Archaeological Research in Asia最新文献

Shimao is among the largest settlements dating back to the late Longshan to early Bronze Age in Northern China. The Huangchengtai locality is often identified as the palace center of Shimao. The excavation of a large number of ceramic artifacts from this site presents an excellent opportunity to study Shimao's pottery technology. To understand the use of the potter's wheel and the traces left on ceramics, we conducted a comprehensive investigation of ceramics from the Huangchengtai locality. This investigation involved observing technological traces, X-ray photography, and microstructural analysis. The results revealed that the majority of the ceramic pots were made using the techniques of coiling and molding. However, a small portion of the pottery displayed techniques of throwing and turning. Interestingly, neither Shimao nor its neighbors had access to highly developed fast-wheel technology during that period. Moreover, many of the pots made on the potter's wheel in Shimao show a connection to pots found in the Longshan culture in the Central Plains. Therefore, it is likely that Shimao's fast-wheel technology originated from the Central Plains.

The mountainous region of Northern Khorasan province in northeastern Iran is rich in rock art sites including several petroglyph and rock-painting sites. Rock paintings at the Zeynekānlu- Mardkānlu rock-shelters and Bāsh Mahalle near Fāruj are newly recorded pictographic sites in the Atrak River Basin depicting zoomorphic and geometric imagery. While the panel at Zeynekānlu shows several mountain goats possibly in a net hunting scene, the nearby Mardkānlu rock-shelters as well as the rock paintings at Bāsh Mahalle depict simple signs and geometric shapes that are difficult to interpret. On stylistic grounds, the Zeynekānlu pictograms appear to date to the Late Chalcolithic (c. 3500 BCE) or Early Bronze Age (c.3000 BCE) and the Mardkānlu and Bāsh Mahalle pictograms seem to relate to the Late Iron Age (c. 6th-2nd cent. BCE), possibly with later additions in late antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (c. 3rd-8th centuries CE). Whatever date they are assigned, the rock paintings of the Upper Atrak valley, predominantly located in foothill and highland zones, can be linked to pastoral models of subsistence in the past.

This paper offers an insight into the characteristics of local pottery production and exchange at Artaxata, modern Armenia, from the 2nd century BCE to 1st century CE, drawing from stratigraphic, typological and technological evidence. The pottery assemblage under study derives from the Armenian-German Artaxata Project, a collaboration between the Armenian Academy of Sciences and University of Münster since 2018. The excavation of various structures of Hill XIII and its adjacent plain, with a particular focus on Complexes A and B, reveals a change in the ceramic repertoire. A large proportion of fine ware, notably red-slipped ware of the Eastern Sigillata A (ESA) style and other tableware types, was recovered in the early phase (2nd to 1st century BCE). While these fine ware types continue to be found in the later phase (1st century BCE to 1st century CE), a greater quantity of coarse ware of utilitarian purpose such as storage jars and cooking vessels also appears. A few turquoise glazed vessels that are similar to the Parthian or Mesopotamian style were also recovered, but it is challenging to establish their date as they were mostly found in the topsoil. Such patterning can be explained by the shift in the function of Complexes A and B from serving as public buildings, possibly a sanctuary, during the early phase to domestic houses in the later phase.

Despite these changes in the ceramic consumption patterns, this diverse range of ware types was mostly produced locally at Artaxata, based on the results of our technological study of 53 samples using thin-section petrography and scanning electron microscopy energy dispersive spectrometry (SEM-EDS). Although they were made locally, different types of fine, coarse and turquoise glazed ware were made in different workshops, each workshop having their own recipes and technologies. In particular, the ESA-styled red-slipped ware was exclusively made in a single workshop over an extended period of time, suggesting a high level of specialisation existed in local pottery production. Such characterisation reflects the status of Artaxata as the capital of the Artaxiad Kingdom, highlighting its ability to control of the production of certain products, especially the ones that are considered to be of high quality and cosmopolitan.

In recent years more than 20 new Palaeolithic sites have been discovered on the Caucasian coast of the Caspian Sea, in Dagestan, including several multilayer stratified sites. Broad chronological range archaeological and geological studies have allowed the description of stone industries from the beginning of the Lower Palaeolithic to the beginning of the Upper Palaeolithic, covering almost the entire Pleistocene. Preliminary geological, palaeomagnetic and biostratigraphic data suggest the age of the oldest stage of hominin occupation of the region is recorded in the lower layer of the Rubas-1 site which is tentatively correlated with the Late Akchagylian era of the Caspian Sea (MIS 76–64, ∼2.2–1.8 Ma). Lower Palaeolithic layers are identified and described in Darvagchay-1 (∼0.6 Ma), Darvagzhay-zaliv-1 (∼0.6 Ma) and Darvagchay-zaliv-4 (0.4–0.3 Ma). The Middle Palaeolithic is recorded in several cultural layers, all of similar age (∼130–110 ka), at the Rubas-1 and Darvagchay river valley sites. The youngest episode of human Palaeolithic occupation of Dagestan coastal area is identified at the Tinit-1 site, with a lithic assemblage of the Terminal Middle Palaeolithic. Our work add to the few existing studies and suggest that, like other parts of the Caucasus, the region was occupied repeatedly during the Palaeolithic, ever since the first appearance of ancient hominins in the region about 2 Ma ago.

Previous research has reported that Mumun settlements (ca. 1500–300 BCE) in southeastern Korea consisted of multiple house clusters that were basal social units. This study evaluates this claim by inspecting intra-settlement dwelling distribution in sites with more than 40 pithouses. Ripley's K-function and the density-based spatial clustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) method were implemented to identify pithouse clusters at different spatial scales. Our examination shows that the settlements contained small, primary clusters of ca. 10–40 people, which merged into larger, secondary clusters of fewer than 60 people. Large settlements consisted of multiple secondary clusters. We infer that people aggregated to meet the labor demand of paddy rice cultivation, while simultaneously managing the scalar stress by dividing communities into smaller subgroups. This study suggests that emergent social complexity during the Mumun period relied on factional competition and cooperation and was dependent on the effective integration of discrete social units.

This study reports on the preliminary results of an ethnoarchaeological project and presents direct evidence for the use of log, that is, circular domestic installations. It, therefore, helps to better identify, understand and interpret such archaeological evidence. This study is based on ethnoarchaeological research in rural households in the Iranian Sistanian highlands. The conceptual framework of this research is based on ethnography and archaeology, which includes theoretical and methodological aspects of comparing ethnographic and archaeological data. The work is based in Bent; a small region located about 20 km northwest of Nikshahr in southcentral Sistan, Iran. Research focuses on various aspects of traditional building styles to identify and interpret the nature and development of the architecture of the ancient sedentary community in this part of Iran. Fieldwork includes archaeological surveys, interviews and direct ethnographic observations to document the log, utilizing circular domestic architecture to examine these activities in archaeological assemblages in the area.

During the last ten years, intense archaeological activities have taken place both in the city of Kabul (Afghanistan) and on its outskirts. They presently highlight the development of this region from the 1st century CE, and especially the 5th century CE, onwards under the influence of important Buddhist monasteries. This presence was already known from excavations done during the 1930s, but in recent years, excavations on the Bala Hissar and the remains of Tepe Narenj and Qol-e-Tut, located on the slopes of Koh-e-Zanbourak (“the mountain of the small wasp”) south of the Kabul citadel, have revived the question of occupation. The establishment of a chronology based on clear criteria coming from new research on pottery allows us to rethink the first step of the occupation of Kabul and the Islamization of this region.

As the first provenance study focusing on Xiongnu nobles and their followers, this study analyzed eleven human and four animal remains from the Gol Mod 2 cemetery in western Mongolia for strontium isotope ratios. The results suggest that two of the three nobles had lived in the Khanuy valley for an extended period of time, and one had lived elsewhere but was buried at the same cemetery as were the other nobles. These Xiongnu nobles might have migrated in the grassland, but the Khanuy valley and the Gol Mod 2 site surely played an irreplaceable role for them, providing valuable information for the investigation of the Xiongnu political center. A number of the followers did not grow up locally but were chosen to follow the nobles and lived in or close to the valley during their later lives. Furthermore, strontium isotope values and dietary features together confirmed that the human skeleton in G2T189 belonged to the tomb owner rather than a buried intruder. This study is a reminder that some traditional methods used to determine the local strontium isotopic range for a site are not suitable when the studied human individuals did not live a sedentary lifestyle or their social roles evidently varied.

We reconstruct the early developmental sequence of microblade technology in North China through comprehensive analysis of lithic remains dating from ∼27–20 cal. ka BP. Lithic analysis reveals that the earliest microblade technology emerged in North China at ∼27–26 cal. ka BP. The earliest microblades exhibit precocious features and coexisted with blade assemblages. The close technical affinity between microblade and blade assemblages suggests that the earliest microblade technology developed from blade technology which was likely introduced from Mongolia and Siberia around ∼27–26 cal. ka BP. Microblade technology developed in standardized ways after 26 cal. ka BP, suggesting that people in North China increased their reliance on reliable composite tools to acquire resources while practicing mobile lifeways. This trend is similar to the technological strategy pursued across broader regions of Northeast Asia to cope with climatic changes associated with the Last Glacial Maximum, yet the specific characteristics of microblade technology in North China reflect an adaptation to the local environment.

The highlands of Central Asia played a crucial role in cultural development across the later Holocene, serving to foster the diffusion of cultural elements by late prehistoric populations and to support the trans-Eurasian exchange routes of the historic Silk Road. However, the early chronology of human occupation in many areas of Inner Asia – particularly the high Pamir Mountains – remains poorly understood. Intensive archaeological study of this area by Soviet archaeologists first began between 1950 and 1970, at which time scholars theorized that the earliest human occupation in the high valleys dates to the Final Pleistocene. To explore early human history in this key region of cultural transmission, a joint expedition conducted new excavations at the archaeological site of Kurteke, confirming that there was human presence in the area as far back as 14 ka BP, and that it persisted discontinuously until the Bronze Age (ca. 4000BP). We applied a multidisciplinary archaeological and paleoenvironmental approach to investigate early human activity at the site, including lithic analysis, absolute dating, and zooarchaeological and archaeobotanical analyses.