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EAAN activities:

There will be an amEAAN meeting at the AAS conference on Friday, April 7th from 6.30-8.30pm in the Hemisphere Room of the Washington Hilton & Towers Hotel, Washington, D.C. Everyone is invited to attend-whether or not they are registered for the AAS conference. Prof. Kathy Linduff will be chairing the meeting. Bill Fitzhugh (Smithsonian Institution) will be giving a talk about the upcoming Ainu exhibit, and Jenny So (Curator of Chinese at the Freer & Sackler Galleries) will talk about exhibitions on 'barbarians'. For more information, contact Kathy at [...] or c/o the Fine Arts Dept, Univ of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260 USA. 412-648-2409; FAX 412-648-2792.
Hawaii EAAN meeting.

Call for Papers, EAANmeeting, Honolulu. Individual papers and possibly poster sessions are welcomed. Please submit your suggested titles and abstracts by July 1st to the Editor.
It has been proposed by Peter Oblas that we have a roundtable discussion of "Media treatment of archaeological-anthropological discoveries and the pitfalls these perspectives pose for scholarly pursuits." If you wish to participate, please contact: Dr. Peter B. Oblas, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, 4-51-21 Nishigahara, Kita-ku, Tokyo 114 Japan +81-3-3917-6111x323 (W).
Mark Hudson has offered to organise a panel at Honolulu on "Historical archaeology." If you would like to contribute a paper, please contact him at The Department of Archaeology & Anthropology, ANU, Canberra ACT 0200 Australia. +61-6-257-4805 (H), +61-2-249-4778 (W), FAX +61-2-249-2711 or email: [...]

 results for the new association are as follows. Uncontested nominations are Gina Barnes for President, Sarah Nelson for Treasurer, PAK Yangjin for Secretary, Mark Hudson for Austral-asian Rep, KONDO Hideo for Japanese Rep, Insook LEE for Korean Rep and WANG Tao for Chinese Rep. Nominations for North American Rep are: James Grayson, Lothar von Falkenhausen, and Francis Allard. Anonymous ballots will be accepted for North American Representative. Please send your ballot to the Editor. The final listing of officers and representatives will be presented in EAANnouncements 16.
 

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MEMBER NEWS (in alpha-order):

Boy, nothing provokes a response from readers faster than publishing their wrong address in the recent EAANmembers Directory (EAANnouncements 14). Newly submitted contact numbers are listed below. If you do not want defunct numbers to appear in future EAANnouncements, please send me a change of address/numbers when they happen!
 

Francis ALLARD (Univ Pittsburgh) has been working with Charles Higham (Univ Otago) on a paper concerning a Warring States cemetery in Guangxi and he's also helping Charles with his data on Lingnan for an upcoming book.

David BALL (South Australia) writes that he is now a full-time Chinese language teacher at a college for primary and secondary students not far from Adelaide. Nevertheless, he is planning a trip to China in Sept-Oct 1995.

Gina BARNES (St John's College, Cambridge) travelled down under over the Christmas holidays and through January. For that month, she had a Visiting Professorship with the Japan Foundation to ANU and University of Sydney, where she spent time developing a book on Japanese archaeology and gave a workshop on teaching the subject at university level.

Prof. Sandra BOWDLER (Univ Western Australia) is Professor of Archaeology and is currently conducting a comparative study of early Australian and early Southeast Asian stone artefacts.
Centre for Archaeology
Univ of Western Australia
Nedlands WA 6009 Australia
Work +61-9-380-2113
FAX +61-9-380-1023
email: [...]

CAO Yin (Harvard) was a special student at Harvard for one year, but she writes to say that she is now in the master's program in Regional Studies-East Asia, studying the prehistoric archaeology of China under Prof. K.C. Chang.

Youn-sik CHOO (Cambridge Univ) is very busy in Seoul trying to finish his Ph.D. dissertation while teaching at four universities. Last autumn he taught "Introduction to European archaeology" and "Environmental archaeology" at SNU, "Introduction to Korean prehistoric archaeology" at Sogang Univ, and "Introduction to European archaeology" and "Ethnoarchaeology" at Chungnam Nat. Univ. This term he is adding lectures at Hanyang Univ.

Louise CORT (Freer Gallery, Smithsonian ) has moved to 132 Twelfth St S.E., Washington DC 20003-1413. Over the winter holidays, she moved even further to visit Thailand, Vietnam and Laos.

Laurence DENÈS (Univ of Paris VII) is busy converting the archaeological part of her MA thesis concerning the big jar-coffins of the Yŏngsan-gang basin into an article for Arts Asiatiques. Recently she visited the British Museum and SOAS in London. This year she is continuing work on her Ph.D. under the supervision of Prof. Li Ogg and Mme Pirazzoli on the analysis of the decorative patterns of ceramics, focusing first on the Yŏngsan-gang valley in the very southwest of Korea, and then enlarging the research to a wider geographical area, for a study of the relations between the south part of the Korean peninsula and the eastern coast of China in the first centuries AD.

Dorie DOHRENWEND (ROM) is working on an exhibit for the Royal Ontario Museum planned to open in early 1996, entitled "Early China Pottery: Neolithic through Tang".

Clare FAWCETT (St. Francis Xavier Univ) is still teaching at SFX and is also running an English Language summer school for the University of Prince Edward Island University. All this with a one-year old to care for!!

Dr. K.H.J. GARDINER (Proto-historic & early historic East Asian history))
52 Creswell St.
Campbell, ACT
2601 Australia
Home 2470794
Ken taught East Asian history in the Faculties at the Australian National University until two years ago, when he retired to work on his poetry, and on translations of the Koguryo section of the Samguk Sagi and Sanguozhi. He has previously published numerous articles on Koguryo history.

Fumiko IKAWA-SMITH (McGill Univ) made a trip to Japan in December to arrange for the second year of Japanese internships at the McGill summer course in field archaeology. Members from regional Cultural Properties (Maibun) Centers send their staff on internship or cultural activity visas to Canada for further training in job skills.

Yun Kuen LEE (Wayne State University, MI) has signed an agreement with Yunnan archaeologists to plan for excavation of a neolithic cave site in perhaps two year's time. This project was initiated several years ago by Karl Hutterer and is now coming to fruition after the mini-Tiananmen affair in Chengdu in 1989.

Dr. James B. LEWIS (Univ Oxford) is the new Korean Foundation Lecturer in Korean Studies at Oxford. He specialises in post-Hideyoshi (15th-century Japan) Korean-Japanese relations and cultural and national self-images.
Oriental Institute
Pusey Lane
Oxford OX1 2LE, UK
Home 01865-2-84379
Work 01865-2-78194
FAX 01865-2-78190
email: [...]

Prof. LI Xueqin (Chinese protohistoric archaeology & history)
Institute of History
Chinese Academy of Social Sciences
6 Ritan Lu
Beijing 100020 China
Work +86-1-501-6028
FAX +86-1-501-6024
Prof. Li is the Director of the CASS Institute ofHistory, the Director of the Institute of Sinology at Tsinghua University, and Chairman of the Pre-Qin History Society of China. He was born in 1933 in Beijing and graduated from the Department of Philosophy in Tsinghua University in 1952. That year, he took part in editing Yinxu Wenzi Zuihuo (Collation of the Oracle-bone Inscriptions of the Yin Ruins) under the auspices of the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Sciences. He joined the Institute of History in 1954, and during his long tenure there has also been a Clare Hall Visiting Fellow at the University of Cambridge (1981-2), and a Regents' Lecturer at the University of California at Berkeley (1990). In 1986, he was elected Honorary Member of the American Oriental Society. Prof. Li is currently researching the silk manuscripts excavated from Mawangdui, in Changsha, and the bamboo slips excavated from Zhangjiashan, Jiangling.

Morris LOW (Australian National Univ) has moved from Melbourne to Canberra to take up a new appointment as a Research Fellow there. His new contact numbers are:
Pacific & Asian History Work +61-6-249-5111/-2315
R.S.P.C., ANU FAX +61-6-249-5525
Canberra, ACT 0200 Australia

Mr. Frederick G. NAEREBOUT (East Asian archaeology, history, epigraphy & anthropology)
Welterdreef 85 
2253 LJ Voorschoten
The Netherlands
Home +31-(0)71-313307
Work +31-(0)10-414-9300
FAX +31-(0)10-4124316
[...]
Mr. Naerebout is a historian, trained in mediaeval and ancient history; he teaches ancient history, epigraphy and archaeologyin the Department of Cultural Studies, Open University. Has has published on women in the Greek workd, ancient Greek religion and Greek and Roman dancing. He is currently working on a handbook for Dutch universities that will attempt to put the Graeco-Roman world in a wider, Eurasian perspective. He thus has a general interest in comparative work!

Michael PUETT: Does anyone know his current address? His mail has been returned to EAANetwork.
Michael, who recently received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, spent the 1993-94 academic year at Peking University studying recently excavated materials pertaining to the study of early Chinese history, including Shang oracle and Western Zhou inscriptional evidence, as well as Mawangdui materials and Chu divinatory strips. Mr. Puett has reported excellent access to primary sources including photographs of the original materials and transcriptions. He has worked closely with his advisor at Peking University, Prof. LI Ling, a specialist in early Chinese paleographic materials, to use archaeological evidence in re-thinking the ways that intellectual history can be portrayed.

Werner SASSE (Univ Hamburg) moved recently from Bochum to take up the Professorship at Hamburg, though he still resides in Bochum. He is carrying out research on the power structure changes in Early Shilla. His new contacts numbers are:
Abtlg. Koreanistik
Universität Hamburg
Binderstr. 34
Hamburg 20146 Germany
Home 02302-64477
Work 040-4123-3296
FAX 040-4123-6484
email: [...]
 

Anthony SINCLAIR (Univ Liverpool) has taken up a lectureship in the School of Archaeology, Classics, & Oriental Studies at Liverpool. He is mainly responsible for teaching archaeological method and theory, but he is still working on his collaborative book project on the Japanese Palaeolithic with Prof. Ambiru (Meiji Univ).

Bruce SMITH (Monetary Historian) has moved to from Massachusetts to Wisconsin (see his new address below). His interests cover Chinese monetary history, numismatics, the geography of the Zhou Dynasty, and coin minting sites in China. He now has several projects in the works:
A. Bibliography of the history of money in China: "This began as a bibliography on money in all of East Asia, and presently contains 8,000 titles on 3x5 cards (with 2,000 more waiting to be added). After eliminating those works on areas outside of China (Japan, Korea, Vietnam, SE Asia), there should be 5,000-6,000 titles on China. When the computerization of this bibliography is complete, subject searching will be possible. The works recorded are primarily those concerned with the physical, social, archaeological and historical aspects of money in China from Shang times to the PRC. Recent works which consist mainly of pie charts and statistics have not been recorded."
B. Encyclopedia and research guide to the history of money in China; "An extension of the bibliography mentioned above, this work will contain about 5,000 entries, each with a brief essay and list of references. Subjects will include people connected with banks, mints, and monetary policy; important collectors and writers on coins and monetary history; specific coins and mints; lists of Ch'ing governors and governor-generals by province with dates; individual banks; firms which printed paper money for China; lists of railroads with brief background on each; bonds sold internally and overseas; information on nightclubs, bars and gambling dens which issued their own 'money'; information on the communist base areas and liberated areas and their paper money; types of silver ingots used before 1933; bamboo money used in some parts of China during the Ch'ing and early Republic; engravers and designers of coins and paper money; and much more."
C. History of the modern mints of China 1888-1949
D. Survey of Sung dynasty coin mints
E. The coinage and geography of the Warring States period: "The coins of the Warring States period record the names of nearly 200 cities-many of them not recorded in surviving texts. It may be possible to reconstruct something of the geography of that period using these ancient coins."
F. The gambling industry in 19th-century Thailand
"I welcome comments or suggestions on any of these topics. I am particularly interested to know of any first-hand accounts by people who visited mints, were in charge of a mint, or were involved in determining monetary policy (such as the quantity of coins or notes to be made, the type of coin to be made, or mints to be opened or closed). I would also like to know about any diaries or other private writings which refer to coins or paper money or to the collecting of coins. I'm also interested in biographies on and papers of bankers in China during the Ch'ing or Republic.
"I am also eager to provide information on any form of coin, token, paper money or bank, from any period in China's history, which may be of use to someone else in their research." Please write or call: PO BOX 941, Sheboygan, WI 53082 USA; 414-457-5174.

Doug SUTTON (Univ Auckland) will be taking sabbatical leave Sept-Nov 1995 to work with Prof. Masashi Chikamori, Department of Archaeology, Keio University, Tokyo.

Anne UNDERHILL (Harvard Univ) writes that she returned in late August 1994 from another summer of research in Guizhou province, China, on ceramic ethnoarchaeology. This research was funded by the National Science Foundation, Division of International Programs, Program for Research at Foreign Centers of Excellence. This year she studied pottery production at the town of Yazhou in Pingtang County with the help of the Pingtang County Committee on Nationality Affairs. Now she is in the process of analyzing her data from the last three summers and preparing a publication. The goal of the project is to develop archaeological correlates for variation in organization of production.
The American Council of Learned Societies and the Chiang Ching-kuo foundation have awarded her a Postdoctoral Fellowship in Chinese Studies for the year to write a book on the development of sociopolitical complexity during the Longshan period. Anne can be reached as a Visiting Scholar at:
Fairbank Center for East Asian Research
Harvard University
Coolidge Hall
1737 Cambridge Street
Cambridge, MA 02138
Home 617-441-0240
email: [...]

Prof. Susan R. WELD (Chinese & Japanese proto- & early historic archaeology, history Pound 422 Home 617-547-7004 & law)
Harvard Law School
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
FAX 617-495-8129
Work 617-95-3283
email: [...]
Professor Weld teaches at both Boston College Law School and Harvard Law School.

YAMAMOTO Kaoru (Tsukuba Univ) has been given a special fellowship to continue her research at Tsukuba University in history and anthropology, from April 1994 to March 1996.

Bettina ZORN has a new address: Schlossberstr. 4, Bad Krozingen D-79189 Germany.
 

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FIELD & RESEARCH REPORTS:

For articles to appear in this section, they should be limited to 500 words and submitted to the Editor by the issue deadlines stated on the front cover of EAANnouncements: mid-January for the Winter issue, mid-May for the Summer issue, and mid-September for the Autumn issue. The editor reserves the right to edit or decline to print. Please report research here!!
 

The Sannai Maruyama site, Aomori, Japan
  by Charles T. Keally

One of the biggest news items in Japan in 1994 has been the Sannai Maruyama site in Aomori Prefecture in the northeastern part of the country. It has frequently made nationwide news, including page 1, and in Aomori it was in the news nearly every day for quite a while. It was also a big public attraction, with as many as 3,800 visitors a day on weekends in August, coming from all over the country. The cause of all this commotion is the huge amount of labor manifested in the finds from a settlement of people supposed to be primarily hunter-fisher-gatherers.
Sannai Maruyama was occupied during the Early and Middle Jomon periods, about 5500 - 4000 years ago. It is now in the third year of excavation. About 500 dwelling pits have been found so far, along with adult burials and about 700 buried clay pots thought to be child burials. This is unusually large for a Jomon site, even one occupied continuously for 1,500 years. About 10,000 reconstructable clay vessels have also been found; estimates of the final tally exceed 30,000 pots. The other artifacts include objects of wood, bark, bone and antler, clay and stone figurines, and many other types of clay and stone objects. Trade is reflected in jadeite pendants from sources in Niigata Prefecture, amber from Iwate Prefecture, and obsidian from Hokkaido across the Tsugaru Strait. Clay figurines are especially abundant and include the largest plaque figurine in Japan.
A peat bed in a small valley along one side of the site has preserved a wide array of Early Jomon (5500 years BP) remains-pottery, of course, but also wood and lacquer ware, animal and fish bones and scales, plant seeds and pollen, and wooden fire-making tools and boat oars. The lacquer is some of the oldest in Japan.
The quantities of artifacts at Sannai Maruyama are unusually high for prehistoric sites in Japan. But the real excessive labor is seen in three types of rare features found at this site: thick mounded layers of excavated dirt, very large dwelling-like building pits, and large postholes for pile structures.
The excavated dirt taken from dwelling pits and large postholes during their construction was deposited basketful by basketful over sections of the site, eventually reaching thicknesses up to 2.8 m and covering areas up to 60 m x 70 m. Stratified within these deposits are thin layers of potsherds and stone tools.
The ten very large dwelling pits all exceed 10 m in length, the largest being 30 m long. One terminal Early Jomon (5000 years BP) dwelling pit was 10 m x 18 m, with six postholes and a central hearth. These are thought to have been gathering places or communal workshops, or communal winter dwellings.
The pile structures, however, are the features attracting the most attention and most needing an explanation. These consist of six large postholes in a rectangular pattern, three on a side. In one Middle Jomon set, two of the post bases remained. These were chestnut and 80 cm in diameter. The diameter suggests the posts might originally have been 20 m tall and weighed tons. These structures located near the outskirts of the settlement might have been watch towers, or they could have been storehouses or ritual buildings. Of significance, too, is the fact that the spacing of all posts in these structures was a uniform 4.2 m-a Jomon unit of measure?
There is truly an impressive amount of labor represented in these remains at Sannai Maruyama, and we need to ask why a supposedly hunting-fishing-gathering (with perhaps a small amount of horticulture) peoples with an egalitarian (or nearly so) society would invest so much work into these artifacts, buildings and dirt piles. We might also ponder why modern humans are repeating this at the same site-620 people are employed full-time in the excavation and processing work (x 5000 yen/day x 200 work days/year + 25 for equipment = a lot of money and labor).

Sophia University, Tokyo, Japan.

 

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A Preliminary Report on the First Excavation of the Shinchang-dong Site in Kwangju City
  by CHO, Hyeon-Jong and JANG, Je-Geun

The Shinchang-dong site in Kwangju city, south-western part of Korea, was excavated by the Kwangju National Museum in 1992, prior to the construction of the national road. The excavation revealed a peat bog, a pottery kiln, a ditch-shaped feature, a dry field-like feature and a dwelling house.
Among the materials recovered from the peat bog were 1) lacquer wares and wooden artefacts including a hoe, mounted dishes, a comb, a dagger handle, basketry fish traps, bird's head-shaped sculpture, and various tools for woodworking, 2) potteries including plain-coarse pottery, black-burnished pottery, and pottery with clay stripe along the rim, the shapes of which are mounted dishes, long-necked jars, wide-mouthed bowls, dish-shaped covers and steamers, 3) organic remains including grains and seeds of rice, barley, wheats, cucumber, legumes and apricots, walnut shells, fish bones and snails, 4) accumulations of large quantities of rice husks. Many wooden pieces, planks and tools with some indications of woodworking as well as the existence of posts for hanging wooden implements indicate the use of the swamp as the place for woodworking.
The pottery kiln was dug in the direction of contour. Its size is 8 m in length by 2 m in width, and the slope of the floor is 5~8°. It is an open kiln without any additional structure such as roof, wall and combustion chamber. The potteries found from the kiln are similar to those from the bog site. The floor plan of the dwelling site is a rectangle about 430 cm by 320 cm, in the depth of 20 cm. It has a central hearth in an oval shape, 50 cm in diameter. The peat bog, the kiln and other features date to about the late 2nd century BC or the 1st century BC, while the dwelling site dates to the 3rd century AD.
Recognizing the importance of the site, it is designated as NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE NO. 375.

 

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Mongolia's Paleolithic prehistory: a new research initiative
  by John Olsen

In November, Anatoly P. Derevianko, of the Russian Academy of Sciences' Siberian Branch, and I signed a long-term research agreement with the Mongolian Academy of Sciences to pursue a program of trilateral cooperative Palaeolithic field research in western Mongolia in 1995.
Since the 1960s, Soviet-Mongolian historical and cultural expeditions have identified approximately 1,100 Stone Age sites in Mongolia, the majority of which are Palaeolithic. At least a dozen localities in the depressions and valleys of the Mongolian and Gobi Altai ranges of western Mongolia have yielded assemblages of artifacts on high (90-130 m) terraces that Derevianko and his colleagues equate with the early Palaeolithic.
The valley of the Nariyn-gol, on the southern Hangai Plateau, has yielded aeolized pebble tools as well as less abundant unabraded flake tools strewn on high (140 m) terraces. Tools typologically classified as early Palaeolithic are also found on lower terraces in the Nariyn-gol valley, which Derevianko interprets as evidence of their redisposition. At some localities, such as Nariyn-gol 17, large cores are found surrounded by conjoining flakes. Thus, a percentage of these western Mongolian sites seem to preserve a record of discrete activities rather than being exclusively reworked palimpsests. While the majority of early Palaeolithic finds from Mongolia are surface occurrences and, therefore, only roughly datable by geological correlation and typological affinity, one locality bears particular promise for future investigation and will be the focus of our collaborative field season in 1995. The Tsagan-Aguy Cave lies near the southeastern extremity of the dolmitic Ikh-bogdo range. Excavations conducted from 1987 to 1989 revealed a 50-meter-long corridor with unconsolidated deposits reaching a depth of 3 meters near the cave entrance. The cave's complex stratigraphy yielded a small collection of stone tools, including a bifacially flaked handaxe and a single platform pebble core in association with a microfaunal assemblage and charcoal that may help resolve important issues concerning the cave's chronology and palaeoecological history. Sites such as Moil'tyn-am in the Orkhon valley have preserved a stratified record of northern Mongolia's upper Pleistocene occupation. Thus it is possible that the Tsagan-Aguy sequence may ultimately be correlated with the lower deposits at Moil'tyn-am to yield an unprecedented record of diachronic change in Inner Asia.
The present lack of earlier Pleistocene human fossils from Mongolia strictly limits the extent to which archaeologists can draw definitive conclusions regarding the absolute antiquity of the technologically unsophisticated tools forms recovered in geological contests that extend back to the Plio-Pleistocene boundary. Evidence for the occupation of Mongolia before the middle Pleistocene is intriguing and, if proven correct, may provide one of the geographical links between Central Asia's earliest sites (i.e. the 800,000-year-olk Kul'dara complex in southern Tajikistan and the younger Sel-Unger cave in central Kyrgyzstan) and those to the northeast in Siberia.
I will be returning with Prof. Derevianko and colleagues to Tsagan-Aguy Cave and other localities in western Mongolia in June and July 1995.

Dept of Anthropology, Univ of Arizona, Tuscon, AZ USA

 

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CHINA ROUND-UP

Compiled and edited by Francis Allard, University of Pittsburgh

We can thank the recently established electronic discussion group for Early East Asian Archaeology and History (eaan) for the more efficient transmission of information concerning recent and upcoming fieldwork in China. We'll be including in future newsletters a new section on upcoming fieldwork. Please let me know of your research plans abroad so that this information can be shared. Rest assured of then being provided with 'gentle' reminders about possible contributions to the newsletter. E-Mail: Fnast1@vms.cis.pitt.edu
 

Upcoming Fieldwork

Gideon Shelach (Doctoral candidate, University of Pittsburgh): Dissertation fieldwork in Chifeng, Inner Mongolia; Fall 1994-Summer 1995

Gina Barnes (St John's College, Cambridge): Geophysical survey at Niuheliang, Liaoning, China. Sept-Oct'95, Funded by the British Academy, McDonald Institute, and Committee for Scholarly Communication on China.

Xiongnu excavations:
Sergei S. Minjaev (Russian Academy of Sciences) seeks sponsors interested in participating in some way in archaeological excavations in southern Siberia. Minjaev is director of Xiongnu excavations in the Transbaikal area and would like to open his work to foreign colleagues and students who will participate in excavation work at their own expense or with funding from their institutions. Work is to be carried out under Minjaev's supervision. For information, contact: Dr. S.S. Minjaev, Institute of the History of Material Culture, Dvortzovaja nab. 18, 191065 St. Petersburg, Russia. FAX (7-812) 3122136 D-499.
 

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A visit to Gaxian Cave, Inner Mongolia
  by Juha Janhunen

Gaxian Cave is located in the Da Xing'an Range, 10 km northwest of Alihe (the administrative center of the Oroqen Autonomous Banner) in northern Inner Mongolia. This cave, whose southwest facing entrance is easily accessible from a small fluvial plain ten meters below, is 120 m deep and 22 m high. The surrounding landscape is covered by Manchurian primeval forest. No other comparable caves exist in the vicinity.
In recent history, Gaxian Cave is known to have been used as an occasional shelter by Tungusic-speaking Oroqen hunters, the original inhabitants of the region. However, the cave seems to be both large and old enough to have been occupied since Palaeolithic times. Study of the cave was initiated in 1980 by Prof. MI Wenping, a prominent specialist on Manchurian archaeology and history. On his fourth visit to the cave, he located on the wall close to the entrance an inscription comprising 201 Chinese characters. This inscription, which contains a date equivalent to A.D. 443, was soon found to be almost identical to a passage in the Wei Shu, the dynastic history of the Northern Wei empire (A.D. 386-534). The passage records a mission sent by the Wei emperor to visit an ancestral 'temple' in his tribal homeland. Gaxian Cave may have been this 'temple'. The ethnic group that established the Northern Wei empire is known historically as Tabgach (Tuoba) and thought to be the descendant of the Sienpi (Xianbei), both of which are believed to have been linguistically related to the later Mongols. Gaxian Cave thus provides tantalizing perspectives on early ethnic migrations in protohistoric Manchuria and Mongolia.
After first interviewing Prof. Mi in Hailar, the capital of the prefecture, I made a visit to Gaxian Cave in late June 1994. The cave, which is currently being developed as a local tourist site, attracts few foreign visitors. The objectives of my visit were to form a good understanding of the site as well as an opinion concerning the authenticity of the inscription. Although only the microscopic and chemical analysis of the rock surface can possibly provide a definitive answer regarding the latter, my own visual assessment leads me to support the established dating of the inscription. As for the overall archaeological potential of Gaxian Cave, it can hardly be exaggerated.
It is unfortunate that very little was done following the initial survey. A 1 x 20 m trench excavated by Prof. Mi and his team represents less than 2 of the total floor area. It has yielded a small number of man-made objects which are today exhibited at the museum in Hailar, including late Palaeolithic stone tools, Neolithic vessels and bone artifacts, as well as objects dating to medieval and modern times. Bones of wild mammals were also found in abundance.
Although there seems to be considerable local interest in continuing the research at the site, the archaeological authorities in Beijing seem to have taken the stand that the available financial resources and technological know-how do not yet allow for a comprehensive multidisciplinary investigation of Gaxian Cave. In view of the obvious regional significance of the site, this might be a case for an international project in which some of the neighboring countries, notably Korea and Japan, could perhaps participate.
(Note: Please contact the author for references)

Dept. of Asian and African Studies, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland
 

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DISSERTATION ABSTRACTS
M.A. & M.Phil. Degrees
 

Chinese neolithic archaeology
PENG Ke, M.A., University of Denver, 1993

Chinese neolithic archaeology achieved great success in this century. But due to the profound influence of reform nowadays in China, Chinese neolithic archaeology is undergoing a significant change. Besides an introduction of Chinese neolithic cultures, the closed-door nationalistic politics of Chinese neolithic archaeology is examined. An alternative explanation of the origin and development of Chinese neolithic cultures is also expounded based on the new open-door politics. Emphasis of the new explanation is placed on outside influences and diffusion studies. Because diffusion studies have entered a decline in the United States since the 1960s, the present problem and achievement related with diffusion studies are also discussed. It is concluded that an improved diffusion study will bring about great progress to Chinese neolithic archaeology.
 

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Clay Figurines and ritual in the Middle Jomon period
BAUSCH, Ilona R., M.A., Leiden University, 1994

This thesis discusses the occurrences of Jōmon clay figurines from the Chūbu area and their possible meaning within the Middle Jōmon social system. The Middle Jōmon period (ca. 3500-2500 BC) saw a strong tendency towards ritualization compared to earlier periods; the most obvious material representative was the dogū or clay figurine. Although this mysterious clay image, which usually displays female characteristics, was used throughout the Jōmon period, the number of figurines increased drastically in the Chūbu area during the Middle Jōmon. At this time, at least three different cultures, each characterised by a very ornamental and elaborate pottery style, existed in this area.
This work concentrates on sites in the central mountain area belonging to the so-called Katsusaka culture. Most of the data comes from the Shakadō site in Yamanashi prefecture, where an overwhelming number of figurines was found. To learn more about the nature of the ritual activities, I studied the different contexts in which dogū and other ritual objects were found. The results are examined against several traditional interpretations of the meaning of figurines and a general archaeological background.
Practically all figurines in the mountain area were found broken and scattered over the settlements or inside houses; it is likely that such figurine dispersal was part of a certain ritual. There are local variations: dokisuteba contexts ('waste areas' with high concentrations of broken pottery, stone tools, ritual objects and food remains) only exist at Shakadō; pit contexts are found most frequently at Tanabatake site in Nagano. The large numbers of figurines found inside (contemporaneous) houses and at dokisuteba indicate the intentionality of deposition. Most figurines seem to be deliberately broken and abandoned at everyday-life locations within the settlement boundaries. This supports the Japanese idea that they were used in fertility rituals carried out by women, intended to stimulate human reproduction and regeneration of the environment in general. Yet there was considerable variation in this figurine ritual: the style of the figurines, the intensity of their use and places of dispersal vary according to time and place. Despite their probable religious significance, figurines and other ritual objects are not clearly set apart by their locations, since 'ordinary' pottery and stone tools are found at the same contexts.
Other kinds of ritual objects are often found together with figurines. Ceramic objects, such as clay discs, ornamental clay vessels with rim heads, pedestals and 'musical instruments' are frequently found especially during the middle part of the period, whereas stone objects such as standing stones and sekibō (phallic-shaped 'stone rods') appear from the late Middle Jōmon onwards. Given the Japanese interpretation that the first category was closely connected with the 'female' figurine ritual, whereas the stone objects perhaps were used in a different or complementary 'male' ritual: it seems that there was a change in the social structure.

Prins Hendrikstraat 180, 2518 HZ The Hague, The Netherlands
 

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A study on the distribution of bronze sites and ritual areas in the ancient mid-west Korea
KIM Jong-Il, M.A., Seoul National University, (1993) [in Korean w/ English summary]

The main goal of this thesis was to analyze the characteristic distribution of bronze sites and remains along with the groups which used bronze wares in the ancient mid-west Korea from the 4th to 2nd centuries BC. I attempted, on the one hand, to examine what kinds of political groups came to emerge in the region at the time. On the other, I tried to figure out what the major characteristics of the groups were. First, on the basis of the kinds and amount of bronze wares, I classified 46 excavated samples of the mid-west Korean bronze sites and remains into 3 categories, which we can identify the excavation sites below the myon (sub-district) level: 1) different types of bronze wares, mirrors, and armour/weapons; 2) bronze mirrors and armour/weapons; and 3) only armour/weapons. Second, I conducted spatial analyses to test 42 samples out of 46, employing 'quadrat method' and 'nearest neighbor analysis'. They tended to show some significant patterns of clustered distribution. Third, by mapping these three categories and drawing 'thiessen polygons', I determined that the second and third categories tend to cluster in certain regions as distant from the first as we can distinctly perceive. One of the most salient examples was the Non-san region, encompassing such other adjacent regions as Puyo and Iksan.
These findings enable us to make some possible inferences. One is that they were the tombs of the male individuals with more superior political power and socio-economic status than other members of the groups which had been buried with these three categories of bronze articles. Furthermore, I could tentatively confirm that one of the main functions of the ancient myths, rituals, and rites had been to rationalize their political rule and the socio-economic status as is reflected in the various types of bronze artifacts of the excavated samples. In this context, they were the shaman(priest)-kings possessing political and religious authorities who were buried with the more different types of bronze articles. This is more conspicuous among persons who were buried in the first category of tombs. Also, upon the application of such advanced methods as 'XTENT' model, 'central place theory', and thiessen polygons', I discovered that some kinds of stratified boundaries of ritual areas had begun to emerge around this period. In this process of regional ritual differentiation, the first category, with superior authority, played a central role, integrating and prevailing over inferior subgroups. It was not until the newly emerging users of iron wares took precedence that these sorts of loosely stratified boundaries of ritual areas began to change into new forms.
 

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The royal hunt of the Shang dynasty: archaeological and anthropological perspectives
FISKESJO, Magnus, M.A., University of Chicago, 1994
Contemporary oracle bone divination inscriptions indicate that the kings of the late Shang dynasty (a late 2nd millennium BCE bronze age polity in northern China) attached great importance to hunting expeditions, which constituted one of the most frequent topics of Shang divination. The kings divined to ascertain the auspiciousness, or suitability, of their choices regarding the destinations, companions, or the timing of such hunts. The problem of the role of such hunting expeditions in the Shang world is identified as an important but so far inadequately explored issue in Chinese archaeology.
The first part of the study is a detailed examination of the two most important sources available for the study of the Shang royal hunts and their context: first, the archaeological remains excavated at the late Shang center at Anyang, and, second, the Shang oracle bone inscriptions. In particular, the zooarchaeological remains from Anyang are discussed in detail, and situated within the larger archaeological context. Similarly, the oracle bone inscriptions are used to describe the various participants in the hunts; the methods used (such as driving the prey with the aid of foot soldiers, by the use of fire-which suggests a relation between the hunts and the clearing of new fields, also reflected in the increasingly prevalent use in the inscriptions of the word tian [field] as the main verb used for 'hunting', etc.), and the reported quantities of captured prey. The potential of the archaeological record for the purposes of this study is constrained by methodological problems, particularly as regards the record of animal remains; and possible improvements in zooarchaeological methodologies for future research are considered. The epigraphic texts, being the fragmented records of royal divination, are also limited, and these problems are also discussed. Nevertheless, both sources can reveal significant patterns, especially when used in conjunction. For example, both the archaeological and the epigraphic records suggest a strong Shang dichotomy of wild vs. domesticated animals: the captured prey were not used either as burial offerings or in ancestral sacrifices, for which the exclusive choice was domesticated animals (dog, cattle, and sheep). It also appears that non-Shang enemies were dealt with as an intermediary category, described as 'captured' (in warfare) with a term similar to that used for hunted wild animals, but evidently used in sacrifices at Anyang in the same way as domesticated animals.
Next, various earlier attempts at explaining the role of the hunts in Shang society are discussed. These include the traditional Chinese view that the hunts were conducted mainly as a decadent luxury sport, and more recent views that emphasize the usefulness of the hunts as military exercise, as a supplementary subsistence activity, or as a source of sacrificial victims. Each of these have some merit but are also unsatisfactory for a number of reasons. Above all, they overlook and cannot account for the possibility that the hunting expeditions also had an important role in the establishment and maintenance of the sphere of influence of the Shang kings. The 'itinerant' character of the Shang kings, indicated by the frequent hunting trips, suggests the importance of the re-affirmation of a personal presence, as well as of the building and cementing of alliances and ties by the use of invitations extended to important Shang officials or to non-Shang allies. Furthermore, given that the Shang diviner-kings presided over an agricultural society where harvest failure and enemy attack probably constituted the most dangerous uncertainties, it is pointed out that the hunt provided an arena for a less dangerous, but symbolically highly valuable risk-taking, whereby the kings could reaffirm their prestige before their subjects, and also reconfirm a status as arbiters of Shang society's relation with the surrounding wilderness. This may help explain both why the royal hunt in itself should have been so important, and why it was one of the few topics of divination that was not abandoned, or purged of the element of uncertainty, in the course of the marked trends toward regularization and standardization that have been noted in late Shang divination.
Finally, it is briefly discussed how this investigation of the royal Shang hunt, properly situated within the larger context of Shang use of natural resources, can provide a useful perspective from which to address some of the later transformations that occurred in the transitions from the Shang theocracy and the feudalistic kingdoms of the Zhou period to the early Chinese empires (Qin/Han), i.e. the decline in divination using animal skeletal material as media, the important changes in the roles of animals in artistic representation, and the emergence of imperial hunting parks which replaced the 'itinerant' hunting of the Shang kings.
 

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Exterritoriale Lehensvergabe in der Han- und Sanguo-Zeit: Die fruehe Praxis des Sakuho taisei als Vorbedingung zur Genese einer Ostasiatischen Welt
GIELE, Enno, M.A., 1995, Freie Universität Berlin, Germany [in German]
NISHIJIMA Sadao's "system of patented enfoeffments (sakuhō taisei)" links the cultural awakening of China's neighbors from Han through Tang dynasties to the regular diplomatic correspondence that was forced on them with the conferment of a Chinese vassal status. As legitimating objects, vassals in the Chinese nomenclatura received not only seals and ribbons but also a patent or document that stated their charge. This patent is called 'ce4' (Jap. saku).
Contrary to the significance that is attributed to the sakuhō taisei in Japan, there seem to be no more than some two or three lines of published information about it in major western languages. The first part of this thesis takes on the task of introducing in detail the system, its related concepts and the criticism it evoked, while focussing on the Han and Sanguo dynasties that provided quite different contexts for cross-border lord-vassal relationships.
The second part of the thesis goes on to examine two points with the help of the sources (Shujing, the dynastic histories, Du2duan4, Wen2xuan3, Ce4fu3 yuan2gui1, etc.): 1) the semantics of 'ce4/saku' and 2) the quality of the various power relationships described by KURIHARA Tomonobu, who thereby tried to show the extent of the sakuhō taisei . 'Ce4/saku' in its specific meaning of "patent (of enfeoffment)" can be defined rather narrowly with respect to its material, contents and form. The oldest "sakuhō /ce4feng1" I could verify appears in the "Wen2xin1 diao1long1" (early 6th c.), but the practice of enfeoffing someone with a patent goes back to at least the 7th c. BC, a fact that casts some doubt on the alleged beginning of the sakuhō taisei only under the Han4. Kurihara's interpretation of the terms "internal" and "external vassal" (nei4chen2, wai4chen2) is found not to coincide with their obviously rather loose meaning in the sources. Nevertheless, his further efforts to distinguish between several forms of Chinese rule are judged to be quite valuable, as they allow direct comparison between the ranks of Chinese and non-Chinese vassals.
The appendix of this thesis deals with seal inscriptions, on which many of Kurihara's assumptions are based. To put those into a definite ranking system is regarded here as premature, as long as the divergence between such a system as it is described in the sources and actually found seals cannot be explained adequately. The appendix also gives an account of the couch grass (bai2mao2) and its role in the act of investiture.

 

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JOBS & GRANTS

UNIVERSITY OF EAST ANGLIA VISITING RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS
Two fellowships are offered for calendar year 1996 for holders of a doctorate who are undertaking research for publication in the field of the arts of Africa, Oceania and the Americas. In exceptional cases, advanced doctoral candidates may be considered. The value of the Fellowship is £3,600 plus one return fare (max £500). Contact: Admissions Secretary, Sainsbury Research Unit, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Univ of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK. +44-1603-592498; FAX 259401. Deadline is 1 April 1995.

LATROBE UNIVERSITY
Applications are invited from qualified archaeologists for Lecturer in Asian Archaeology (salary range: AUS$42,198 to $50,111). The appointment is initially available for four years with the possible extension of a further two years. Preference will be given to applications with teaching and research experience in the archaeology of social complexity in any region of the area extending from the Indian sub-continent, through Southeast Asia and China up to Northeast Asia (Korea and Japan). The applicant should currently be involved in fieldwork in the region. A particular competence in the theoretical aspects of the archaeology of social complexity and in the advanced techniques in the analysis of excavated materials (particularly ceramic or faunal remains) would also be advantageous. The successful applicant would be required to commence in January 1996. A position description can be obtained by telephoning Personnel +61-3-479-1668. Further information will be available from the Head of School, Dr. Tim Murray +61-3-479-2978. Applications should be marked "Private and Confidential" and with the reference number (Ref. No.: ACAA*.2042). The application and names and addresses of three academic referees should be forwarded to Personnel, La Trobe University, Bundoora 3083 Australia by 14 April 1995.

KOREA FOUNDATION SCHOLARSHIPS ATSOAS
Scholarships are available for the academic year beginning Sept 1995 for MA, MPhil and PhD research at SOAS in fields including Art & Archaeology. Applicants must have a BA in a relevant discipline and a demonstrated ability in Korean language. Korean nationals are not normally eligible to apply. Contact: The Registrar (Ref: Korean Foundation Scholarships), School of Oriental and African Studies, Thornhaugh St, London WC1H 0XG. +44-171-637-2388; FAX +44-171-436-4211.

KOREA FOUNDATION PROGRAMS
Applications for research fellowships, language training, and support for Korean studies programs abroad are due 31 May 1995. Obtain forms and program guidelines from: The Korea Foundation, CPO Box 2147, Seoul, Korea.

NEEDHAM RESEARCH INSTITUTE
NRI, Cambridge, UK is offering one fellowship to support a scholar to conduct research at the Institute during the 1995-6 academic year. The grant consists of a stipend of US$20,000 plus economy return airfare (underwritten by the NSF, thus only US citizens are elegible). Office space but not living accommodation will be provided at the Institute. pre-doctoral and post-doctoral scholars in the fields of Chinese science, technology and medicine (using Chinese or other East Asian primary sources) may apply. For application procedure, contact: The Secretary (NSF Fellowship), Needham Research Institute, 8 Sylvester Road, Cambridge CB3 9AF UK, FAX +44-1223-62703. Deadline: 24 April 1995.

KOREAN CULTURAL CENTER, LA
The Los Angeles Center is looking for a new cultural consultant to help with planning lectures, colloquia, and art exhibitions. It is a full-time position and requires an M.A. or above in an Asian Studies field, humanities or history background preferred. Native American speaker desireable with or without Korean language abilitiy. Pay US$2-3,---/mo. Contact: Consul Bookeun Cho, Korean Cultural Center, 5505 Wilshire blvd. Los Angeles, CA 90036 USA. 213-936-7141. Send short cover letter and resume soon.

Grants Received

Henry Luce Foundation Awards
"The ancient desiccated corpses of Xinjiang," University of Pennsylvania with Xinjiang Institute of Historical Relics and Archaeology, Xinjiang Uygur Museum

Japan Foundation
NAMIKAWA Takashi (from Bukkyo Univ to Jawaharlal Nehru Univ) "Ancient Indian Buddhism and its development in Japan"
MAEDA Josaku (from Musashino Art Univ to Visva Bharati Univ) "Cultural relations: India and Japan"
Barnes, Gina L. (from Univ Cambridge to Sydney Univ) "Archaeology of the Pacific Basin"
MATSUNAGA Shozo (from Okayama Univ to Cairo Univ) "The history of Japanese culture"

Li Foundation
CAO, Bingwu (Nat Chinese History Museum) and Patty Jo Watson (Washington Univ) "A comparative investigation of early food-producing economies and socio-political organization in North China and eastern North America"
HE, Nu (Jingzhou Museum) and Gary Pahl (San Francisco State Univ) "Archaeology of southern Jianghan Neolithic"
MOU, Yongkang (Zhejiang Institute of Archaeology), Elizabeth Childs-Johnson (Hamilton College), K.C. Chang (Harvard Univ) "The role of jade as art and the emergence of Chinese civilization"

Chiang Ching-kuo foundation (CCK)
Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago, "The early ceramic economy of southern Fukien"
Stanford University, "Monumentality in early Chinese art and architecture"

Committee on Scholarly Communication with China (CSCC)
Railey, Jimmy A. (Washington Univ, St. Louis) "Settlement trends and sociopolotical evolution: the Neolithic and early Bronze Age in the middle Yellow River valley" at National History Museum,
Gillette, Maris Boyd (Dept Anthropology, Harvard) "Gender and identity among Chinese Muslims in Xi'an" at Shaanxi Academy of Social Sciences
Levine, Nancy E. (Dept Anthrop., UCLA) "Pastoral management and domestic economy among ethnic Tibetans in Sichuan" at Chinese Center for Tibetan Studies
 

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EXHIBITIONS & MUSEUM NEWS

This section may include overlaps with Newsletter, EAAA listings; for fuller information about art historical showings, subscribe to Newsletter, East Asian Art & Archaeology, Dept. Art History, Univ. Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mi 48109-1357 USA.

In Korea, the new Taegu National Museum was opened in early December 1994 with a special exhibition on "History of Korean medicines." The collections consist of 1,351 objects which has heretofore been scattered throughout public and university museums in the southeastern regions of Korea. The 516 archaeological artefacts were mainly excavated in Taegu City and N. Kyongsang Province; they range from the Neolithic to the 3 Kingdoms period and include National Treasures No. 184 & 325: a gilt-bronze standing bodhisattva and a gilt-bronze sarira container from the 5-story brick pagoda at Songnim-sa. (Korea Newsreview 17 Dec 94)

The new National Maritime Museum of Korea was opened in Mokp'o on 14 Dec 1994. There is a colour-plate exhibit catalog with captions and several essays reproduced in English. Of particular interest are the salvaged parts and cargo of the Shinan and Wando shipwrecks lodged in the museum.

In November 1994, Dr David Clarke and Fraser Hunter of the Archaeology Department, National Museums of Scotland, hand-delivered a loan of Romano-British objects for display in the Osaka Science and Technology Centre. The objects will be on display until at least June 1995, sponsored by the Kansai Electric Power Company. (from Alan Saville)

The exhibition "Adornment for eternity: status and rank in Chinese ornament", consisting of 113 pieces of Chinese jewlery dating 13c BC-AD 17c, will be shown at the Denver Art Museum, Colorado USA (15 Oct 94-3 Sept 95), the Eskenazi Ltd, Oriental Art Gallery in London (10 Oct - 16 Dec 95) and the Seattle Art Museum, Washington USA (13 Jan - 14 Jul 96). (Press release, Denver Art Museum)

The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge UK is sponsoring an exhibition of 17-18c bronze flower arrangement containers from the Perry collection, 18 Jul - 17 Sept 95.

The Sarkisian art collection ranges from neolithic Chinese pottery to 20th-century carpets collected from 1951 onwards on trips to China and Soviet Union Central Asia. Over 200 of the finest pieces were on display in the University of Colorado Art Gallery from summer, 1994.

Ainu exhibits are currently popular; a "Special exhibition of the culture of the Ainu people" was shown at the University of Lapland, Rovaniemi, Finland, Apr-Sept 1994, and an exhibit of Ainu materials in the Museum of Mankind is running from 17 Feb to 10 Dec 1995 in London.

At the Tokyo National Museum in Ueno, a new three-story, one-basement building, "Heisei House" (tentative name), is to be built to house mainly special exhibition rooms, permanent exhibition rooms for displaying archaeological artifacts in the present Hyokeikan building, as well as to provide storage space. The Museum's old Horyuji Treasure House will also be rebuilt. The National Museum of Western Art will be expanded with a large-scale basement exhibition hall. (Japan Foundation Newsletter 22.3: 13'94)
The photographic exhibition Ah! Koguryo showing wall paintings from ancient Koguryo Kingdom burial mounds is now touring the provinces in Korea after its Seoul debut.

"Islamic glass from China" was on exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, 17 May - 31 Dec, 1994. It consisted of ten works in glass recently found in China and probably produced at Nishapur (9-11th c) plus 15-20 similar pieces from the Met's collection. The exhibit was accompanied by an illustrated catalog.

"Tomb treasures from China: the buried art of ancient Xi'an" is being shown at the Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, 3 Aug - 30 Oct 1994; Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth 19 Nov 1994-12 Feb 1995; and Honolulu Academy of Arts 15 March - 18 June 1995.
 

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LECTURES

Harvard University
17 Oct 94 "In the bone: divination, theology, and political culture in Late Shang China," by David Keightley
21 Oct 94 "Current state of Philippines archaeology," by Kwang-tzuu CHEN
31 Oct 94 "HUO Guang, Marshal of State (died 68 BC) and his barricade-style (huangchang ticou) tomb," by Michael Loewe
4 Nov 94 "Pottery moves, polity evolves: a case in Japanese protohistory," Ken SASAKI
18 Nov 94 "Problems in the connoisseurship of ancient books and paintings," Yudong CHEN
2 Dec 94 "Remains of Wangcheng of Wanggubu in the Yuan Dynasty," by Yaoliang SONG
9 Dec 94 "Ceramic ethnoarchaeological research in China," by Anne Underhill
16 Dec 94 "A serch for the origin of Shang: Shangqiu project," by Robert Murowchick
8 Feb 95 "Who were the Jomon people? Politics of ethnic identity in Japanese archaeology," by Fumiko Ikawa-Smith
13 Feb 95 "From liturgy to literature: the ritual contexts of the earliest poems in the Classic of Poetry," by Edward L. Shaughnessy
20 Feb 95 "Prehistoric Caucasian corpses of the Tarim Basin and surrounding areas," by Victor H. Mair
24 Feb 95 "Technological choice: Shang metal technology and its bearings on questions of diffusion and independent invention," by Robert Bagley
1 Mar 95 "The late Western Zhou ritual reform," by Lothar von Falkenhausen
24 Mar 95 "Interaction and the emergence of social complexity in Lingnan during the late Neolithic and Bronze Age," by Francis Allard

Needham Research Institute, Cambridge,UK
30 Jun 94 "Images of women in early China: the skills of prescient women", by Dr. Lisa Raphals
24 Jan 95 "Zinc smelting in India and China: an early struggle for dominance in a high-tech industry," by Paul Craddock

British Museum Education Service, London
22 Nov 94 "The glory of Silla", by Youngsook PAK

Freer Gallery of Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC
13 Oct 94 "Amusing the Emperor: unique discoveries from a Chinese imperial kiln," by LIN Xinyuan
 

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NOTEWORTHIES

Notes in the current issue are referred to as NOTEWORTHIES No. 00, while those in a previous issue will be referred to as NOTEWORTHIES 00-00, with the issue number before the dash and the note number after the dash.

 

  1. H-ASIA LISTSERVER
    A new listserver, the Asian History Discussion group, was launched in April 94 by Frank F. Conlon (conlon@u.washington.edu) at the University of Washington and Steven A. Leibo (Leibo@albnyvms.bitnet) at Sage Colleges. H-ASIA enables scholars to communicate current research and teaching interests, to discuss new articles, books, papers, approaches to, and methods on teaching Asian history. Relevant extracts from the H-NET JOB GUIDE will be posted, as will fellowship announcements. Organizers of conferences, and symposia in Asian studies are encouraged to post calls for papers and program contents. Publication of course syllabi and reading lists, course handouts, bibliographies or guides to term papers, and dissertation abstracts is planned.Reports on new archival or bibliographic sources, new software, datasets, or CD-ROMS will be welcomed. To subscribe, send an email message to: (bitnet) listserve@uicvm or
    (internet) listserv@uicvm.uic.edu with the subject line empty and the message:
    SUB H-ASIA your first name, your last name, your institution
    To post a message to H-ASIA simply send your message to either: H-ASIA@uicvm.bitnet or H-ASIA@uicvm.uic.edu. (Asian Studies Newsletter Sept-Oct 94)
     
  2. ARCH-METALS LISTSERVER
    Another list has been set up by Chris Salter in Oxford to cater to those interested in the archaeology and history of metallurgy. To join, send the one line message
    join arch-metals first_name last_name
    to the address: mailbase@mailbase.ac.uk. Chris can be reached directly at salter@vax.ox.ac.uk
     
  3. PAGODA DAMAGE & PRESERVATION IN SEOUL
    The 10-story Kyongchon-sa Pagoda at Kyongbok Palace (National Treasure No. 86) is scheduled to be resited indoors in the new National Museum being planned for Yongsan Family Park. Built in 1348, it has already been moved twice and is suffering environmental damage. The 10-story Wongak-sa pagoda in Seoul's Pagoda Park was reported damaged by vandalism in November. It was build in 1467 and stands 12 meters high. Each of the 10 stories is adorned with boddhisattvas, dragons and lions engraved in minute detail. Some of these were damaged with a pen knife on the 2nd story. As National Treasure No. 2, the pagoda is now being considered for enclosure in a big glass dome equipped with facilities to adjust temperature and humidity in order to control further environmental damage. (Korea Newsreview 12 Nov, 10 Dec 94)
     
  4. COURSE ON JAPANESE PAPER CONSERVATION
    Between Nov 23 and 16 Dec 1995, ICCROM is sponsoring its 4th International course on Japanese Paper Conservation in Tokyo (at Tobunken) and Kyoto (Kyoto National Museum). A maximun of 12 international specialists in the field of paper conservation are invited to apply. The course costs US$400 and applications must be received by 28 April 95. Contact: ICCROM-Japanese Paper Conservation Course 95, 13 Via di San Michele, I-00153 Rome RM, Italy. FAX +39-6-588-4265. (circular)
     
  5. THE CONSERVATION PRACTICE
    TCP, a historic architectural consulting and cultural assets management firm in England, is involved in three major projects in Liaoning, China: the upgrading of the Palace Museum in Shenyang, the conservation and presentation of the Great Wall at Jiumenkou, and the preservation and conservation of a major prehistoric site at Niuheliang. Their task at the latter site is "to advise on modernising the archaeological methods, consolidating the excavated remains and presenting the site for future display." (Conservation Insight Dec '94)
     
  6. CHEJU ISLAND EXCAVATIONS
    Over 400 stone arrowheads have been excavated by Prof. IM Hyo-jai (Seoul National Univ) from the site of Kosan-ri under the Akahoya tephra layer dated to 6800 BP. The artefacts are typologically similar to ones from 20 different sites in Japan including Fukui Cave; Im supposes that these arrowheads might date as early as 10,000 on typological grounds. They would thus fall in the gap between Palaeolithic and Neolithic cultures in Korea. (Korea Newsreview 28 Jan 95)
     
  7. EMAIL NOTES
    a. The new Beijing University gopher is: phphpsvr.pku.edu.cn
    b. The Forgidden City International Archaeological Computing Unit (CAO Bingwu, DAI Xiangming, Simon Holledge, and Jim Railey) can be reached at The Archaeology Department (at the Wu Gate of the Palace Museum), National Museum of Chinese History, Tiananmen Square, Beijing 100006, China; +86-1-602-5540; fax +86-1-512-8986; email: WuGate@mimi.cnc.ac.cn
     
  8. EAST ASIAN ANTHROPOLOGY INTEREST GROUP
    At the recent triple-A meeting in Atlanta, Georgia (USA), over 100 East Asianist anthropologists had an organisational meeting where it was agreed to form an interest group within the AAA. The group will focus on the societies of East Asia (including Japan, China, Korea, and parts of Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Central Asia) as well as on East Asian Diaspora communities throughout the world, and on transnational linkages among East Asian societies and between the East Asian region and other regions of the world. The Group is open to all anthropologists with these interests without regard to their membership in AAA. To become affiliated with the Group, contact: Ted Bestor, Dept of Anthropology, McGraw Hall, Cornell Univ, Ithaca, NY 14850 USA; FAX 607-255-3747; email: tb13@cornell.edu
    The EASIANTH listserver is now in operation. To subscribe send the following message:
    subscribe EASIANTH <your personal name> <your family name>
    to LISTSERV@VM.TEMPLE.EDU
     
  9. KAZAHARI RICE, URIBA POTTERY AND KOREA
    Seven grains of rice from the Late Jomon site of Kazahari in Aomori prefecture, Japan, have been AMS-dated to ca. 800 BC. Prof. IM Hyo-jai of Seoul National University is arguing that rice was probably introduced to that site via ocean currents in the East (Japan) Sea from the southeastern coast of Korea. 4.2 km distant from Kazahari is the Uriba site where comb-pattern (Chulmun) pottery from neolithic Korea had been excavated years ago. Prof. Im spent two months (June-July 1994) in Aomori examining and identifying the Uriba pottery as Chulmun. Many have geometric designs completely covering the exterior, from rim to pointed base. This is a characteristic of early Chulmun pottery and may indicate contact between islanders and peninsulites around 4000 BC, 1000 years earlier than previously thought. (Korea Newsreview 10 Sept, 8 Oct 94)
     
  10. REPATRIATION OF KOREAN RELICS
    "A total of 388 Korean relics taken to Japan in the past have been returned to Korea. The items included earrings, necklaces, buttons, jades, belts and glass beads, two thirds of which were accessories of the Koryŏ Dynasty (918-1392). Other relics were mostly from the prehistoric era of the Bronze Age, the Three Kingdoms period and Unified Silla (668-935). To the delight of local archaeologists, each item of the collection has a name tag which shows the name of the [relic], its age and its excavation site in Korea."
    The Japanese donor, who requested anonymity, is a businessman; his father was a Japanese banker during the 1920-30s when Korea was under Japanese colonial rule. The relics were excavated from Kongju, S. Chungchong province. Many of the artifacts, especially the Koryŏ jade accessories, gilt-bronze sarira container and Paekche gold earrings are of National Treasure status. (Korea Newsreview 1 Oct 94)
     
  11. CONTINUED ACRIMONY OVER 'SEA OF JAPAN'
    South Korean officials and scholars say old maps of this region call the waters between Korea and Japan "Sea of Korea" more often than "Sea of Japan." Out of the 54 maps made in Europe between the 15th and 19th centuries, 23 labelled the waters "Sea of Korea" while 7 used the name "Sea of Japan". They say it was Japan's rise in world prominence, particularly after the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 and the subsequent annexation of Korea in 1910 that effectively put an end to the use of the "Sea of Korea." The United Nations, in 1992, ruled that the countries concerned settle this problem through consultations. (Korea Newsreview 17 Sept 94)
     
  12. LARGEST KAYA TOMB EXCAVATED
    A 5th-century tomb excavated in Haman, S. Kyongsang province, Korea, is the largest of its kind known with a stone chamber 11 m long, 1.9 m deep and 1.85 m wide. The chamber contained 180 artifacts, including 45 vessels, 105 iron objects, a gold sword, arrowheads, armour and 30 accessories. Five well-preserved human skeletons were discovered on the southern side of the tomb. "This discovery proves the old custom of burying the living with the dead." [!!] (Korea Newsreview 27 Aug 94)
     
  13. SURVEY OF TAKLA MAKAN & RADAR IMAGE
    "In 1984 space shuttle Challenger-using the newest radar technology-discovered the lost city of Ubar hidden under the deserts of Oman. Now NASA has trained its high-tech eyes on Central Asia for clues to the history of the Silk Road, the 2,000-year-old land link between China and the West. Earlier this month, at the behest of the China Exploration Research Society in Hong Kong, space shuttle Endeavor beamed down space-imaging radar, which penetrated the surface of China's Takla Makan desert. The goal: to find once thriving settlements buried beneath the desert floor. The shuttle's detective work may also help explain why the lush oases that once dotted the 4,000-mile land route dried up in a sudden climatic change before AD 700." (Newsweek 7 Nov 94)
    There is a radar image of the southwest portion of the Takla Makan Desert, containing the ancient settlement of Niya, available on the Internet. It was taken as part of NASA's Mission to Planet Earth using spaceborne imaging radar-C and X0-band synthetic aperature radar (SIR-C/X-SAR). The radars illuminate earth with microwaves, allowing detailed observations at any time, regardless of weather or sunlight conditions. SIR-C/X-SAR uses three microwave wavelengths: the L-band (24cm), C-band (6cm) and X-band (3cm). SIR-C was developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboraroty; X-SAR was developed by the Dornier and Alenia Spazio companies for the German space agency, Deutsche Agentur fuer Raumfahrtangelegenheiten (DARA) and the Italian space agency, Agenzia Spaziale Italiana (ASI), with the Deutsche Forschungsanstalt fuer Luft und Raumfahrt e.v. (DLR), the major partner in science, operations and data processing of X-SAR.
    The image can be accessed by anonymous ftp to jplinfo.jpl.nasa.gov (137.78.104.2); log on as user ANONYMOUS, then send your city and state/country as the password (commas and spaces are ok, up to a total of 15 characters).
     
  14. TOMB OF TANGUN; KOJOSON CASTLE
    Despite faulty ESR dating of bones from a Koguryo tomb (6-7th century AD) back to 5011 years ago [see EAANnouncements 12: 10, 1992], North Koreans have insisted that this is the tomb of Tangun, the legendary founder of Korea. The tomb has been renovated (photo) in a project "under the motto of inheriting national cultural assets and taking pride in the 'greatness of the Korean people'." (Korea Newsreview 22 Oct 94)
    A mountain fortress discovered in Hyangdan-ri, Kangdong County, P'yongyang has a surviving wall 10 m wide at base and 1 m high, built of river cobbles covered with earth. Since "it is clear that the castle was built in the days when a state existed, [and Tangun established the first state] this fact proves that ancient Korea existed as a state 5000 years ago." [!!] (The People's Korea, Tokyo 3 Sept 94).
     
  15. COURSE ON CULTURAL PROPERTIES
    Kyoto University has set up within its graduate school a new course on cultural Properties Preservation and other related subjects, inviting six specialists (4 professors and 2 associate professors from the Kyoto National Museum and the Nara National Research Institute of Cultural Properties. Based on their practical experience, these experts lecture on Japanese art history, analysis of art techniques and material, and scientific repair methods, among others, making use of the collections at the Museum and the Institute. They also lead fieldwork projects at historic sites in the Kinki region. (Japan Foundation Newsletter 22.3: 13 '94)
     
  16. EMPEROR QIN'S ARMY, NO. 3
    The last of three pits of terracotta warriors and horses near China's ancient capital of Xi'an has been opened to the public. The pit is believed to contain more than 1400 pottery figures and chariots, including more than 100 warriors on horseback. Excavation began in March 1994 and is expected to continue for about five years.
     
  17. JIA LANPO & U.S. NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES
    "Prof. JIA Lanpo, renowned Chinese prehistorian, was recently elected a foreign associate of the United States National Academy of Sciences. He is the fifth Chinese national to receive this distinction. He is a founding member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology (IVPP) and its most senior researcher. In addition, he is a member of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Cultural Relics Bureau of the People's Republic of China...Prof. Jia led a Chinese team that collaborated with an American team of archaeologists, headed by Prof. Emeritus J. Desmond Clark of the University of California at Berkeley, on excavations at the early Paleolithic site of Donggutuo in the Nihewan basin of Hebei province from 1990 to 1992." (China Exchange News 22.3(fall): 28, 1994)
     
  18. YAYOI BEAD-STUDDED LACQUERED SWORD SHEATH
    Last spring, such an artefact was discovered at the Yubi-honmachi site in Saga Prefecture, Japan, from an early Middle Yayoi jar burial cemetery. This particular 1st-century BC jar burial is interpreted as a 'kingly' burial of one of the small Yayoi kuni (chiefdoms) in the area. The wooden sheath is outstanding for its combination of peninsular style and Jomon lacquer techniques (4 layers of red lacquer)-which were thought to have died out by Yayoi. A similar sheath, albeit lacquered in black, was previously excavated at the South Korean site of Tahori. The Saga sheath is studded with jasper cylindrical beads of unknown source. (Nishi Nihon Shinbun 6 May 1994)


     
  19. JOMON ASTRONOMICAL SITE
    The Terano Higashi site in Tochigi Prefecture, Japan, contains a horseshoe-shaped earthen baulk 165 m in diameter and 5 m in height, dating between 3800-2800 BC. In the open centre is an oval stone platform 14 x 18 m and 1.1 m high. On the rim of the baulk is an earthen mound 20 m in diameter and 1 m in height. Prof. Tatsuo KOBAYASHI, of Kokugakuin University, has determined that the centres of the mound and the pavement are in alignment with the saddle of twin-peaked Mt. Tsukuba where the sunrises at the winter solstice.
    (Yomiuri Shinbun 28 May 1994)
     
  20. PAEKCHE IRON-SMELTING FURNACES
    The remains of two furnaces dating to the late 3rd or early 4th century AD have been excavated in Sokchang-ri, Chinchon, N. Chungchong Province by Chongju National Museum. A museum official has stated that "the recent discovery suggests that the Japanese furnaces produced later may have been modeled after their Paekche counterparts, considering the similarity in their patterns." The archaeological team also found an oval-shaped furnace for refining [sic] iron sand and rectangular and round pits where some earthenware and iron fragments were excavated. The function of the two pits has not been confirmed. (Korea Newsreview 26 Nov 1994)
     
  21. ORIENTAL CERAMIC SOCIETY NEWSLETTER
    The Oriental Ceramic Society in London, which is famous for its long tradition of supporting knowledge and understanding of the arts of Asia, particularly ceramics, has begun a new newsletter (No. 2 = January 1994). The newsletter will contain standard sections on Exhibitions and Museums, authored contributions on particular museums and their developments, London events, news of members of the OCS in North America and news from other oriental ceramic societies, book reviews, obituaries, lectures, and tours. For further information, contact: OCS, 31B Torrington Square, London WC1E 7JL, UK. +44-171-636-7985.
     
  22. KAMI-TAKAMORI SITE
    Un archéologue japonais a révélé cette semaine que des outils de pierre mis au jour dans une ville du nord du Japon montrent que l'homme a peutêtre vécu au Japon environ 100,000 ans plutôt qu'on ne l'avait cru jusqu'à ce jour. "D'après les dépôts volcaniques de la strate dans laquelle les outils ont été découverts, ils pourraient être vieux d'environ 600,000 ans ou même plus", a expliqué Toshiaki KAMATA, chef de l'Institut de culture paléolithique Tohoku. Selon l'éminent archéologue, il pourrait s'agir d'un être humain contemporain de l'homme de Java, qui aurait vécu en Indonésie il y a environ 700,000 ans. Le groupe de Toshiaki KAMATA avait déjà trouvé des traces de l'homme de la pierre dans le nord du Japon vers 1985. Les outils trouvés sont des grattoirs, des hached et des hachoirs. Ils ont été mis au jour sur l'aire de fouilles de Kamitakamori, située à 300 km au nord de Tokyo. (La Pusse, 31 Nov 94)
     
  23. SIBERIAN SITE AT 8000 BP
    Vladikmir Pitulko has recently been excavating on Zhokov Island in the De Long archipelago (76°N) where he has located a "Mesolithic village" of 13 pit-houses. Also recovered from the site was a "remarkable assemblage of wood, bone and stone tools including microblades, bone and antler insert tools, groundstone adzes, and worked mammoth ivory." (Arctic Studies Center Newsletter 3: 18-19, 1995).
     
  24. THAI-YUNNAN NEWSLETTER
    Number 24 of the Thai-Yunnan Project newsletter (March 1994) of the Australian National University contains the articles "Traders of rice, traders of jade", and "Mon on the Thai-Burma border" plus gook reviews and announcements. Send inquiries to: The Editor, Dept of Anthropology, RSPacS, ANU, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia. The newsletter is also available via ftp at: coombs.anu.edu.au
     
  25. SOUTH & EAST ASIA GEOLOGICAL MAP
    The 3rd edition of the geological map of south and east Asia has been released by the Subcommission for South and East Asia of the Commission for the Geological Map of the World. The map consists of 6 sheets at a 1:5,000,000 scale. It can be obtained from The Commission for the Geological map of the World, maison de la Geologie, 77 rue Claude-Bernard, 75005 Paris, France.
     

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CONFERENCES:

CONFERENCE CALENDAR

Titles new to this issue are emboldened and those dealing specifically with East Asia are starred
 

*Nov 16-20 '94: 1994 Chinese Ancient Ceramic Society Annual Meeting, Xiamen Univ. Themes: Ancient pottery traditions in the lower Yangtze River basin; Green glazed wares of the Six Dynasties period in Jiangsu; Yixing and other related wares. Contact: YE Wencheng, 1-102 Jingxiang Building, Xiamen University, Xiamen, Fujian, PRC 361005.

*Jan 5-9 '95: International Conference on Sinology, Haikou, Hainan. Organised by the Institute of History, CASS & International Sinological Research Society.

*Jan 11-14'95: The future of Asia's past: preservation of architectural monuments in Asia. Chiang Mai, Thailand. Contact: The Asia Galleries, ATTN: Conservation 1995, 725 Park Ave., New York, NY 10021 USA

*Apr 6-9 '95: Association for Asian Studies Meetings (AAS), Washington DC.

Apr 21-23 '95: Japanese identity: cultural analyses, Teikyo Loretto Heights University, Denver. Contact: Allison Crane, Center for Japan Studies, 3001 S. Federal Blvd. Denver, CO 80236 USA, FAX 303-937-4224.

Apr/May '95: Hidden Dimensions: the cultural significance of wetland archaeology, Vancouver, Canada. A 3-day event to be held in conjunction with an exhibition about wet-site archaeology in SW British Columbia will include a public component, a scientific component, workshops, and tours. Contact: Ann Stevenson, UBC Museum of Anthropology, 6393 NW Marine Dr., Vancouver BC V6T 1Z2 Canada 604-822-6530, FAX 604-822-2974, Email: stevenso@unixg.ubc.ca

May 3-7 '95: Society for American Archaeology Meetings, Minneapolis, Minnesota. Paper proposals due by September 23rd; contact Program Chair Dr. Paul Minnis, Dept Anthropology, Univ of Oklahoma. There will be an Eastern Asia lunch on Saturday May 6th, chaired by Peter Bleed; advance registration is required.

*May 25-30 '95: International Conference on Shang Culture, Luoyang Yanshi, Henan. Organised by the CASS Institute of Archaeology.

*Jun 17-18'95: 12th Nihon Bunkazai Kagakukai, Nara, Japan. Contact: T. Yamamoto, Dept of Archaeology, Tenri Univ, Tenri 632 Japan. FAX +81-7436-3-1965.

Jun 18-24 '95: Early horsekeepers of the Eurasian steppes, Petrapavlovsk, Kazakhstan. Sponsored by the Institute of Archaeology, Kazakhstan; The Russian Institute of Archaeology; and Petropavlovsk State University. Themes: Domestication of the horse; Archaeological and cultural contexts of early horsekeepers; Implications of innovations in transport and communication. Contact: Dr. David Anthony, Dept of Anthropology, Hartwick College, Oneonta, NY 13820 USA. 607-431-4862, FAX 607-431-4457. Internet email: anthonyd@hartwick.edu

June/July '95: 2nd Regional Seminar on Southeast Asian Prehistory and Archaeology, Philippines. Contact: W.P. Ronquillo, National Museum of the Philippines, Manila, The Philippines.

Aug '95: Alternative pathways to early state, Vladivostok. Contact: Dr. Nikolay N. Kradin, Institute of History, 89 Pushkinskaya St., Vladivostok 690600 Russia. email: history@pub.marine.su

8Aug 15-18 '95: Conference on Prehistoric Cultures of the Middle Yangtze River Valley, Changsha, Hunan. Contact: Mr. PEI Anping, Hunan Institute of Archaeology, Dongfeng Village #2, Dongfeng Road, Changsha, Hunan, P.R. China. +86-731-444-7304.

*Sept 4-8 '95: From the Jomon to Star Carr: hunter-gatherers of east and west temperate Asia, Universities of Cambridge and Durham, England. Contact: Dr. Peter Rowley-Conwy, Department of Archaeology, Durham Univ, Durham DH1 3NU, UK. FAX +44-191-374-3740; email: P.A. Rowley-Conwy@durham.ac.uk

*Oct 21-15 '95: Localizing the imaginary: a symposium on the paradise imagery in East Asian art, Harvard University. Contact: NING Qiang, Dept of Fine Arts, Harvard University, 485 Broadway, Cambridge MA 02138 USA. 617-576-4653; FAX 617-495-1769; email: ming@husc3.harvard.edu

*Oct 31-4 Nov '95: 1995 International Symposium on Ancient Ceramics (ISAC '95), Shanghai. Call for papers in the following areas: Scientific & technological insights; Archaeological discoveries; Arts & crafts; Kilns; International trade of ancient ceramics; Application of research achievement of ancient ceramics in modern industry; and other aspects. Contact: SUN Jing, Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, 1295 Dingxi Road, Shanghai 200050. FAX +86-21-251-3903.
 

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CONFERENCE REPORTS

Elvin, Mark 1994 The conference on the History of the Environment in China, Hong Kong, 1993 Chinese Environmental History Newsletter 1.1: 3-6

Guy, John 1994 The Percival David Foundation Colloquy on Art and Archaeology in Asia, No 17, SOAS, 6-8 June 1994 ASEASUK NEWS 16(autumn):19-21
 

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PAPERS READ

For copies of the papers listed here, please contact either the symposium or panel organizer if the author is unknown to you
 

TOWARDS A DEFINITION OF STYLE: THE ARTS OF TIBET, 13-17 June 1994, Victoria & Albert Museum, London

Stoddard, Heather: Early Tibetan paintings
Casey Singer, Jane: The Taglung group of early paintings
Kossak, Steven: Early Tibetan painting
Whitfield, Roderick: Tibetan style at Dunhuang
Leonov, Gennady: Tibetan art in Russia
Bartholomew, Terese Tse: Thangkas of the Qianlong period
Heller, Amy: Early temples and rock carvings in eastern Tibet
Reynolds, Valrae: The importation of luxury textiles into Tibet, 750-1950, and the possible effects of this trade on stylistic innovations in the arts of Tibet
Goepper, Roger: Style in the early murals of Ladakh, Spiti and Guge (Tsaparang)
Pritzker, Thomas: Mural paintings at Tabo
Klimburg-Salter, Deborah: Illustrated manuscripts from western Tibet
Singh, Ajay Kumar: Western Tibetan sculpture
Fournier, Lionel: Styles at Iwang/Yemar, central Tibet
Henss, Michael: The wall paintings of Drathang temple in central Tibet
Kreijger, Hugo: Styles at Shalu, central Tibet
Ricca, Franco: Style at Gyantse
Huntingdon, John: Stylistic versus iconometric elements in Tibetan painting
Reedy, Chandra: Technology as style in Tibetan copper-based sculpture production
Clarke, John: Tibetan metalworkers' perceptions of style
Harris, Clare and Thaye, T.P.M.: An artist's approach to style
Rhie, Marylin: Aspects of the relation of Central Asian and Chinese art with early Tibetan Buddhist sculpture
Bautze-Picron, Claudine: Indian or Tibetan? 12th century paintings of the Buddha
Alsop, Ian: The bronze casting tradition of the Khasa Malla kingdom of west Tibet/west Nepal, 12th-14th c.
Dowman, Keith: Nepal-Tibet interface
 

EUROPEAN ASSOCIATION FOR JAPANESE STUDIES (EAJS), 25-29 Aug 1994, Copenhagen
Warlies, Maria: Leadership in the archaeological record of Kofun time Japan: local leadership and central Japanese power in south Kyushu
 

ASIAN CERAMICS: POTTERS, USERS AND COLLECTORS IN SOCIETY AND HISTORY, 7-9 Oct 1994, Chicago. Organized by Chuimei HO, Anthropology Dept., Field Museum, Roosevelt at Lake Shore, Chicago, IL 60605 USA. FAX 312-427-7269.
Li, Dejin: Residents of the Yuan capital-life in 13th-14th century China as seen from ceramics
Ono, Masatoshi: Elite and commoners in the Fukui communities, medieval Japan
Kim, Young-won: Imperial kilns of the Choson dynasty-their relationship with the court
Long, So Kee: Ceramics in Chinese coastal economies-the cases of Guangzhou, Quanzhou and Mingzhou in Song Dynasty
Kusimba, C. Mahkota: Trade in ancient Kenyan society-relations with the Far East
Kamei, Meitoku: The role of merchants in China-Japan ceramic trade
Kim, Seong Boem: Wando island in southern Korea-a gateway to China, Japan and interior Korea
Clarke, Robert: Traditional Asian ceramics impact on American potters-four case studies
Scollard, Fredrikke: Shekwan ware of Guangdong-tracing their reception by the Japanese, the Southeast Asians, the British and the Americans
Tsiang, Katherine: Early green glazed wares in China-art or something else
Bower, Virginia: Tang potters and their debt to other material culture
Rooney, Dawn: What makes Ankgorian communities Ankgorian-can we tell by examining the ceramics they used
Everett, William: Ceramics and their utilisation in 20th century industries
Ho, Chuimei: Tang Ying and his role as a potter in 18th century China
 

ARCHAEOLOGY IN EAST ASIA, 12 Nov 1994
Organised by the Triangle (Duke, North Carolina and Durham Universities) in southeastern United States, the colloquium was held at the National Center for Humanities. Prof. Edward Kidder and Prof Stanley Abe served as commentators. Contact: Ms. Mavis Mayer, Asian/Pacific Studies Institute, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina, USA.
Ikawa-Smith, Fumiko: Defining the nation's past: the changing politics of Japanese archaeology
Thorpe, Robert: Theory and practice in Chinese archaeology
 

WORLD ARCHAEOLOGY CONGRESS 3, 5-11 Dec 1994, New Delhi
Thompson, G.B.: Protohistoric agricultural change in the Korean peninsula: intensification or diversification?
Izumi, Niiro: Craft specialization and the formation of state in Japan
Okamura, Katsuyuki: Conflict between preservation and development in Japan: the agony of rescue archaeologists
Matsumoto, N.; Nakazono, S; & Hodgkinson, Lise: The formation process and current state of the academically isolated archaeology of Japan
Nelson, Sarah: Millet and pigs in Korea and Manchuria
Vostretsov, Yuri: Maritime and agricultural adaptations in the Japan Sea basin
Vovin, Alexander: Japanese rice agriculture terminology and linguistic affiliation of Yayoi culture
Serafim, Leon: Japonic never creolized-conditions for creolization and other types of language contact in the spread of Japonic to the Japanese archipelago
 

NEW ENGLAND EAST ASIAN ART HISTORY SEMINAR, 25 Feb 1995, Cambridge, MA. This was organized at Fairbank Center for East Asian Research, Harvard University. A specifically archaeological paper was:
Bagley, Robert: An early Chinese Bronze Age tomb at Xin'gan in central Jiangxi
 

INNOVATIONS IN CHINESE MEDICINE, 8-11 Mar 1994, Cambridge, UK.
Organized at the Needham Research Institute by John Moffatt.
Englehart, Ute: Dietetics in Tang China
Sabban, Francoise: A perfect diet for the Chinese literati
 

CONSTRUCTING KOREA: INTERDISCIPLINARY PERSPECTIVES ON NATIONAL IDENTITY AND CULTURE, 21-2 April 1995, Berkeley
Organised by the Center for Korean Studies, Institute of East Asian Studies, Univ of California.
Hejtmanek, Milan: Defining 'Choson' in the 20th century
Pai, Hyung Il: Archaeology and the search for Korean 'origins'-race, myth, and the early state
Em, Henry: Hegemony and historiography-a non-nationalist's reading of Sin Ch'ae-ho
Nelson, Sarah: Trade in northeastern China in the early Bronze Age
 

AAS 47TH ANNUAL MEETING, Washington, DC 6-9 April 1995
Organised by the Association for Asian Studies, 1 Lane Hall, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109 USA.
Scheduled panels:
Nationalist historiography and the Nation's histories: Korea and Taiwan, org. by Douglas Fix (Reed College)
Rethinking tribute: concept and practice, org. by Nancy Park (Vassar College)
Historical archaeology in Japan, org. by Conrad Totman (Yale Univ)
Change and authority in Han China, org. by Mark Lewis, (Cambridge Univ)
Astrology and chronology in Shang and Zhou (Commemmorating the first 20 years of Early China, sponsored by the Stociety for the Study of Early China and org. by David Nivison (Stanford Univ)
Han thinkers on their own tradition: a panel in honor of Michael Loewe, org. by Michael Nylan (Bryn Mawr College)
Japan anthropology between area and discipline: anthropology within Japanese studies, org. by William Kelly (Yale Univ)
The Han, regionalism and Chinese ethnicity, org. by Greg Guldin (Pacific Lutheran Univ)
Ethnicity unbounded: Sinicizing and signifying at the frontier, org. by Helen Siu (Yale Univ)
 

LOCALIZING THE IMAGINARY: A SYMPOSIUM ON THE PARADISE IMAGERY IN EAST ASIAN ART, 21-22 October 1995, Harvard University. Organized by NING Qiang, Dept of Fine Arts, Harvard.
Abe, Stanley: To emerge into paradise-earliest images of rebirth from Dunhuang
Gridley, Marilyn: Paintings from Shanxi of Tejaprabha's paradise
Grotenhuis, Elizabeth ten: Embarking for the Pure Land at Kumano
Hu, Tongqing: Paradise scenes in later Dunhuang murals
Karetzky, Patricia: The paradise of the Buddha of infinite light at Dunhuang
Li, Yumin: Paradise and state-rethinking the Zhang Shenwen scroll
Ning, Qiang: From tomb to paradise
Tseng, Lanying: The pictures of immortalization in Han art
Wang, Yuejin: The impurity of the Pure Land
Wendelken, Cherie A.: Secular paradise
Wu, Hung: The emergence of paradise as a place in early Chinese art
Yen, Chuan-yin: Two prototypes of paradise-Xiaonanhai to Xiangtangshan cave temples
Yiengpruksawan, Mimi: The power of purity-Amida halls as landscapes of transformation in trying times
 

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ASIAN-LANGUAGE PUBLICATIONS
 

Volumes received:

Kiba minzoku wa konakatta [The horseriders didn't come], by SAHARA Makoto. NHK Books No. 658, Tokyo, 1993. Rec'd from author.

Asuka, Fujiwara no miyako o horu [Excavating Asuka and the Fujiwara palace], by Masashi KINOSHITA. Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kobunkan, 1993. Rec'd from author.

Shimomouchi iseki ['Simomouti' site], 2 vols. Nagano-ken Maizō Bunkazai Sentaa Hakkutsu Chosa Hōkokusho 11. Nagano-ken, Japan, 1992. Rec'd from SODA Tsutomu.

Kochosonsa yŏngu [A history of Old Choson], by LEE Jong-wook. Humanities Monographs No. 34, Research Institute for Humanities, Sogang University. Seoul: Il Cho Kak, 1993. Rec'd from author.

Kazanbai atorasu: Nihon retto to sono shuhen [Atlas of tephra in and around Japan], by MACHIDA Hiroshi and ARAI Fusao. Tokyo: Tokyo University Press. Rec'd from SODA Tsutomu.

Kazan funka to Kuroimine mura no kurashi [Volcanic eruptions and life in Kuroimine village], exhibition publication from Gunma Prefectural History Museum. Takasaki-shi: Gunma Kenritsu Rekishi Hakubutsukan, 1990. Rec'd from SODA Tsutomu.

Kungnip haeyang yumul chŏnsigwan: chungŏng pogosŏ [National Maritime Museum: opening report]. Mokp'o: National Maritime Museum, 1994. Rec'd from KIM Yong-han.

Kungnip haeyang yumul chŏnsigwan: [National Maritime Museum]. Exhibit guide. Mokp'o: National Maritime Museum, 1994. Rec'd from KIM Yong-han.

Takamori iseki [Takamori site]. Sekki Bunka Danwakai, 1991. Rec'd from SODA Tsutomu.

Takamori iseki II [Takamori site 2]. Tagajo-shi: Tohoku Rekishi Shiryokan, 1993.Rec'd from SODA Tsutomu.

Babadan A iseki I, II, III: zenki kyūsekki jidai no kenkyū [Babadan A site 1, 2, 3: research on the Early Palaeolithic period]. Sendai: Tōhoku Rekishi Shiryōkan & Sekki Bunka Danwakai, 1986, 1988, 1989. Rec'd from SODA Tsutomu.
 

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RUNNING BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

Bibliography

 

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JOURNAL UPDATES
 

 

 

FMF Excavation Practicum, Xi'an, China 1 July - 7 August, 1995
The Sino-American Field School of Archaeology, sponsored by the Fudan Museum Foundation (USA) and the Xi'an Jiaotong University in collaboration with the Shaanxi Archaeological Institute in S'ian, is offering a summer excavation practicum for academic credit (or audit). For further information, contact: Alfonz Lengyel, Fudan Museum Foundation, 1522 Schoolhouse Road, Ambler, PA 19002 USA.

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