Asian Perspectives, 2024 - Volume 63, Number 2 (Fall)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/10125/113096
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Item type: Item , Item type: Item , In Memoriam DAMIAN H. EVANS (22 SEPTEMBER 1975 – 12 SEPTEMBER 2023)(2024-12-10) Hendrickson, MitchItem type: Item , Maritime Linkages between the Han Dynasty and Parthian Empire: Evidence from Unearthed Persian Pottery(2024-12-10) Xiong, Zhaoming; Liu, Yaqing; Kuang, Guirong; Cherian, P.J.; LI, QinghuiThis study describes a Persian pottery jug unearthed from Hepu, a well-known port for foreign trade in China during the Han Dynasty. The jug is the earliest and only Persian object dated to the Han Dynasty discovered in China. It thus serves as one of the most significant physical pieces of evidence for the investigation of trade between the Han Dynasty and Southeast Asia, South Asia, and even West Asia. This article takes the Persian jug as its starting point, and combines archaeological data from the same period unearthed from other port sites in Southeast Asia and South Asia, as well as Chinese and foreign historical documents, to recover the sea route via which the Persian jug moved from West Asia through South and Southeast Asia to Hepu, to confirm that the Han Dynasty had established indirect or direct maritime links with the Parthian Empire by the second century A.D. at the latest. This conclusion is supported with the discovery of glass and bronze cymbals from Western Asian and Mediterranean regions in Hepu and Panyu, the latter of which served as the largest foreign goods distribution center in the southern coastal area of China.Item type: Item , Item type: Item , Japanese Oracle Bone Divinations during the Yayoi to Heian Periods: A Review of Studies of the Last Seventy Years(2024-12-10) Shen, Jie; Brunson, Katherine; Flad, RowanAlthough often thought to be mostly relevant to Bronze Age China, oracle bone divination also has a rich history in Japan, primarily documented through literature and ethnographic records. In recent decades, the discovery of oracle bones spanning from the Early Yayoi (1000–400 B.C.) to Heian (A.D. 794–1185) periods has opened new avenues for research in pyro-osteomancy. These archaeological findings provide fresh perspectives on the social and cultural influences on oracle bone divination in Japan and East Asia more broadly. In this study, we review the historical, ethnographic, and archaeological studies of oracle bone divination in Japan, offering a comprehensive overview of divination practices and their broader significance.Item type: Item , Ricardo’s Law of Comparative Advantage in Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Early Historic Mainland Southeast Asian Metallurgy: Copper-base Metal Production, Exchange, and Consumption Behaviours at Khao Sai On, Nil Kham Haeng, Non Pa Wai, Phromthin Tai, Sab Champa, and Tha Kae in Central Thailand(2024-12-10) Pryce, T.O.; Cadet, Mélissa; Tomxzyk, Céline; Veninan, Pira, Lertcharnrit, Thanik; Ciarla, Roberto; Rispoli, FiorellaSince its late 1970s to early 1980s discovery, the Khao Wong Prachan Valley (KWPV) of central Thailand has been assumed to have been a major supplier of copper in Bronze Age, Iron Age, and Early Historic Southeast Asia. KWPV was the first regional metal production system to be characterised by lead isotope (LI) analysis in the late 2000s, revealing a coherent signature easily distinguished from subsequent analyses of production systems at Phu Lon (northern Thailand) and the Vilabouly Complex (central Laos). Despite KWPV’s scale of production, its LI signature has scarcely been detected at Bronze Age metal consumption sites in nearby northeast Thailand and not at all in Iron Age assemblages. We study copper production and copper/bronze consumption behaviours of Iron Age and Early Historic sites in KWPV’s immediate vicinity: Khao Sai On, Phromthin Tai, Tha Kae, and Sab Champa. Khao Sai On and Phromthin Tai production signatures are highly consistent with those previously established, whilst the uranogenic tendency at Tha Kae explains outliers fromBronze Age Non Pa Wai and Nil Kham Haeng. Analysis of consumption assemblages reveals little to no consistency with local production signatures. This tendency was tested with LI Iron Age and Early Historic datasets for Ban Khu Muang, Ban Mai Chaimongkol, Ban Pong Manao, and Ban Pong Takhob. The pattern is clear: central Thai populations imported copper/bronze, potentially from the Vilabouly Complex or production loci with closely comparable signatures. We examine this counterintuitive behaviour inductively using Ricardo’s Law of Comparative Advantage combined with a technological appreciation of the relatively low productivity of central Thai primary copper production. This suggests central Thailand’s unattached copper producers freely exchanged copper for exotic goods (bronze, glass, semi-precious stone), with potentially poor terms of exchange, from their desire to participate in wider regional trends in conspicuous consumption.Item type: Item , Beyond ‘Community Craft Specialisation’ in Prehistoric Mainland Southeast Asian Metallurgy: Copper Smelting Behaviours at Khao Sai On, Nil Kham Haeng, Non Pa Wai, Phromthin Tai, and Tha Kae in Central Thailand(2024-12-10) Pryce, T.O.; Cadet, Mélissa; Veninan, Pira, Lertcharnrit, Thanik; Ciarla, Roberto; Rispoli, Fiorella; Iizuka, YoshiyukiArchaeology in Lopburi Province has been under long-term development since the 1970s and has led to the discovery of KhaoWang Prachan Valley (KWPV) as one of three currently known primary copper production (mining and smelting) sites in Southeast Asia. However, since the 1980s, archaeometallurgical research has focused mainly on the two sites of Non PaWai (NPW) and Nil Kham Haeng (NKH), dated from the Neolithic (ca. 1800 B.C.) to Early Iron Age (ca. 2300 B.C.), that are known to have large sequences of archaeological material linked to copper production. Although other sites with evidence of copper production are known in this restricted geographical area, their assemblages have not previously been subjected to archaeometric study. This article discusses the results of archaeometallurgical analyses of slags from Khao Sai On (KSO), Tha Kae (TK), and Phromthin Tai (PTT) with sequences dated during the Middle-Late Iron Age. Slag analysis reveals that different smelting behaviours were occurring at these sites. One heterogeneous smelting behaviour at Khao Sai On was probably linked to a smaller community practicing metallurgy amongst other activities, whilst Phromthin Tai shows more homogeneous production linked to a larger settlement. Although these three sites are located within 26 km of each other, smelters were probably exploiting different local copper deposits around KWPV. The results seem to support a community-based type of production where production behaviours are linked to local geology, technical competence, and intensity of exploitation.Item type: Item , Returning to Makekur: Re-evaluating the Occupational Sequence of the Early-Middle Lapita Site of Makekur (FOH), Arawe Islands, Papua New Guinea(2024-12-10) Hogg, Nicholas W.S.The site of Makekur, located in the Arawe Islands of Papua New Guinea, has for some years been considered unique amongst the sites of the Lapita distribution. Representing one of the earliest Lapita sites in the region to have evidence of long-term continuing occupation from the Early through to at least the Middle Periods, the radiocarbon and pottery records of Makekur form a key foundation for understanding not just the lives of the Lapita people that called it home, but also the emergence of the Lapita Cultural Complex and the changes it underwent over time and space.However, a new chronology proposed by Specht and Gosden (2019) has raised doubts as to the validity of these original interpretations. This study uses Bayesian statistical analysis and stylistic analysis to re-assess the radiocarbon chronology, form and decoration of pottery assemblages from Makekur. It looks to understand whether a multi-phase occupation spanning the Early to Middle Periods can be identified within both the radiocarbon and ceramic records, and in so doing evaluates the reliability of the stylistic attributes used to differentiate deposits of differing ages. The study concludes that Makekur was occupied during the Early Period between 3274 and 2803 cal. B.P. and continued into the Middle Period starting between 3059 and 2889 cal. B.P., followed by slightly later occupational events in the same period between 2998 and 2855 cal. B.P. and approximately 2709–1402 cal. B.P. Finally, it further concludes that pottery of the Early and Middle Periodswas stylistically unique, and clearly delineated between deposits of differing ages.Item type: Item , covers 1-4(2024-12-10)Item type: Item , Table of Contents(2024-12-10)