New fieldwork or research discoveries? Upcoming conference or workshop? New job opening or fellowship posting? New book?

Share the latest news of your work with your colleagues, advertise for job or fellowship openings, find participants for your conference session and more on the SEAA blog.

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.

Contributions should be limited to around 500 words and 1-2 images. For longer descriptions of your projects, you may consider the Reports section of the Bulletin (BSEAA).

Members can submit their news posts to the SEAA web editor via the website (see SEAA Members' Area for details and instructions on blog submissions) or via email. Non-member contributions are also welcome and may be submitted via email to the SEAA web editor.

The editor(s) reserves the right to carry out minor editing, or to decline contributions inappropriate to the objectives of SEAA.

Announcement: Shifting of SEAA Membership to 3-year, fixed term cycle

As the SEAA is now moving towards a 3-year conference cycle, we have also been in the process of updating our membership system to align with this change. This has now been implemented on the website for all new or renewing memberships. What this means in practical terms is that when you go to renew your membership, the options are now Regular and Concessionary 3-year fixed term. If you renew or join anytime this year, your membership will now last until December 31st, 2022. If you renew or join anytime in 2021, then your membership will last until December 31st, 2023, and so on.

Postdoctoral Research Associate - Encounter

Postdoctoral Research Associate - Encounter

A fixed term full-time postdoctoral appointment for 36 months is available to work on the ERC-funded project “Encounter: Demography, Cultural change, and the Diffusion of Rice and Millet during the Jomon-Yayoi transition in prehistoric Japan”. https://www.encounterproject.info/.  The role is for an analytical chemist or archaeological scientist to conduct lipid and protein residue analysis on Final Jomon and Early Yayoi ceramic vessels. You will generate data that will advance our understanding of the transition to farming in Japan. N.B. Prior doctoral training or equivalent experience in the field of organic residue analysis is highly desirable.

You will join the University of York’s world-renowned BioArCh group, where you will benefit from a highly multi-disciplinary and engaging working environment.  You will work closely with the residue analysis group under the direction of Prof. Oliver Craig, although you have your own remit within the project and the opportunity to complete first authored publications. You will be supported by our team of dedicated technicians and have access to all the instrumentation needed to undertake the research on site.  As part of this project, you may also be expected to make occasional visits to Japan to undertake sampling and dissemination of the results with the project partners, and to Cambridge where other team members are based. 

BE-ARCHAEO Summer School - Postponed

PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS OPPROTUNITY HAS BEEN POSTPONED DUE TO COVID-19

 

The first BE-ARCHAEO summer school is organized within the framework of MSCARISE BE-ARCHAEO project. It is addressed to PhD and postgraduate students in archaeology and related disciplines, as well as operators from archaeological museums, who are interested in the archaeology and proto-history of Japan and in the methodology of archaeological investigation. Participant will take part to lecture sessions with exercises, and a final workshop.

Forbidden City

Understanding Authenticity in China’s Cultural Heritage Conference at the University of Oxford, 28-30 May, 2020

Understanding Authenticity in China’s Cultural Heritage

Conference at the University of Oxford, 28-30 May, 2020

What we deem to be genuine or fake is not an objective determination, but something that we agree upon as communities. Debates about authenticity, moreover, are often intimately bound to question who owns the past and its representation. Please join us at Oxford on May 28th-30th, 2020, for a discussion on the construction of “authenticity,” both historically and today, in relation to China’s cultural heritage. 

Book cover

New Book: The Origin of Cattle in China from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age

Cattle (Bos taurus), domesticated from the extinct aurochs (Bos primigenius), has been an important animal to many human societies since prehistoric times. Cattle provides not only meat for subsistence, but also hide, blood, dung, milk and traction that contribute to the organization of human beliefs, cultural attitudes and social complexity. This book provides the widest range of cattle bone biometrical information from the Early Neolithic period to the Early Bronze Age (10000 to 3600 years ago) and investigates the morphological variation of this animal from a biological point of view: the main indicator for tracing domestication. The results suggest that cattle in ancient China was imported from the Near East around 4,300 years ago and made their first appearance in the Yellow River Valley. Once they had arrived in central China, these small-sized domesticated cattle soon spread and was exploited intensively from then on.

Wang book cover.

New Book: A Zooarchaeological Study of the Haimenkou Site, Yunnan Province, China

Haimenkou was an important location, with trade and cultural links connecting parts of modern Southeast Asia and northwestern China in ancient times. This book is based on an analysis of the faunal assemblage recovered from the Haimenkou site during the 2008 field season in Yunnan Province, China. It investigates the human-animal relationships at Haimenkou through a time span running from the late Neolithic Period to the middle Bronze Age (ca. 5000-2400 BP).

Louis Frieberg Post-doctoral Fellowships in Asian Studies

November 1, 2019

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem

Louis Frieberg Post-doctoral Fellowships

The Louis Frieberg Center for East Asian Studies offers post-doctoral fellowships for the2020-2021 academic year. The post-docs are open to scholars in the humanities and socialsciences specializing in East Asia, especially China, Japan, Korea and Mongolia.Fellowships are granted for one academic year or one semester. The starting date of the visitshould not be later than four years after receipt of the doctoral degree; the fellow must hold avalid doctoral degree no later than October 2020.The fellowship consists of a monthly stipend (tax free) of $1,800, paid in Israeli currency andlinked to the representative rate of exchange. Fellows are entitled to one airline ticket(economy class, up to $1,500) for a direct flight from their hometown to Israel and back. Thefellows are expected to teach one semester-long course at the Hebrew University (foradditional payment, according to the Hebrew University regulations). The ability to teach acourse in Hebrew is welcome, but is not a prerequisite for attaining the fellowship. Thefellows will also actively participate in the life and activities of the Louis Frieberg Center forEast Asian Studies and will present their research at the seminar of the Department of AsianStudies, and possibly at other relevant forums. Any work outside the Hebrew Universitywould be allowed only after specific approval by the Frieberg Center. Applicants shouldsub one hard copy and an electronic copy—in one file—of their application to theaddress below, no later than March 8, 2020.

BAR label

Introducing Archaeology of East Asia, a BAR sub-series

Archaeology of East Asia, a BAR sub-series

Series Editor: Dr Anke Hein (University of Oxford, UK).

In recent years, the archaeology of East Asia has been receiving increasing interest among scholars world-wide, leading to an upsurge in publications in western languages as well as an increase of presentations and panels on that topic at international archaeological conferences. Within this trend, most publishing houses tend to favour textbook-type overviews or big-picture stories; what has been missing so far is a venue to publish archaeological material and in-depth analyses that can provide a greater audience access to evidence previously unpublished or only accessible through articles in not-easily-accessible venues or languages. Likewise lacking are publication venues for conference proceedings that summarize the most recent findings and insights in a timely manner.

Durham University: Position in Zooarchaeology

The Department of Archaeology at Durham University seeks to appoint a talented individual to the role of Assistant Professor. We welcome applications from those with research and teaching interests in the broad field of zooarchaeology from any part of the world and we are particularly eager to hear from applicants capable of directing research on the zooarchaeology of East and South East Asia and Africa.

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Membership can be considered for any individual, professional or non-professional, doing research related to the archaeology of East Asia (China, Korea, Japan) or otherwise interested in the field. Please click the button above to sign up or renew now.