Asian Perspectives, 2020 - Volume 59, Number 2 (Fall)
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ItemQuantifying Ritual Funerary Activity of the Late Prehistoric Southern Kanas Region (Xinjiang, China)( 2020-10-04)Identifying peaks in anthropogenic activity in a landscape is an important starting point for understanding past social dynamics in the longue durée. Through intensive surveys and remote sensing surveys of the Heiliutan Basin (Heiliutan Dacaoyuan 黑流滩大草原) in the southern Kanas Region (Kanasi 喀纳斯), Xinjiang, China, a high-resolution dataset for over 4000 years of material culture is established. The complete coverage of the area of interest allows for the quantification of ritual funerary activity based on the number of constructed monuments per century. The data show that the intensity of ritual funerary activity was very low and only left marginal traces in the landscape from the Eneolithic Age to the Late Bronze Age. During the Early Iron Age (ca. 850–200 B.C.E.), the basin became a center for construction of burials for social elites of nomadic tribes and the area was rapidly transformed into a landscape of the dead. The Late Iron Age (starting ≈200 B.C.E.) saw a decline of ritual funerary activities in the basin as it became an unimportant side scene to the cultural developments of the wider region.
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ItemAdvancing Archaeological Research of the Mongolian Altai through the Scientific Study of Deer Stones: New Discoveries from Buyant Valley( 2020-10-04)In archaeology, the Mongolian Altai remains a poorly studied region of Asia. Since 2007, systematic studies have been conducted there by a joint expedition of three universities from Mongolia and Russia. This work has provided important information for the reconstruction of the history of ancient nomadic peoples. Of particular importance is the comprehensive documentation of deer stones dated to the Arjan-Mayemir period (the first few centuries of the first millenium B.C.). These stones are carved with images that allow archaeologists to date and reconstruct traits of the corresponding material culture. On the basis of results of exploration and documentation of deer stones in Buyant Valley (near the town of Khovd) and other places in the Mongolian Altai, the author proposes a new perspective on the peculiarities of the objects presented on these stelae and their relationship with funerary and commemorative structures. Comparing the objects the images portray to equivalent archaeological findings reveals their social significance. This approach and method to studying deer stones provides important insights into the ancient material culture as well as future prospects for research on Iron Age nomadic societies in Mongolia.
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