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Guidelines: All posts should be related in some way to East Asian Archaeology. When writing your post, please use capital letters for surnames. Original script (Chinese, Korean, Japanese) for East Asian place names, personal names, or archaeological terms is encouraged. For the transcription of East Asian language terms, Pinyin for Chinese, Hepburn for Japanese, and the Korean Government System (2000) for Korean is encouraged.
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Position Description
The Creel Center for Chinese Paleography of the University of Chicago’s Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations invites applications for a position as a Postdoctoral Researcher at the rank of Instructor. We welcome applications from scholars with a background in any aspect of early Chinese civilization, though special preference will be given to applicants who propose to study paleography and/or unearthed documents. The selected candidate is expected to be in residence and conduct their own research under the mentorship of a faculty member. Further requirements include teaching two courses as well as participation in the graduate workshops, symposia, and other events sponsored by the center and the department. The initial appointment is for two years, and renewal for a third year if possible, contingent upon budgetary approval and satisfactory review of performance. Salary is competitive and includes benefits. The anticipated start date for the appointment is September 1, 2021, or as soon as possible thereafter.
-- Chinese archaeologists announced Saturday that some new major discoveries have been made at the legendary Sanxingdui Ruins site in southwest China, helping shed light on the unified, diverse origin of the Chinese civilization.
Edited by Elizabeth Childs-Johnson
The Oxford Handbook on Early China brings 30 scholars together to cover early China from the Neolithic through Warring States periods (ca 5000-500BCE). The study is chronological and incorporates a multidisciplinary approach, covering topics from archaeology, anthropology, art history, architecture, music, and metallurgy, to literature, religion, paleography, cosmology, religion, prehistory, and history.
https://global.oup.com/academic/product/the-oxford-handbook-of-early-chi...
Greetings from SEAA! We have just published our first ever newsletter, which includes information on our upcoming online student conference, student paper awards, employment opportunities, and recent fieldwork. You ca view the entire newsletter here.
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5-minute Survey to Save Ancient Studies
Save Ancient Studies in America (SASA) is a non-profit organization that was founded in early 2020 as a reaction to the devaluation of the study of the ancient world in universities and high schools. Our director, David Danzig, and a group of 30 graduate students and early career scholars from leading universities around the world came together to build a platform to increase exposure, inspire engagement, and provide access to the study of the ancient world.
As part of SASA’s research project on the Downward Trend in Ancient Studies, we are working on understanding what draws people into Ancient Studies. Please spend 5 minutes to take this survey and help us work toward saving Ancient Studies. The results of this survey will help us analyze the variety of paths into our fields and to thereby better target SASA’s strategies for engaging young adults in the ancient world and attracting new students.
Survey link: >>>>> https://www.
Familiarity with unearthed materials has become the norm among scholars of early China across the world. The field has come to re‐examine narratives of early Chinese history in a more nuanced way, moving beyond questions of “doubting” or “verifying antiquity” to detail how the situation on the ground in early China related to its representation in traditional historical constructs. The fruits of this process are undeniable. Confronting entrenched historical narratives through archaeology, however, has widespread methodological and epistemological implications. Unquestioned, traditional narratives can distract scholars from the motivations of ancient actors; moreover, they can limit the broad humanistic value of early China scholarship and its reception outside the field. Unchecked, however, the incautious deconstruction of such narratives can cast pointless doubt on well-founded networks of knowledge. Further, deploying unearthed material in historiography brings the narratological habits of history into contact with the customs of field archaeology, raising both practical problems of data management and theoretical issues about the production of knowledge about the past.
The Irresistible Allure of Patina and Pedigree: A Case Study
Lothar von Falkenhausen (University of California Los Angeles)
