Archaeological Research in Asia最新文献

In the second half of the last century, numerous excavations were carried out in the Southern Caucasus, particularly in Georgia. However, most of the sites excavated were given a cultural attribution based on the material found, in the absence of absolute radiocarbon dating. Errors concerning the cultural attribution of sites appear to have occurred, as revealed by our re-excavation (2012–2014) of the Paravani-2 rock shelter, which was initially considered to be a pre-Ceramic Neolithic site. Most of the occupation of this site in fact dates from the end of the Upper Palaeolithic, between the very beginning of the post-LGM deglaciation and the Bølling-Allerød warming. Situated at an altitude of over 2000 m in the immediate vicinity of the only obsidian source in the region, the Chikiani volcano, the lithic industry and faunal remains found in this shelter provide valuable information on the culture, subsistence and mobility of the late Pleistocene human groups in the Caucasus.

Animals often acquire ritual and symbolic significance when incorporated into mortuary contexts in human society. In Bronze Age China, horses and chariots were frequently interred together as teams in separate pits associated with burials, forming integral components of the mortuary rituals among elites in settled states. Although examples are scarce, the mortuary use of horses and chariots was also observed in pastoral societies during the first millennium BCE. The examination of complete horse skeletons from an elite tomb at Majiayuan, a large burial site in northwestern China dating back to the 4th-3rd centuries BCE, indicates the integration of four adult, male, tall horses with an elaborate wooden chariot. Alongside the combination of four horse skulls and one chariot, which likely represents an alternative form of the team, these practices were exclusive to a select group of high-ranking individuals at Majiayuan. The selection, arrangement, and interment of horses and chariots followed the examples of four-horse-one-chariot sets in contemporary settled states, while also retaining pastoral society's practice of interring animal skulls and hooves in burials. This blend of emulation from settled states and retention of pastoral mortuary traditions reflects part of a ritualized set of mortuary practices at Majiayuan, highlighting the social importance attributed to horses in pastoral societies and their symbolic connections to centers of political power.

This article examines the archaeological detection strategy undertaken during the TYRAS project - Tell Ya'moun Regional Archaeological Survey - and its suitability for identifying megalithic structures. The study area covers 288 km² of the Northern Jordanian Plateau, a geographical region consisting of diverse landscapes of desert, plains and mountains. Our investigation uses an interdisciplinary methodology that combines satellite imagery examination (mainly HEXAGON images), spatial analysis, archaeological fieldwork, and photogrammetric techniques. The image analysis results combined with the terrestrial survey have made it possible to identify new, hitherto unknown megaliths. Eight new megalithic structures spread over four new sites have been discovered, forming groups of associated megaliths or located in isolation, contributing to a better understanding of the megalithic phenomenon of the region and its geostrategic location in the landscape. However, we have also detected some problematic issues that we will explore here, such as the accuracy of our work routine in detecting positive and negative results, together with the need for fieldwork to test such approaches.

The Maotang site in the northeastern Nanyang Basin, central China, encompasses both the Qujialing (5300–4500 BP) and Shijiahe (4500–4200 BP) cultures. Based on the flotation of soil samples collected at the site, micromorphological identification confirmed the presence of three crop seeds, rice (Oryza sativa), foxtail millet (Setaria italica) and broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum), as well as 18 types of non–crop seeds, along with some fruits and nuts. The analysis indicated that during the Qujialing–Shijiahe Cultural period, the Maotang site functioned as a agricultural settlement cultivating a combination of rice and millet. Within this mixed farming, rice and foxtail millet dominated, while broomcorn millet occupied a relatively lower position. Notably, during the Qujialing Culture period, rice had greater significance than foxtail millet, and after entering the Shijiahe Culture period, rice and foxtail millet became nearly equally important. Based on relevant studies on paleoenvironment, agricultural history and archaeological culture, this article argues that cultural diffusion has had a significant impact on the evolution of crop structure during the Neolithic Nanyang Basin. Specifically, the northward expansion of the Qujialing Culture notably established a predominance of rice in the mixed cultivation system, which was more prevalent in the southwestern area of the basin. However, during the Shijiahe Culture period, due to the decline of the Shijiahe Culture's influence and the flourishing of archaeological cultures from the Central Plain, the position of foxtail millet increased obviously, and it nearly had the equal importance as rice in the northeastern area of the Nanyang basin. This study provides the latest archaeobotanical data from the transitional area of the central China, contributing to a further exploration on the relationship between the crop structure evolution and archaeological culture diffusion in the Neolithic period.

An archaeological reconnaissance and survey with a site census was carried out in the Neem ka Thana tehsil Rajasthan using the village-to-village survey method in the years 2020–2022. The study aimed to revisit the already documented sites, identify and document new sites, and salvage cultural material from destroyed or damaged sites due to increasing agricultural and development activities. Neem ka Thana tehsil has been previously explored and these explorations have reported archaeological sites affiliated to the Palaeolithic, Chalcolithic, Early Historic, Historic, and Medieval periods, with the majority of sites (88) belonging to the Chalcolithic Ganeshwar-Jodhpura Culture Complex (GJCC). This heavy concentration of sites in such a small geographical area raises questions about the distribution pattern and nature of the sites. The current study discusses the results of the survey along with new insights about the cultural affiliations of both, the newly discovered and previously reported sites and contributes to the existing literature by raising questions on the nature and identity of the sites reported and recommends further study. Several new ideas with regard to the nature of the archaeological material in the region such as possible association with the Rangmahal Culture and iron ore are also discussed. The study also contributes to the conversation on methodology during the process of exploration and salvage archaeology.

The available archaeological materials indicate that the hunter-gatherers with microblade technology were widespread across the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau. The limited chronological evidence and characteristics of the cultural remains suggest that most of the archaeological remains were temporary camps used for short periods of time. Our findings at the Dongguotan site indicate that hunter-gatherers established a camp site for relatively longer-term occupation on the northeastern Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau during the Middle Holocene, shedding light on the intensive use of this area.

On the Mongolian plateau, the period between the collapse of the Kitan Empire (c. 1125 CE) and the rise of the Mongol empire (1206 CE) is still poorly understood. Although events leading up to the rise of Chinggis Khan's initial Mongol state are recorded in a number of historical sources, these accounts often look backwards over decades or even centuries from the perspective of a mature empire already made. Archaeology provides one path towards a better understanding of the circumstances, people, and polities contemporaneous with the collapse of the Kitan Empire and emergence of the Jurchen Jin and Mongol states. The eastern reaches of the Mongolian plateau is a region that can speak to these events based on the material record of archaeology. The Mongol-Israeli-American Archaeological Project has surveyed and excavated along Kitan frontier ‘long-walls’ in the northeast of Mongolia since 2018. One of our fortuitous discoveries was a well-furnished burial interred within the enclosure wall of a Kitan era frontier fortress. Analysis of this grave reveals that it likely postdates the use of the fortress and provides important information about local communities, their networks, and organization during the 12th century CE.

The article presents the results of the research conducted at the megalithic monument located in the Burabay district of the Akmola region of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The monument received the name “Taskamal” (from the Kazakh language “Stone fortress”) from local residents and tourists due to its monumentality and characteristic masonry of granite blocks. The research focused on recording the architecture of the monument and understanding its cultural and chronological affiliation. The megalithic structure with a complex layout inscribed into the terrain. The study provides data on its key architectural elements - a long megalithic wall made of granite boulders, an embankment central platform, two ramps, an external platform, stone steles, relief images, quarries and a workshop. Analogies of individual elements of the complex, the construction techniques and its archaeological features, including depiction of a laying bull, allow us to preliminary date the object to the 2nd millennium BCE. We believe that the complex could be associated with the gold mining activities in Burabay during the Late Bronze Age and possibly was a place of worship for the miners.

The emergence of the first urban centers in the Mongolian steppe coincided with the establishment of the Uyghur Khaganate during the mid-eighth century CE. The capital city Karabalgasun was a large urban space characterized by a sprawl of workshops, domestic households, and market areas frequented by indigenous and foreign residents, mobile pastoralists and travelling traders. Zooarchaeological analyses of faunas recovered from the fortified administrative citadel where high-status residences were located reveal Uyghur elites self-provisioned their households with animal products sourced from their own herds rather than extracting choice cuts from other producers. Carbon and nitrogen stable isotope analyses suggest that livestock accessed by elites were not only tethered to specific pastures, a strategy that would have signalled elite consolidation of wealth in livestock as well as providing a ready supply of meat and milk for the citadel inhabitants, but also included animals that grazed more extensively in line with mobile pastoralist practice and perhaps procured from more distant regions in the form of tribute or gifts by high-status visitors of the Uyghur elite. Altogether, the juxtoposition of livestock herding and animal product consumption with Manichaeism religious protocols calling for the absention from meat consumption suggests Uyghur elites attached great importance to maintaining their pastoralist heritage.

Bioarchaeological investigations have the potential to identify biological and cultural resilience among those who have been historically underrepresented in dominant narratives, which in turn is intricately tied to both resistance and inequality in past lived experience. In particular, the lived experiences of women in past mobile-pastoral societies are oft-ignored in favor of their male (“nomadic warrior”) counterparts. To that end, this investigation examines forms of resilience based on two targeted studies from mobile-pastoralist contexts located in Inner Asia, focusing on individuals osteologically determined to be biological females. Two discrete areas of inquiry are considered: firstly, the study of traumatic cranial injury among individuals from the Late Bronze Age site of Jinggouzi, Inner Mongolia in northern China and secondly, an individual with bilateral hip dysplasia dating to the Early Iron Age from the north Gobi Desert at Baga Gazaryn Chuluu, Mongolia. Their stories, when told from this perspective, serve as a fulcrum to consider the capacity for and the nature of human resilience as reflected in a biocultural consideration of lived experience among early steppe women.