Search

Millet is a highly adaptable plant whose cultivation dramatically altered ancient economies in northern Asia. The adoption of millet is associated with increased subsistence reliability in semi-arid settings and perceived as a cultigen compatible with pastoralism. Here, we examine the pace of millet's transmission and locales of adoption by compiling stable carbon isotope data from humans and fauna, then comparing them to environmental variables. The Bayesian modelling of isotope data allows for the assessment of changes in dietary intake over time and space. Our results suggest variability in the pace of adoption and intensification of millet production across northern Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We examine the Holocene loess record in the Heye Catchment on the margins of the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and China Loess Plateau (CLP) to determine: the region to which the Heye Catchment climate is more similar; temporal change in wind strength; and modification of the loess record by mass wasting and human activity. Luminescence and radiocarbon dating demonstrate loess deposited in two periods: >11– 8.6 ka and <5.1 ka. The 8.6–5.1 ka depositional hiatus, which coincides with the Mid-Holocene Climatic Optimum, is more similar to the loess deposition cessation in the TP than to the loess deposition deceleration in the CLP. Grain-size analysis suggests the Heye loess is a mixture of at least three different grain-size distributions and that it may derive from multiple sources. A greater proportion of coarse sediments in the older loess may indicate stronger winds compared with the more recent depositional period. Gravel incorporated into younger loess most likely comes from bedrock exposed in slump scarps. Human occupation of the catchment, for which the earliest evidence is 3.4 ka, postdates the onset of slumping; thus the slumps may have created a livable environment for humans. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

On the international stage, discussions on theoretical and methodological aspects of settlement archaeology tend to be dominated by Anglo-American scholarship associated with the emergence of the New Archaeology's systemic view of culture and its ecological outlook in which settlement pattern analysis became a crucial approach. Few people are aware that a scholar of Chinese origin, K.C. Chang, contributed substantially to these debates already since the 1950s and introduced western practices of settlement archaeology to China in the 1980s. Since then, numerous international collaborative projects in China have provided a fruitful basis for an exchange of ideas between different scholarly traditions and providing opportunities for methods developed in the West to be tested in a different cultural and environmental context. The present paper traces these developments, highlighting the extent of the Chinese contributions and concluding with some thoughts on the standing of Chinese archaeology within the field of archaeology worldwide. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is much current interest in causes of globalization and international contacts. Although the process of globalization has sped up considerably over the last decades, recent research has suggested that the modern and the ancient world may not be fundamentally different as far as mechanisms and preconditions of inter-cultural contact are concerned. Prehistoric and early historic communities can therefore serve as useful case studies to reflect on general mechanisms of inter-cultural exchange that are of great interest to modern day societies as well. The present paper provides a critical review on theoretical debates on culture contact in the field of archaeology as well as their practical ramifications, drawing on examples from all around the world. In conclusion, it points out major achievement, persistent issues, and makes suggestions for future directions of research on culture contact in ancient and modern worlds. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Shimao (石峁) site, located in northeastern Shaanxi Province, is the focus of some of the most exciting work being done in Chinese archaeology today. Since 2012, the site has been included several times in the list of the most important discoveries of Chinese archaeology and was even selected by the first Shanghai Archaeology Forum as one of the top 10 archaeological discoveries in the world. Because of its unique nature and the exemplary work being done by its excavators, Shimao could have formed the basis of a new focus on systematic fieldwork and rigorous model building. Instead, the excavation of Shimao has been subsumed in traditional narratives that have supported linear views of history and thrown focus especially on its relationship to the emergence of dynastic China in the Central Plains. We will argue here, rather, that another approach would be to see the Shimao center as the core of a regional trajectory that is parallel, but not necessarily tied, to the developments in the Central Plains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In ancient China, as elsewhere, states did not simply occupy a given territory but actively engaged in the production of space by transforming landscapes, moving populations, and enacting territorial hierarchies, thus creating "state spaces," to borrow a term coined by James C. Scott. In the case of the early Chinese empires of Qin (221–207 BCE) and Han (202 BCE–220 CE), state-induced migration and settlement were key instruments of military control, administrative incorporation, economic intensification, and other processes connected with spatial distribution of state power. This article combines insights from transmitted texts, excavated documents, and archaeological evidence to explore factors and effects of migration in early Chinese empires, discussing the interconnection between state-organized resettlement and private migration as well as their embeddedness in the local geography. As the situation varies according to location, the present article introduces the approach and tests it on a case study, the Guanzhong metropolitan region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discussions on colonialism are pervasive in western scholarship but are hardly ever applied to the archeology of China. The present paper shows how concepts of colonialism and migration research can be successfully applied to understand Han imperial expansion into southwest China and how the Chinese material can in turn contribute to developing theories and methods of colonialism research further. Taking the Shamaoshan cemetery as a case study, the present paper combines archeological, textual, environmental, and isotope data to gain insights into strategies and processes of Han imperial expansion into southwest China. The insights gained here show that the long-accepted story-line of simple "Sinicization" and political control is far from accurate. Instead, it took over a century of cross-cultural exchange with immigrants and locals adopting each other's customs to varying degrees. While in the beginning the Han seem to have taken a top-down approach to "civilizing" the region through their elites, the present study suggests that in the end it was the lower levels of society that intermingled most intensively and helped integrate migrants and locals successfully. Moving away from the exclusive focus on exceptional graves and large sites, the present study thus shows the great value of approaching small, poorly equipped graves with new methods, combining isotope research with a nuanced analysis of burial remains. Evaluated together with the evidence from the well-known exceptional graves, lesser-known settlement material, and historical accounts, the Shamaoshan case study has made it clear that various types of contact, colonial and otherwise, play out quite differently within different social groups and historical situations. This study thus proposes a multisource, multimethod approach that moves away from a narrative dominated by the history-writing elite segments of the colonizing force to a multivoiced account integrating local and outside perceptions at various social levels, an approach that might successfully be applied in other parts of the world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The beginning and early development of metallurgy in China have long been hot topics in Eurasian archaeology since they were suggested to be closely linked with the so-called "prehistoric globalization." This paper assesses the available archaeological and archaeometallurgical evidence within their temporal-spatial framework and explores diachronic and cross-spatial developmental processes of early metallurgy in different regions in China. While recognizing the importance of long-distance interaction and exogenous technological stimulation, we draw attention to the local adoption and adaptation process of metallurgy and highlight the significance of local communities as sponsors, practitioners, and consumers of the metallurgical products and production as well as agents of technology transmission. While previous research has focused on individual object features that were seen as typical for specific archaeological cultures, current data shows considerable similarities in artifact typologies and material types among the early metal-using societies throughout Northwest China. We therefore argue that the modification of foreign metallurgical traditions through localized practice in Northwest China was crucial for their transmission further eastward and thus for the ultimate establishment of a new metallurgical tradition in the Central Plain of China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]