Dear all,

This spring has been extremely busy for SEAA, though mostly in behind-the-scenes work, so you may have heard less from us than last year. Most importantly, after continuous efforts from our Treasurer Dr Ray Liu and our President Dr Anke Hein, SEAA is now officially registered in the UK as a Charity. This is a major step because it means that we have an official legal standing, can receive donations, are exempt from taxes, and the members of the SEAA Board now have some legal protection in their role.

We are also working on preparing for the big in-person SEAA conference (SEAA10) in Aberdeen the dates of which are now set to 19-23 August, 2024. We are very grateful for all the work that Prof. Joshua Wright and the entire team at Aberdeen are doing to make this possible. Please see below for futher information.  

Furthermore, Academica Sinica and SEAA are working on co-organizing a hybrid conference on the topic "Archaeology of Food and Foodways: Methods and Cases" in Taipei on December 7-9, 2024. We would like to thank Dr Lin Kuei-chen for all the work she is doing to make this possible. Further information is provided below.

We would also like to take this opportunity to announce a change in Appointed Officers. After doing a considerable amount of work for SEAA, first as our first-ever Social Media Coordinator and then as our likewise first-ever Public Relations Officer, Mitchell Ma will be taking a break from SEAA-work to focus on finishing up his PhD research and writing. We are very grateful to Mitchell for all the work he has done, setting up various social media accounts, populating them with information of interest to the SEAA community, organizing online workshops, book talks, and other events, compiling the newsletter, designing all kinds of beautiful announcements, and generally making SEAA more visible and making sure we can serve the archaeological community better. It has been a great pleasure working with Mitchell and we very much hope he will be back once his other obligations allow it. From the summer, Siyi Wu will be taking over as Public Relations Officer (moving over from her previous position as Social Media Coordinator), and we are looking forward to working with her in this new position. A big thanks to both of them for their tireless work on behalf of the SEAA community.

Below, you will find our newsletter organized into the following sections:

• General Notices
• Notes from the Field
• Members in Focus
• Upcoming Events
• Recent Research

We are grateful to everyone who sent us their news and contributed to the Newsletter. The Executive Board would also very much like to thank Mitchell Ma, Wu Siyi, and James Coburn for their tireless efforts on the Newsletter, and Dr Mike Storozum for all the editing and programming help.

Of course, none of this would be possible without the contributions from our membership.

Please send us your news at any point in the year so that we can include them in future issues of the newsletter.

With all the best wishes for the spring and summer,

The SEAA Executive Board

General Notices

SAVE THE DATE FOR SEAA10

The 10th Worldwide Conference of the Society for East Asian Archaeology will be held next year (2025) in Aberdeen, Scotland, UK, as a fully in-person event. We are looking forward to seeing all of you there! Please save the date and plan for your papers and visits. A call for papers and further information will be sent out in the autumn.

Key Information and Dates:

Call for papers and sessions, September 2024
Deadline for abstract submission and registration, December 2024
Conference in Aberdeen, Scotland, UK, August 19-23, 2025

These conference dates include a mid-conference tour on Aberdeenshire archaeology Post-conference tours to Scotland's Museum collections, Orkney Islands, and more!

There will be more details coming in September. Note that the European Association of Archaeologists (EAA) meeting in Belgrade is taking place on 3-6 September 2025, so participation in these two conferences (plus a post-conference tour in between) could be combined.

UPCOMING SEAA / ACADEMIA SINICA HYBRID CONFERENCE

Academia Sinica and SEAA are co-organizing a hybrid conference on the topic "Archaeology of Food and Foodways: Methods and Cases" in Taipei on December 7-9, 2024. More information to follow soon. 

Notes from the Field

Discoveries at the Tomio Maruyama Tumulus

By: Riku MURASE, Section Chief, Nara City Board of Education, and Daisuke NAKAMURA, Professor, Saitama University

Remarkable discoveries have recently been made recently at the Tomio Maruyama Tumulus in Nara, Japan. The tumulus, which measures 110 m in diameter and dates from the second half of the 4th century. These discoveries include a Kris-shaped iron sword measuring 237 cm in length and a uniquely designed shield-shaped mirror decorated with images of gods and dragons. These artifacts were found in a mud burial chamber on an adjacent narrow terrace. The distinctive design of the mirror suggests that it originated in Japan rather than China. Additionally, the artifact indicates that there was a practice of attaching mirrors to shields in this period. The presence of the oversized iron sword, which seems impractical for conventional use, alongside these ceremonial objects strongly suggests the burial of an individual who may have been associated with ritual or ceremonial functions.

Translocal identity construction among Neolithic and Bronze Age communities in northwestern China

By: Andrew WOMACK, Assistant Professor, Furman University

Building on a decade of fieldwork in Gansu Province with the Tao River Archaeological Project, our team recently authored an article that takes a theoretical approach to understanding the complex social networks likely playing a key role in the long-distance movement of technologies, domesticates, and ideas between the Central Eurasian steppe and Central Plain of northern China in the Neolithic and Bronze Age. Central to the argument is the idea of translocality, which refers to identity formation over distance and across boundaries, as a central structuring aspect of society in the Majiayao and Qijia cultural periods. Utilizing information from petrographic analysis of ceramics indicating regular circulation of goods between discreet sites, this article theorizes that the shared material culture referred to as Majiayao and Qijia is the result of extensive interaction networks. These networks bind together communities over distance and facilitate the relatively rapid adoption of new ideas and technologies. You can access the article through the following link.

Members in Focus

Menghan QIU, PhD Candidate, Lanzhou University

My name is Menghan Qiu, and I’m currently a Ph.D. candidate in physical geography at Lanzhou University in China. Specializing in environmental archaeology, my research interests include: 1) Social evolution, climatic-environmental change, and human-environment interactions in prehistoric Xinjiang, 2) Resource utilization and human subsistence during the Bronze and Early Iron Ages in arid Asia, and 3) Human migration, technological spread, and cultural communication along the Eurasian steppe-oasis road network.

My dissertation specifically focuses on resource utilization and the living environmental background of prehistoric humans in the upper Ili River Valley of Xinjiang. My research involves various methods, including radiocarbon dating, species identification of animal remains and charred woods, stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes, environmental geochemistry, and lacustrine deposit drilling and multi-proxy analyses. I have recently published in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances on the world’s earliest systematic exploitation of coal for fuel from an interdisciplinary perspective. You can find the article through the following link.

Upcoming Events

Virtual Book Talk with Maria Shinoto on Japanese Kofun and Early Historical Burials, June 6th, 2024 [VIRTUAL EVENT] 

The Society for East Asian Archaeology's online events are back! Join Maria Shinoto (Associate Professor, Institute for Prehistory, Protohistory, and Near Eastern Archaeology, Heidelberg University) for a virtual talk on the Sōshoku Kofun of Japan via Zoom with the Society for East Asian Archaeology on Thursday, June 6, 2024! The talk will take place from 7:00-8:30 AM (Eastern Standard Time)/8:00-9:30 PM (Japan Standard Time)/12:00-1:30 PM (Central European Time). To register for the event, please use the link: https://utoronto.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcsc-ChrDgjGdDh2Z7tt240e3hMXyURhIIv

Annual Meeting of Korean Archaeology Conference, November 1-2, 2024. [SYMPOSIUM]

The Korean Archaeological Society is inviting three scholars on early Korea studies to participate in a panel titled “The Prospective of Early Korea Studies” (a tentative title) in its annual meeting (November 1–2, 2024). The cost during the conference will be provided. Send application package to kras1976@naver.com by 11.59 pm on June 15, 2024 (Korea Standard Time)

Asian Studies Conference Japan, July 6-7, 2024 [SYMPOSIUM]

The Asian Studies Conference Japan will take place at Sophia University in Tokyo. Early registration is currently open and will continue until June 21, 2024.

Exhibition at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery: The Art of Japanese Porcelain, running through September 1^st, 2024 [EXHIBITION]

This display explores the story of Japanese porcelain, which starts in the 1600s in the small town of Arita, southwest Japan.

British Museum Silk Road Exhibition, September 26, 2024 – February 23, 2025 [EXHIBITION]

This major exhibition explores a pivotal period in the history of the 'Silk Road'. Going beyond the idea of the Silk Road as a simple trade route between 'East' and 'West', it follows how the journeys of people, objects and ideas shaped cultures and histories in the period AD 500–1000.

Recent Research

Archaeology in Fragile Environment: Archaeology of the Lower Yangtze Shanghai Region [ARTICLE]

via. World Archaeology, Edward ALLEN, Michael STOROZUM, Pengfei SHENG use archaeological data to explore how this fragile environment was treated in the past and how people adapted to it, offering insights into the long-term human-environment interactions within the Lower Yangtze area.

Theoretical Foundations for Archaeological Pedagogy with Digital 3D, Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality Technologies [ARTICLE]

via. Journal of Archaeology and Education, Peter J. COBB, Elvan COBB, Jiafang LIANG, Ryushi KIYAMA, and Jeremy NG explore a wide variety of theoretical perspectives on visual and spatial learning, as well as other educational theories, to support pedagogical experiments that incorporate XR (eXtended Reality) teaching into archaeological education.

Ancient Koguryo’s Heritage around Ji’an: Past and Current Interpretation [ARTICLE]

via World Archaeology, Rainer Feldbacher utilizes the remains of Koguryo culture in China’s Jilin Province, along the North Korea border, to explore the historical archaeological legacy and power of the Koguryo Empire.

Difference in Linear Enamel Hypoplasia Frequency between the 16th-to 19th-Century Agrarian Populations of the Korean Joseon Dynasty and Siberian Russia [ARTICLE]

via. Anthropological Science, Hyejin LEE, Dong Hoon SHIN, Larisa TATAUROVA, Jieun KIM, Jong Ha HONG and Sergy SLEPCHENKO compared the prevalence of linear enamel hypoplasia (LEH) between Siberian Russian settlers and Joseon dynasty people from the 16th to 19th centuries to explore how physiological stress varied across populations of the Eurasian continent.

Metagenomic Analyses of 7000 to 5500 years old Coprolites Excavated from the Torihama Shell-mound Site in the Japanese Archipelago [ARTICLE]

via. PLOS One, Luca NISHIMURA, Akio TANINO, Mayumi AJIMOTO, Takafumi KATSUMURA, Motoyuki OGAWA, Kae KOGANEBUCHI, Daisuke WAKU, Masahiko KUMAGAI, Ryota SUGIMOTO, Hirofumi NAKAOKA, Hiroki OOTA, and Ituro INOUE conduct shotgun metagenomic sequencing of coprolites from the Torihama shell-mound site in the Japanese archipelago, dating back to the Early Jomon period.

The Birth of Yamatogoto Culture: Stringed Instruments and the Formation of Complex Society in Pre- and Protohistoric Japan [ARTICLE]

via. Asian Perspectives, Kirie STROMBERG reviews diachronic changes that occurred in the forms of wood zithers in pre- and protohistoric Japan over approximately two millennia (ca. 1500 B.C. – A.D. 600).

State and Local Society in Third Century China [BOOK]

Published by BRILL Publishers, Brain LANDER, Wenchao LING, and Wen XIN wrote this work to explain the context and content of 700,000 inscribed pieces of wood excavated in Changsha in 1996, which are local administrative records of the state of Wu in the 230s, providing remarkable detail on the society, governance, and economy of third-century central China. The book aims to elucidate the context and content of these documents to assist researchers in utilizing these valuable texts to rewrite the history of South China.

Xiongnu: The World’s Fire Nomadic Empire [BOOK]

Published by Oxford University Press, Brian K. MILLER presents original archaeological fieldwork in Mongolia, detailed regional case studies of archaeological sites, and an unprecedented synthesis of the complete corpus of archaeological data from China, Mongolia, Russia, and Kazakhstan that relate to the Xiongnu people.