Asian Perspectives, 2022 - Volume 61, Number 2 (Fall)
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Item Item Bioarchaeology in Central Asia: Growing from Legacies to Enhance Future Research(2022-11-30) Bullion, Elissa A; Tashmanbetova, Zhuldyz; Miller, Alicia R. VentrescaIn this article, we review the historical trajectory of bioarchaeology in Central Asia to draw attention to the importance of previous archaeological and biological anthropology research that pioneered large-scale systematic excavation and use of technology such as aerial photography.We also highlight the political and social biases of past work and how its legacy continues to shape modern practices. Our goal is to bring these dynamics to the attention of western scholars who are increasingly focusing on Central Asian samples for research. Political ideologies, especially during the Soviet period, shaped the study of populations in Central Asia, including centering ethnogenesis as an enduring focus. Current research requires careful work by scholars to contextualize human remains within social and theoretical models of the past that continue to shape everything from access to collections to the organization of departments. Advances in molecular methods have led to an increase in studies of human remains, often focusing on pan-regional social, dietary, and genetic changes. However, these studies often have small sample sizes and are thinly distributed across the vast expanse of Central Asia. We suggest that researchers conducting bioarchaeological research should concentrate on the documentation of biological and material culture at the micro-regional scale to build up models of broader social processes from the bottom-up. Finally, ethical bioarchaeology in the region requires that the contributions of Central Asian scholars past and present be acknowledged and centered, and that training, research, and publication opportunities be provided for Central Asian scholars and communities.Item Recent Rock Art Sites from West Sumatra, Indonesia(2022-11-30) Arifin, Karina; Permana, R. Cecep EkaRock art in Indonesia has mostly been reported from eastern parts of the archipelago and until ca. 1990 this was the only known area of rock art distribution. However, for the last three decades, investigation on many rock art complexes have revealed new evidence even from the western part of Sulawesi, which was previously considered to be the western boundary of rock art sites in Indonesia, as well as Kalimantan and Sumatra. Uranium-series dating obtained from East Kalimantan has revealed very early dates with the first appearing between 52,000 and 40,000 years ago. Such old dates came from rock art in the Maros caves of Sulawesi, with the oldest appearing 40,000 years ago. Unlike East Kalimantan, the newly discovered sites fromWest Sumatra Province in Sumatra provide a corpus of recent rock art. These sites reveal paintings that consist mainly of white pigment along with engraving; they substantially consist of geometric and small anthropomorphic motifs. Although many motifs bear some resemblance to other older rock art sites in Indonesia, the motifs, their contexts, and the pigment used strongly indicate a more recent age. There is also some indication that the art was produced during the ritual performance of an Islamic tariqah. This is an unusual finding since rock art is more often associated with prehistoric or traditional communities with no writing ability. This article discusses the recent appearance of the white pigment rock art from four sites, elucidates their characteristics and contexts, and compares them with other rock art in Southeast Asia and Australia. Ethnographic data was used to get a better understanding of the religious use of these caves, including the intended purpose of the paintings and their meanings along with the rituals that might have been performed during their execution.Item A Ceramic and Plant and Parasite Microfossil Record from Andarayan, Cagayan Valley, Philippines Reveals Cultigens and Human Helminthiases Spanning the Last ca. 2080 Years(2022-11-30) Horrocks, Mark; Peterson, John; Presswell, BronwenUnderstanding the timing and nature of ancient agricultural development in the Philippines is hindered by a paucity of direct evidence of crops, that is, plant remains identified to taxa. Here we present analysis of plant microfossils (pollen, phytoliths, and starch) with the addition of ceramic and parasitological analyses of archaeological samples from Andarayan, Cagayan Valley, Northern Luzon to shed light on human activity in the region. Combined with previous ceramic and alluvial records from this area, the results are consistent with a continuity of a Neolithic subsistence tradition throughout the Cagayan Valley and its tributaries for the last 4000 to 500 years. Rice (Oryza sativa), taro (Colocasia esculenta), and cf. cassava (Manihot esculenta) starch provide evidence for cultivation of these taxa in the catchment. As plant taxa vary considerably in their production and preservation of different tissue types, the study also shows the value of a combined plant microfossil approach to cast the net widest when looking for direct evidence of horticulture. The parasitological analysis, showing a range of helminth parasites of humans and their commensals (dogs, pigs, and rats), to our knowledge represents the first ancient helminth eggs reported for the Philippines.Item When is a Qin Tomb not a Qin Tomb? Cultural (De)construction in the Middle Han River Valley(2022-11-30) Chao, GlendaWhen scholars of early China use terms like “Qin” to interpret archaeological remains, they often conflate three registers of meaning: temporal, political, and cultural. This leads to problematic understandings of history and renders the agency of non-elite people invisible to historical narratives. By conducting exploratory statistical analyses including correspondence and principal component analyses on a cluster of burials from the Wangpo cemetery site in Xiangyang, Hubei, this article demonstrates that the mortuary practices of local communities in the middle Han River valley consisted of much more cultural mixture than current designations suggest. The study proposes an alternative approach to interpreting cemeteries likeWangpo that highlights cultural mixture, leading to a version of history that better incorporates the experiences of non-elites in the formation of early Chinese empire in the middle Han River region.Item A Unique Burial of the Fourth Millennium B.C.E. and the Earliest Burial Traditions in Mongolia(2022-11-30) Reichert, Susanne; Erdene-Ochir, Nasan-Ochir; Bemmann, JanNot even a dozen burials are known from Neolithic times in the area of modern-day Mongolia. This period is of utmost interest as it constitutes the transitional phase from hunter-gatherer-fisher communities during the Palaeolithic to the introduction of mobile pastoralism around 3000 B.C.E. with the Afanas’evo culture. This article presents new excavation results from a Neolithic burial at “Ölziı˘t Denzh” (internal site code KGS-11), near the center of Erdenemandal in Arkhangaı˘ Aı˘mag, Central Mongolia, and places this burial in the context of the earliest graves in Mongolia. The site consists of nearly 180 indistinct earth mound features, one of which was excavated to verify anthropogenic origin of the identified mounds. All moundswere strongly affected by burrowing animals. The excavation yielded the body of a female in an extremely crouched position. The find inventory contains two unique stone artifacts. Two radiocarbon dates put the burial at the first half of the fourth millennium B.C.E. The other 10 earliest burials from Mongolia fall into two regional groups, one in the Egiı˘n Gol valley of northern Mongolia and one in eastern Mongolia; each group displays different burial customs and grave structures. Although it remains to be corroborated by further excavations, the pure earth mounds and their associationwithin a large burial ground atÖlziı˘tDenzh seem to be unique aspects of a burial style otherwise unknown for this time and region, as the comparison with the other largely contemporary remains from Mongolia shows. This article therefore aims to draw attention to a potentially new formof burial that has not previously been recognized in the field.Item Diverse Ceramic Technologies in Neolithic Southern Vietnam: The Case of Rach Nui(2022-11-30) Sarjeant, Carmen; Piper, Philip; Nguyen, Khanh Trung Kien; Dang, Ngoc Kihn; Do, Thi Lan; Bellwood, Peter; Oxenham, MarcThe initial appearance of fine, incised, and impressed ceramics dating to the Neolithic period (4200–3000 B.P.) in southern Vietnam was associated with the emergence and spread of sedentary settlements, cereal agriculture, and new forms of material culture. However, differences existed in contemporary ceramic technologies between sites. This article presents a preliminary characterization of the pottery found at Rach Nui, a habitation site with an economy focused on vegeculture and foraging that was located at the confluence of the Vam Co Dong, Dong Nai, and Vam Co Tay rivers. The rim forms and decorations at Rach Nui are presented alongside a characterization of the tempers and clays from a small sample of sherds using scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (SEM-EDX). The Rach Nui ceramics are compared to previous studies of pottery from An Son, located upstream on the Vam Co Dong River. The results of the characterization and comparison indicate that Rach Nui potters focused on local production of a limited range of vessels compared to primarily agricultural settlements like An Son. This research on Rach Nui pottery demonstrates that by ca. 3500 B.P., the inhabitants of the various Neolithic settlements of southern Vietnam, and perhaps more broadly across Mainland Southeast Asia, had established their own social and cultural traditions that were reflected in locally specific ceramic technologies.Item Editor's Note(2022-11-30) Allard, Francis; Bellina-Price, Berenice; Field, Julie; Demandt, Michele