Second Worldwide SEAA Conference, 6-9 July 2000, University of Durham, England: Abstracts N–Z
Abstracts of Papers presented N–Z
Arranged in alphabetic order according to authors' family names.
[A–M] [N] [O] [P] [Q] [R] [S] [T] [V] [W] [X] [Y] [Z]
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NIKITIN Yury G. (Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology of the People of the Far East Vladivostok), "The Spatial Organization of Bohai Sites in Russian Primorye"
According to written sources the territory of Bohai was divided into 15 areas (fu) - five of which were metropolitan areas (jing) - 62 circuits (zhou), and more than 130 counties (xian). With some changes, this system was maintained for the entire duration of the Bohai kingdom, and spread into the territory of Primorye not later than the end of the 8th century. So far, over 210 sites associated with the Bohai period have been unearthed in Primorye. Because of the varying degree of completeness of the investigations, we have chosen two of the best represented types of site: ancient towns and rural settlements. We first divided all the sites into two categories, each subdivided into "ranks" according to their size. There are 5 "ranks" for ancient towns and 4 for settlements. We then reconstructed the hypothetical transport network of the region, and, as a third stage, determined the gravitational ties between the analyzed sites. The spatial model of ancient towns which emerges from this includes 4 subregions, linked to the basins of the largest rivers of the territory.
The spatial structure of Bohai towns from the 9th century represented a five-tier hierarchy, based on status, with direct evidence of administrative and religious activities on the first four levels
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PAI Hyung Il (UC Santa Barbara, U.S.A.), "Reconstructing" the Buried Past:
Contested Treasures and National Monuments in South Korea"
This paper will give an overview of institutions, laws, and regulations, and individuals that have administered a national codification system of national treasures (kukpo) and monuments (yumul) in post-War South Korea. For example, the system of Cultural Properties (Munhwajae) represented by National Treasures (kukpo/pomul), sajok (historical remains) and natural scenic monuments (ch'onyon kinyom-mul) have designated numbers to artifacts, architecture, art objects such as Buddhist sculpture, ceramics, kings' burials and fortresses; and even living artisans (poyuja), customs and rituals (muhyong mumhwajae) as well as beautiful trees, indigenous plants and animals. Consequently, archaeologists, ethnologists, art historians, specialists and bureaucrats affiliated with the Office of Cultural Properties and the Seoul National Museum were instrumental in the past forty years in determining who, what, and in which order, something came to represent authentic "Korean" beauty, culture, and heritage. Such authorities are now relied on to produce the "scientific, i.e.archaeological/technological evidence" to prove Koreans' prehistoric national origins, artistic lineage, and cultural continuity. Needless to say, such arbitrary systems of determining value and meaning have granted a few influential figures in academia and government committees the power to govern people's perceptions of what is "original," historically valuable and therefore worthy of preservation and display in museums and national parks. In South Korea, archaeological funding is also exclusively controlled by government and municipal authorities which, in every case, define what is and what is not relevant for study.
Because cultural property originates with the government, Korean nationalistic rhetoric predictably revolves around the repatriation of Korean artifacts and monuments. The most vociferous of these claims have surrounded Post-war accusations that were principally directed against colonial era Japanese scholars, museum administrators as well as private collectors who have been collectively blamed for looting Korean artistic remains so as to deprive Koreans of their own artistic heritage. Despite such wide-spread anti-Japanese rhetoric that the plunder of Korea was part of an elaborate Japanese colonial conspiracy to eradicate Korean racial identity (minjok malsal), it is also a well-known fact that the Japanese colonial government 's (1910-1945) archaeological, art historical, and preservation activities were instrumental in the discoveries, excavations, and reconstructions since the field of archaeology did not exist before the annexation of Korea. For example, the most representative Korean national monuments today such as Sokkuram, Pulguksa, and Haeinsa that are visited annually by millions of Japanese and Korean tourists can trace their popularity to the early colonial era when they had been advertised as so-called famous sites (meisho) critically located in the former "ancestral terrains" (furusado) of the Japanese empire in North-east Asia. This paper will conclude by examining such on-going debates surrounding post-colonial issues of cultural "ownership" and contested cultural terrains. Thus, archaeologists have been burdened as well as challenged by the question that everyone is asking "Who are the legitimate or illegitimate heirs to artifacts and remains?"
PAK Yangjin, (Chungnam National University), "Korean Archaeology at the Millennium"
The aim of this paper is to take stock of Korean archaeology at the threshold of the new millennium. This paper will first review major accomplishments of Korean prehistoric and historical archaeology in the past half a century and then report most recent archaeological developments in the past ten years or so. Then it will briefly discuss major theoretical and methodological issues in the contemporary Korean archaeology. This paper will finally address a few challenges Korea archaeology will face in the twenty-first century.
PAREL Josette (University of Haifa), PU ZHANG Zeitan Cao (Institut of Mountain Resources of Guizhou, China) and Eric BOEDA (University of Paris-X Nanterre, France), "The Methods of Knapped Stone at the Upper Palaeolithic site of Chuandong Cave, Guizhou Province, Southern China"
The Guizhou Province, which is situated in the karstic mountains in the southwestern region of Eastern Asia, has revealed an significant number of palaeolithic sites. The Chuandong Cave excavated by Cao Zeitan during 1979 and 1981, is located in Puding District, in the north-west of Guizhou Province. The site is a small open cave covering an area of roughly 50 m", with a terrace at the northern entrance. It is situated on a small hill, 1,600 m above see level, which overlooks the Puding Plateau. Chuandong cave has revealed ten layers of human occupation, which have yielded a variety of archaeological, anthropological and palaeontological remains. Appreciable amount of stone tools, mammalian fossils and a significant number of bone tools including points, bipoints and spatules, were collected. Two human skulls and one fragment of the maxillary, uncovered in layer 5, have been assigned to Homo sapiens and Homo Sapiens and preliminary dated to 30.000 B.P. This suggests that Chuandong cave is related to the Upper Palaeolithic culture of Southern China.
The major part of the assemblage from Chuandong Cave has been analysed. Although the study is still in progress, we can already present for the first time the main Upper Palaeolithic reduction strategies of knapped stone here. The technological studies indicate that ten different layers excavated at Chuandong Cave exhibit the same tools produced by similar reduction strategies. It is noteworthy that the tools are produced either on flakes, or on pebbles and that the blade reduction strategy is totally unknown. Black flint blocks and two kinds of local river pebbles (flat and thick rounded pebbles) were used as raw material for stone tools, they show the use of different reduction strategies. The flat pebbles are thinned by taking off thin and cortical flakes on both flat faces. The pebble thus roughed and the detached flakes are then modified into a side-scraper. Some thick pebbles have been used to produce choppers. Some have been used as cores. The removed flakes, which are most often short and different from those detached from the flat pebbles, are modified into side-scrapers and notches. The presence of some whole pebbles and tools on pebbles, and the important number of cortical flakes suggest that these pebbles may have been brought and transformed into tools directly on the site. The knapping of black flint results in the production of tools made out of small flakes. These tools include side-scrapers, notches, borers and retouched flakes. One can infer from the absence of core and knapping waste that some flakes have been introduced in the site and transformed into small tools.
PARK Soon-bal (Chungnam National University), "Interregional Interaction and the Development of Early Paekche State"
About the second half of the third century A.D. Paekche was at the level of a confederated kingdom. It is about the same time when the frequent long-distance interregional interaction between Paekche and the Western Jin Dynasty of China through the Command Headquarters Against Eastern Barbarians took place, according to historical records. The conventional wisdom of Korean ancient historians on the simultaneity of the political development and interregional interaction is that the latter is the result of the former. However, considering the recent research result on the interregional interaction and the growth of political elites, the active foreign relation between early Paekche and Western Jin might be understood as prime mover in the formation process of the Paekche state. This assumption is well supported by the following facts. At the time of appearance of Paekche state any intrasocietal change is not found but a sudden long-distance contact with mainland China. Generally speaking, imports with limited accessibility can be adopted by elites for purposes of status display. Imports as glazed pottery and gilt-bronze buckle from presumably political center of that time are assumed to have been prestige goods of rising political elites.
PITELKA Morgan (Princeton University), "From Low to High: Ceramic Developments in Kyoto, Japan in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries"
The standard narrative of ceramic history in Kyoto has long held that the late 16th century development of the low-fired, lead-glazed ware known as Raku, and the mid to late 17th century development of the high-fired, highly decorative ceramic tradition known as Kyoto ware were unrelated phenomena. Tea connoisseurs researched Raku, the origins of which were entwined with the ideological roots of the tea schools themselves, and historians and art historians studied Kyoto ware, with its rich documentary record and highly pictorial decorative mode. Little collaborative research was attempted.
In the past several decades, however, as Japanese archaeologists have devoted more and more energy to researching the medieval and early modern periods, a plethora of new evidence has emerged to reinvigorate the study of Kyoto ceramics. Low-fired, lead glazed sherds have been excavated from late sixteenth and early seventeenth century Kyoto sites in significant quantities, causing a major uproar in the study of Japanese ceramics. These new materials demonstrate not only a link between Raku and Kyoto ware, but provide valuable new information about the origins of Raku, Oribe, Seto, Shino, and Kyoto ceramics, and the possible connection of all five with Chinese techniques imported from Fujian.
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RAILEY Jim (TRC Mariah Assoc Inc., New Mexico) "Sacralization of the Mundane: Ceramic Evolutionary Life Cycles in Ancient China"
Sacralization of the formerly mundane is a pervasive feature of the human condition. The sanctification of once widely-spoken languages (such as Latin), notions of "golden ages", and glorification of memorabilia are all symptomatic of the indulgent character of humanity collective memory. Sacralization of the mundane often gets caught up in sociopolitical dynamics, in which behaviors or objects once shared by the society as a whole are transformed into markers of esoteric knowledge restricted to, and controlled by, a sociopolitical elite. Such a process may have involved at least two kinds of ceramic vessels in ancient China: Middle Neolithic painted pottery, and the ding tripod of Neolithic and later times. Research in the Yuanqu Basin of north-central China suggests that both of these ceramic types were widely accessible during early stages of their use, but that manufacture, distribution, and use became increasingly restricted over time. Such change is symptomatic of escalating complexity in sociopolitical organization and ceremonial life over the course of the Chinese Neolithic and early Bronze Age, and underscores the importance of cultural marker traits in the social-evolutionary process.
ROWLEY-CONWY Peter (University of Durham), Clare WILLIAMS (University of Durham) and Yuri VOSTRETSOV (Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology, Vladivostok), "Yankovsky Landuse: Animal Bones from 1st Millennium BC Settlements in Primorie, Russian Far East"
Animal bones have been recovered from two major sites of the Yankovsky Culture, datinig to the mid 1st millennium BC. Peschany 1 lies close to Vladivostok and is a large settlement with many dwelling houses. Zaisanovka 2 is a shell midden further to the south. Animal bones were recovered from both sites and reveal some interesting differences. At Peschany 1, pigs predominate, and these were mostly domestic; dogs were of secondary importance, and deer were rare. At Zaisanovka 2 the situation was reversed, with deer being the most common. Reasons for this are discussed and new information emerges about the way the Yankovsky Culture used resources and landscape.
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SAKAI Yasuko (Osaka Center for Cultural Heritages), "Redistribution of Haniwa Ceramic Objects by Higher-Ranking Chiefs? -- Excavation of the Sojiji Site in Northern Osaka"
Excavations of the Sojiji site in Ibaragi City, nothern Osaka Prefecture yielded the discovery of a fifth century cemetery of presumably very low-class elites. The cemetery consists of small and low, square burial mounds. However, an elaborately-made house-shaped haniwa object has been discovered in one of the small mounds. Such house-shaped haniwa are ordinarily associated with large keyhole-shaped tumuli where higher-ranking chiefs were buried. In the case of the Sojiji site, the Ota-Chausuyama keyhole-shaped tumuli of 226 meters in length exists in its neighborhood, and it is considered contemporary to the small burial mounds at the Sojiji site. Therefore, the authors argue for the possibility that the elaborately-made house-shaped haniwa discovered at Sojiji was re-distributed by the higher-ranking chief who was buried in the Ota-Chausuyama mound.
SASAKI Ken (Meiji University) "Distribution of Standardized Mound Form as an Inalienable Wealth--Excavations of the Terado-Otsuka Keyhole-Shaped Tumulus in Kyoto"
Excavations of the Terado-Otsuka keyhole-shaped tumulus in southwestern Kyoto have revealed that the tumulus was approximately one-third of the Hashihaka keyhole-shaped tumulus in southeastern Nara basin, which is considered as the earliest keyhole-shaped tumulus in Japan. Since giant keyhole-shaped tumuli can not be constructed without a precise plan, it is possible to speculate that some local elites shared the same mound plan. In this case, Hashihaka is the largest of all the keyhole-shaped tumuli that shared the same mound plan, it is likely that the chief buried in Hashihaka distributed the mound plan to local chiefs, including the one who was buried in Terado-Otsuka. However, detailed examination of the Terado-Otsuka mound shows that some minor details are different from Hashihaka, and the Itsukahara tumulus in the neighborhood of Terado-Otsuka is much closer to Hashihaka, I would argue that the Terado-Otsuka chief may have learned the Hashihaka mound form via the chief who was buried in Itsukahara.
SHELACH Gideon (Hebrew University), "Apples and Oranges? The Cross-cultural Comparison of Burial Data in Northeast China"
The analysis of burial data from two or more archaeological cultures is a common strategy in cross-regional studies that compare and contrast different local developmental trajectories. Because burial data can be quantified (e.g. number of burial goods, labor investment in man-hours per day, etc...), it lends itself to statistical analysis. We must keep in mind that the remains are those of ritual activity, and make the reasonable assumption that each society is marked by a single set of sumptuary rules. We cannot expect that cultures that were distant in time and/or space necessarily shared the same sumptuary rules. In the absence of an explicit theoretical consideration of this issue, the cross-cultural comparison of burial data runs the risk of becoming a comparison of apple and oranges. This paper offers a suggestion as to how this problem can be overcome and how meaningful cross-cultural comparisons of burial data can be carried out. Using burial data from the Lower Xiajiadian (c. 2100 - 1600 BC) and Upper Xiajiadian (c. 1100-600 BC) cultures, I attempt to compare the level and type of social complexity attained by different Bronze Age societies in Northeast China.
SHEN Chen (Royal Ontario Museum) "Traditions and Industries: A Critical Review of Palaeolithic Lithic Technology of China"
For decades, studies of Chinese palaeolithic lithic technology have been limited to the framework of cultural traditions or lithic industries within cultural contexts in conventional ways. These cultural traditions and industries were then interpreted in terms of chronological or regional variations. Lithic technology in Chinese palaeolithic was not being related to reconstruction of human behaviors, thus creating significant problems in defining lithic traditions and industries in Chinese palaeolithic. In this paper, an overall review of previous study of Chinese palaeolithic lithic technology is provided. The paper will evaluate Jia's proposal of two different lithic traditions of central-northern China: the Large-Flake Chopping Tool Tradition and the Small-Flake Scrape-Burin Tradition. Another two major traditions - the Pebble-Tool tradition designated for the southern China and the Microblade tradition at the end of Pleistocene, will be also reviewed. The paper tends to clarify definitions and terminology of the proposed lithic traditions and industries, and especially to define the problems in study of palaeolithic lithic technology of China. The arguments are illustrated with my own observations from field investigations at both Lonan and Nihewan basins as well as from the Three Gorges areas. Some working models are proposed as the result of re-evaluation, and new lines for future study of lithic technology are suggested.
SHEN Chen (Royal Ontario Museum, Canada) and CHEN Chun (Fudan University, China), "Re-Investigating Xiaochangliang, the Earliest Palaeolithic Occupation of Central-northern China"
Xiaochangliang is a well-known Lower Palaeolithic site of the Early Pleistocene identified in China, dated as early as 1.5 mya on the grounds of palaeomagnetical and ESR dating. Since its initial identification in the late 1970s, many lithic artifacts and faunal remains have been recovered from the site. Unfortunately, due to lack of strategic research plan, the site was excavated in conventional way for many years. The precise provenience of recovered materials was not duly recorded, making difficult any investigations of hominids activities in the region. In 1998 the authors re-visited the site and conducted a systematic investigation. This paper will present the result from the session of excavation. Our goals in the 1998 excavation are to investigate lithic technology from which hominid behavior would be inferred, and to search for activities floor of the early occupants. The fieldwork exposed 16 contiguous square meters of cultural deposit from Nihewan Early-Pleistocene sediments, in original Location A. More than four thousand stone tools and bone fragments were recovered from 80 cm thick cultural deposit. The proveniences of all pieces greater than 10 mm in size were recorded three-dimensionally in situ. Our investigation yielded new evidence of hominid activities in the Nihewan basin and their surrounding environment. The paper will focus on our new findings from lithic use-wear analysis, sediment analysis and site formation, and faunal analysis. Our work demonstrated that with specific research resigns, field investigation could result in very important evidence although the excavation was in small scale.
SHINOTO Maria, (University of Heidelberg), "Recent Research in Hayato Archaeology: Understanding the Making of Narikawa Pottery from Fabric Observation and Mineralogical Analysis"
The paper presents a part of the authors doctoral dissertation at the University of Heidelberg which aims at understanding the development of South Kyushu within the framework of its own conditions rather than in comparison with remote regions like the Kinai, as is common in Hayato archaeology of traditional kind. The topic chosen for oral presentation outlines the research in production technology of the Narikawa pottery of the settlement site Tsujidobaru in West Satsuma. Knowledge about the technological standard of pottery making yields information about diversification in production, accessibility of resources and other topics that relate to sociological, economical and political questions. Three fabric groups could be seperated by archaeological observation and evaluation, potential clay and temper deposits in the vicinity were found. 45 sherd samples and several samples of raw material (clods of clay from site context, modern clay and temper) were analyzed by means of mineralogy (mainly X-ray diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, thin cuts, scanning electron microscope). The hypotheses about the production process could be reduced to one model of high probability that describes 3 methods of fabric production and two methods of slip production with intermediate stages. Fabric groups correlate to time and vessel forms, other correlations and interpretations shall be presented at the conference. The results of the study in Tsujidobaru are not limited to this site but can be applied to other sites in different regions and times.
SUN Yan (University of Pittsburgh), "Changing Gender Relations from the Late Dawenkou to the Longshan Period: A Regional Study of Mortuary Practices in Eastern Shandong, China"
Neolithic communities in Eastern Shandong developed a significant degree of social complexity during the late Dawenkou and Longshan periods (late 4th to the 3rd millennium BC). Burial data dated to these periods allows us to reconstruct gender relations in the dynamics of social change. Analyses of the distribution of grave goods within and among each sex in the two cemeteries of Sanlihe and Chengzi point to a number of interesting features. During the late Dawenkou period, there is a consistent difference in the number and types of grave goods between male and female burials, with the male burials generally wealthier than those of females. Tools made of stone and bone are largely associated with males. During the Longshan period, the two cemeteries differ in the burial treatment of each sex. At Sanlihe, female burials are generally richer than male burials, while at Chengzi, females have much fewer burial goods than the males. This study directly questions the current view that the transition from late Dawenkou to Longshan periods saw a decline in the role of women in the social and economic spheres. It also suggests that interaction between gender and social complexity is a complicated issue that demands further study.
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TAMAI Tetsuo (Chiba University, Japan), "The Emergence and Development of Machiya Architecture in the 16th - early 17th Centuries"
Society as it evolved in the Japanese archipelago developed around the year 1600 from the mediaeval to the early modern age. The military government of the Edo Bakufu was established, and the power structure of the daimyo, who made their headquarters in the castle towns of each region, was reinforced. At the core of the castle town, stood the architecture of the castle, symbol of the military strength of the warrior-class, its center occupied by shoin-style warrior residences, ceremonial settings where the where differences in status within the warrior hierarchy were expressed. Members of the religious and artisan/merchant classes, in accordance with their function, were forced to live around the edge of the castle towns or along the streets in temple and shrine districts and townsmen's districts. In the transition from the mediaeval to the early modern age, the temples and shrines in the religious districts and the machiya that were the main buildings of the townsmen's districts found their functions changing, and the style and form of the buildings, as well as building techniques also changed greatly. From the architectural historian's standpoint, clarification of the historical development of buildings is a way of shedding light on the character of human society. To elucidate the changes in buildings around 1600, apart from documentary evidence, there are essentially three kinds of material. These are surviving buildings, contemporary illustrations of buildings, and excavated data from archaeological research. Compared with temples, shoin buildings and castle structures, of which examples survive, albeit in small numbers, machiya survivals are very few. Moreover, since they were ordinary people's houses, documentary material is limited. As a result, the only ways to discover their character have been to work back from the surviving examples of a later period, or to rely on the illustrations made at the time when the buildings were standing. However, although this material allows us to get a sense of what machiya were like, it does not allow us to reconstruct actual buildings with real confidence. However, in recent years, archaeological excavations have proceeded alongside urban redevelopment and excavated data on machiya has increased. Using this data, the study of machiya at the end of the mediaeval and beginning of the early modern period has reached a new level. This paper considers changes in our view of these machiya as a result of considering excavated archaeological data. It attempts to clarify the changes that took place in machiya design around the year 1600, and to consider their significance for Japanese architectural history as a whole
TANG Jigen (University of London) and JING, Zhichun (University of Wisconsin), "Craftsmen and Their Products in the Late Shang Dynasty-An Analysis of the aterials from Anyang"
Craftsmen are important creators of the material culture of ancient societies. During the last 70 years, Chinese archaeologists have excavated many lineage dwelling sites and lineage cemeteries at Anyang, the last capital city of the Shang dynasty. A large quantity of tools used by the Shang craftsmen were found in these dwelling sites and burials. Based on these data, our paper will discuss: 1) the functional classification of the tools; 2) related products of different tools; and 3) those who used the tools and their social status.
TAWARA, Kanji (Kyushu University), "How We Re-contextualize the Vietnamese Past? A Case Study of Han Tombs and Archaeological Material Excavated in French Colonial Era"
Since 1945, the end of the World War II, distinction between East Asia and Southeast Asia has been established, and it made new archaeological contexts in several countries. However, there is forgetting about the past in which the colonialist scholar made their field not only by archaeological collection but also by intellectual discourses. This paper examines some implications that archaeological activities in French Colonial Era related to Chinese civilization made such field of discourses. Especially I would like to point out some problems about the materials of Archaeological Research in Indochina in 1930's (directed by Swedish archaeologist R. T. Olov Janse) and its aftermath on historical contexts around the post-colonial archaeological studies in Vietnam.
TOMOI Makoto (Kyoto University, Japan), "Changes in the House Structure in Western Japan in Jomon"
It is widely accepted that the Jomon hunter-gatherers generally lived sedentary lives, and that, at least in the eastern Japan, they have developed their house structures during the Initial Jomon; a post-hole got increased in its size and depth, and a floor area as well increased. In the case of the western Japan, it was in the Early Jomon that such a development had started. At first, the diameter of a post-hole increased. This change, as has long been pointed out, must have been related to the increase of polished-axes in number. Then, at latest in the Middle Jomon, a post-hole got deeper and a floor area was enlarged. This change seems to have been in accordance with the rise of the frequency of chipped-axes. This stage also saw the widespread introduction of a stone-surrounding hearth to the inside of a house. This phenomenon might well have been closely related to the increasingly sharpening base of pottery. All of these changes, therefore, can be explained as the development by indigenous people.
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UNO T. (Kyoto) "From China to Japan: Innovations in Food Vessels and Cooking Styles in the Middle Kofun Period"
It is recorded in historical texts that many people immigrated from Korea to Japan in the Middlle Kofun period (5th century AD). In this paper I discuss the important innovations that were achieved at that time based on the archaeological evidence of food vessels and cooking styles. It is argued that a full cultural complex related to food vessel use which originated in northern China was introduced into Japan via the Korean penninsula during the 5th century AD. This cultural complex included the
stratified use of tableware, cooking with steamers and pans on stoves, and the use of large storage vases for brewing and many other purposes. The addition of elements such as the Korean usage of stoneware pedestaled dishes, and the traditional Japanese use of earthenware pedestaled dishes plus the innovation of Sue ware dishes with fitted covers, gave added complexity to the situation. This is understood to have led to the smooth integration of northern Chinese methods of cooking and storage, but with the continuation of Japanese practices for tableware. 5th century society saw differences, based on class and group affiliations, in the level of incorporation of the imported cultural elements, but in the 6th-7th centuries these innovations spread to all social class in the central region of the Japanese archipelago. The stratified use of tableware was also established at this time. I conclude that immigrants from Korea had a major influence on Japanese daily life at that time.
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VOSTRETSOV Yuri (Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology of the People of the Far East Vladivostok), "Changing of Environment and Cultural Dynamic in the Middle Holocene in Western Part of Japan Sea"
The paper considers the tendency and dynamic of main factors of environment for population in coastal areas, such as sea level, shape of coast line, productivity and diversity of seascapes and landscapes. There may be delineated several large scale phases in environmental dynamic in coastal areas in connection with marine resources exploitation and the cultural traditions of hunters-fishers-gatherers. The first phase covers the interval from ca 10.000 to 6.000 B.P.. It is characterized by intensive uplift of sea level and by an increase of complexity of coast line, productivity and attractiveness for human occupation. That period is characterized by non-specialized opportunists using marine resources - fishes, sea mammals and mollusks. The second phase covers the interval 6.000-5.000 B.P. and is characterized by a maximum of sea level, complexity of coast line, productivity, and diversity of marine resources. Populations specialized on lagoon and bay species of fishes (mugilidae), sea mammals (whale, dolphin, seal) and mollusks (oysters). The third phase covers the interval from 5.000 to 2.300 B.P.. It is characterized by of sea level which made the coast line straighter, by the disappearance of lagoons and deep bays which resulted in the population's gradually reorienting to species of the deep sea (scombridae, clupeidae). Specialization of the technological complex of fishing, and density of the population in the coastal zone were increased. The prevalence of mollusk gathering was connected with the uplift of coastlines in middle Holocene. Similar tendencies occurred in the eastern part of the Sea of Japan.
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WANG Tao (SOAS, University of London), "Water Management in Ancient China"
Water not is only the most important natural source for life, it also has an impact on civilization, bringing both benefit and disaster. In their efforts to utilize river resources, people have developed mechanisms for advanced water management. Archaeological investigation of activities relating to the use of water and water management in ancient societies gives us a new perspective on the way
societies developed. Karl Wittfogel's theory of "hydraulic societies" and "oriental despotism" has been very influential. Wittfogel used China as the archetype of Asiatic society and stressed the importance of large-scale irrigation in consolidating centralised bureaucratic power. However, his theory seems to seek a simple solution from complicated data. In this paper I will argue that the initial development of water management, such as irrigation, dam and canal construction, and maritime transport began as a natural solution to the problems arising from environmental circumstances. It is also useful to consider the problem on a social level; large-scale water projects became commonplace in the Eastern Zhou period when society was undergoing dramatic changes. I will try to examine each case in its own historical context, as well as discuss the symbolic value of water and water control in early Chinese culture.
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YONG Ying (University of Pittbsurgh), "The burials of the Governor of Huang State and His Wife: Perspectives on Social Status and Foreign Affairs During the mid-Seventh Century BC"
The joint burials of the governors of the state of Huang (Huang Jun Meng) and his wife (Huang Meng Ji), dated to the 7th century BC, offer us a good opportunity to study the social status and role of a state governor's official wife. Huang Meng Ji's burial is richer than that of her husband, a fact that contradicts the trend toward greater restrictions on the roles of elite women and a lowering of their status in relation to men that is witnessed during the Zhou dynasty. A study of the burial goods and inscriptions on bronzes suggests that Huang Meng Ji was from the state of Zeng, having been born in a powerful family of higher rank than that of her husband. This paper suggests that by showing her respect in life and preparing for her an elaborate funeral ceremony, Huang Jun Meng intended to maintain good relations with her family and the state of Zeng, thus ensuring the stability and protection of his small but strategically located Huang state, which feared an invasion from the neighboring and powerful state of Chu.
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ZHANG Lidong (Chinese Academy of Social Sciences), "Reconstructing the Xia Civilization"
I systematically discuss the issue of the Xia Culture, the hottest topic in Chinese archaeology. What I would like to talk about include four sections. The first section discusses whether the Xia Dynasty ever exists. The second section introduces the important fieldwork and theories for the search for the Xia Culture. The third section expresses my own viewpoints on the Xia Culture: which archaeological culture is the Xia Culture. The fourth section lists the features of the Xia Culture, and indicate why we can regard the Xia dynasty as the first civilization of China.
ZHOU Kunshu (Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing), "Paleoenvironmental Studies of Yinxu, China"
Yinxu, the last capital site of Shang Dynasty, is located on the second-level terrace of the Huan River valley in the Anyang Basin near the foothills east of the Taihang Mountains. Cultural remains at Yinxu lie on the reddish-brown paleosol. The buried paleosol, mainly found in the southeastern part of Loess Plateau, formed during the optimum period of the Holocene. The micromorphological study of the buried soil suggests that the climate was relatively warm and wet during soil's formation. According to the stratigraphic relation between the Shang cultural layer and its underlying paleosol, the late Shang period may have witnessed the end of the climatic optimum.
ZORN Bettina (Museum of Ethnology, Vienna), "Erlitou Culture and Reconstructing Chronology for the Three Dynasties"
In 1996 the Chinese State Council launched the "Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project" to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the People's Republic of China. More than 170 researchers from various fields such as history, archaeology, astronomy and natural sciences participated in the project with the aim of constructing a historical periodisation for the Three Dynasties. This paper examines the significance of the Erlitou culture in reconstructing Xia-Shang-Zhou chronology.