Asian Perspectives, 2017 - Volume 56, Number 1 (Spring)

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    Tracey Lie-dan Lu (20 September 1959 – 21 March 2016)
    ( 2017) Bellwood, Peter ; Wong, Sharon Wai Yee
    Professor Tracey Lie-dan Lu died in Melbourne on 21 March 2016 after a distinguished career at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, teaching and researching Chinese archaeology, museum studies, and cultural heritage. Tracey was born in Guangzhou. She commenced her archaeological career with a bachelor’s degree from Zhongshan University in 1983. In 1987, she obtained her M.Phil. in Archaeology from Beijing University. Between 1985 and 1989, she joined a large archaeological team in Guangzhou excavating the Western Han dynasty tomb of the Nanyue king Zhao Mo (d. 122 b.c.); wrote a popular book on this discovery, Nanyuewangmu yu nanyuewangguo (1990); and contributed several chapters to the two-volume Chinese report, Xihan Nanyuewangmu (1991).
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    Zooarchaeological and Genetic Evidence for the Origins of Domestic Cattle in Ancient China
    ( 2017) Peng, Lu ; Brunson, Katherine ; Jing, Yuan ; Zhipeng, Li
    This article reviews current evidence for the origins of domestic cattle in China. We describe two possible scenarios: 1) domestic cattle were domesticated indigenously in East Asia from the wild aurochs ( Bos primigenius), and 2) domestic cattle were domesticated elsewhere and then introduced to China. We conclude that the current zooarchaeological and genetic evidence does not support indigenous domestication within China, although it is possible that people experimented with managing wild aurochs in ways that did not lead to complete domestication. Most evidence indicates that domestic taurine cattle ( Bos taurus) were introduced to China during the third millennium b.c., and were related to cattle populations first domesticated in the Near East. Zebu cattle ( Bos indicus) entered China sometime between 2000 and 200 b.c., but much less is known about this species. The role of cattle as ritual and wealth animals seems to have been critical to their initial introduction.
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    Smelting in the Shadow of the Iron Mountain: Preliminary Field Investigation of the Industrial Landscape around Phnom Dek, Cambodia (Ninth to Twentieth Centuries A.D.)
    ( 2017) Hendrickson, Mitch ; Leroy, Stéphanie ; Hua,Quan ; Kaseka,Phon ; Vuthy, Voeun
    The high-grade mineral ores of the Phnom Dek region in central Cambodia have long been suspected of playing a major role in the rise of Angkor, the largest medieval polity in mainland Southeast Asia. This article presents the first comprehensive study by the Industries of Angkor Project (INDAP) to document the extent of industrial activity in this region and test this important relationship. Using a combination of intensive field survey, surface collection, and archaeometallurgical analysis, we evaluate the temporal and spatial patterning of iron production and the heterogeneity of smelting systems. The identification of at least three different smelting traditions has a significant impact on the current view that twentieth-century Kuay smelting practices extend deep into Cambodia’s history, and their relationship with Angkor in particular. More broadly, the survey demonstrates the importance of Phnom Dek as a major production zone on par with more well-known examples in Roman Europe and Africa.
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    Early Cultural Developments on the Eastern Rim of the Tibetan Plateau: Establishing a New Chronological Scheme for the Liangshan Region
    ( 2017) Hein, Anke
    Research on the eastern rim of the Tibetan Plateau is generally hampered by the lack of established chronologies. The mountains of southwest China in particular are not very well explored. As a point of intersection of various culture-geographic regions and of long-distance exchange networks, the Liangshan region in southwest Sichuan deserves special attention. Unfortunately, this area is usually excluded from studies into the prehistory of southwest China, chiefly because the archaeological material is remarkably heterogeneous and the local prehistoric cultural sequence therefore has long remained obscure. Based on the results of excavations and survey work conducted during recent decades, this article represents a first attempt to suggest a chronological scheme for southwest China and neighboring parts of Yunnan from the earliest evidence of human occupation around 3000 b.c. to the onset of large-scale Han influence around a.d. 100. Additionally, the article reconstructs processes of early cultural developments and human occupation of the southeastern rim of the Tibetan Plateau that can serve as a point of departure for future research on the prehistory of western China.
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    Editors' Note
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    Cover
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    Cover
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    Cover
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