China (Archaeology)

Recent zooarchaeological studies on water buffalo (Bubalus sp.) remains from China and south Asia question the traditional view that water buffalo were first domesticated in Neolithic China over 7000 years ago. The results from several recent population genetic studies of modern domesticated buffalo (Bubalus bubalis) are not consistent with each other, placing the original center of buffalo's domestication in south Asia, southeast Asia, or China. This paper reports a study using an ancient DNA approach to analyze water buffalo remains from Neolithic sites in north China to investigate their affinities with modern domesticated water buffalo, and to shed light on the origin of modern domesticated water buffalo in China. A 169 bp fragment of D-loop mitochondrial DNA was successfully amplified and verified for 13 of 24 bone samples obtained from seven archaeological sites along the Wei River valley in Shaanxi Province, China. The bone samples which yielded positive DNA can be dated to 8000-3600 cal. BP. The phylogenetic analysis of the obtained DNA sequences along with modern water buffalo sequences indicated that the ancient water buffalos were not the direct ancestor of modern domesticated water buffalo. However, the phylogenetic analysis, along with BLAST searches of these ancient DNA sequences, did demonstrate their relatedness to water buffalo more so than to any other bovid species, confirming the existence of indigenous wild (but now extinct) water buffalo species (B. mephistopheles) in ancient China. The DNA analysis of these ancient remains failed to establish direct links between modern domesticated water buffalo (B. bubalis) and indigenous water buffalo (B. mephistopheles) from ancient China. If further DNA studies of more ancient remains from other regions of China confirm the observation of solely indigenous water buffalo species in ancient China, it would suggest modern water buffalo might not have been first domesticated in China.

Представлен краткий обзор памятников наскального искусства, выявленных на территории пров. Ганьсу на северо-западе Китая. Петроглифы распространены на всей территории региона, наибольшая их концентрация наблюдается в северо-западной и центральной частях. Здесь же находятся наиболее изученные памятники. В конце ХХ-начале XXI в. значительное число местонахождений было открыто в восточной и юго-восточ-ной частях провинции, многие из них до сих пор не опубликованы, большинство имеющихся публикаций увидели свет в малодоступных региональных изданиях, нередко без иллюстраций. Петроглифы Ганьсу исполнены в техниках выбивки, прошлифовки и гравировки, крашеные рисунки пока не найдены. Наблюдаются отличия между памятниками разных районов провинции: местонахождения в северо-западной и центральной частях демонстрируют сходство с традициями Синьцзяна, Цинхая, Тибета, в меньшей степени-Внутренней Монголии, а памятники востока и юго-востока близки к наскальным изображениям Нинся, Внутренней Мон-голии и отчасти петроглифам Цзюйцышань (пров. Хэнань).
The paper presents a brief overview of rock art sites known to date on the territory of Gansu Province in northwestern China. Petroglyphs have been discovered in all parts of the province, most of them concentrate in the northwestern and central parts of the region. Over the past decades, a significant number of rock art sites has been found in the eastern and southeastern parts of Gansu, but many materials from this territory have not yet been published or were published in hard-to-get local periodicals, quite often without any illustrations. The purpose of this article is to fill the lacuna in the rock art studies of this part of China through the generalization of all available data on Gansu petroglyphs and listing the rock art sites known to date. Petroglyphs of Gansu can be generally attributed to the northern province of Chinese rock art. The techniques used to produce images include percussion (pecking), abrasion (scratch-ing or rubbing) and engraving, no painted images have been discovered so far. At the same time, pronounced differences between rock art sites in different parts of the province can be observed: the sites in the northwestern and central parts of the region have obvious similarities with the rock art traditions of Xinjiang, Qinghai, Tibet and (to a lesser degree) Inner Mongolia, while the petroglyphs of eastern and southeastern parts of Gansu are close to the rock art of Ningxia, Inner Mongolia and partly to the petroglyphs of Jucishan in Henan Province.

Die Tang-Dynastie (618-907) – auch das goldene Zeitalter Chinas genannt – war eine blühende Epoche voller faszinierender Kulturphänomene. Das Zentrum des kosmopolitisch ausgerichteten Kaiserreichs bildete die vom heutigen Xi’an überlagerte Millionenstadt Chang’an – eine der größten Metropolen ihrer Zeit. Als Protagonisten des höfischen Lebens prägten Adelige das Stadtbild, deren luxuriöser Lebensstil sich auch in den pompös ausgestatteten Grabanlagen widerspiegelt. Diese findet man heute meist beraubt vor. Nur die herrlichen Wandmalereien und die zahlreichen, von den Grabräubern unbeachteten Tonfiguren konnten bisher eine vage Vorstellung vom ursprünglichen Umfang der Grabbeigaben und der ehemaligen Pracht der unterirdischen Kammern vermitteln. Im Jahr 2001 wurde in Xi’an das unversehrte Grab der 736 verstorbenen Li Chui ausgegraben, einer Urenkelin des Kaisers Gaozu. Sechs Jahre dauerte die Restaurierung des umfangreichen Grabinventars durch ein deutsch-chinesisches Team. Erstmalig gelang es, das opulente Schmuckensemble einer Tang-zeitlichen Dame zu rekonstruieren. Mit den Ergebnissen der wissenschaftlichen Auswertung durch ein Team von Spezialisten unterschiedlicher Disziplinen bieten sich neue Erkenntnisse zur damaligen Bestattungskultur. Diese werden hier erstmals einem breiten Publikum vorgestellt. Reich bebilderte Exkurse zu Themen wie z.B. Weinkultur, Daoismus oder Alchemie gewähren darüber hinaus einen Einblick in den Tang-zeitlichen Alltag.

Xanadu was Kublai Khan's imperial summer capital during the Yuan dynasty (AD 1271– AD 1368). In this article I show how Xanadu was designed in accordance with feng-shui principles that brought the site into harmony with visible and invisible forces of earth, sky, and water. New data presented here show that one way Xanadu was brought into feng-shui harmony was through multiple celestial alignments.

"The Delingha stable isotope tree-ring record provides exquisite precision and accuracy measurement for the Holocene paleoclimate proxies of the northeast Tibetan plateau, where 90% of annual precipitation now derives from the East Asian Summer Monsoon (EASM). But does the Delingha δ18Odendro record correspond to other EASM and globally distributed records for the 4.2 ka BP (~2200 BCE) megadrought event or does Delingha δ18Odendro record a different climate event?"

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As of January, 2024 this database has been moved to an ArcGIS Storymap and no longer being updated as a text file. For the most recent version, please see: Tattooed Human Mummies [ArcGIS story map] (https://doi.org/10.13140/RG.2.2.19339.05925/2)
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The following presents a global data set identifying naturally- and deliberately preserved tattooed human remains from the archaeological record. The initial version of this list (Version 1.0) was compiled in 2016 for inclusion as Table 1 in the journal article “The World’s Oldest Tattoos” (Deter-Wolf et al. 2016). Benoît Robitaille, Lars Krutak, and Sébastien Galliot all contributed to that initial effort.

Entries in the data table are organized broadly by date, and rely on direct dating wherever possible. Where radiocarbon data is available, dates represent calibrated ranges. Each entry also includes documentation as to the associated archaeological culture, site, and significant source material. At the present time, unpublished and/or unprovenienced specimens from museums and private collections are not generally included in the data set.

Modern genetics, ecology and archaeology are combined to reconstruct the domestication and diversification of rice. Early rice cultivation followed two pathways towards domestication in India and China, with selection for domestication traits in early Yangtze japonica and a non-domestication feedback system inferred for ‘proto-indica’. The protracted domestication process finished around 6,500–6,000 years ago in China and about two millennia later in India, when hybridization with Chinese rice took place. Subsequently farming populations grew and expanded by migration and incorporation of pre-existing populations. These expansions can be linked to hypothetical language family dispersal models, including dispersal from China southwards by the Sino-Tibetan and Austronesian groups. In South Asia much dispersal of rice took place after Indo-Aryan and Dravidian speakers adopted rice from speakers of lost languages of northern India.

The Lower Yangtze River Valley is a key region for the early development of rice farming and the emergence of wet rice paddy field systems. Subsistence evidence from Neolithic sites in this area highlights the importance of freshwater wetlands for both plant and animal food resources. Early Neolithic rice cultivators looked inland, especially to wetlands and nearby woodlands, for their main protein sources. Links to the sea among these Neolithic populations are notably scarce. Due to the high yields of wet rice, compared with other staple crops as well as dryland rice, the wetland rice focused subsistence strategy of the Lower Yangtze would have supported high, and increasing, local population densities. Paddy agriculture demands labor input and water management on a large scale, which would have stimulated and reinforced trends towards more complex societies , such as that represented by Liangzhu in the lower Yangtze region. Population growth could have been largely absorbed locally, suggesting that population packing, not migration, was the dominant trend. Other case studies of agricultural dispersal, for the Korean Peninsula and Japan further illustrate the lack of correlation between the spread of rice agriculture and wet rice cultivation. Although wet rice cultivation was a pull factor that drew local populations towards increased density and increased social complexity, it did not apparently push groups to migrate outwards. Instead, the transition from wetland to rain fed rice cultivation systems and/or the integration of rice with rain fed millet crops are much more likely to have driven the demographic dynamics that underpin early farmer migrations and crop dispersal.

Full catalogue of all BAR titles - updated July 2018

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Research on the Tomb of the Couple of Qifu Linghe
Lu Yahui
（School of Archaeology and Museology, Peking University）
Abstract:  The tomb of the couple of Qifu Linghe(乞扶令和，524-610AD) is located to the north of Dasima Village in Weihui City, Henan Province. The unearthed epitaph showed that Qifu Linghe was influenced by Taosim and Buddhism. However, according to my research, the stone buried item of Yujiulv Muman（郁久闾募满）was made up of the stone slabs decorated with the four spiritual creatures. This funeral customs came from Inner Asia.
Keywords:  Qifu Linghe  Yujiulv Muman  The Four Spiritual Creatures  Inner Asia
内容摘要：乞扶令和夫妇合葬墓位于河南省卫辉市唐庄镇大司马村，为带长斜坡墓道的单室土洞墓，笔者结合乞扶令和夫人郁久闾募满墓志，对该墓出土的四神石刻和“神人御玄武”图像进行考察，推断该墓最有可能存在由四神石刻拼成的石葬具，而这则是源自内亚的传统。
关键词： 乞扶令和  郁久闾募满  四神石刻  内亚传统

IN CHINA, COLLECTING HAS LONG PLAYED A PROMInent role. Historical records and archaeological evidence show that, since the highest antiquity, people treasured items from the past, seeing them as embodiments of political and moral authority. In recent centuries, antiquarian collecting carried out by the court and the educated elites shaped Chinese self-understanding and was deeply entangled with historical research. With the spread of modernity, this ancient tradition of antiquarian collecting and history-making developed into the modern practices of archaeological research, art history, and museography. This essay explores the roots of modern archaeology that are embedded in Qing antiquarian collecting.

Xianrendong is a cave site, where the World's oldest pottery was found. According to the results of the 2009 studies,
its age was determined in the range of c. 17500–16000 BP. This means that pottery appeared in southern China several thousand
years earlier than in other regions of East Asia. Such a significant gap, of course, attracts attention and raises certain
doubts. The main goal of this publication is to provide a holistic overview of the cave’s records and to understand how they
correspond to the conclusions reached in 2009. Our analysis shows that there are indeed grounds for doubts. The materials of
the Xianrendong cave are very vulnerable to criticism from the archaeological point of view. Studies of different years do not
agree with each other, there are too many contradictory details in the reports, which make it difficult to understand both the
stratigraphic situation and the appearance of the finds, and the nature of their distribution in the cave’s deposits, etc. Many of
these shortcomings can be overcome only by carrying out new excavations. In addition, the results of dating in 2009 are also
ambiguous. They contradict the typology of the finds, as well as the data about the preservation of deposits, as well as the results
of TL dating of the ceramics itself, and only further tangle up the situation.

The appearance of the oldest pottery in the world is a major focus of Early Neolithic archaeology. So far, most discoveries of early pottery have occurred in South China, North China, the Russian Far East, Japan and Korea. The discovery of very thick, low-fired, fibre-tempered pottery dated from around 10,000 BP at the Houtaomuga Site, in Jilin Province, fills an important gap in the distribution of early pottery in northeast China. Based on multi-disciplinary research and an important series of dates, this article establishes the chronology of the early pottery remains discovered at the Houtaomuga Site and their morphological and technical characteristics, and sheds light on their function. Finally, the authors compare them to the other early pottery sherds discovered in the surrounding region, and throughout East Asia, in order to discuss the significance of this discovery and its implications for the subsistence mode developed in the northwest of the Jilin Province at the very beginning of the Neolithic.
Please find the full article on this webpage: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10963-018-9126-y or on JSTOR

https://hjas.org/

A recent article argued that “texts can be used as tools for enacting identities in social settings” (Reading Research Quarterly 44.4 (2009): 416). Considering the multitude of manuscripts yielded by fourth through first-centuries BCE burials, such a statement seems pertinent for early Chinese society as well. What does it say about the self-concept of an individual when his ability to write and / or read assumed a prominent role in funerary rites?
This paper analyzes evidence of literacy that may be found in Chinese textual sources (received and archaeological) and tombs by applying identity concepts developed in anthropology and the social sciences to Chinese funerary data. It not only argues that the actual ability to write is palpable through certain kinds of texts that were associated with writing paraphernalia, but that literacy in particular was a crucial aspect of the self-representation of a particular group of people, namely the shǐ 史 (“scribes”).

Prevailing models of social development for the southern Korean Iron Age (ca. 300 B.C.–A.D. 300) focus on contact with China as well as the dynamic interaction between local polities to explain the development of socio-political complexity but the nature of this contact has not been critically examined or its more granular processes explored. This article uses two prominent grave good types discovered in southeastern Korean burials to question these models as well as conceptions of archaeological cultures in the region more generally. These objects, Chinese bronze mirrors and iron objects decorated with bracken-like spiral designs, both indicate significant interaction with Han China via its administrative commanderies, but their production and diverse mortuary contexts do not conform to any current model of culture contact, acculturation, hybridity, or entanglement. The variable production processes, expression of exotic motifs through these objects, and the way these objects were interred in graves suggests that we should look for cultural unity and early indicators of socio-cultural complexity within regions where local groups were particularly active in expressing their differences within a set of agreed-upon parameters. I argue that the southern peninsula is best described as a set of interdependent local groups with a similar ritual vocabulary, but little to no political unity even directly prior to the appearance of the Three Kingdoms polities of Paekche, Silla, and Kaya. KEYWORDS: Korean Iron Age, Samhan, Three Kingdoms, Han bronze mirrors, iron production, culture contact.

Проверяется гипотеза о том, что импульсы степных культур оказали влияние на формирование и развитие китайской металлургии. Сделан вывод, что китайская металлургия и с точки зрения происхождения, и с точки зрения последующего развития является автохтонным явлением, а западные влияния (за исключением некоторого сейминско-турбинского воздействия) почти не ощутимы. Кючевые слова: китайская металлургия; степные культуры; бронзовый век

This article introduces the spirit path monuments and tombs of the Liang Dynasty built for members of the closer family of the founding Emperor Wu. Against the background of historical facts, the analysis of both statuary and tombs reveals that these monuments were all built during the lifetime and most probably by order of Emperor Wu himself. The resemblance of the columns in the spirit path to those erected by the Mauryan King Aśoka has already been pointed out by previous scholars. The author proposes that Emperor Wu not only emulated King Aśoka by erecting these columns, but by integrating them into the cemetery of his family, he moreover turned them into a truly Chinese monument of power.

"Abstract.
This paper exposes some theoretical and methodological issues considered particularly relevant in the Archaeology of China. Summarizes the stages by which has become the discipline, from his birth until today. On the basis of such historical context, shows some aspects that have still a important weight in any archaeological research carried out in China. Reasons and conditions of their origin, subsequent evolution and ongoing success are presented. Fundamental aspects that stand out are the weight of traditional antiquarian historiography and the adoption of the historical-cultural paradigm.

Keywords: China, theoretical Archaeology, History of Archaeology, Historical Cultural paradigm"

The period from the late third millennium BC to the start of the first millennium AD witnesses the first steps towards food globalization in which a
significant number of important crops and animals, independently domesticated within China, India, Africa and West Asia, traversed Central Asia greatly
increasing Eurasian agricultural diversity. This paper utilizes an archaeobotanical database (AsCAD), to explore evidence for these crop translocations
along southern and northern routes of interaction between east and west. To begin, crop translocations from the Near East across India and Central
Asia are examined for wheat (Triticum aestivum) and barley (Hordeum vulgare) from the eighth to the second millennia BC when they reach China. The
case of pulses and flax (Linum usitatissimum) that only complete this journey in Han times (206 BC–AD 220), often never fully adopted, is also addressed.
The discussion then turns to the Chinese millets, Panicum miliaceum and Setaria italica, peaches (Amygdalus persica) and apricots (Armeniaca vulgaris),
tracing their movement from the fifth millennium to the second millennium BC when the Panicum miliaceum reaches Europe and Setaria italica Northern
India, with peaches and apricots present in Kashmir and Swat. Finally, the translocation of japonica rice from China to India that gave rise to indica rice
is considered, possibly dating to the second millennium BC. The routes these crops travelled include those to the north via the Inner Asia Mountain
Corridor, across Middle Asia, where there is good evidence for wheat, barley and the Chinese millets. The case for japonica rice, apricots and peaches is
less clear, and the northern route is contrasted with that through northeast India, Tibet and west China. Not all these journeys were synchronous, and
this paper highlights the selective long-distance transport of crops as an alternative to demic-diffusion of farmers with a defined crop package.

The transition to farming is often written in the language of progress. The search has been for the oldest sedentary farming settlements, the processes of plant and animals domestication and the profound societal alterations that accompanied the choice to change lifeway. Perhaps because most of us come from long-standing farmer ancestry, we tend to assume that farming is a superior and more secure way of life. Is there any data to support this? Evidence from southern Africa since the 1970s has shown that the Kalahari hunter-gatherers living in what is a comparatively harsh environment have/had a relatively easier life, with considerably more leisure time and a longer life expectancy than those living in early farmer groups (Lee and DeVore, 1976). Many hunter-gatherers in East Asia will have had even more comfortable and leisure filled lives than those of the Kalahari Bushmen. It is therefore important to ask the question as to why East Asian hunter-gatherers took up farming and whether all hunter-gatherer groups made this choice swiftly and willingly. I use evidence from studies into hunter-gatherer interactions with farmers in sub-saharan Africa to consider this question. It was originally hoped that groups such as the Bushmen of southern Africa, the Pygmies of central Africa and the Hadza/Sandawe of East Africa could give us glimpses into a universal hunter-gatherer past. Revisionist studies since the 1970s have sought to undermine this hope and have emphasised that early research recorded the end product of at least two millennia of interaction, influence and change from being amongst pastoralists and farmers. Archaeology has made significant contributions to this debate, providing evidence for the nature and extent of interaction, continuity and change. Today we are therefore well-positioned to consider the specifics of how hunter-gatherer groups responded to the coming of livestock keepers and farmers in different parts of Africa. This paper will review African interaction models so as to consider their implications for East Asia. I do not provide a general model for interaction, indeed I would be ideologically opposed to any attempt at this kind of universalism, but I seek to provide a convincing glimpse of the kinds of real-world complexity and contextuality in the choices made by East Asian hunter-gatherers in their responses to the presence and influence of farmers.

INDEX oRal PResentations 1 Arbogast R.-M., Turck R. -Status and role of dogs in neolithic western Europe. 2 Avieli N. -Thai Migrant Workers in Israel and the Dog-Eating Myth. 3 Bealcovschi S. -La place du chien de compagnie dans la culture, les pratiques et l'imaginaire nordaméricain contemporain. 5 Ben-Dor M. -Why domesticate wolves at the end of the Pleistocene. 7 Blanchard C. -Les sans-abris accompagnés de chiens: analyse anthropologique autour d'une marginalité urbaine méconnue. 9 Bogdanov E. -The role of the dog in the society of the Xiongnu (fine arts and written sources). -Using X-ray microtomography to discriminate between dogs' and wolves' lower carnassial tooth. 13 Bottari A. -The image of the dog on ancient coins in the Mediterranean area. 15 Bottéro F. -The dog and the Chinese script. 16 Boudadi-Maligne M., Mallye J.-B., Costamagno S., Ferrié J.-G., Barshay-Szmidt C., Deguilloux M.-F., Pémonge M.-H., Barbaza M. -The relationship between humans and dogs in the Azilian layer of the Moulin rock-shelter (Troubat, Hautes-Pyrénées, France). 17 Bräuer J., Tomasello M. -Cooperation in a hunting-like paradigm: wolves versus dogs. 18 Braulinska K. -A kitchen dog was never good for the chase. Dogs in ancient Egypt and their modern descendants. 19 Cerilli E., Fatucci M. -The dog in the castle: a dog skeleton from Castle of Santa Severa (Latium, Italy).

Archaeology of Domestication

Jan Turek -  Letní semestr 2021/2022, rozsah (2/0)
The emergence of the Neolithic introduced one of the most fundamental turning points in the history of humankind. People left this imaginary Eden of symbiosis with animal species to start their new role of stewards and destroyers of the nature. In this way humans completed their departure from nature into the world of their own culture and civilization. With a sedentary life and a newly acquired knowledge of the production and reproduction of their food sources, people set off to the path to their overpopulation and ruling over the entire planet and after more than 12,000 years to continue beyond its gravity. However, not everything was positive on this departure from the paradise, and soon people also tasted the bitter taste of the forbidden fruit that the first farmers seized. Along with the change of diet a general deterioration in the health of the Neolithic population occurred and we can even talk about the first civilisation diseases.
The course is suitable for students of archaeology, social and cultural anthropology, human ecology, history and other social sciences. It includes an outline of the current discussion on the conditions, methods and evidence of the emergence of cereal agriculture in the Western Asia. In addition to archaeological evidence of changes in the subsistence strategy, changes in the symbolic systems, cosmology and religion of the first agricultural civilizations, as well as demographic and social aspects of neolithisation, will be taken into account. The process of domestication will be investigated in various climatic-ecological contexts with emphasis on explanation of local variability in diversification of agricultural strategies. The topic also includes the spread of the Neolithic way of life outside the Neolithic epicentre, i.e. to the northwest of Asia Minor, the Balkans, Europe and North Africa. Subsequent cultural development and population cultural variability of newly domesticated areas will also be discussed. Finally, we compare the development in Western Asia and Europe to the domestication processes in other parts of the world, such as East/Southeast Asia, Indian Subcontinent, Australia and Polynesia, Americas, Sahel and South Africa. This worldwide review of early sedentary populations and variability of domestication strategies provides a basic reference of current research in the field of archaeology, anthropology and prehistoric human ecology.

Background material for "The Evolution of an Ancient Technology", including:
1) a primer on weaving
2) a review of archaeological literature relating to weaving in East Asia
3) a review of the literature relating to the cultural transmission of weaving
4) materials and methods
5) a model for weaving loom evolution in East Asia