SEAA News Blog

The Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association has recently announced their upcoming conference, details of which are below. We would also like to congratualte Prof. Rasmi Shoocongdej, who has recently taken up the role of preident of IPPA!

About the conference:

The IPPA Executive Committee voted to support the Thailand proposal to host the 2022 IPPA Congress:

The Congress will be held at the Le Meridien Hotel, Chiang Mai from the 6th-12th November 2022. 

The Oxford Centre for Asian Archaeology, Art, and Culture presents the following speakers as part of its Eurasian Archaeology Seminar Series. Talks are open to everyone. To receive access details for the Zoom event or for any other questions please contact Dr. Anke Hein at anke.hein@arch.ox.ac.uk

Monday, 19 October, 2020, 16:00 BST, via MS Teams: Dylan Gaffney (University of Cambridge): Eurasia-Pacific trade connections from the Neolithic to the Dutch East India Company

Seminar Series jointly organized by Oxford University and SOAS

Everyone is welcome to attend the following sessions: 

Wednesday, 21 October 2020, 11:00 BST
Zhang Lisheng and David Francis (UCL): Re-evaluating authenticity: Creativity in contemporary craft making in China

Wednesday, 28 October 2020, 12:00 BST
David Lebovitz (HKBU Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology): Was it really so, royal uncles? Notions of authenticity in the reception, redaction and reconstruction of some avuncular remonstrations.

Editor's note: while these positions are not East Asia specific, several East Asia-focused scholars have held them in recent years, so it is worth applying. https://isaw.nyu.edu/visiting-scholars

The Institute for the Study of the Ancient World (ISAW) is a center for advanced scholarly research and graduate education, which aims to encourage particularly the study of the economic, religious, political and cultural connections between ancient civilizations. In an effort to embrace a truly inclusive geographical scope while maintaining continuity and coherence, the Institute focuses on the shared and overlapping periods in the development of cultures and civilizations around the Mediterranean basin, and across central Asia to the Pacific Ocean. The approaches of anthropology, archaeology, geography, geology, history, economics, sociology, art history, digital humanities, and the history of science and technology are as integral to the enterprise as the study of texts, philosophy, and the analysis of artifacts.

ISAW anticipates appointing visiting scholars in several different categories for the 2021-22 academic year. Applicants in all categories should be individuals of scholarly distinction or promise in any relevant field of ancient studies who will benefit from the stimulation of working in an environment with colleagues in other disciplines. Scholars with a history of interdisciplinary exchange and scholars whose academic interests include parts of the ancient Old World that are often underrepresented in traditional academic departments, including Africa, Central Asia, South Asia, and Southeast Asia, are especially welcome and encouraged to apply.

The Archaeological Database of China, collaborated by Tsinghua University and Hong Kong University, is looking for a research assistant to help curate data from the second phase of its project. Successful applicants would work on archaeological materials from the Neolithic to the Northern and Southern dynasties. Please note that work would be conducted entirely in Chinese. As such, applications should have high fluency in the Chinese language.

Research Fellow Position at Academia Sinica

1. Rank: Assistant Research Fellow (1 position available)

2. Areas of Specialization: Chinese History

3. Qualifications:

(1) Applicants with a domestic or foreign doctorate degree recognized by the Ministry of Education; or applicants scheduled to receive a domestic or foreign doctorate degree in related fields by June 30, 2021
(2) For foreign applicants, the ability to speak and write (fluently) in Mandarin is preferred.

What is likely to be Japan’s oldest spinning tip was recently unearthed in the Minami-Shiga archaeological site in Otsu, Shiga Prefecture. The site was thought to have been inhabited by immigrants from the Korean Peninsula. The top was unearthed together with other ceremonial items such as sacred spikes and peach seeds. Judging from pottery sherds found in the same ditch, the wooden spinning top, dates to the late Kofun period, which lasted from the late 6th to early 7th century.

Author: John Vincent Bellezza 

Synopsis 

Drawn and Written in Stone explores the religious history of the highest part of the Tibetan Plateau through its rock art and inscriptions. It is focused on facsimiles of ritual and ceremonial monuments carved and painted on stone surfaces and rock inscriptions in the Tibetan language, vital archaeological and historical materials for appraising the development of religion in Tibet, ca. 100 BCE to 1400 CE. By probing the complexion of figures and letters in stone, this work considers how early cult traditions contributed to the establishment of Tibetan Buddhism and a rival faith known as Yungdrung Bon. Outside of the Indian cultural context, relatively little has been written about the historical antecedents of these popular Tibetan religions for a want of sources. This monograph helps remedy this large gap in Tibetan studies by drawing upon the author’s surveys of rock art and rock inscriptions conducted in upmost Tibet between 1995 and 2013. 

The University of Kansas (KU) Center for East Asian Studies and Kress Foundation Department of Art History will be hosting a symposium "Visual & Material Culture of the Silk Road" from September 11-12, 2020 via zoom. The symposium will feature a diverse lineup of speakers from KU and other institutions [Registration information below]. 

"Innovation, imitation, and identity: Mayeon Black ware and social complexity in Southwestern Korea" now in press in Archaeological Research in Asia. 

Authors: Sangwon Nam, Rory Walsh, Gyoung-Ah Lee