4 Sheng1-yang2, doctoral candidate at Beijing University, who had visited the huge construction site more than ten times since spring, because he suspected something to turn up in this area, which had yielded animal fossiles before.
Excavation, which is scheduled to last about half a month, is being conducted by Li3 Chao1-rong2 (associate research fellow of the Institute of Palaeoanthropology at the Chinese Academy of Science) and Yu4 Jin1-cheng2 (Beijing Municipal Institute of Cultural Artifacts), who confirmed the age of the findings.
So far, similar finds of remnants of prehistoric human activity in Beijing has been restricted to hilly areas, like Yan2-qing4, Ping2-gu3 or Huai2-rou2, while the Beijing plain yielded only some 30 sites with fossilized mammals. This seemed to implicate that prehistoric humans in the area led a life as cave-dwellers. When they finally descended from the mountains to inhabit the plains had remained an unanswerable question for long. (Zhongguo Shibao 10 Jan 97: 9 via eaanet) - 6,000 year-old cemetery discovered in Jiangsu
Recently, a cemetery of the Neolithic Ma3-jia1-kou3 (sic) culture, with 18 wholly preserved skeletons, has been excavated in Guang3-fu2 village, belonging to Tao2-yuan2 district (zhen4), near Wu2-jiang1 city, Jiangsu. Radio-carbon technology at the Beijing University as well as dendrochronology permitted to establish a date of more than 6000 BP. The cemetery, measuring 111 square meters, consists of 18 pits, one for each individual. Skeletal remains of both sexes were found. Two of the women's graves contained pieces of agate (ma3-nao3) as funerary objects. The excavation has been conducted by a joint team of the Suzhou Municipal Museum and the Wu2-jiang1 Municipal Association for the Preservation of Cultural Artifacts. The skeletal remains have already been transported to
the Suzhou Museum, where a team of ethnologists, physiologists, and pathologists is forming to conduct further research. (from Xinhuashe via Enno Giele on eaanet) - Sanguo Wu strips and boards found in Changsha
When? Recently (ri4-qian2)
Where? In an old well discovered on a construction site in the Changsha city center
What? Several tens of thousands (shu4-wan4) of bamboo strips (zhu2-jian3) and wooden boards (mu4-du2)
Appearance:
Colour: of a greyish or yellowish brown
Format: all different lengths and widths
Layout:
Bamboo strips: 30 - 40 characters on one strip
Wooden boards: 80 - 120 characters on one board
Script: Clerical (li4-shu1) with some kai1-shu1 interspersed, written out neatly
Preservation: characters clearly legible
Contents:
Date: Events between +232 and +237 (1st to 6th year of Jia1-he2, reign period of
Sun1 Quan2 of the San1-guo2 Wu2 dynasty) are related to.
Origin: files of the head office of Changsha commandery (jun4-fu3) [It is not
explicitly stated in the article, whereupon this judgement is based, but
it probably derives from the contents specified below.]
Types of documents:
debentures (quan4-shu1)
judicial documents (si1-fa3 wen2-shu1)
files on the staff of the commandery bureau (jun4-suo3 ren2-ming2-shi4-bu4)
[shi4 as the shi4 for "clan"]
namecards to be produced on a visit at the gate of the host (ming2-ci4)
"guan1-ci4" [guan1 = "official"] = ?
accounting ledgers (zhang4-bu4)
[Please correct me, if you find fault with any of the above translations. Enno Giele on eaanet concerning the original Chinese article in Lianhebao 29 Dec 1996] - Excavation of a Han dynasty cemetery in Turfan
"The Xinjiang Archaeological Institute, in cooperation with the Department of History of Inada University, Japan, have for the past three years conducted joint surveys and excavations of an ancient cemetery at Gouxi ('west of the moat'), Jiacheng (Yarkhoto). The joint surveys, mainly conducted by Chinese scholars, carried out a complete scientific survey of the ancient cemetery in the Gouxi area, and produced a map of the area and the distribution of the ancient tombs on a scale of 1/500. Altogether there are more than 2,000 ancient tombs of various sizes, 1,500 of which date to the period from the Jin to the Tang dynasties, and 500 of which may belong to the Cheshi people.
In the course of the three years, 22 tombs of the Gaochang kingdom, and of the Xizhou administration of the Tang dynasty were excavated. A number of Han dynasty epitaphy tablets were unearthed, with a large quantity of pottery, ornaments, etc., showing that the resident Chinese population occupied a significant position in the Gaochang kingdom and the Xizhou Jiaohe region in the Tang dynasty: their funerary practices and concepts were no different from those of the north-western area of the mother country.
From the tombs of the Cheshi kingdom of Han dynasty date in the Gouxi area, there were unearthed painted pottery with local characteristics, a gold crown with a design of wild animals, belt plaques, rings and cap ornaments, malachite flowers and a large quantity of Han wuzhu coins, a Western Han mirror with a design of stars and clouds, all with a strong element of local character, which will be extremely valuable for research into the cultural arts of the Cheshi kingdom and the close political and economic ties between the Cheshi and the Han court. (by Prof. WANG Binghua, Xinjiang Institute of Archaeology; from CIAA Newsletter 4: 8) - Shipwreck in northern Fujian
"The wreck, a joint project of the Western Australian Maritime Museum and the National Museum of Chinese History, is dated to the 12th-13th century by its ceramics. Hundreds of green-glazed and black-glazed wares were recovered from the body of the ship. Among these were easily recognizable examples of black-glazed ware, possibly made at Jianyang in Fujian. Presumably the ship was bound either for ports on the coast of China or for Japan, where...black-glazed tea bowls were highly prized." (from ACRO Update 1996[4]: 1-2) - Tang-dynasty tea ware kiln in Fujian
"According to Zhongguo Wenwu Bao (1996, June 2), [a 7-8th century kiln specializing in tea wares] has now been discovered. It is in Jiangle county, Fujian province, where archaeologists had previously found a number of Tang dynasty kilns that made ordinary green-glazed wares. The newly discovered kiln, however, seems to have specialized in ceramic discs, grinding bowls, tea trays and handled kettles. All of these appear to have been meant for preparing tea. The grinding bowls have a brownish green glaze on the exterior and an unglazed interior with crisscross incised lines, which when used with a disc or a pestle would have crushed dry tea leaves into powder, as required by Tang methods for preparing tea. Judging from the published description, the Jiangle wares are not the fancy tea vessels described by contemporary tea masters like Lu Yu. The Liangle products may represent a different and more modest style of tea drinking, perhaps confined to Fujian." (from ACRO Update 1996[4]: 2) - Double-walled medieval kilns excavated in Hubei
"Last year and early this year, the Hubei Provincial Museum and the Archaeology Department of Wuhan University carried out a second season of excavation at a large 10th-12th century kiln complex in Huxi county, not far from the Qingshan kiln complex that was found a few years ago (Zhongguo Wenwu Bao 1996, May 12). The two newly excavated kilns have remaining lengths of 50 meters and 20 meters respectively. Both produced high quality wares with bluish white, or qingbai, glazes. The excavators say that some pieces are comparable in quality to contemporary qingbai wares from Jindezhen. From a technical standpoint, the excavations revealed two unusual features: the front part of Kiln No. 1 was double-walled and contained numerous grey tiles under the collapsed kiln ceiling. The double wall is believed to have been meant for retaining heat, and the tiles for supporting the arched kiln roof. It is not clear [whether] these features cannot have other explanations. Apparent double walls are common enough in kiln excavations, but these almost always turn out to be the remains of two single-walled kiln structures built side-by-side, one earlier than the other. And the grey tiles could be items of kiln furniture rather than the remnants of a roof support." (from ACRO Update 1996[4]: 2)
- 20,000 year-old site with traces of human activity discovered in Beijing
- CALL FOR PAPERS ON LITHIC TECHNOLOGY
Dr. Anatoli M. Kuznetsov (KUZN@uspi.marine.su) from Vladivostok invites the submission of papers 8-10 pages long on lithic technology problems in the Paleolithic/ Neolithic of the Far East (China, Japan, Korea, etc.) for a new book on lithic studies. Contact Dr. Kuznetsov directly. (from Dr. Tabarev 11 Dec 96 via eaanet)
- GONG SHOW: CD ROM ON QIN
"The world probably doesn't need another Myst-like game. But until the sequel comes out, a highly atmospheric [computer] game like "Qin: Tomb of the Middle Kingdom" will have to suffice. ...it centers on an archeologist who is excavating the burial chamber of Qin Shi Huangdi, first empoeror of China; players solve puzzles and dodge traps to solve the mystery. The game's superlative photo-realistic images and animations take a step beyond Myst, and the classical Chinese score evokes a haunting mood. It may lack the elegance of Myst's interface, where all you had to do was click on where you wanted to go, but Qin has a set of charms all its own." US$49.95; tel. 800-759-0190 in USA only.
(from Newsweek Cyberscope column)
- DISCOVERIES IN THE JAPANESE MEDIA (1996)
- Nagaoka 8th-century ground breaking ceremony (Yomiuri Shimbun 14 Aug 96)
A square area surrounded by a row of pillars, thought to have been used for ground-breaking cermonies just before the construction of a new capital city by Emperor Kanmu, has been excavated in the ruins of the former imperial capital of Nagaoka, Japan, by the Kyoto Prefecture Muko City Buried Cultural Properties Center. The Nihon Shoki (8th-century Chronicles of Japan) records ground-breaking ceremonies being carried out before the building of new capitals, beginning with the construction of the Fujiwara Capital, but this is the first time these records have been corroborated. - Excavation of a spoon in Tottori (Nihon Keizai Shimbun 4 Sept 96)
The municipal Board of Education of Kurayoshi City, Tottori Prefecture, Japan, has announced the excavation of a spoon closely resembling, in both size and shape, the Sahari Spoons of the Shosoin Treasure House. The spoon was excavated from the ruins of the Omido Temple in the Dakyoji-cho area of Kurayoshi City. The spoon was discovered in a ditch on the east side of the temple precincts. It is round with a diameter of 6.5 cm and a thickness of 0.3 to 0.6 mm. It is made of an alloy of copper and tin called sahari. Unfortunately, the spoon is broken and partially missing. The upper and lower surfaces of the end of the 21-cm- long narrow handle is worn down, indicating considerable usage. The find is attracting attention regarding its relationship to the spread of Buddhist culture. - Horse haniwa with high-sided stirrup (Sankei Shimbun 15 May 96)
A horse-shaped haniwa figurine dating back to the 6th century was discovered at Misato-machi in Saitama Prefecture, Japan. The figurine, with a stirrup located on the right side, provides the oldest evidence of the unique Japanese style of mounting from the right. In this sense, it is considered an extremely valuable article in the study of the spread of equestrian culture from the Asiatic continent. - Ceramic pagodas in Fukuoka (Asahi Shimbun 30 May 96)
Three hundred ceramic objects resembling Buddhist pagodas have been discovered in Fukuoka at the remains of the Korokan, a diplomatic guest house used during the Nara and Heian periods for continental visitors. Ceramic items imported into Japan during those periods were mainly Buddhist implements. However, potters from Fukuoka and Saga prefectures, who organized an exhibit of these works, say they go far beyond mere utilitarian objects to works of art. - Sword with swirled pattern (Yomiuri Shimbun 10 June 96)
A 3rd-century iron sword with a distinctive swirled pattern, found at the Nezuka remains in Kijimadaira village, Nagano prefecture, is the earliest known representative of its type. Researchers believe that the sword was brought to Japan from the ancient state of Kaya in southern Korea, suggesting that advanced culture from the Korean peninsula entered Japan as early as the Yamataikoku period (3rd century). - Engraved stone from Jomon period (Asahi Shimbun 22 June 96)
A Late Jomon period engraved stone depicting the lower part of a woman's body has been discovered at Nishitosa-mura, Kochi prefecture. No other Jomon artifacts are known to represent the human figure. The oldest engraved stone depicting a human form was found ca. to km to the north at Mikawa-mura, Ehime-ken. - Acid rain damages Todai-ji lanterns (Asahi Shimbun 12 July 96)
The 8-faced copper lanterns at Todaiji Temple in Nara will be dismantled and repaired to remove rust resulting from acid rain. The votive lanterns, which date from the mid-eighth century, are designated national treasures. This is the first time a national treeasure made of copper has been subject to overhaul and repair due to acid rain-induced damages.
- Nagaoka 8th-century ground breaking ceremony (Yomiuri Shimbun 14 Aug 96)
- RESEARCH ON JAPAN & JAPANESE CULTURE
Interdisciplinary research by around seventy researchers from many different fields will be initiated in 1997. The aim of the research is to clarify how the Japanese race and Japanese culture were formed. OMOTO Keiichi, Professor of Physical Anthropology at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies (Nichibunken), will serve as the research coordinator. The research will be divided into the four categories: 1) the natural environment, 2) anthropology, 3) archaeology, 4) Japanese culture. Importance will be placed on empirical proof from surveys including excavations, practical experiments, and documentary research throughout Asia carried out with the goal of formulating theories regarding the Japanese race and Japanese culture. (Asahi Shimbun 26 Sept 96)
The final installment of the previous research project, a mini-symposium on "New methods of research on regionalism" was held on 4-5 March 1996. Papers given in Japanese were:- Koyama, Shuzo: Regionalism in Aomori Prefecture-database analysis of historic sites
- Goto, Yoshiko: Rice regions and millet regions in a graph of nationwide agriculture-from the standpoint of nutritional science
- Murayama, Satoshi: Regionalism in the process of urbanization-a comparison of Japan and Europe, especially Germany
- Sanada, Shinji: Diffusion and language filters
(Nichibunken Newsletter 24 (May) 1996: 4)
- JAPANESE PROJECTS IN CENTRAL ASIA
- Prof. Kato of Soka Univ is excavating at Krasnaya Rechka in Kirgizia.
- Prof. Katsumi TANABE of Kanazawa Univ is excavating on the citadel at Dalverzin tepe in Uzbekistan.
- A seminar was held 6-7 July 1996 on "The Near East: from Hellenism to the early Islamic period"
at Kanazawa Univ, Kanazawa, Japan, organised by Prof. Sasaki. Papers read included a technical study
of Palmyrene textiles by Kazuko SAKAMOTO, pre-Islamic deities in Sogdia based on Islamic sources by
Prof. Nakao OTANI, and the excavations at Merv by Dr. St. John Simpson. (submitted to CIAA by St.J.
Simpson)
- SOUTH THAI-SOUTH CHINA TRADE WORKSHOP
Janice Stargardt, Director of the Cambridge Project on Ancient Civilization in Southeast Asia (Dept of Geography, Cambridge Univ) was responsible for a workshop on "Ancient Maritime Trade between South Thailand and South China, 10th-14th Century" held at the Prince of Songkla University on 8-12 Dec 1995. She presented two papers and led field research to forest/coastal sites of archaeological and environmental significance. Workshop delegates were from Thailand, Malaysia and Vietnam.
(ASEASUK News 19 [spring] 1996: 3)
- HANGZHOU UNIVERSITY DUNHUANG RESEARCH CENTRE
This research centre, founded in 1994 and now based at Hangzhou University Library, produces a regular newsletter. The latest issue (no. 5) contains reports of the first meeting of the editorial committee of the 'Collected Works on Dunhuang Documents', held in May 1996; an introduction to the editorial plan for this series; an introduction to the Dunhuang Research Centre; and a request for funding and collaboration and for exchange of research materials. (from IDP News 6 [Nov] 96: 2)
- EQUIDS OF THE GOBI
Judith Kolbas is tracing the historical evidence for the horse trade from Central Asia, including Mongolia, into India and China. She is collating drawings and descriptions which should provide information about the status and use of the trade network. Material from Dunhuang and other Central Asian sites will are especially targeted. She is particularly looking for depictions in any media of the native Mongolian pony, Przewalski's horse; a rare diplomatic document attests that one was once given as a gift to the Chinese emperor. Any information on the ancient horse trade of Central Asia and the steppe zone would be gratefully received. Contact: Dr. J. Kolbas, President The Wild Equid Society, 5 Percy Road, London E16 4RB, UK.
- GRADUATE STUDENT DIRECTORIES ON WWW
- A World Wide Web directory is being compiled of graduate students in premodern Japanese studies. Any graduate students wishing to be listed should contact Morgan Pitelka by e-mail: mpitelka@phoenix.princeton.edu. The directory itself can be found at http://www.princeton.edu/~mpitelka/grads.html.
- A directory listing graduate students in Chinese and Japanese art history can be found at
http://pages.nyu.edu/~boc7379/. This was compiled by Nixi Cura (Institute of Fine Arts, New York
University).
- TOP 10 CHINESE DISCOVERIES FOR 1996
According to Zhongguo shibao, 2 Feb1997: 9, the Chinese National Office for Cultural Artefacts made known its choice for the top ten archaeological finds of 1996 on the 1st of February as follows:- Over 10,000 stone implements from the Upper Pleistocene found at Yandunbao, Fengdu district, Sichuan province.
- A relatively complete neolithic cemetery from the late period of Yellow River valley Yangshao culture found in the Henan, Mengjin Zhouli Xiaolangdi reservoir.
- Five sites with fortifications (chengzhi) from the time of the Longshan period, 4000-5000 years BP, discovered on the Chengdu plain.
- 42 burials of the lords and the nobles of the state of Ying, dating from the early Western Zhou period to the early Chunqiu period, excavated near Pingding Mountain in Henan.
- The undisturbed mausoleum of the Western Han king of Jibei found in Changqing district, Shandong province.
- Several thousands of strips and boards, probably archives from the Sanguo state of Wu which are partly dated, found inside an old well at the city center of Changsha.
- 22 burials of Xianbei nobles excavated in Lama-dong (Lama cave?), Beipiao city, Liaoning province and dating from about the end of the third to the middle of the fourth century.
- Over 200 Buddhist statues ranging in time from the Northern Wei to the Northern Song dynasties, all discovered within the site of the Longxing temple in Qingzhou, Shandong.
- The Turfan burials at Dulan in Qinghai province, consisting of 60 burials of people of the Tuyuhun nationality, which are most noteworthy for the silken fabrics from the Tang dynasty that they contained.
- The family cemetery of An Bing at Huaying, Sichuan province. An Bing was a famous advocate of
the cause of the Southern Song dynasty against the Jurced (Jurchen Tartars/Jin dynasty). His grave
is that of the highest ranking person of the Song dynasty ever found in Sichuan. (submitted to
eaanet by Enno Giele, 3 Feb 97; edited for presentation here)
- RUSSIAN PUBLICATIONS
S. Minjaev wrote on March 7th via eaanet: "Dear colleagues, St-Petersburg "Asiatic Fund" has published two issues of the series "Archaeological sites of the Hsiung-nu". The Hsiung-nu (Huns of Asia ) were nomadic tribes who headed a powerful alliance of cattle-breeding tribes in the late 3rd -the early 2nd century B.C. and dominated in the eastern part of Central Asia and Nothern China during two centuries, laying the foundation for the emergence of tribal alliances there on the Middle Ages. There are two books by Prof A. Davydova: 1. "Ivolga fortress", total edition of the main archaeological site of the Hsiung-nu; 2. "Ivolga cemetery". The cemetery was investigated fully. There are 216 tombs in the cemetery, in which were preserved details of the clothes, the necklaces, the beads unique and the details of the belts - the bronze plaques in "Ordos style", the bracelets etc. The books have Russian text, large English summary (30 pages), illustrations and a detailed description of all objects in English. The cost of each book is US$20 + postage. Contact: Serguei Minjaev, president of St-Petersburg "Asiatic Fund"; e-mail: min@asia.iimc.spb.ru
- SINO-CANADIAN FIELD SCHOOL IN CHINA
Archaeology Field Study '97, sponsored by the Sino-Canadian Field School of Art and Culture in collaboration with Xi'an Jiaotong University, August 18-September 8, 1997. (Dates may change slightly.)
Courses (taught in English): Archaeology Practicum (field work) (3 credits); Chinese Art and Culture (3 credits.) The courses will be supplemented by guest lectures by Chinese specialists. The program is co-sponsored by the Institutes of Archaeology of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Xi'an Branch and of Shaanxi Province. The program is open to undergraduate and graduate students, faculty members (colleges or universities), high school seniors and a limited number of interested adults. Participation is limited to 20. An official transcript for transfer credits is given, but the acceptance of transfer credits from Xi'an should be arranged by each participant with the school authorities.
Total costs: US$ 3,285.00. Including: Visa, Round-trip from/to YVR, Tuition fees, room and board (three meals per day), lodging in air-conditioned university guest house and hotel (twin sharing), visits in and around Xi'an; and tour in China (Beijing, Shanghai and its area). You may fly on your own and deduct US$910 from the total costs (drinks other than tea are not included). Down payment: US$200 should be received with application (refundable only if the program is cancelled). Half of the balance due: July 1, 1997. Second half due upon arrival in China in U.S. dollars (or by cashier's check on or before July 1, 1997, sent to Sino-Canadian School of Art and Culture). Participants are responsible for their own health, accident and travel insurances.
Contact: Canada Program Director: Ms. Rui WANG, Sino-Canadian Field School of Art and Culture, 415 E. 21 Avenue, Vancouver, B.C. V5V 1R3, Canada; tel/fax: (604) 708 5626, e-mail: dingj@intergate.bc.ca Deadline for application: ASAP.
- LONGSHAN WRITING REQUEST
Paola Dematte writes via eaanet on Feb 18th: " am reading an article by CAO Tingyun ("Shandong Zouping Dinggong yizhi 'Longshan taowen' bianwei." Zhongyuan Wenwu 1996 n. 2 pp. 32-38) on the famous (or infamous) inscribed potsherd unearthed at the Longshan site of Dinggong (Zouping, Shandong) in 1991 (recognized in 1992). According to Cao, while the shard is certainly Longshan in date, the inscription is most likely much more recent. This is an opinion expressed by other scholars as well. However, in an article published on Antiquity (n.69, 1995 pp. 459-80 "The evidence for early writing: utilitarian or ceremonial?") WANG Tao (with N. Postgate and T. Wilkinson) takes the Dinggong potsherd as genuine evidence of Longshan writing (p.468), and in addition presents other evidence of Longshan writing: a potsherd which has been unearthed at Longqiu bei (Gaoyou, Jiangsu) in 1993 (Zhongguo wenwu bao 14 November 1993), and whose 'inscription' stylistically resembles those on the Dinggong shard. I would like to know if anybody in this list has any specific opinion on this business of Longshan inscribed potsherds, and/or if anybody had the opportunity to examine first hand any of them. I would also like to find out if there is a complete archaeological report on the Longqiu bei find (other than the Wenwu bao). Thank you to all, Paola Dematte, Research Associate JP Getty Research Institute for the History of Art and the Humanities
Santa Monica, CA, USA e-mail: pdematte@getty.edu
- DUNHUANG JOURNAL
A new annual, the Journal of Dunhuang and Turfan Studies (JDTS) has been published at Beijing University, covering all aspects of Dunhuang and Turfan studies as well as related areas and issues in a broader perspective. Most of the articles are in Chinese with some in English; they concentrate on the texts from the Dunhuang library but may include material culture as well.
- NEW TRAIN STATION IN KYONGJU
After several years dispute among the South Korean government and archaeologists, it has been decided to build Kyongju station at Hwachon village instead of central Kyongju on the new high-speed railway linking Seoul and Pusan. The Korean Archaeological Society, headed by Prof. Kim Byung-mo during those years, lobbied hard to keep the station out of the city for fear of disturbing the cultural properties in the area. Even though the station was proposed to be put underground, it was felt that the vibrations, etc., of the line would do the cultural properties no good. However, some local archaeologists felt that an underground station would be infinitely better than running the railway above ground even in the basin periphery. Thus, opionion and loyalties were divided among even the archaeologists over this matter. Hwachon is located in a small valley southwest of the Kyongju Basin.
- BELLS OF THE BRONZE AGE
The magazine of the Archaeology Institute of America, entitled Archaeology, sponsored a third season of weekly TV programs last autumn. Installments of the 13-part series were based on the contents of the magazine. Among the offerings was one program on the Tomb of Marquis of Yi and its complement of a "remarkable orchestra complete with string, wind, and percussion instruments-including the largest bronze bell set ever recovered." Videotapes of the first season are now available, so the third season may also be marketed in the future. To order, contact: Films for the Humanities & Sciences, tel. 800-257-5126 in the USA or +1-609-275-1400.
- JAPAN FUNDS KARAKORUM PROJECT
Japan provided $450,000 for a UNESCO-supervised project to preserve the ruins of Karakorum, the ancient Mongolian capital. Built in 1235 by Ogdai Khan, the castle town of Karakorum flourished for twenty years until Kublai Khan, the first emperor of the Yuan dynasty, moved it to Ta-tu (also known as Cambuluc). Ceramic fragments, tiles, coins, and Buddhist paintings, and bits of colorful frescoes have been discovered at a site that is thought to be the remains of a palace. The three-year UNESCO preservation project is aimed at compiling a detailed map of the site, conducting a small-scale archaeological survey, and preserving and reproducing artifacts found there in cooperation with the Mongolian government. (Japan Foundation Newsletter 23.6, 1996)
- SOUTH CHINA POST
Archaeology news is frequent in the South China Post. Now the 1995 contents of the newspaper, a Hong Kong English-language daily, are being published on CD-Rom. This production not only has a text search facility, it also has a menu system which sorts the articles (ca. 80,000) by category. The question is, does it have a category for archaeology?
- DIGITISED DIAMOND SUTRA
"The Diamond Sutra, an ancient Chinese text dating from 868AD, acknowledged to be the earliest printed book in the world, is being digitised into an electronic format using the latest imaging technology. Graphic Data is converting the text, part of the British Library's Oriental and India Office Collections (OIOC), into an electronic format readable by computers. The company's digitising system, made up of a high-definition video camera, a graphics computer and a camera table, has been iunstalled on-site at the OIOC at Blackfriars, London. Once the Diamond Sutra is in electronic format, the British Library will be able to use it in many different ways; stored on DC for educational use or in multi-media presentations, as part of an online service, on the Internet and on intranets, or in any image database. The quality and colour of the text and scroll can be electronically enhanced and cleaned, and tears and stains on the original can be removed for reproduction purposes if required.
The original Diamond Sutra consists of sheets of paper with woodblock printed panels of religious text, rolled into a scroll 16 ft long and 12 inches wide. It begins with an intricate illustration of Buddha on a lotus throne, surrounded by Buddhist monks and angels." Contact: Graphic Data (UK) Ltd. Bicester Business Centre, Market Court, Victoria Road, Bicester, Oxon OX6 7QB, UK. FAX +44-1869-248449.
(Managing Information 4.3[Mar]: 4, 1997)
- THE FIRST EMPEROR CD-ROM & VIDEODISC
These are products of "Project Emperor", mounted by Dr. Ching-chih CHEN at the School of Library Science, Simmons College in Boston. Supported by an NEH Libraries Grant in 1984, he took "advantage of the PRC's new spirit of openness and the cooperation of Chinese archaeologists and museum officials to collect as much audio-visual material as possible on a subject of worldwide fascination: the subterranean array of more than 7,000 life-size soldiers, horses, and chariots replicating portions of the first emperor's army. Traveling to China, the research and media team collected films, photos, and other electronically reproducible materials, focusing on the society of the short-lived dynasty which produced these intriguing artifacts." The project team first issued the material on computer discs, then repackaged them as a videodisc, and the most recent edition is as a CD-ROM. Order from The Voyager Company, www.voyagerco.com
(Condensed from a review by Roland L. Higgins, Education about Asia 1.1: 62-4, 1996)
CONFERENCES:
CONFERENCE CALENDAR
Titles new to this issue are emboldened and those dealing specifically with East Asia are
starred
*Nov 5-9 '96: Chinese Ancient Ceramic Society 1996 Annual Meeting, Jinyang county Museum. Contact: YE Wencheng, Anthropology Dept, Xiamen Univ. Fax: +86-592-2086-402.
Dec 2-6 '96: 5th Symposium on Materials Issues in Art and Archaeology, Boston. Organised by the Materials Research Society. Contact: Pamela Vandiver, CAL, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560 USA Fax +1-301-238-3709, e-mail: pbv@cal.si.edu
Dec 5-7 '96: Australian Archaeological Association Conference 1996, South Australia. Contact: Colin Pardoe, S. Australian Museum, Univ of S. Australia, N. Terrace, Adelaide, SA 5000. e-mail: pardoe@ozemail.com.au
*Mar 13-16 '97: Association for Asian Studies (AAS), Chicago. amEAAN meeting in conjunction, 9-11 pm, March 14th in the Eire Room; contact Prof. Kathy Linduff, FAX 412-648-2792, e-mail: linduff@ums.cis.pitt.edu.
*Mar 22 '97: Oracle Bone Seminar, Lehigh University. QI Wenxin (CASS Institute of History, Beijing) will address the participants in Chinese on the Shang oracle bones as a historical resource for topics such as Shang communications systems and women's history. Contact: Connie Cook, Director of Asian Studies, Maginnes Hall, 9 W. Packer Ave., Lehigh Univ., Bethlehem PA 18015 USA. Tel. +1-610-758-3091; e-mail: cac8@lehigh.edu
Apr 1-2 '97: Paleoanthropology Society Meeting, St. Louis, Missouri. The annual meeting, this time held in conjunction with the American Association of Physical Anthropology. Abstracts will be published in the March issue of the Journal of Human Evolution. Contact: John Yellen, Archaeology Program, Room 995, National Science Foundation, 4201 Wilson Blvd., Arlington, VA 22230 USA. FAX +1-703-306-0485; e-mail jyellen@nsf.gov
*Apr 2-4 '97: Joint East Asian Studies Conference (JEASC), University of Durham, Contact: Lynn Baird, BAJS, Centre for Contemporary Japan, Univ of Essex, Colchester, Essex, England. e-mail: lynn@essex.ac.uk. For papers to be given on the archaeology panel, contact Gina Barnes, FAX +44-191-374-3242, e-mail: gina.barnes@durham.ac.uk
Apr 2-6 '97: Annual Society for American Archaeology (SAA) meetings, Nashville, Tennessee.
*Apr 17-21 '97: Association for Korean Studies in Europe (AKSE) meetings, Stockholm. Contact: Dr. B.
Walraven, Centre for Japanese & Korean Studies, Univ of Leiden, Leiden, The Netherlands.
*Apr 25-27 '97: Midwest Conference on East Asian History and Culture, Ohio State University. Contact David Wittner (wittner.1@osu.edu) at 106 Dulles Hall, 230 West 17th Avenue, Columbus, OH 43210-1367 USA.
*June 16-18 '97: Chinese Textiles, London. PDF Colloquies on Art & Archaeology in Asia No. 19. Contact: Elizabeth Jackson, Percival David Foundation, 53 Gordon Square, London WC1H 0PD, UK.
*July 7-12 '97: 35th International Congress of Asian and North African Studies (ICANAS), Budapest. General subject: "Oriental Studies in the 20th century: state of the art." A special panel about Aurel Stein and archaeology on the Silk Road is planned, and an exhibition on the Silk Road is being prepared. Contact: Körösi Csoma Society, Muzeum krt 4/b, H-1088 Budapest, Hungary.
*Aug 25-7 '97: 2nd International Conference on Ancient World History, Changchun, Jilin, China. Sponsored by the Society of Ancient and Medieval World History in China. Abtracts due by May 1997; registration forms due by August 1st. Contact: Dr. WU Yuhong (Oriental Studies) or Dr. ZHANG Qiang (Classics), IHAC, Northeast Normal University, Changchun 130024, China. Fax. 86-431-568-4027, Email: ihac@ivy.nenu.edu.cn
Sept 9-11 '97: 2nd International Conference on Archaeological Prospection, Ise, Japan. Official language is English. Topics include remote sensing, architectural study, underwater archaeology and chemical analysis. Contact: Dr. Y. Nishimura, Nabunken, 2-9-1 Nijo-cho, Nara 630 Japan, FAX +81-742-35-1358. Email: nyasushi@nabunken.go.jp
*Sept 10-14 '97: Tools of culture: Japan's Technological, Medical and Intellectual Contacts in East Asia 1100-1600. University of Oregon. Contact: Andrew Goble, Dept of History, Univ Oregon, College of Arts & Sciences, 175 Prince Lucien Campbell Hall, Eugene, OR 97403-1288 USA; FAX +1-503-346-4895.
Sept 24-28 '97: European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) 3rd annual meeting, Ravenna. Contact: Secretariat of EAA 3rd annual meeting, Casa Saffi, via S. Marchesi 12, 47100 Forli, Italy. FAX +39-543-35805, e-mail: abaco@fo.nettuno.it; web: http://www.icot.it/abaco
Apr 6-10 '98: 3rd International Symposium 14C and Archaeology, Lyon, France. Official languages are English and French. Contact: Centre de Datation par le Radiocarbone, Université Claude-Bernard Lyon 1, Bat. 217, 43 Boulevard du 11 Novembre, 69622 Villeurbanne, France. FAX +33-7243-1317; e-mail: cdrc14@cismsun.univ-lyon1.fr
Apr 14-16 '98: Archaeology and World Religion: the examples of Judiasm, Islam, Christianity, Hinduism and Buddhism, Cambridge, UK. Contact: Dr. Timothy Insoll, St John's College, Cambridge CB2 1TP, UK. Fax +44-1223-337720; e-mail: tai1000@cam.ac.uk. [that's 'tai one thousand']
*July 1-8 '98: 16th Congress of the Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association (IPPA), Melaka, Malaysia. NOTE change of date from January 1998. Sessions: Pleistocene archaeology in E. Asia; Hoabinhian revisited; Agriculture in mainland SEAsia: origins & expansion; South China archaeology; Hominid evolution in the Far East; Ethnoarchaeology; Gender; Geoarchaeology; Linguistics; Pottery; Sociopolotical complexity; CRM; etc.. Contact: IPPA Sec'y Dr. Peter Bellwood, Dept Arch & Anth, ANU, Canberra, Australia. FAX +61-6-249-2711; e-mail: peter.bellwood@anu.edu.au
Jul 26-1 Aug '98: 14th International Congress of Anthropological & Ethnological Sciences, Williamsburg, VA. Commissioning symposia inviting papers on: Museums & cultural heritage; Nomadic people; Anthropology of tourism; Anthropology of women & gender; Current problems in early Homo & Homo erectus evolution; Women in war, etc. Abstracts due 15 Oct 1997. Obtain forms from Ms Oriana Casadei, 14th Congress Logistics Coordinator, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA 23187-8795 USA. FAX +1-757-221-1734; e-mail: oxcasa@facstaff.wm.edu
Oct 25-30 '98: 8th International Conference on Hunting and Gathering Societies, National Museum of Ethnology, Osaka. Papers to be given in English on topics: Archaeology, ethnoarchaeology & ethnohistory; Demography & ecology; Gender & social change; Politics, ethnicity & identity; Foragers and post-foragers in global context; Education, communication & visions for the future; Art, symbolism & cosmology; Visual ethnography. 150 word-abstracts due June 30, 1997. Contact: Dr. Shuzo KOYAMA, Co-Chair, CHAGS8, c/o CHAGS8 Project Office, 4th Research Dept, Minpaku, 10-1 Senri Expo Park, Suita City, Osaka 565 Japan. FAX +81-6-876-2160 or 875-8255; e-mail: chags8@idc.minpaku.ac.jp
PAPERS READ
For copies of the papers listed here, please contact either the symposium or panel organizer
if the author is unknown to you
Past PAPERS READ:
Dien, Al: Six Dynasties tomb figurines-a typological survey and analysis, at the International
Conference on History & Archaeology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, 2-10 Jan 94
Dien, Al: A note on examination systems during the Six Dynasties, at the 1994 International
Conference on Dunhuang Studies, Dunhuang, 8-14 Aug 94
Railey, Jim; Tong, Weihua; & Wang, Rui: The rise and demise of the Yuanqu Shang center,
north-central China, at the 1996 SAA meeting in New Orleans.
Thompson, G.B.: Protohistoric agricultural change in the Korean peninsula-intensification or
diversification? 3rd World Archaeology Conference (WAC), New Delhi, Dec 94
Nishimura, Y. & Goodman, D.: Static corrections of GPR time slices in archaeological prospection,
Archaeological Prospection Conference Sept 1995, Bradford
Tanaka, Y.: An archaeogeophysical survey of San Xia, People's Republic of China, Archaeological
Prospection Conference, Sept 1995, Bradford
Underhill, Anne: Ceramic ethnoarchaeology in China: implications for investigating craft
specialization in prehistory, AAA 1994 Atlanta, 30 Nov-4 Dec
Kang, Bong-won: The impact of warfare in the formation of complex societies in the protohistoric
Korean peninsula, SAA Anaheim 1994
Aikens, C. Melvin & Akazawa, Takeru: The Pleistocene/Holocene transition in Japan and adjacent
northeast Asia: climatic and biotic change, broad-spectrum diet, pottery and sedentism, SAA Anaheim
1994
6TH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF THE EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION OF SOUTHEAST ASIAN ARCHAEOLOGISTS (Eur
ASEAA), 2-6 Sept 1996, IIAS, Leiden, The Netherlands. Papers given on East Asia or by SEAA members
were:
Solheim, W.G.: The University of Hawaii archaeological program in eastern Indonesia
Cort, Louise & Lefferts, Leedom: Little things mean a lot-pots and cloth in Northeast Thailand
Wang, Ningsheng: A forgotten kingdom in highland southwest China
von Dewall, M.: Ancient bronze drum imagery and its significance in visual and instrumental form
Fontein, J.: The sarira of Borobudur
Rumball Rogers, P.: The Phuket project revisited-the ethnoarchaeology of marine-adapted communities
through time II
BIANNUAL CONFERENCE, EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION FOR CHINESE STUDIES (EACS), 4-8 Sept 1996, Barcelona
Juhl, Susanne: Archaeological studies in the province of Gansu of the first half of the fifth
century
Whitfield, Roderick: Questions of dating-some Song dynasty paintings from Dunhuang
Russell-Smith, Lilla: Planet-gods in Dunhuang and beyond
Nickel, Lukas: Mortuary architecture in northern Henan-a new symbolic concept and its architectural
expression at the time of Wang Mang
1ST EUROPEAN MEETING ON PHYTOLITH RESEARCH, 23-26 Sept 1996, Madrid, Consejo Superior de
Investigaciones Cientificas, Centro De Ciencias Medioambientales
Lu, Houyuan & Wu, Naiqin: Phytolith assemblages and seasonal climatic changes of the past 150,000
years in the loess plateau of China
Jiang, Qinhua: Phytolith evidence for early cultivation at Baligan site of Denzhou, Henan province,
central China
FIRE & WATER: CULTURAL EXCHANGES BETWEEN ANCIENT KOREA AND JAPAN, 26 Oct 1996, Cleveland Museum
of Art, Cleveland Oh 44106, USA
Pearson, Richard: Chulmun and Jomon-ancient pottery of Japan and Korea and its makers
Barnes, Gina: Iron-a strategic commodity among the protohistoric Korean and Japanese states
Best, Jonathan: A light to the needful-Korea and the introduction of Buddhism to Japan
Yi, Song-mi: Korean painting of the Paekche dynasty and its relationship with China and Japan
MYSTERIES OF ANCIENT CHINA, 6-8 Dec 1996, British Museum, London
This was a public symposium organised in conjunction with the exhibition, Mysteries of Ancient China
Bagley, Robert: Innovations in bronze casting, piece moulding and lost wax
Kerr, Rose: Ceramic building materials in early China
Barnes, Gina: The multiple mysteries of Niuheliang, a Neolithic ritual site, Liaoning Province
Ren, Shinan: New finds in the Neolithic period in China
Okamura, Hidenori: Excavations at Yinxiangcheng in Hubei province
Li, Boqian: Recent discoveries at the site of the tombs of the Jin state and their significance
Thote, Alain: Burial practices in the Chu kingdom during the Warring States period
di Cosmo, Nicola: The Bronze Age people of Yujiazhuang and their neighbours
So, Jenny: The many faces of the past in Eastern Zhou bronzes
Wu, Hung: Archaeology and the Chinese creation myth
Hayashi, Minao: Some problems concerning the date of jades from the tomb of the King of Nanyu
Pirazolli-t'Serstevens, Michèle: 'Above are the clouds with immortals'-images intended for the other
world in Han China
Kesner, Ladislav: Real and substitute in early Chinese mortuary contexts-reading the First Emperor's
necropolis
Boltz, William: Chinese writing as revealed in new archaeological discoveries
Harper, Donald: Discovering classical Chinese religion (from archaeological excavated manuscripts of
the 4th-2nd centuries BC
Lewis, Mark: Writings on warfare found in ancient tombs
TAG (Theoretical Archaeology Group) Conference, 16-18 January 1996, Liverpool
Mizoguchi, Koji: The child as node of past and future
Hosoya, Leo: Archaeology of no theory: how to understand Japanese archaeology
Hosoya, Leo: Seeds in action: the cultural and social role of plants in the Japanese agricultural
transition
ART AND RELIGION IN PRE-MODERN CHINA, 3-5 January 1997, London
A workshop at SOAS, Univ of London, organised by Prof. R. Whitfield and Dr. WANG Tao.
Allan, Sarah: Time, art and meaning in China and the West-some preliminary thoughts
Barnes, Gina: Art and religion at Niuheliang
Chen, Fangmei: Ritual bronzes of the Shang dynasty
Taylor, Paul: Wit in Shang art
Chen, Xiandan: The figurative art of the Sanxingdui bronzes
Kerr, Rose: Made for the temple-ritual ceramics in China
Clunas, Craig: The imperial image as a religious work of art in Song-Ming China
Li, Ling: Archaeological thinking of some Qin-Han ritual texts
Rawson, Jessica: The 'dragon' motif in Eastern Zhou art
Nickel, Lukas: A new symbolic concept and its architectural expression in Han China
McMullen, David: The expression of 'after-life' in Tang funerary practice
Dudbridge, Glen: Buddhist images in action in mediaeval China
Zhao, Chao: Chinese calligraphy and religion
Salviati, Filippo: The many faces of ancient Chinese art: neolithic origin of the taotie motif of
the Bronze Age
Wang, Tao: Representing the unrepresentable-the di-god(s) in early Chinese art
Liu, Yang: Origins of early Daoist iconography
Lewis, Mark: The iconography and symbolism of Fu Xi and Nu Wa
Russell-Smith, Lilla: Planet gods in Dunhuang and beyond
Chard, Robert: The stove god's paper body
COLLEGE ART ASSOCIATION 85TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE, 12-15 February 1997, New York.
http://alberti.mit.edu/caa/conference/1997 Ancient East Asian topics were:
Fong, Mary H.: Tang bronze mirrors-authentic reflections of the dynasty's artistic achievements
McNair, Amy: King Udayana sculptures at Longmen-new finds and theories
Steinhardt, Nancy S.: Beyond Foguansi-new and newer evidence of Tang architecture
Spiro, Nancy: The palace lady and the bodhisattva in Tang dynasty art
Karetzky, Patricia E.: Ladies in the Tang court
ASSOCIATION FOR ASIAN STUDIES (AAS), 13-16 March 1997, Chicago
Panel: The ethnic other in ethnographic narration, Part 2: non-Han perspectives, chaired by Lucien
Miller, Univ. Massachusetts
Panel: A question of technique-the formation and dissemination of technical knowledge in Han Dynasty
China, chaired by Wei-Ming Tu, Harvard University
Roundtable: "The impact of material analysis on the study of Asian art & culture",
Chase, W.T.: New studies of Chinese (and other) archaeological bronzes
Lee, In Sook: Ancient glass objects in Korean archaeological sites
Vandiver, Pamela: Greenwares across Asia-glaze and fabric analyses of ceramics and what they tell us
Roundtable of the Society for the Study of Early China: "Recently excavated Warring States, Qin and Han manuscripts: the current situation and the prospects for the future." Discussants: Roger Ames, Harold Roth, Donald Harper.
Causey, C. Andrew: Stealing a good idea-innovation and competition among Toba Batak woodcarvers
Di Cosmo, Nicola: In search of grass and water-the ethnography of the northern nomads in Han
historical sources
Herman, John: The cant of conquest-creating''barbarians' and 'Chinese' in the Southwest
Huber, Toni: dGe'dun Chos-'phel in the Buddhist holy land-colonial archaeology, oriental scholarship
and the first example of modern Tibetan literature
Kleeman, Terry F.: Barbarians and the Dao-ethnic and religious identity in traditional China
Lefferts, H. Leedom Jr.: Women at the center of an industrializing craft-earthenware production in
Northeast Thailand
Li, Feng:'Offices' in bronze inscriptions and Western Zhou government administration
Lipman, Jonathan N.: The nature of the nation-Northwest China through Chinese eyes
Millward, James: Mapping land and history-Qing depictions of Xinjiang/the Western regions
Newby, Laura J.: Xinjiang-the literary conquest
Poo, Mu-Chou: The ancient Chinese encounter with foreigners
Shim, Jae-hoon: The early development of the state of Jin
Shin, Leo K.: The culture of travel writings in late Ming China
Stainton, Michael: The politics of Taiwan aboriginal origins
Takashima, Ken-ichi: The language of the Zhongshan bronze inscriptions
Wang, Michael Ming-ke: The Ch'iang: a drifting ethnic boundary of the ancient Chinese
ARCHAEOLOGY, HERITAGE AND ENVIRONMENT IN THE ASIA-PACIFIC REGION, Day Meeting for Asia-Pacific
Archaeology, 14 March 1997, Cambridge; organised by Simon Kaner
Kim, Gwon-gu: The Korean heritage management system and its epistemology
Barnes, Gina & Okita, Masa'aki: The present state of Japanese archaeology
Mei, Jianjun: Research into prehistoric Xinjiang bronze-working
Wace, Pamela: Japanese museums-a preliminary assessment
Denham, Tim: Heritage management in the Island Pacific
Ogura, Jun'ichi: Landscape history in Japan
Ohinata, Fumiko: Arrowheads from northern Japan
Fukasawa, Yuriko: Ainu archaeology
Hosoya, Aoi: 'Archaeology of No Theory'-understanding Japanese archaeology especially through its
palaeobotanical aspects
62nd ANNUAL MEETING OF THE SOCIETY FOR AMERICAN ARCHAEOLOGY (SAA), 2-6 April 1997, Nashville
Roundtable luncheon: Asian Archaeology
Symposium: The evolution of Eurasian steppe cultures during the Late Iron Age period (Saka/Sarmatian
cultures)
General Session: Asia
Poster Session: Old World Archaeology
CONFERENCE REPORT
Symposium report: La Sérinde terre d'échanges-art, religion, commerce du premier au dixième siècle, by Helen Wang. IDP News 5(summer): 6, 1996.
RUNNING BIBLIOGRAPHY
Bibliography
BOOK NOTES
Dunhuang: caves of the singing sands, text by Roderick Whitfield
2-volume set, London: Textile and Art Publications Ltd. (12 Queen St., Mayfair, London W1X 7PL),
1995, Price: £315 (US$475), inc. p+p.
This was originally published as a collection of photographs taken by OTSUKA Seigo. It appeared as
The Art of Dunhuang, by J. Tagawa (Tokyo: NHK Publishing, 1992) and contained short plate
descriptions. For the English version, Prof. Whitfield wrote a completely new text and added some
new pictures. "Representative caves of each period are described in great detail, often with a
drawing of the layout and illustrated by an amazing range of photographs from the full view of a
cave or a wall down to tiny motifs. This way it becomes possible to understand more clearly the
stylistic and iconographic changes, some of which lead to strikingly different looking caves within
a short time span, especially during the earlier periods (Northern Liang 421-439 CE to Sui
581-618)."
(LRS for CIAA Newsletter Jul 96: 9).
Les arts de l'Asie Centrale: la collection Pelliot du Musée Guimet, edited by Jacques Giès
Paris: Réunion des Musées Nationaux; London: Serindia. FAX +44-181-785-4789. 3-vol. set £600,
limited edition of 200.
This three-volume set consists of two volumes of plates published in France supplemented by an
English text volume published in England. These volumes are considered to be companions to the
previously published book, The art of Central Asia: The Stein Collection in the British Museum,
edited by Roderick Whitfield. The new set presents the entire collection of Central Asian art
acquired by the great French explorer and scholar Paul Pelliot (1878-1945), including the many
paintings and textiles from Cave 17 at Dunhuang.
China Art & Archaeology Digest
This illustrated quarterly is a reference guide for scholars, students, curators, collectors,
and all those interested in the latest developments in Chinese archaeology and the fine arts. The
digest contains abstracts in English of articles from more than 100 newly published Chinese academic
journals, almost half of which specialize in the fields of archaeology and cultural relics. Each
issue contains original articles by Chinese scholars translated into English. Volume 1, Issue 1
(June 1996) contains synopses of articles published in China in the first quarter of 1996. Contact:
Art Texts (HK) Ltd., PO Box 20746, Hennessy Road Post Office, Wanchai, Hong Kong; e-mail:
atext@public3.bta.net.en
Kidder Smith sends us this review:
Date: Tue, 14 Jan 1997
From: Kidder Smith <kidder@polar.bowdoin.edu>
To: eaan@ccat.sas.upenn.edu
Subject: China Arch & Art Digest
Colleagues:
I've received a copy of Vol. 1 No. 1 of the China Archaeology and Art Digest, covering the period
January to March 1996, and would like to provide a brief review. The Australian editors, Bruce
Gordon Doar and Susan Dewar (CASS), have as their objectives to produce "an illustrated quarterly in
English that abstracts articles on archaeology and art history from one hundred newly published
Chinese academic journals, almost half of which specialize in the fields of archaeology and cultural
relics." Their work is done in conjunction with staff members of Peking University's archaeology
program.
The issue I have in hand is well bound in soft cover, with 174 pages of high quality paper. It
consists of three main sections: (1) feature articles (in this case, four articles translated in
full, ranging from Western Zhou to Tang), (2) synopses of articles (about 100 pages, about 300
articles--topics include architecture, bronzes, Buddhist grottoes, calendrical science, etc.), and
(3) notes on conferences, new publications, etc.
The synopses of articles range from 60 words (essentially a discovery note) to a full page. These
synopses are not simply reprints of the English language abstracts from e.g. Wenwu. They are done
especially for this journal and are generally of much higher quality (relevant detail, length,
accuracy) than the English abstracts. Full-form characters are included for names and technical
terms.
Although there is much more information here than any single scholar will need, all research
libraries (and many individuals) will, I expect, wish to subscribe. The quarterly journal is
available for $120 year (institutions--$160).
Art Text will provide translations of any article synopsized ($150/1000 characters). The Chinese
originals are also available from them for $1 per page; the fee is divided between original
publishers and Art Text.
JOURNAL UPDATES
- ACRO Update
June 1996(2)
Oct 1996(3)
Dec 1996(4) - ASEASUK News: newsletter of the Association of Southeast Asian Studies in the United Kingdom
- Asian Studies Newsletter: pub. by the Association for Asian Studies, which also publishes the Journal for Asian Studies.
- Chinese Environmental History Newsletter
- CIAA Newsletter, Edition 3, July 1996
- Mitteilungen der Deutsche Gesellschaft Für Ostasiatische Kunst.
- Early China NEWS: Vol. 8, 1995
- East Asia Tertiary/Quarternary Newsletter (EAT/QN)
- IATSTiedotuslehti (Newsletter, Finnish Association of East Asian Studies)
- IDP News: Newsletter of the International Dunhuang Project
- Gumanitarniye Nauki v Sibiri
- Japan Foundation Newsletter
- JAWS Newsletter: pub. by the Japan Anthropology WorkShop.
- Kaze: Newsletter from Nara, Japan
- Kogohakchi: Journal of the Institute of Korean Archaeology and Art History
- The Museum News
- Newsletter EAAA (East Asian Art & Archaeology)
- NewsWARP: pub. by the Wetland Archaeology Research Project
- Nichibunken Newsletter
- SAA Bulletin: pub. by the Society for American Archaeology
Southeast Asian Archaeology International Newsletter (SAAIN) - Tukuba Archaeological Studies
- World Archaeological Congress Newsletter: published by WAC