1,721,018 research outputs found
Flad et al. 2021 BMFEA 82 Supplemental Files
No full textThis Dataset contains the Supplemental Figures and Tables for the following Publication: Rowan Flad, Jing Zhou, Andrew Womack, Yitzchak Jaffe, Jada Ko, Pochan Chen, Lingyu Hung, Bingbing Liu, Ruilin Mao, Hui Wang, Shuicheng Li (2021) Preliminary Site Prospection Along the Tao River 2011-2013: Testing the Chinese Register of Archaeological Sites. Bulletin of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities 82. The figure file include photographs of the archaeological sites cataloged in the article and artifacts collected at these sites. The table file includes information on the individual artifacts discussed in the publication
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Stone and Sediment: Interaction Between Resources and Society in the Jianghan Area From 1,600 to 1,050 BC.
No full textHow the interaction between resources and society shaped the social world is an important anthropological concern. In the study of the Bronze Age, prominent resources, represented by bronzes, are often the focus of researchers. However, there are many different types of resources, and while prominent resources are important, ubiquitous resources cannot be ignored. Therefore, studying the interaction between resources and society within an anthropological framework is a promising avenue that offers new perspectives on this topic. This dissertation analyzes lithic and ceramic artifacts to explore the connection between society and ubiquitous resources during this period. Using a combination of geoarchaeology, statistical methods, and spatial analysis, this study analyzes stone and ceramic remains excavated from five Shang Dynasty (1,600-1,050 BC) sites in the Jianghan area. The results of the study reveal new phenomena, proving that the utilization and acquisition of ubiquitous resources was a complex network among the societies of the Shang Dynasty. Different levels of settlements had very different resource strategies, and the resource strategies showed changes over time as the power of the Shang Dynasty in the Jianghan area receded. In addition, the social scenario under the perspective of ubiquitous resources complements the social landscape previously understood through prominent resources, allowing us to see that Shang society had both strict order and open mobility in its resource strategies
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Ritual and Economy in East Asia: Archaeological Perspectives
Full text linkIn commemoration of Lothar von Falkenhausen’s 60th birthday, this volume assembles eighteen scholarly essays that explore the intersection between art, economy, and ritual in ancient East Asia. The contributions are clustered into four themes: “Ritual Economy,” “Ritual and Sacrifice,” “Technology, Community, Interaction,” and “Objects and Meaning,” which collectively reflect the theoretical, methodological, and historical questions that Falkenhausen has been examining via his scholarship, research, and teaching throughout his career.Most of the chapters work with archaeological and textual data from China, but there are also studies of materials from Mongolia, Korea, Southeast Asia and even Egypt, showing the global impact of Falkenhausen’s work. The chronological range of studies extends from the Neolithic through the Bronze Age in China, into the early imperial, medieval, and early modern periods. The authors discuss art, economy, ritual, interaction, and technology in the broad context of East Asian archaeology and its connection to the world beyond
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Subsistence and Ritual: Animal Economy in the Bronze Age Qaidam Basin in Northwestern China
No full textUnderstanding the diversity and complexity of human-animal interactions is crucial to examining human adaptation to specific environmental conditions and for exploring the development of ancient societies. The latter half of the second millennium BC witnessed the rise of the Shang Dynasty in northern China, marking the beginning of an era characterized by various economic, cultural, and political innovations. While previous zooarchaeological research has shed light on the significant roles that animals played in Shang society, our understanding of contemporary communities outside the Shang territories remains limited. This dissertation investigates the exploitation of animal resources in Bronze Age northwestern China during the latter half of the second millennium BC, with a specific focus on the Nuomuhong Culture located in the high-altitude Qaidam Basin of the northeastern Qinghai-Xizang Plateau. Ongoing excavations at the large site of Xia’eryamakebu in present-day central Qinghai Province, have yielded a significant quantity of animal remains from both burial and non-burial contexts. Through the analysis of this extensive collection, this dissertation seeks to understand the animal-related subsistence strategies employed by the Nuomuhong people and the ritualistic mortuary practices unique to their society, which differ from those observed in other contemporary cultures. The wealth of zooarchaeological data from Xia’eryamakebu not only facilitates cross-cultural and cross-regional comparative research on animal use in Bronze Age China but also allows for a better understanding of the intricate interplay between subsistence practices and ritual traditions in ancient societies
Going Beyond Counting First Authors in Author Co-citation Analysis
Full text linkThe present study examines one of the fundamental aspects of author co-citation analysis (ACA) - the way co-citation
counts are defined. Co-citation counting provides the data on which all subsequent statistical analyses and mappings
are based, and we compare ACA results based on two different types of co-citation counting - the traditional type that
only counts the first one among a cited work's authors on the one hand and a non-traditional type that takes into
account the first 5 authors of a cited work on the other hand. Results indicate that the picture produced through this non-traditional author co-citation counting contains more coherent author groups and is therefore considerably clearer. However, this picture represents fewer specialties in the research field being studied than that produced through the traditional first-author co-citation counting when the same number of top-ranked authors is selected and analyzed. Reasons for these effects are discussed
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Art of Changes: Material Imagination in Early China, c. Third to First Century BCE
No full textThis dissertation examines the efficacy of material and its impact on early imperial Chinese art. Focusing on a selection of important artworks in jade, bronze, glass, and mercury, I explore how the re-conceptualization of the materials in the Qin (221–206 BCE) and the Western Han (202 BCE–9 CE) profoundly shaped the design and the production of the innovative artworks in the period, while setting new expectations for the relationship between the object and the body. In particular, I highlight the great convergence of artisanal practices and the fangshu 方術 “technical arts” or “occult methods” in the context of court art production. I argue that this body of specialized knowledge played a vital role in the artisanal effort to evoke and harness the power of materials, either through a theoretical re-interpretation of the material’s physical qualities or through symbolic encryptions of the craft process. In doing so, I scrutinize art in early imperial China as a fundamentally intellectualized effort that at once discovered, imitated, and challenged the workings of nature, the process of the zaohua 造化 “Great Transformation.”
The first chapter examines the jade burial suit of Liu Sheng 劉勝, the King Jing of Zhongshan 中山靖王 (d. 113 BCE), which paradoxically mimics his naked body. In the context of the re-imagination of the hardstone as a fluid, ethereal matter capable of corporeal morphing, I uncover the deep ties between the suit’s peculiar design and important ideals in period medical theory, particularly the concept of the “jade body.” Focusing on an oversized bronze dressing mirror excavated in the tomb of Liu He 劉賀 (d. 59 BCE), the Marquis of Haihun 海昏侯, the second chapter demonstrates how methodological encryption of bronze metallurgy, from the selection of raw metals to the process of casting, transformed the alloy into a cosmic matter capable of summoning spirits and healing the body, while also developing a “human dimension” of the material. In light of new findings in conservation science and technical studies, the third chapter scrutinizes a group of translucent glass artifacts from the second century BCE to explore the connection between lead-barium glassmaking and early Chinese alchemy and pharmacology, which imbued glass with cosmic and macrobiotic potencies that in turn inspired the rise of glass vessels and a unique ancient color technology. Following the lead on alchemy, the fourth chapter reveals how a set of fire-gilt metalwork, in evoking the touch of mercury, visually enacted the evolution of the liquid metal toward solid, incorruptible gold in early Chinese imagination, a powerful allegory for corporeal immortalization that enchanted their royal patrons.
The four case studies offer insights into aspects of ancient Chinese culture unavailable through the study of texts alone, while sensitizing us to the materially-based, fangshu-driven artisanal practices and the body-centric modes of perception. In this way, this study aims to contribute to the broader discourses on the efficacy of material in the art of the ancient world, especially how materials mediated ideas — philosophical, religious, political — and in the case of early China presented in this study, the formless cosmic change itself
Raw material hoards, ritual deposits, or disturbed burials? Object pits in the mountains of Southwest China
Full text linkWhile in European archaeology, hoards are a much-discussed phenomenon equally important to graves and settlements, in China this find category has been receiving considerably less attention. Instead, object finds with no identifiable features surrounding them are usually assumed to be disturbed graves. Only late Western Zhou period ritual bronzes that appear in pits in the Central Plains are interpreted as treasure hidden in war times, but for other periods or other parts of China, such phenomena are not under discussion. In the mountains of Southwest China, however, object deposits are rather common; here, a number of pits containing complete objects arranged in an organized manner have been reported, yet, never discussed in detail. This paper suggests that most of these finds are not trash pits or disturbed graves but intentional deposits that deserve scholarly attention. This paper identifies several separate categories of object deposits connected with different ritual practices that can serve as a case study and point of comparison for research on deposition practices in other parts of the world
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