INDO-PACIFIC PREHISTORY ASSOCIATION

ABSTRACTS FOR THE HANOI CONFERENCE, SESSION C1 to C21

These abstracts are listed by session code, then by in alphabetical order by first author surname

SESSION C1

C1 Fuller, Dorian

Institute of Archaeology, London

RECENT ARCHAEOBOTANICAL ADVANCES IN THE STUDY OF RICE DOMESTICATION, PRE-DOMESTICATION CULTIVATION AND ARABLE SYSTEMS.

Major leaps forward in understanding rice both in genetics and archaeology have taken place in the past decade or so—with the publication of full draft genomes for indica and japonica rice on the one hand, and with the spread of systematic flotation and increased recovery of spikelet bases and other rice remains on early sites in China, India and Southeast Asia. This presentation reviews archaeobotanical evidence that can contribute to documenting the beginnings and early development of rice agriculture, and current evidence in both China and India. In particular, we will consider distinctions between the potential of a ‘hard’ domestication trait—non-shattering spikelet bases—against softer ‘semi-domestication’ traits including grain size, awn hairs and phytolith morphologies. Archaeobotanical evidence allows us to document the gradual evolutionary process of domestication through rice spikelet bases, grain size change, phytolith morphometrics and change in weed flora. but also allows us to suggest the ongoing juxtaposition of wild/weedy rices with cultivated populations, thus allowing for the ongoing introgression between cultivated and wild populations. The archaeobotanical evidence is then considered together with a synthesis of our current understanding of the reticulate framework of rice phylogeny. This requires a hypothesis of contact-induced hybridization for the early development of indica rices in northern India, perhaps ca. 2000 BC, and suggests 2 or 3 dispersal events southwards from China.

C1 Lu, Tracey L-D

Anthropology Department, The Chinese University of Hong Kong

FOOD OR FUEL? RETHINKING RICE EXPLOITATION IN PREHISTORIC SOUTH CHINA

When remains of grass plants are discovered in archaeological deposits, they are usually interpreted as food residues of human societies in the past. However, based on findings from harvesting and cultivation experiments, ethnographic data, and phytolith analysis, it is argued that rice remains found in some archaeological deposits in South China may not be remains of food, but are likely remains of fuel instead. It is further hypothesized that prehistoric human beings in South China might have initially exploited wild rice as fuel before harvesting the grass for food. Further, given the extreme small amount of grains produced by wild rice, and the recent archaeological discoveries in the lower Yangtze River Valley, the hypothesis of wild rice being cultivated due to the storability of its seeds is also questioned.

C1 Gilligan, Ian

School of Archaeology and Anthropology, The Australian National University

THE NEOLITHIC IN AUSTRALIA: WHY NOT?

Material and behavioural elements associated with the term Neolithic are almost completely absent in Australia. Among the few exceptions are the domesticated dog (originating in northern China around 10,000 years ago and reaching Australia by 3,500 years ago as the dingo), together with some evidence for increasing manipulation and control of wild resources (mainly in southeastern Australia). While it has been suggested that the latter developments represent independent local trends toward more complex societies that perhaps might have led to an Australian Neolithic were they not ‘nipped in the bud’ by the arrival of Europeans, the Neolithic in Australia is notable essentially for its non-existence. Particularly striking is the absence of any agricultural practices, despite the availability of suitable potential plant and animal domesticates. Also not present is another one of the original (though generally overlooked) definitive attributes of the Neolithic: the weaving of textile fibres for clothing. An unconventional model is presented, advocating a significant formative role for clothing (especially textiles), which suggests that a typical absence of clothing may provide a clue as to why the Neolithic did not develop in Australia.

C1 Hill, R.D.

Department of History and School of Biological Sciences, The University of Hong Kong

THE CULTIVATION OF PERENNIAL RICE, AN EARLY PHASE IN SOUTHEAST ASIAN AGRICULTURE?

Domesticated rice, Oryza sativa L., though a perennial, has long been cultivated as an annual. This has led a number of commentators to misinterpret the historical record. The older view that rice was domesticated around the Bay of Bengal and adjoining parts of mainland Southeast Asia has been replaced by competing views. One is that rice was domesticated in that region and the other argues for a once-for-all domestication in the Yangzi valley. Botanical considerations point clearly to the retention of perennial characteristics, notably lack of shattering of the mature panicles, while archaeological and historical evidences suggest cultivation with more than a single harvest from an initial planting – the practice of ratooning. Evidence is reviewed briefly for China and more extensively for Southeast Asia. Modern field evidence is used to support the notion that ratooning was probably more widespread in the past and that this practice may represent an early phase in the history of rice agriculture in Southeast Asia as it does in China. Some possible implications of this are briefly reviewed.

C1 Ikawa-Smith, Fumiko

Department of Anthropology, McGill University, Canada

WHAT IS ‘THE NEOLITHIC’ IN THE JAPANESE ARCHIPELAGO?

The words ‘Neolithic’ and ‘Aneolithic’ have sometimes been used by biological anthropologists in Japan describing the cultural contexts of skeletal remains, but seldom by archaeologists, who preferred Japan-specific terms like ‘Jomon’, ‘Yayoi’, etc. In the Japanese Archipelago, partially ground stone tools appear during the Late Pleistocene around 35,000 years ago, and the Jomon Period begins with the addition of pottery to the diversified tool assemblages of Final Pleistocene around 16,500 years ago. Sedentism is suggested by many Early Jomon settlements by about 6000 years ago, when the manipulation of some plant species may also have begun. Even though rice was known in Jomon Japan, the way of life based on its cultivation marks the beginning of the Yayoi period, which is now dated to about 1000 BC in Kyushu. Soon afterwards, however, Yayoi farmers acquired iron tools and ritual bronzes. Otherwise, the concept of ‘Neolithic Revolution’ would have been applicable, even with the early radiometric dates, to the Yayoi adoption of rice agriculture, as the Yayoi society went through a rapid transformation towards state formation during the few centuries BC and AD.

C1 Blench, Roger

Kay Williamson Educational Foundation, Cambridge

WAS THERE AN AUSTROASIATIC PRESENCE IN ISLAND SE ASIA PRIOR TO THE AUSTRONESIAN EXPANSION?

No Austroasiatic languages are spoken in island SE Asia today, although we know from the Chamic languages of Vietnam and the SA Huynh culture that contact was extensive between the mainland and the islands. However, the diversity of Neolithic materials in various island sites has led some archaeologists to question the Austronesian ‘Neolithic package’ model, without advancing a positive alternative. This paper suggests that Austroasiatic speakers had reached the islands of SE Asia (Borneo?) prior to the AB expansion and that this can be detected in both the archaeology, the languages and the synchronic material culture. The paper will focus in part on the transfer of taro cultivation as part of this process.

C1 van Driem, George

Himalayan Languages Project, Leiden University

A HOMELAND FOR AUSTROASIATIC: ANSWERS FROM LINGUISTIC PALAEONTOLOGY, POPULATION GENETICS AND ARCHAEOLOGY

Several disciplines furnish arguments relevant to determining the possible whereabouts of the Austroasiatic homeland. In the past, scholars have sought to situate the Austroasiatic Urheimat as far west as the Indus valley and as far east as the Yangtze delta. The arguments of linguistic palaeontology will be combined with the emergent population genetic data and the findings of archaeobotany to determine a most probable geographical location of the ancestral Proto-Austroasiatic homeland. In assessing the empirical evidence, what archaeology does not tell us is shown to be just as epistemologically pertinent to our understanding of the issue as what archaeology does tell us.

C1 Oliveira, Nuno Vasco

State Secretariat of Culture, Government of Timor-Leste; ANU Visiting Fellow

PAST PLANT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS: AN ARCHAEOBOTANICAL PERSPECTIVE FROM TIMOR-LESTE

The history of plant management and agricultural origins in Timor and the wider region has been mostly investigated through more indirect proxies, such as animal domesticates, pottery and pollen records. The archaeological and archaeobotanical project conducted in Timor-Leste between 2004 and 2008 aimed at investigating early plant food management and the introduction of agriculture, using charred plant remains from archaeological sites as a direct line of evidence. The results obtained confirm the absence of rice or millets in any of the excavated assemblages, suggesting that none of these crops were introduced to Timor-Leste with the first pottery or animal domesticates. They have arrived only in a later period, possibly within the last 2000-1500 years, when the caves investigated were no longer being systematically used for habitation purposes. The macro- and microbotanical analysis undertaken also suggests that a range of fruits and tubers have been in use in Timor since the early- to mid-Holocene, and that plant exploitation probably goes back as far as ca. 40.000 years before present.

C1 Andjarwati Sri Sajekti

Muséum national d’histoire naturelle, Paris

AN INDICATION OF ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE BASED ON PALYNOLOGICAL RESEARCH IN TELAGA CEBONG, DIENG, CENTRAL JAVA, INDONESIA.

The study of the ancient vegetation of Quaternary Period in Java still needs further research in order to gain a better understanding about minor climatic and environment changes, especially after and before the big even of Last Glacial Period (LGP) which constitute a major factor of the global climate cycles. This phenomenon impacted on the global environment and subsistence aspect on other system such as flora, fauna and human. The vivant were able to survive by adapting to this condition with the altered features in local and global ecosystem. The vegetation is the resistant object to record these phenomena, which brunt to global alteration environment cycle. This research explores the preservation of the pollen during the Holocene Period using samples from the Dieng Plateau area in the Central of Java. Biomass burning and resulting fire regimes are major drivers of vegetation changes and the ecosystem dynamics. Although there is unbalance frequencies between the charcoal and the ash based on the stratigraphical record, the present of charcoal and ash suggest there were fire activities. This phenomenon raises the question whether human activity could cause the fire, although there is also a possibility of natural causes.

Big quantities of charcoal on level 2 correlated with the high quantities of pollen record and suggest human activities on the pre-agricultural such as burning of semi arid vegetation for extension of land extension that could lead to the deforestation. Also, the Monsoon gave long drier season as the collapse condition on the lowland makes human cannot conduct cultivation thus force the human to leave the area and moved to highland. The purpose of this research is to understand the climatic changes and the impact of the anthropic activities to the environment based on quaternary vegetation record from Dieng highland. The vegetation from Telaga Cebong proposes a correlation of human cultivation activities in Dieng Plateau around 2540 BP. The presence of Poaceae in the highland is an indication of deforestation which was done by human to fulfill their subsistence. Aside from natural event (such as fire caused by the long drier season and the volcanic explosion), human activity was one of the major factors that influenced environmental change.

C1 Anggraeni

School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University

THE DEVELOPMENT OF PREHISTORIC SETTLEMENT ON THE KARAMA RIVER, WEST SULAWESI

The result of survey and excavations along the Karama River supports the role of this river as one of important arterial routes for human migration and interaction since the Neolithic period onward. This has been demonstrated by the establishment of Austronesian characteristics of Neolithic settlement at Minanga Sipakko and Kamassi, Kalumpang district, about 90 km upstream, and currently by the existence of pre-Neolithic through Paleometallic sites closer to the river mouth. Such evidence suggest that the sequence and the development of occupation among those sites was quite complex. These problems, which relate to explanations for the direction of movement to the Kalumpang sites (whether via the river mouth or inland) will be discussed based on the characteristics of the finds and geomorphology of the region.

C1 Lape, Peter

University of Washington, USA

Tanudirjo, Daud

Gadjah Mada University, Indonesia

THE EARLY “NEOLITHIC” ON PULAU AY, INDONESIA

This paper presents new data from several recently excavated early agricultural sites on the island of Pulau Ay, in eastern Indonesia. Implications for this new data on theories of migration and networks are considered.

C1 Simanjuntak, Truman

Center for Prehistoric and Austronesian Studies, Indonesia

RESEARCH PROGRESS ON AUSTRONESIAN STUDIES IN INDONESIA

This paper discusses new discoveries about early Austronesian-speaking people in Indonesia. Intensive researches at the Neolithic sites in various islands give a better understanding on the dispersal of the early Austronesian speakers, including the characteristics of their material culture. The dates obtained from a number of sites reveal that Sulawesi was the oldest occupation island (dates back to 3500-4000 BP) before they moved to various other islands in the archipelago. Here, the early Austronesian speakers preferred to settle along the river side or places near water sources, by exploiting the available natural sources.

There seem to be two modes of Austronesian occupation at the time: occupying caves or rock shelters in karstic areas, which led to process of interaction with the indiginous population; or staying on open uninhabited spaces. The most common material culture remains are pottery (red-slipped and cordmarked wares), polished stone adzes (and axes in eastern Indonesia) and bracelets. The presence of early Austronesians in the archipelago is part of their global diaspora, particularly within the Southeast Asia-Pacific regions.

C1 Sergusheva, Lena

Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnology, Far Eastern Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok, Russia

FIRST CULTIVATORS OF RUSSIAN FAR EAST: RESULTS OF ARCHEOBOTANICAL STUDY

Archaeobotanical investigations were conducted for a series of Neolithic sites of the south of Russian Far East (Primorye Territory) dated in the range 5200-3300 BP. According them broomcorn millet (Panicum miliaceum) and perilla (Perilla frutescens) were the first cultural plants for this region. They were brought by migrants from the neighbor zone of the modern North-Eastern China. It seems that this migration process began after cooling of climate (about 5200 BP). Migratory groups went on Primorye Territory by the different ways and brought the different species of millet. The agriculture products were not the staple foodstuffs of them. The significance of plant production for human subsistence systems grew up gradually during the Late Neolith period and might become one of the basic component of subsistence systems by the Palaeometal Age (about 3000 BP).

C1 Kuzmin, Yaroslav V.

Institute of Geology & Mineralogy, Siberian Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia

THE NEOLITHIC OF THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST AND NEIGHBOURING EAST ASIA: DEFINITION, CHRONOLOGY, AND ORIGINS

Today there is no universal definition of the term “Neolithic” in world archaeology. Coined by John Lubbock in the 1860s, it included first of all the presence of polished tools (and to some extent pottery;see Lubbock 1878: 16). In the 1920s, the meaning of “Neolithic” became almost synonymous with the presence of productive economy (livestock breeding and cultivation of plants), after V. Gordon Child’s introduction of the “Neolithic Revolution” concept. However, as progress in the study of prehistoric archaeology and economy was made since the 1940s, it became clear that the Childean model of the Neolithic can be applied only to Europe and to some extent to the Middle East (here the term “pre-pottery Neolithic” was introduced to define the productive economy prior to the invention of pottery). In other parts of the Old World productive economy and pottery didn’t appear simultaneously, and this has caused significant difficulty in determining the meaning of the Neolithic, especially in East Asia with the oldest pottery complexes. The most conventional understanding of the Neolithic epoch in East Asia (mainly China, Japan, Korea, and the southern part of the Russian Far East) is that it comprises the pottery-containing cultural complexes (see works by Chester S. Chard, Gina L. Barnes and others). Today, the earliest pottery in East Asia is dated to ca. 15,000–13,500 BP. Agriculture (in the form of early millet and rice cultivation) appeared around 9000 BP, and in some regions significantly later. As for the agricultural component of the East Asian Neolithic, it appeared in Central China (millet) and in South China (rice) at around the same time, ca. 9000 BP. Millet cultivation spread mainly toward the north (Northern and Northeastern China, Japan, Korea, and the Russian Far East), while rice horticulture was brought to the south, including Southeast Asia, and later on to the north (Korea and Japan).

Chronologically, the beginning of the Neolithic in East Asia coincides with the gradual warming in the Late Glacial, although there is no direct correspondence between the warm climatic episode(s) and the invention of pottery. It seems that pottery-making emerged in several places in continental (southern China and the Amur River basin of the Russian Far East) and insular (Japanese Archipelago) regions of East Asia approximately at the same time, after ca. 15,000 BP. The spread of pottery from the original core areas was a complex process, with significant delays in several regions of East Asia and neighbouring Southeast Asia. The spatiotemporal patterns of this process need more research, and the simple diffusion of knowledge for making the clay vessels from the place of origin to the adjacent territories contradicts current knowledge. The spread of the Neolithic in East Asia and neighbouring territories therefore was a quite “non-linear” process in time and space. The Jomon of Japan is one of the clearest examples of elaborate material culture and affluent economy without significant (if any) agriculture prior to the advent of rice cultivation about 2700–2500 BP.

It is clear that concepts of the Neolithic and Neolithisation require substantial revision in terms of their meaning. While pottery remains the most universal phenomenon associated with the Neolithic stage (with some reservations; for example, for Northwestern North America and Australia where pottery was absent before European contact), agriculture is not common in many early Neolithic complexes, especially in East Asia where the manufacture of utilitarian clay vessels definitely preceded plant cultivation by several millennia. Two major trajectories of the Neolithic can be distinguished in the Old World: 1) Levantine-European, with agriculture as the main criterion of the Neolithic; and 2) East Asian, with pottery as the first indicator of the new cultural epoch following the Palaeolithic. There are many “intermediate” archaeological complexes which do not belong to these general categories.

C1 Vostretsov, Yuri E.

Gelman, Eugenia.I.:

Far Eastern Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences

ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES AND ADOPTION OF AGRICULTURE IN COASTAL AREA OF THE SEA OF JAPAN DURING MIDDLE HOLOCENE.

Having considered four time intervals which correspond to turning points in cultural evolution of the population of Primorye and neighboring regions of the Sea of Japan basin.1. - 5400–5200 BP; 2. - 4700-4300 BP; 3. - 3600 – 3200 BP; 4. - 2500-2200 BP. All the intervals were connected with climate cooling and fall of the sea level, and coincide with emergence of new cultural traditions and adaptations. The first and forth are connected with two stages in penetration of agriculture into coastal Primorye.

We suggest explanatory model of spreading agriculture in coastal area of the Sea of Japan during the Middle Holocene in environmental context. 1. agriculture spread to new territories after and as a result of some ecological stresses, which destroyed resource bases and subsistence systems and led to depopulation of the territory; 2. agriculture spread to free territories quickly and had a wavy and pulsatory character; 3. emergence of agriculture was connected with appearance of new population with a different, more stable cultural tradition of agriculture.

C1 Tsydenova, Natalia V.

Institute of Mongolian, Buddhist and Tibetan Studies, Ulan-Ude, Russia

ON THE ISSUE OF TRANSITION TO THE NEOLITH IN ZABAIKAL’YE

Transition to the Neolith and the emergence of the earliest centers of pottery is one of the most discussed problems in the modern stone age - archaeology (Vetrov, 1995, 2008; Jal and others, 2001). The formation of "primary" Neolith is dated within the limits of 11-15 thousand years ago. Labely the monuments of upper paleolithic (or mesolithic) traditions of making stone tools, existing alongside with the earliest ceramics were found and actively investigated on the territory of north-east of Central Asia - in Buryatia, Far East, China, Japan. In this context the material of the site Krasnaya Gorka dates as the earliest stage of Neolith on the analogy of the sites of Ust-karengskaya culture on the river Vitim is of particular interest. The earliest neolithic levels of Ust-Karenga were dated within the limits of 11-12 thousand years by the use of the methods of absolute-dating [Aksenov, Vetrov and others, 2000]. However, the collection of Krasnaya Gorka looks somewhat different in comparison with the materials of the Upper Vitim - one of the centers of the pottery emergence in Asia. Among artifacts there are also wedge-cores and bifaces. The similarity is also observed in the technology of knapping, which represent a cycle similar to that reconstructed by V.M. Vetrov for Ust-karengsky culture [Vetrov, 1995]. Blanks for the cores with bifacial underworking and those prepared out of small nodule of suitable raw material, which received a wedge shape by the use of lateral spalls are presented in the collection. Transverse burins with lateral retouch widle presented in Ust-karengsky sites were found there only for the last years. However, the lack ornamentation makes the pottery different from the Ust-karengsky vessels. Another difference from the Ust-karengsky monuments is the presence of tools on bifaces. The stone implements of the site are similar to the material of such paleolithic sites on the Lower Vitim as Invalidnoe III, Kovrizhka I and II, Bryzgunia I dated up to 11190 ± 390 years ago. The ceramics was not found there. First and foremost there are prismatic and wedge-shape cores and bifases [Tetenkin, Ineshin, 2005, p. 96-104]. Analogys for the part of stone implements more remote geographically than those of Vitimsky are traced in the early Neolithic levels of Ust-Menja - 1 (7,8), and Studenoye - 1 (8,9) [Konstantinov, 1994, Fig. 52-53, Fig. 69-70]. But the pottery has some differences. All this material is of undoubted interest both in the light of recent data on Neolithic sites dated more than 10000 ago in Asia on the whole and the geographically near ones [Aksenov, Vetrov, and others, 2000; Lapshina, 2000; Jahl, and others, 2001; Kuzmin, 2005].

C1 JIA, Peter Weiming

University of Sydney

INITIAL RESULT FROM THE EXCAVATION OF THE LUANZAGANGZI SITE, XINJIANG, CHINA

The excavation at the Luanzagangzi site (1300BC-900BC) has achieved promising results. First, the material culture has been clearly identified and scientifically dated which is a significant improvement in cultural identification and chronology in local regional archaeology. Second, the analysis of charred seeds recovered by flotation indicates that early farming occurred during the Bronze Age on the northern Tianshan slope of Zhungerer Basin. The variety of crop seeds found during flotation shows this farming was a form of multi-cropping which possibly contained wheat, millet and barley. As a parallel reference, crop seeds were also found at Wupu, Harmi, and Xiaohe cemetery dating around 2000 BC. These crops came into Xinjiang from different areas during the early Bronze Age; wheat and barley were possibly brought here from further west in Central Asia and West Asia. Through the transitional zone of the Zhunggerer Basin in Xinjiang these crops were brought to the upper Yellow River and central China. Millet followed the same route in the opposite direction, from central China to Xinjiang and further west. This reflects the early connections between east and west. However, the crop seeds found at Luanzagangzi are the first scientifically identified domestic plants in this region. Finally, the results of starch residue analysis suggests that besides the crops, stone tools were used for processing a variety of plants. Based on initial starch identifications, some starch granules on the stone tools are possibly herbal medicines. The starch residue analysis suggests that this method should be encouraged in future archaeological fieldwork.

C1 Takamiya, Hiroto

Sapporo University

AGRICULTURAL ORIGINS ON THE ISLANDS OF OKINAWA, JAPAN

Beginning of agriculture is one of the most puzzling themes in the disciplines of anthropology and archaeology. According to Price and Gebauer, more than thirty hypotheses have been proposed in order to explain agriculture origins. At the same time, the spread of agriculture has become as puzzling theme as the agriculture origins. If foraging way of life is easier than farming, why hunter-gatherers accepted farming? The islands of Okinawa were inhabited, most likely, by foragers from ca.6500 BP or ca.4000 BP for several thousand years. Then, by the 12th century AD, intensive farming system was established on the islands. This paper will discuss when the food production began on the islands. The paper also will investigate how and why new economic system emerged there. The likely answer appears to be demic diffusion.

C1 Hung, Hsiao-chun

Academia Sinica, Taipei & Australian National University, Canberra

THE FIRST SETTLEMENT OF REMOTE OCEANIA: LUZON TO THE MARIANAS

While all of the other languages of Micronesia belong to the Oceanic subgroup of Malayo-Polynesian, the indigenous languages Chamorro in the Marianas and Palauan in the Palau islands, appear to belong to Western Malayo-Polynesian. A number of archaeologists have suggested that there were close cultural relations between the Marianas and the Island Southeast Asian Neolithic, such as western Sulawesi, the Sulu archipelago, Masbate, and the Cagayan Valley shell middens in northern Luzon. This paper examined available carbon-14 dates, and details of pottery decoration and shell artifacts, and suggested that many similar cultural traits were shared between the Neolithic cultures of southern Taiwan, Batanes, Luzon, Masbate and the Marianas. The settlement of the Marianas from the northern Philippines would have involved an open ocean crossing of about 2600 kilometres.

C1 Trejaut, Jean

Lee, Chien-Liang

Yen, Ju-Chen

Loo, Jun-Hun

Lin, Marie 

Molecular Anthropology and Transfusion Medicine Research Laboratory Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei

MITOCHONDRIAL, Y CHROMOSOME AND AN ANCIENT DNA MOLECULAR GENETIC ANALYSIS IN TAIWAN AND ISLAND SOUTHEAST ASIA.

Abstract: Mitochondrial DNA (mrDNA) and non recombining Y chromosome (NRY) are uni-parentally inherited from mother to daughter or from father to son respectively. Their polymorphism has initially been studied to demonstrate the out of Africa hypothesis. Here, to better reflect the complex dynamics of populations in insular Southeast Asia, mtDNA information (lineages) obtained from HVS-I & II genotyping among 1400 individuals from island Southeast Asia, Taiwan and Fujian was supplemented with the analysis of relevant coding region polymorphism. Secondly, lineages that best represented a Clade (a branch of the genetic tree) in the generic phylogeny of the whole data set were sequenced using complete genomic mtDNA sequencing. Finally, these complete mtDNA sequences were used to construct a most parsimonious tree and constitute the most up to date data set available on Island Southeast Asia and Taiwan to date. This maternal heritage has brought up new insights into the evolutionary history of Taiwan and has strong implications in assessing the cultural and demographic relations of Taiwan with neighboring regions.

To obtain a more objective and balanced genetic point of view, NRY chromosome was used. This analysis was achieved using slowly evolving biallelic Y-single nucleotide polymorphism (Y-SNP). This was actually the first time that such a high resolution technique was used for ISEA and Taiwan regions. As above, the technique was applied to determine affinities (macro analysis) between Taiwanese populations (mountain tribes, plain tribes, Minnan and Hakka), the Philippines and Indonesia. Moreover, sixteen Y- short tandem repeats (Y-STR) were also used as they allow deeper insight (micro analysis) into the relationship between individual of a same region. A better definition of the relational, demographic and emigrational components that constitute the make up of the present day Taiwanese peoples was obtained with outstanding findings on the routes of migration that occurred during the settlement of insular Asia.

Also included in the project was the construction of a state of the art "ancient human DNA" laboratory. The study has brought up new insights on the past genetic structure of the plain tribe people of Taiwan. We showed that Han/Fujian affinity was present among people who lived at the Nan-Ke (Nankuanli) site. One possibility is that an important part of this genetic sharing could have been brought up by mainland southeast Asians (MSEA) who would have settled in Taiwan between 2000 and 4000 yrs ago (or more). Further study, is now undertaken to demonstrate this still questionable "ancient cohabitation" hypothesis between MSEA and plain tribes peoples. These results will be discussed using a conceptual approach. 

C1 Matsumura, Hirofumi

Sapporo Medical University, Japan

Marc F. Oxenham, Peter Bellwood

School of Archaeology and Anthropology, ANU

Nguyen Kim Thuy, Nguyen Lan Cuong, Nguyen Kim Dung

Institute of Archaeology, Hanoi

POPULATION HISTORY OF MAINLAND SOUTHEAST ASIA: VIEWED FROM HUMAN REMAINS OF MAN BAC SITE IN NORTHERN VIETNAM.

Southeast Asia is thought to have been occupied by indigenous people, who exchanged genes with immigrants from North/East Asia leading to the formation of present-day Southeast Asians. This model is linked with the dispersal of farming populations by archaeological data, and also supported by a wide range of genetic and linguistic data. To address this scenario of population history in mainland Southeast Asia using prehistoric human skeletal remains, the authors have focused on the Man Bac site, which is located in Yen Mo district, Ninh Binh province, northern Vietnam. Our latest excavation project in 2004 and 2007 revealed 76 inhumation burials associated with a considerable number of material objects. The temporal context of this site was determined to be Neolithic (c. 3,800-3,500 years BP), although this site so far lacks any evidence for rice farming. In terms of the local cultural chronology, however, the material displays many characteristics close to the Phung Nguyen culture, associated further inland with rice farming customs.

Our multivariate analyses using cranial and dental metrics made large scale comparisons of data from Man Bac and other Asian and Pacific groups, disclosing the existence of large intra-group levels of variation within the Man Bac site. Some individuals resemble the people of the later Dong Son period and modern Vietnamese, while others had close affinity to the earlier Bac Son and Da But cultural series, morphologically affiliated with the early Holocene Hoabinhians. This finding suggests an initial appearance of immigrants in northern Vietnam, biologically related to population stocks in northern or eastern peripheral East Asian areas, including southern China, followed by admixture with pre-existing populations. The Man Bac skeletons may be key specimens to support the ‘Two-Layer’ hypothesis in discussions pertaining to the population history of Southeast Asia.

C1 Nguyen Kim Dung

Hanoi, Vietnam

THE AN SON AND MAN BAC NEOLITHIC SITES: A CASE STUDY OF EARLY AGRICULTURE IN VIETNAM PREHISTORY.

Though located very far from each other and in different enviroments, current excavations have revealed very rich assemblages of pottery, stone tools, plant and animal remains from An Son (Long An Province, lower Mekong basin) and Man Bac (Ninh Binh Province, lower Red basin). The paper will present our information from these two excavations, at An Son in 1997 and 2009, and at Man Bac from 20042007. Both sites are dated between 3500 and 3900 BP. The finds include many in situ burials, mostly in extented supine positions with faces upwards. Grave goods include pottery, stone tools, white and green jade onarments, and shell beads. The material and cultural evidence from these sites suggests that the evidence for agriculture, pottery and jade manufacture, marine resource exploitation and trade are all excellent markers for the development of the Neolithic of Vietnam.

C1 Watanabe, Shinya

Waseda University

A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF LITHIC WORKSHOP SITES BETWEEN THE NORTHERN COASTS AND THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS IN VIET NAM

The Neolithic cultures that appeared in broad areas of the Indochina peninsula after 2000 BCE show certain common features, including polished stone axes or adzes, decorated ceramics and ornaments made from shells or semi-precious stones. Among these objects, a great variety of polished stone axes or adzes have attracted much attention. Yet few archaeologists have carried out technological studies on these types of stone tools. Some lithic workshop sites recently discovered in the Tay Nguyen area in the Central Highlands in Viet Nam show that a highly developed flaking technique to produce stone adzes was employed. This technique is quite different from the sawing or string-cutting found in the coastal area of northern Viet Nam. Therefore, several styles of stone tool production can be recognised in the Indochina region. This new discovery of a divergent practice of stone tool production in the Central Highlands calls for a re-assesment of the privileging by scholars of coastal Viet Nam systems. Neolithic cultures in the Indo China peninsula should best be approached by contrasting their two very different environments, namely, the coasts and plains, and the highlands and mountain areas.

SESSION C2

C2 Ono, Rintaro

O'Connor, Sue

Archaeology and Natural History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University

PELAGIC FISH EXPLOITATION DURING THE LATE PLEISTOCENE TO MIDDLE HOLOCENE IN EAST TIMOR (EFFICIENCY OF VERTEBRA ANALYSIS)

In Southeast Asia, there has been only limited evidence for aquatic resource use prior to the mid Holocene because sea levels were deeply depressed during the terminal Pleistocene to early Holocene, and the coast far removed from the sites now located along the modern shore. An exception is found in parts of Wallacea where the offshore profile drops steeply to the continental shelf. The north coast of East Timor is one such region, and the recent excavation at Jerimalai shelter has produced abundant remains of marine shellfish and fish dated back to 42,000 cal B.P. This is the oldest evidence of Pleistocene marine exploitation in Island Southeast Asia. Furthermore, our fish bone analysis reveals that the exploitation of pelagic fish such as tuna was practiced since the initial occupation around 42,000 cal B.P. and the number (MNI) of pelagic fish is almost equal to that of inshore fish during the late Pleistocene, while the number and importance of inshore fish dramatically increases during the early to middle Holocene. Such evidence, coupled with the appearance of fish hooks in East Timor in the terminal Pleistocene, indicates the early adoption of advanced fishing technologies. Of significance is the fact that 76 % of the identified fish bones from Jerimalai are vertebra; usually regarded as non-diagnostic and overlooked for analysis. We stress here the importance of analysis of fish vertebra for reconstructing prehistoric fishing strategies.

C2 Herrera, Michael James B.

Archaeological Studies Program, University of the Philippines

Rubio, Raquel O.

Natural Sciences Research Institute, University of the Philippines

RECOVERY OF ANCIENT MITOCHONDRIAL DNA SEQUENCES AND THE INTRASPECIFIC PHYLOGENEITC AFFINITIES OF THE DOMESTIC SUS IN THE PHILIPPINES.

The application of population genetics to the study of the antiquity of domesticated pigs in the Philippines opens new avenues for an improved understanding of Philippine prehistory. Pig genetic data can provide information on the timing and directionality of human mediated translocations of pigs through the archipelago. When coupled with ancient DNA (aDNA) studies, the shallow time-depth evolutionary history of pigs can tell us about the husbandry practices in the Philippines and the genetic consequences of exploitation of this important food resource by past Filipinos. Pig hair samples from across the Philippine archipelago as well as several archaeological pig bones were processed for DNA analysis. The work reveals that aDNA work on samples from tropical regions is burdened with technical difficulties, ranging from degraded samples and contamination to PCR inhibition by co-extracted products. Nevertheless, good progress has already been made, and the combination of population genetics and aDNA is likely to develop into a powerful method of constructing a better understanding of Philippine prehistory.

C2 Ochoa, Janine

Robles, Emil

Archaeological Studies Progam, University of the Philippines

PALAWAN PALAEOZOOLOGY AND PALAEOGEOGRAPHY: FAUNAL AND SUBSISTENCE CHANGE FROM THE LGM TO THE LATE HOLOCENE

Ille Cave site in Northern Palawan, Philippines has produced tens of thousands of vertebrate remains from well-stratified cultural contexts spanning more than 14,000 years. The assemblage has provided a valuable opportunity to interpret human subsistence activities, animal resource use and anthropogenic impact on the environment across time. The assemblage presents new taxonomic accounts of carnivores and cervids in the Terminal Pleistocene, particularly of deer and tiger. It also presents evidence for a clear shift in hunting focus during the middle Holocene when deer becomes rare in the assemblage and pig becomes the main large mammal prey. Two species of cervid are abundant in the deepest deposits in the Terminal Pleistocene, but they become increasingly rare in the later horizons and both are now extinct on the main island. Shifting subsistence practices and extinction events are attributed to changes in the local ecology of the island, which are driven by regional climate and palaeogeographic change. Geographic reconstructions of Palawan Island based on present day topography and bathymetry show a dramatic decrease in Palawan land area since the Last Glacial Maximum. Habitat constraints and change in vegetative cover due to reduction of land area and changes in precipitation patterns put considerable pressure on the tiger and deer populations that Palawan held, and human predation likely exacerbated the rarity of these species. Eventually, the combined environmental and anthropogenic pressures led to the extinction of these large mammals.

C2 Storey, Alice

University of New England, Australia

PHYLOGENETIC RECONSTRUCTIONS AND THE POST-CONTACT HISTORY OF CHICKENS IN THE PACIFIC

Chicken mtDNA amplified from archaeological remains can be used to reconstruct some aspects of prehistoric migration and interaction in the Pacific. However, due to the effects of taphonomy and human/animal interactions in the past, samples are not always available for ancient DNA analyses. It is then very tempting to use modern chicken samples in an attempt to supplement ancient DNA information. In this talk I will discuss the known and potential movements of chicken in the Pacific from the first sailing of Magellan, through the Manila galleon trade routes, chickens and diseases introduced by Cook and the introduction of European stocks into the Pacific by aid agencies such as the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organization and the detrimental effects this will have on using modern chicken mtDNA as a way to trace relationships both within and beyond the Pacific in prehistory.

C2 Hawkins, Stuart

Department of Archaeology and Natural History, College of Asia-Pacific, The Australian National University, Canberra, ACT 0200, Australia

White, Arthur W.

Worthy, Arthur W.

School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of New South Wales, Sydney

Bedford, Stuart

Department of Archaeology and Natural History, College of Asia-Pacific, The Australian National University, Canberra

Spriggs, Matthew

School of Archaeology and Anthropology, College of Arts and Social Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra

LAPITA EXPLOITATION OF THE VANUATU MEIOLANIID (LAND TURTLE) 3100-2760 B.P.

The Vanuatu archipelago was first settled by people associated with the Lapita cultural complex as shown by a number of sites (Bedford 2006) dating from as early as 3100 B.P. They brought a transportable subsistence system which included domestic animals and crops. However, when they arrived they also encountered endemic terrestrial mega fauna for the first time, including an extinct meiolaniid (Giant horned land turtle) currently under study (White et al in prep). Their response was to exploit these large vulnerable land turtles, providing an example of the interaction between cultural behaviour and an island ecological system.

Using various zooarchaeological techniques we show that the meiolaniid was exploited extensively within the Vanuatu archipelago during the Lapita phase, while at Teouma it was exploited intensively during the first few hundred years of settlement, up to the immediately post-Lapita settlement phase, 2900-2760 B.P. This raises issues of the complex interaction between the Lapita people and their environment, as it appears that increasingly intensive settlement led to meiolaniid extinction around this time.

C2 Amphansri, Anusorn

Department of Anthropology, Silkaporn University, Bangkok

HUNTING ADAPTATIONS OF THE HIGHLAND PEOPLES OF NORTHERN THAILAND IN THE LATE PLEISTOCENE AND EARLY HOLOCENE: ZOOARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE FROM THE BAN RAI AND THAM LOD ROCKSHELTERS

This paper utilizes zooarchaeological evidence to investigate prehistoric highland hunting strategies of the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene inhabitants of Ban Rai and Thom Lod Rockshelters, the Pang Mapha district of Mae Hong Son Province, north-western Thailand. Although in close geographic proximity, the two sites are located in very different topographic localities that influenced the types of landscape, environment and fauna present at the end of the Pleistocene. The study suggests that the human inhabitants of Ban Rai and Tham Lod employed very different hunting strategies to compensate for the differences in the availability of local faunas. The study demonstrates that complexity in human hunting techniques has a deep antiquity within the region.

C2 Piper, Philip

Archaeological Studies Program, University of the Philippines

EVIDENCE OF ABSENCE OR ABSENCE OF EVIDENCE? WHERE ARE ALL THE DOMESTIC ANIMALS IN THE NEOLITHIC OF SOUTHEAST ASIA

In recent years the challenge of identifying the origins of domesticated and commensal taxa in mainland Southeast Asia and their subsequent translocation across Island Southeast Asia, Australasia and on to the Pacific has been championed by modern and ancient DNA analyses and traditional zooarchaeological research has taken a backstage role. This has resulted from the assumption that within regions that have native wild pig populations it is difficult to identify introduced, managed pigs within the archaeological record. This, and the lack of systematic zoorchaeological research in large parts of mainland and Island Southeast Asia has left the region devoid of any archaeological evidence of the occurrences of domestic animals. This paper demonstrates how traditional zooarchaeological research can be used to identify ancient domestic animal populations in the archaeological record and help find and target samples for genetic and other technical, focussed research projects. It also emphasizes the need to study the entire faunal assemblages recovered from archaeological sites and not only the domesticated animals to understand the dynamics driving human behavioural change from hunting and gathering to animal management.

C2 Cucchi, Thomas

Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Unité Mixte de Recherche 7209, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, ‘‘Archéozoologie, Archéobotanique: Sociétés, Pratiques et Environnements,’’ Département ‘‘Ecologie et Gestion de la Biodiversité ’’ Paris, France

Dobney, Keith

Department of Archaeology, University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom

PAST HUMAN TRANSLOCATION OF PIGS IN ISLAND SOUTHEAST ASIA: A DENTAL GEOMORPHOMETRIC APPROACH

Pigs have strong economic, social and religious values for tribal societies of Island South East Asia and have been translocated throughout the islands, leading to a complex current distribution shaped by past and present societies. Human dispersal of animals is therefore not only relevant for understanding the behaviour of prehistoric societies from Island South East Asia and Oceania but also the chronological context and the species involved, but the processes are still poorly understood. This paper reveals the contribution of new technics in Zooarchaeology (Geometric Morphometric and Palaeogenetic) to decipher the species involved in this human dispersal and to provide indirect clues to human movements in relation to the Austronesian migration. The comparative study of the genus Sus osteoarchaeological remains from the key site of Liang Bua (Flores) with extant taxa (6 species) from Island South East Asia provided evidence for the antiquity of human translocations of the Sulawesi warty pigs (Sus celebensis) to the lesser Sunda islands and Mollucas as well as the dispersal of domestic pigs (Sus scrofa) throughout the Sunda islands toward Remote Oceania. The latter is linked to the Neolithic migration of the Lapita peoples, the ancestors of the modern Polynesians. This discovery provides a new migration path for the Austronesian diaspora which complements the classic models based on modern genetics and linguistic.

C2 Basilia, Pauline

Lim, Eleanor

Archaeological Studies Program, University of the Philippines

AN INVESTIGATION OF TAPHONOMIC EFFECTS ON TRIDACNA SP. MICROSTRUCTURES

Microscopy of artifacts made from marine shells is highly problematic due to the lack of taphonomic studies of marine shell microstructural decay in archaeological deposits. The study utilizes experimental archaeology to investigate some of the possible taphonomic effects at the microstructural level on the calcium carbonate lattices of Tridacna sp., a raw material commonly used in the production of prehistoric adzes and several types of ornament. Using Scanning Electron Microscopy and Atomic Force Microscopy, shell specimens and shell beads recovered from Ille Cave, El Nido, Palawan are examined and compared. Results shed light on future microscopic investigations on the shell manufacturing industry with a database distinguishing human alterations and natural taphonomic processes.

C2 Voen, Vuthy

Department of Archaeology and Prehistory, Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, Cambodia

ZOOARCHAEOLOGICAL STUDY OF PHUM SNAY A PREHISTORIC CEMETERY IN NORTHWESTERN CAMBODIA

The faunal assemblage recovered from Phum Snay comprises two different components; grave goods associated with human burials and other fragments originating from settlement activities. Studies of taxonomic representation, age profiling, body part representation and treatment of the animal bones are integrated to demonstrate the differences between the deliberate positioning of grave offerings and the animal remains associated with phases of settlement occupation. Taphonomic analyses of the fish remains incorporated into graves demonstrate that these offerings had been cooked, possibly as part of a ritual prior to their incorporation into the burials. The diversity of different mammal, reptile and fish taxa from settlement contexts suggests a broad-spectrum foraging strategy that incorporated a range of different environments with somewhat of a focus on forest-adapted species.

C2 Takahashi, Ryohei

Graduate University for Advanced Studies

Ishiguro, Naotaka

Gifu University

Anezaki, Tomoko

Gunma Prefectural Museum of Natural History

Matsui, Akira

Nara National Institute for Cultural Properties

Hongo, Hitomi

Graduate University for Advanced Studies

DID DOMESTIC PIGS REACH PREHISTORIC RYUKYU ISLANDS?

We analyzed bones of the genus Sus excavated from Noguni shell midden (Okinawa main island, Japan, 7000-6600 bp) by using morphological and phylogenetic methods. The Sus samples from Noguni were compared to Sus remains from later sites in Okinawa (ranging from 5500 to 1700 bp) as well as to the modern Ryukyu wild boar. Based on the length of lower 3rd molar, Sus from Noguni are clearly smaller than those from other sites in Okinawa. Also, lower 3rd molars from Noguni showed different size range from those of modern Ryukyu wild boar (Sus scrofa riukiuanus). The analysis of mitochondrial DNA D-Loop region indicated that Sus from Noguni belong to a different phylogenetic lineage from modern Ryukyu wild boar, although our data are fragmentary. Based on the morphological and phylogenetic analysis, we examine two possible hypotheses: First, Noguni's Sus might have descended from a type of Ryukyu wild boar that had been extinct. Second, the Sus from Noguni were introduced to Okinawa islands from elsewhere.

C2 Larson, Greger

Department of Archaeology, Durham University

A RIGOROUS EVALUATION OF THE OUT OF TAIWAN HYPOTHESIS THROUGH AN ANALYSIS OF PIG, DOG, AND CHICKEN PHYLOGEOGRAPHY.

The establishment of agricultural economies based upon domestic animals began independently in many parts of the world and led to both increases in population size and the migration of cultures carrying domestic plants and animals. The precise circumstances of the earliest phases of these events remain mysterious given their antiquity and the fact that subsequent waves of migrants have often replaced the first. Through the use of ancient DNA derived from pig (Sus scrofa) samples from six East Asian archaeological sites along the Yellow River valley, and through an analysis of more than 1,500 modern pig samples (including 151 novel specimens), we provide evidence for the long-term genetic continuity between modern and ancient East Asian domestic pigs. We also discuss the evidence supporting the case for three additional independent domestications of indigenous wild boar populations: one in India, and two in peninsular Southeast Asia. Though the ancestors of pigs derived from one of the Southeast Asian populations have since been replaced by domestic pigs derived from Chinese wild boar, they remain vital to inhabitants of Island Southeast Asia (ISEA) and the Pacific. Lastly, we demonstrate the existence of numerous populations of genetically distinct and widespread wild boar populations that have not contributed maternal genetic material to modern domestic stocks. These results provide the most complete picture yet of pig evolution and domestication in East Asia, and generate testable hypotheses regarding the development and spread of early farmers in the Far East.

C2 Rabett, Ryan

McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge

EARLY HUMAN OCCUPATION OF NINH BINH PROVINCE, NORTHERN VIETNAM: EVIDENCE FROM TRANG AN PARK.

The end of the Pleistocene in Southeast Asia was marked by pronounced coastal inundation. By the mid-Holocene three-quarters of the previously exposed Sunda Shelf was submerged beneath the South China Sea. These facts are well-known; much less well understood, though, is the way that early human groups responded to these changes, how they adapted their economies and settlement, and the pace at which these adjustments occurred. Between 14,600 and 14,300 cal. BP sea levels rose by an estimated 5.3 m per 100 years and continued at an average exceeding 1 m per 100 years until c.11,000 cal. BP and the early Holocene. These are changes that would have been visible at the human generational scale, and in Southeast Asia they provide an ideal opportunity to study the way people coped with major environmental refurbishment as inland habitats became maritime. Collaborative exploratory investigation of the archaeological record from Ninh20Binh province, in northern Vietnam, has provided a rare opportunity to establish a detailed sequence of early human activity during this dramatic deglacial phase. The current paper describes the results of the second year (2008) of excavation at the cave site of Hang Boi in Tràng An park, and of insights that are emerging into short-term adaptations to environmental change across the Pleistocene-Holocene transition.

SESSION C3

C3 Halcrow, Siân

Tayles, Nancy

Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology, University of Otago

BIOARCHAEOLOGY OF PREHISTORIC MAINLAND SOUTHEAST ASIA

Social identity is fundamental to the structure of societies and culture. As a specialisation that incorporates both the biological and social sciences, bioarchaeology is particularly well placed to contribute to the understanding of social identities in the past. This paper reviews recent bioarchaeological research in prehistoric Southeast Asia that is advancing our understanding of social change with agricultural development in the region, with a focus on recent work on infants and children from Thai sites.

C3 Willis, Anna

Oxenham, Marc

School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University, Australian National University

NEOLITHIC BURIAL PRACTICES AT AN SƠN IN SOUTHERN VIETNAM

This paper discusses the preliminary analysis of the mortuary treatment of individuals from the Neolithic site of An Sơn (~4000 – 3000 BP), located in Long An Province, Southern Vietnam. 31 individuals from the 2004, 2007 and 2009 excavations are included in this study. Differences in burial treatment, including grave inclusions, are examined in order to explore any differentiation in burial practices based on age, sex, social status or any other social construction of identity. For instance, how did these individuals socially identify themselves and others and how was this portrayed in death? These results will be compared to other contemporaneously relevant sites, for example Man Bac, to contextualise the funerary practices and explore potential regional and temporal continuity or variability. Preliminary results suggest that children as young as a few weeks old were given funerary treatment and grave goods. The discussion of these findings will contribute to our knowledge of Neolithic mortuary practices in Southern Vietnam.

C3 Harris, Nathaniel J

Tayles, Nancy

Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

DISPOSING OF THE DEAD: THE APPLICATION OF ANTHROPOLOGIE DE TERRAIN TO BAN NON WAT, THAILAND

Anthropologie de terrain, also called 'field anthropology', is a taphonomically based methodology used to reconstruct past funerary practices. Upon careful examination of skeletal elements within a grave it is possible to determine: whether a burial was primary in nature or occurred over multiple episodes; the original position of the cadaver within the grave; and whether the body was inhumed, wrapped, or placed in a coffin. Differences in funerary treatment between individuals could be influenced by a number of social factors including sex, age, and social status. By examining these differences it can therefore be possible to make inferences about the social organisation of past societies.

This paper describes the results of such an application of field anthropology to Bronze Age burials from the site of Ban Non Wat, Thailand. This time period encompasses six mortuary phases and comparisons will be made both within and between these phases based on sex, age, and burial goods. A potential outcome of examining the funerary practices of Bronze Age Ban Non Wat is the identification of preferential treatment based on social identity, which in turn may add to the current debate over social organisation in Bronze Age Thailand.

C3 Sukliang, Somthawin

Silpakorn University, Bangkok

CHILD MORTUARY RITUAL IN IRON AGE SOUTHEAST ASIA (THAILAND)

There is a lack of archaeological research in Thailand on childhood, particularly on social aspects of childhood. In response to this deficiency in research, this study attempts to assess child mortuary ritual to understand the social system in the Iron Age. This research compares the child mortuary ritual of the prehistoric Thai sites of Ban Wang Hai and Noen U-Loke, and the social status of the adults (parents) that may be affecting mortuary ritual. Mortuary ritual is investigated through excavation records, including grave goods and burial place. This paper describes similarities and differences in child mortuary ritual between the two sites and discusses these findings in relation to social status in the Iron Age.

C3 Bui, Thi Mai

Girard, Michel

Centre d'Etudes Prehistoire Antiquite Moyen Age, France

Nguyen Thi Mai Huong

The Institute of Archaeology, Hanoi

THE CONTRIBUTION OF PALYNOLOGY IN FUNERAL CONTEXTS: APPLICATION AT THE TRAN PHU SITE (HANOI).

Pollens identified in archaeological sediments are often the only witnesses to vegetation and environment in the past. They can also reflect ritual activities. Traces of funerary ceremonies can be discerned, as pollen can be indicative of the attention of living people to the deceased. During funerary ceremonies, to show respect to the dead or as a ritual, people frequently put various plants into burials, as a bouquet of flowers, or as medications, cosmetics, honey and its by-products, or textiles. Pollen analysis results from graves may therefore lead to better knowledge of the local environment and allow us to find evidence of funeral rites. To illustrate this subject, some samples were selected from the Tran Phu site (Hanoi) with the aim of using pollen and spore analysis results to reveal burial ritual activity. This is the first study applying this kind of research in Vietnam.

C3 Tilley, Lorna

Oxenham, Marc

Australian National University

I FEEL YOUR PAIN: USING A BIOARCHAEOLOGY OF CARE APPROACH TO EXPLORE PERSONHOOD IN THE VIETNAMESE NEOLITHIC.

Over the last ten to fifteen years there has been an increasing archaeological focus on concepts of agency and identity. However, although this provides an important base for theorising on prehistoric social relations, when applied to specific examples the end product is often disappointing – only abstract, generic or even stereotyped communities and individuals emerge. This presentation suggests that, under certain circumstances, contextualised analysis of evidence from human remains of the experience of living with disease or injury can provide a window onto broader contemporary behaviour and practice, and that this in turn allows a more nuanced insight into questions of personhood and even into aspects of individual personality. This is illustrated in the case study of Man Bac Burial 9 (M9), a young man from Neolithic Vietnam who was paralysed from the waist down and possessed only very limited upper body mobility, yet who survived in a subsistence economy for over a decade. His survival indicates time-consuming and dedicated care from his group, and it is consideration of M9’s care requirements, the likely nature of support received and the way in which M9 appears to have coped with his condition that form the basis of this paper.

C3 Huffer, Damien

Australian National University

POPULATION MOBILITY AND FAMILY STRUCTURE DURING THE NORTHERN VIETNAMESE HOLOCENE

The skeletal sequences from the sites of Man Bac (Ninh Binh Province, c. 3800 BP) and Con Co Ngua (Thanh Hoa Province, c. 5000 BP) represent the largest and, in the case of Man Bac, best preserved osteological assemblages from the Neolithic period of northern Vietnam. Furthermore, they chronologically represent both the beginning and end of the Neolithic, a time period which witnessed marked change in burial ritual, social organization, and the frequency and range of trade for foreign goods, even though the adoption of agriculture had yet to occur. These transitions have so far been documented primarily through archaeological lines of evidence, yet diachronic bioarchaeological investigations can also prove valuable. Investigations of large-scale mobility (via nonmetric biodistance and Sr/O¹⁸ isotopic analysis), and the biomechanics of lower body use (via musculoskeletal stress markers, bilateral asymmetry, squatting facet frequency, and cross-sectional geometry), can theoretically be correlated to better understand how these changes affected migration between communities at the population, sex, age, or subgroup level, and the physical effort exerted in this hypothesized travel, especially if lower body use increased with long distance trade during the later Neolithic. Correlations between the biomechanical, isotopic, nonmetric and mortuary data could, in the case of Man Bac, provide insight into the nature of kinship networks in this community, and the larger socio-economic conditions that may have influenced their formation. This presentation will give an overview of the questions at the heart of my currently in-progress dissertation research, as well as present an initial exploration of preliminary data, the limitations inherent in this research, and remaining work.

C3 Garong Ame

Graduate School of Social and Cultural Studies, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan and Archaeology Division, National Museum of the Philippines

Takashima, Chizuru

Faculty of Culture and Education, Saga University, Saga, Japan

Datar, Francisco

Dept. of Anthropology, Univ. of the Philippines, Manila

Ronquillo, Wilfredo

Archaeology Division, National Museum of the Philippines, Manila,

Kano, Akihiro

Koike, Hiroko

Graduate School of Social and Cultural Studies, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

OXYGEN ISOTOPE ANALYSIS USING HUMAN TOOTH ENAMEL CARBONATE FROM ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES IN THE PHILIPPINES

Since tooth enamel carbonate retains the oxygen isotope composition from the ingested drinking water and foods during the mineralization process, it could provide isotopic composition of meteoric water that reflect local precipitation related to the habitat of the individual. Oxygen and carbon stable isotopic (δ18O and δ13C) analysis using tooth enamel carbonate enable to estimate geographical variation and movement amongst past population. Breastfeeding and weaning patterns are also preserved in the tooth enamel and provide a record of childhood diet.

A total of 94 individual from six burial sites in the Philippines were sampled and analyzed. These are the Batanes site in the northernmost part of the Philippines associated with boat-shaped and primary jar burials (355±70 BP), the primary burials(1600-1350 BP) and secondary burials 630-425 BP) from Lal-lo shell midden sites in Northern Philippines, the 13th century mummies and mass grave cave burial (17th-18th century) from Kabayan Benguet Mountain Province northwest of Luzon, the Sta.Ana burial site in Manila (about 1095 AD, the Romblon site in Romblon Island (14th-15th century) and the Cebu burial site located in Boljoon Parish Church (18th-19th century), both from Central Philippines.

Geographical movement and variation were studied by δ18O analysis using teeth enamel carbonate. Most of the average δ18O values from each site had a clear correlation to the precipitation which has the south to north cline (Romblon (n=18; -6.9‰), Sta. Ana (n= 14; -7.4‰), Lal-lo (n=5; -7.7‰) and Batanes (n=19; -8.1‰), except for Kabayan site (n=25; -8.5‰) situated in the mountainous region that showed lower value than average δ18O. Difference of δ18O values within each site implies higher mobility in the island site like Batanes (±1.5‰) than those in the inland such as Kabayan site (±1.1) indicating possible migration. Variations of δ18O values within each individual using M1, P2, M2 and M3 showed that those from Batanes site were higher than the other sites. We also examined successive sampling of M1 from the crown to the cervical line. These results indicate more than 1‰ seasonal differences in each individuals, suggesting that they might drink stored water from the pond or jar.

C3 Liu, Chin-hsin

Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL

Cheng-hwa Tsang

Yi-chang Liu

Institute of History and Philology, Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

Krigbaum, John

Department of Anthropology, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL

PALEODIETARY RECONSTRUCTION IN IRON AGE NORTHERN TAIWAN: ISOTOPIC EVIDENCE FROM SHIH-SAN-HANG

In this paper we evaluate light stable isotope data to infer marine vs. terrestrial paleodiet for a sample of adult individuals from Shih-san-hang, an Iron Age site in northern Taiwan. Faunal remains and hunting-gathering artifacts suggest the utilization of both terrestrial and marine protein resources, however, the extent to which rice was consumed is not known, although its consumption is inferred from recovered harvesting tools and rice husk remains present in pottery temper. This paleodiet study provides complementary data to infer food consumption of the Shih-san-hang people. Building on results from previous paleopathological studies on nutritional and dietary markers (e.g., enamel hypoplasia, porotic hyperostosis, dental caries, dental calculus), we use the data in concert with a subset of individuals analyzed for stable isotope ratios. Human (N=25) and faunal (N=21) bones were sampled for stable carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes from bone collagen and stable carbon isotopes from bone apatite. Faunal isotope values from bone collagen and bone apatite are consistent with taxon-specific diet. For bone collagen, human d13C values average -13.2‰ and d15N values average 9.9‰, while human bone apatite d13C values average -7.6‰. Gender differences in health are evident in some paleopathological markers (e.g., enamel hypoplasia), but do not seem to correlate with the stable isotope results. Preliminary interpretation of our isotopic data suggests a marine-based dietary regime with some terrestrial-based input for those individuals sampled in this study.

C3 King, Charlotte

Tayles, Nancy.

Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology, University of Otago

‘FOR DUST YOU ARE AND TO DUST YOU SHALL RETURN’ - WHY DOES DIAGENESIS MATTER?

Isotopic analysis of human bone is becoming an increasingly important tool for the archaeologist in divining past life-ways. The isotopic ratios within bone are often assumed to be preserved as in life, but diagenetic change can alter these, invalidating the results of isotopic analysis. Diagenesis, if evaluated at all, is usually quantified using a single method of chemical analysis, FT-IR spectroscopy. This study, based on the human remains from Ban Non Wat, Northeast Thailand, tested the value of FT-IR analysis, and highlighted its insufficiencies. Instead, the non-destructive technique of Raman spectroscopy was most useful in confirming high levels of diagenesis and secondary mineralisation at Ban Non Wat. This technique showed soil composition and groundwater flow are the conditions which most affect diagenesis, and have rendered the bones of Ban Non Wat entirely unsuitable for isotopic work. The findings of this study have implications for all isotopic work undertaken on bone in the region, and have proven tooth enamel to be less affected by diagenetic processes.

C3 Foster, Aimee

Buckley, Hallie

Tayles, Nancy

Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand

SKELETAL ANALYSIS OF ACTIVITY IN MAINLAND SOUTHEAST ASIA

Identifying divisions of labour in prehistoric societies is a notoriously difficult task in archaeological studies, yet it is vital for our understanding of social identities in the past. Bioarchaeology thus has much to offer this area of research: by analysing the human skeleton for changes that have occurred as a result of habitual activity during life we are able to investigate how factors such as biological sex relate to levels and/or types of activity.

This paper investigates the possibilities and limitations involved when studies of activity are used to investigate prehistoric social identity, and presents some results from the analysis of two mainland Southeast Asian skeletal samples, Man Bac, Vietnam (n=25), and Ban Non Wat, Thailand (n=66). Adult skeletons were analysed for entheseal change and degenerative joint disease. Comparisons were drawn between males and females, within and between the samples. The results highlight that while distinctions may be made between males and females in terms of activity, the relationships of activity markers to other factors such as age and body size are significant complications in this type of analysis.

C3 Pureepatpong, Natthamon

Silpakorn University, Thailand

MUSCULOSKELETAL STRESS MARKERS AND PALAEOPATHOLOGY OF HUMAN REMAINS IN THE LATE PLEISTOCENE-EARLY HOLOCENE AND LATE HOLOCENE PERIODS IN PANG MAPHA DISTRICT, MAE HONG SON PROVINCE, NORTHWESTERN THAILAND

This paper reports on the study of musculoskeletal stress markers (MSM) and palaeopathology of the human remains from Tham Lod (Late Pleistocene) and Ban Rai (Early Holocene) rockshelters and log coffin caves (Late Holocene) in Pang Mapha District of Mae Hong Son Province. MSM were more prominent in the Late Holocene compared with the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene. In addition, there are a wider variety of pathological lesions on bones from Late than from the Early Holocene. These results may be a reflection of the subsistence pattern of the people in the Late Holocene being more complex than that of the people in the Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene. It may also suggest that a living in a complex and demanding social environment has stronger effects on the health of the people.

C3 Clark, Angela

Tayles, Nancy

Halcrow, Siân

Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology, School of Medical Sciences, University of Otago, New Zealand

SEX ASSESSMENT: EVERYBODY TALKS ABOUT IT, BUT WHO IS DOING IT RIGHT?

The correct assessment of biological sex is crucial for identifying and understanding social identity in prehistory. The aim of identifying biological sex is not to directly infer gender, but to provide a means to integrate osteological evidence of health with archaeological evidence of burial treatment to assess gender as an aspect of social identity.

This paper presents a proposed research project that aims to determine whether sexual dimorphism can be used to indicate health change in Southeast Asian prehistoric societies during the adoption and intensification of rice agriculture. A bioarchaeological investigation of Neolithic and Bronze Age adult individuals from the prehistoric site at Ban Non Wat, Thailand, will allow a comparison between social identity and overall quality of life.

Sexual dimorphism, the difference between male and female physical body size and shape, varies between populations and influenced by the socio-cultural factors. Including, the adaptation to new foods, different food preparation methods, diet type, gender based preferential treatment and the sexual division of labour. Morphological characteristics of human remains are used to assess biological sex and the level of sexual dimorphism within a population can affect sex assessment. As sexual dimorphism is population specific, the descriptions of sex characteristics predominantly derived from European samples may prove inaccurate for the consequent sex assessment of a Southeast Asian population. The extent to which sexual dimorphism varies in prehistoric Southeast Asian populations is yet to be fully investigated. This paper will specially focus on providing a theoretical and methodological framework for investigating the level of sexual dimorphism in prehistoric Southeast Asia. Without an accurate assessment of sex, the consequent discussions of social identity are futile.

C3 Wangthongchaicharoen, Naruphol

Department of Research, The Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre – SAC, Bangkok, Thailand

THE METRIC ATTRIBUTES OF INFRACRANIAL SKELETONS OF PREHISTORIC HUMANS FROM WAT PHO SRINAI, BAN CHIANG, NORTHEAST THAILAND

The main aims of this study are to investigate and interpret the physical characteristics of the prehistoric human remains from Wat Pho Srinai, Ban Chiang Cultural Tradition site in Udon Thani province, Northeast Thailand which was excavated in 2003. In this season, approximately 109 human skeletons were uncovered and placed into two age groups: (1) 45 skeletons of infants, children and subadults whose bones had not fused, and (2) 64 male and female adult skeletons. Using osteometry of infracranial traits, standard metric measurements and indices were utilized to determine the biological identities of the remains such as their sex, age and height, as well as their social characteristics such as occupation, etc. Furthermore, the study attempts to calculate the different degrees of sexual dimorphism and compare to the others prehistoric populations like Ban Chiang, Non Nok Tha and Ban Kao, and to the modern ethnic groups living in Thailand (e.g., Thai-Chinese, Northern Thai and Northeastern Thai, etc.).

C3 Eng, Ken Khong

Department of Forensic Medicine, Penang Hospital, Malaysia

Chia, Stephen

Centre for Global Archaeological Research Universiti Saims Malaysia, Penang, Malaysia

BIOANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON A LATE PREHISTORIC BURIAL IN BUKIT KAMIRI SEMPORNA, SABAH, MALAYSIA

In March 2007, archaeological survey and excavation at Bukit Kamiri in Semporna, Sabah, Malaysia uncovered two late prehistoric human skeletons, radiocarbon dated by marine shells to between 3,330 and 2,830 BP. The two skeletons were found together in a burial associated with burial items such as pottery sherds, iron knives, and food remains consisting of marine shells, fish and animal bones. Bioanthropological analysis of the skeletal remains revealed two adult males. One was a young adult aged between 25 and 34 years old, with an estimated height 157.22 +/- 3.85 cm while the other was an middle aged adult, between 35 and 44 years old, with an estimated eight of 166 +/- 3.85 cm. No signs of pathological condition or violence were observed on the skeletal remains. Multivariate cluster analysis using the Q-mode correlation coefficients on the dental metric traits suggested close affiliation to early human populations from mostly Island Southeast Asia and Southern China.

C3 Medrana, Jack G. L.

University of the Philippines

RECONSTITUTING AESTHETICS IN THE ANCIENT FILIPINO BODY

How about an archaeology of body aesthetics? I am inviting the archaeological and the aesthetic in a fashion show attended by multiple beholders of beauty. The body as beautiful is a construct produced by chroniclers, ethnographers, and archaeologists, and it is oftentimes considered in the creation of social identity. The paper will attempt to address questions like: What have been done towards an archaeology of body aesthetics? What are the developing issues and trends? The Filipino body of the past would be the main participant doing the catwalk. Beginning with a review on the aesthetic discourse, the second part of the show looks into the documentary reconstruction of the Filipino corpus. Then there would be a shift of the spotlights to the archaeology of the skeleton, highlighting the osteological attributes and changes such as artificial cranial reformation and teeth modifications which are highly perceived to be associated with the beautiful.

C3 Boonlop, Korakot

Department of Research, The Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn Anthropology Centre – SAC, Bangkok, Thailand

DENTAL CHARACTERISTICS OF PREHISTORIC POPULATION IN THE SAKON NAKHON BASIN, NORTHEAST THAILAND: A REFERENCE CASE FROM DENTAL REMAINS AT BAN CHIANG

Dental anthropology is a vital part of bioarchaeology, which is the study of human remains in archaeological contexts. Dental enamel (the hard, white outer covering of the tooth) is the hardest material in the human body, and teeth are often preserved even when bones are not. They are one of the most informative parts of the human skeleton, and are incredibly well preserved archaeologically. Not only are they durable, but they are also a treasure trove of information. They provide insight into various issues anthropologists, archaeologists and historians are concerned with, e.g. reconstruct age-at-death, diet changes, health, general stress, how closely groups were related, ancestry, and markers of social identity. This information greatly increases our knowledge of people and their society in ancient times. This paper is a quick introduction to what teeth can tell us about the prehistoric people at Ban Chiang, based on the result of dental morphometric and morphoscopic analyses, focuses on the dental remains discovered in 2003-2004 from an excavation at Wat Pho Sri Nai cemetery.

C3 Arif, Johan

Kapid, Rubyanto

Department of Geology, Faculty of Earth Science and Technology, Institute of Technology, Bandung, Indonesia

SECULAR DENTAL REDUCTION OF PREHISTORIC JAVANESE POPULATIONS

The secular dental reduction of prehistoric Javanese populations is reviewed. The samples consist of prehistoric human molars from various caves in Java, consisting of R3 Pawon from Pawon cave in West Java and Wajak, Sampung, Hoekgrot, and Jimbe that are all different caves in East Java. The specimens are divided into Early and Middle Holocene samples. The result of our study identifies a diminution in molar size in prehistoric Javanese populations. The Early Holocene assemblage has relatively larger tooth dimensions than that of the Middle Holocene in length, breadth, and area measures. But, we have difficulties in elucidating the reason for this change because of the limited supplemental data. One of the difficulties is in determining the status of the specimens from Pawon cave. Nevertheless, based on the date and cultural remains, we suggest that the Pawon culture might be comparable to Sampung bone culture.

However, the diminution in molar size seen in the samples from Wajak to Hoekgrot-Jimbe might be caused by a cultural change from hunter-gatherer to semi-sedentary societies, or because of isolation of a human population, especially for Wajak. The big molar size of the Wajak specimen is linked to Wajak’s strong masticatory system. The strong masticatory system has been interpreted as an adaptation to high chewing stress.

C3 Widianto, Harry

Balai Pelestarian Sangiran, Indonesia

HUMAN REMAINS FROM THE MAJOR ISLANDS OF INDONESIA DURING THE SECOND HALF OF THE HOLOCENE

C3 Matisoo-Smith, Lisa

University of Otago, New Zealand

DNA SAMPLING IN AND WITH PACIFIC COMMUNITIES – IMPLICATIONS, PROSPECTS AND FUTURE DEVELOPMENTS

For the past decade we have focused on DNA analyses of commensal animals to use as a proxy for understanding prehistoric human migration in the Pacific. One of the main reasons we took this approach was because local communities were not interested in or willing to provide DNA samples. Local community attitudes however are beginning to change as people become more familiar with DNA technology and new approaches to working with communities are being used by researchers. Here I will describe the approach we are taking in working with several Pacific communities to engage in analyses of both ancient and modern DNA and discuss the potential benefits to both researchers and communities and the implications for definitions of identity for Pacific peoples.

C3 Buckley, Hallie R

Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology, University of Otago, New Zealand

THE PEOPLE OF TEOUMA, VANUATU: QUALITY OF LIFE IN A 3000 YEAR OLD COMMUNITY FROM THE PACIFIC ISLANDS

The Lapita-associated cemetery site of Teouma, Efate Island, Vanuatu, has provided researchers with a unique opportunity to begin to understand aspects of the quality of life of these people at a community level. There have been excavations of the cemetery site in 2004–2006 and 2008–2009. To date, a total of 60 inhumations consisting of both adults and subadults have been excavated. This presentation will outline the findings on health and disease from the human skeletal remains excavated in the first three field seasons. Field observations of health and disease from the recent excavation in 2008–09 are also discussed. The macroscopic findings on health and disease on the first three field seasons skeletal remains indicate some chronic stress during childhood affecting growth, poor dental health, and heavy work loads in both sexes. Existing dietary isotope data and variation in burial treatment within the cemetery will also be considered in relation to the macroscopic data on health and disease.

C3 Shaw, Ben

Buckley, Hallie

Summerhayes, Glenn

University of Otago

Anson, Dimitri

Otago Museum

Valentin, Frederique

CNRS, UMR 7041, France

Mandui, Herman

Papua New Guinea National Museum and Art Gallery

Stirling, Claudine

Reid. Malcolm

Otago Centre for Trace Element Analysis, Dunedin

MIGRATION AND MOBILITY AT THE LATE LAPITA SITE OF REBER-RAKIVAL (SAC), WATOM ISLAND USING ISOTOPE AND TRACE ELEMENT ANALYSIS: A NEW INSIGHT INTO LAPITA INTERACTION IN THE BISMARCK ARCHIPELAGO

This paper presents strontium isotope (87Sr/86Sr), oxygen isotope (δ18O) and Ba/Sr trace element data in archaeological tooth enamel samples to investigate migration and mobility in human and pig populations from the Late Lapita site on Watom Island in the Bismarck Archipelago. A selection of human teeth was also included from the Late-Post Lapita site of Lifafaesing, Tanga Islands as a geographic/ geological comparison. Previous archaeological models have identified Lapita mobility at a community level using obsidian distribution patterns and changes in ceramic design, whereas isotope and trace element data can potentially reconstruct prehistoric mobility on an individual level. It has been argued using material culture analysis that Lapita mobility decreases over time in the Bismarck Archipelago. These models of Lapita interaction will be re-considered in light of isotope and trace element data from Watom Island.

The results indicate that there is a large amount of isotopic variation in the Bismarck Archipelago which is useful for identifying non-local individuals and possibly determining their origins. The data suggest that one human individual and several pigs may have come from elsewhere in the region. Three potentially separate locations were identified for the non-local pigs. Using the data from SAC it is argued that the Late Lapita communities in the Bismarck Archipelago were more mobile than previously assumed. The potential for identifying individual migrants in a Lapita context are discussed in terms of assessing the more subtle aspects of Lapita society by relating migration to differences in the sex of individuals and difference in burial position. The future use of isotope based migration research in Pacific Island archaeology is then considered.

C3 Kinaston, Rebecca

Buckley, Hallie

Department of Anatomy and Structural Biology, University of Otago, New Zealand

Neal, Ken

Isolytix, Dunedin, New Zealand

HEALTH AND DIET AT NEBIRA: A BIOARCHAEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE OF PREHISTORIC LIFE ON THE SOUTH COAST OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA

The prehistory of Papua New Guinea (PNG) is recognised for its cultural, biological and linguistic diversity. However, few prehistoric cemeteries have been found in PNG leading to gaps in our understanding of prehistoric health, disease and diet in this area of the world. The site of Nebira is one of the only large prehistoric settlements to be found in the region of the South Coast, PNG and the presence of a prehistoric (1000-400 BP) burial ground at Nebira makes this site exceptional. We use stable isotope analysis for dietary reconstruction in conjunction with paleopathological and growth evaluations of the individuals interred at Nebira to investigate:

1) dental evidence of diet (caries, periodontal disease, antemortem tooth loss and calculus);

2) non-specific stress indicators (linear enamel hypoplasia, cribra orbitalia and porotic hyperostosis);

3) growth (adult stature and subadult long bone lengths); and

4) the potential consequences of diet on skeletal and dental health and growth. Carbon, nitrogen and sulphur stable isotope analysis of bone collagen suggested the diet of the inhabitants of Nebira was predominately terrestrial and low in protein with no statistically significant differences between males and females. The patterns of dental health and a high prevalence of non-specific stress indicators and short stature support the assumption that this diet could have affected the health and growth of these people. The lack of sexual differences in diet suggests that limited or no preferential food allocation to males or females occurred in this society, at least with regard to protein foods. Male and female health and growth patterns were also similar, suggesting the effect of diet and other potential stresses were comparable between these two groups.

C3 Valentin, Frédérique

CNRS, UMR 7041, France

Herrscher, Estelle

Mesquin, Lauréline

CNRS, UMR 6578, France

Sand, Christophe

Institut d’Archéologie de Nouvelle Calédonie et du Pacifique

NEW MORTUARY, BIOLOGICAL AND DIETARY DATA ON FIRST MILLENNIUM AD POPULATIONS FROM THE SOUTHWEST PACIFIC ISLANDS: THE CASE OF THE POE SAND DUNE BURIALS (WEST COAST, NEW CALEDONIA)

Populations living in the Southwest Pacific islands during the first millennium AD are little known. The bioarchaeological record includes so far data on individuals uncovered in some sites from the Fijian archipelago, amongst which the cemeteries of the Sigatoka Sand Dunes. To remedy to this situation, we present here new mortuary, biological and dietary data recorded on burials recently excavated (2007) in the sand dune of Poe (site WBR047), on the West Coast of New Caledonia. Mortuary features display similarities with the Sigatoka Sand Dunes burials, including the frequent use of tightly flexed positions. Palaeopathological and isotopic data indicate dietary practices heavily dependant on coastal marine foods and/or C4 plants. This reliance on coastal resources appears stronger than the one demonstrated by earlier, even colonising, human groups while the first signs of intensification of horticulture are shown by the archaeological record in the first millennium AD on the island. Helping understanding this opposition, isotopic analyses of modern faunal remains from New Caledonia, suggest an influence of local environmental conditions on the reconstruction of isotopic dietary patterns.

SESSION C4

C4 Barretto-Tesoro, Grace

Archaeological Studies Program, University of the Philippines, The Philippines

MIXED BURIAL PRACTICES IN THE PHILIPPINES

This paper is preliminary research on Philippine sites which yielded a variety of burial practices. To date, no comprehensive analysis has been done to investigate the reasons for the presence of diverse burial manners. I will survey burial sites, describe the burial practices, examine related evidence, and offer interpretations that could affect the disposal of corpses. I will try to explain the diversity of burials by using local perspectives.

C4 Bersales, Jose Eleazar R.

Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of San Carlos, Cebu, The Philippines

LATE PRE-COLONIAL MORTUARY PRACTICES IN CENTRAL PHILIPPINES: DATA FROM BURIALS RECOVERED IN BOLJOON, CEBU, PHILIPPINES

Between February 2007 and March 2009, four month-long excavations have been conducted on the grounds of the nearly 250-year old Patrocinio de Sta. Maria Church, a Philippine National Cultural Treasure located in the coastal town of Boljoon, 101 km. southeast of the capital city of Cebu, in central Philippines. The site has so far yielded 39 burials, four of which have been AMS-dated to between 1529 and 1619±40 years.

Boljoon first enters recorded history when it was established as an Augustinian vicaria in 1599, although in it was not until 1692 that a permanent parish priest was assigned there. Based on the burial assemblage, the site exhibits pre-colonial burial practices which may also provide some insights into the graduated character of the Hispanization of Cebu.

Four different burial orientations have been observed (generally accruing to the four cardinal points), together with three burial positions (supine, lateral, and crouched/flexed). Thirty-six of the 39 burials are primary inhumations although over half were recovered in varying stages of disarticulation and fragmentation due to the subsequent use of the same location for later burials or due to much later intrusions as the area became the site of the church and its plaza. Three others were recovered as reburials, with two of them showing a remarkable level of treatment in that even the accompanying grave goods were also reburied. A double burial, one buried in crouched position “neatly” over another in extended position was also recovered.

The site offers opportunities to understand the dimensions of mortuary practices in pre-Hispanic and early colonial period Cebuano populations, especially with regard to the manipulation of ritual and symbol for representing social identities, as well as cultural practices that may indicate differential treatment of burials on the basis of gender as well as accompanying burial goods. Whether the latter can be considered prestige goods is also a subject of this study.

C4 Chang, Kuang-Jen

Indepedent Scholar

VARIETIES OF DISPOSAL TYPES IN CALATAGAN CEMETERIES, SW LUZON: A PRELIMINARY OBSERVATION

The co-existence of various types of interments in a cemetery is a common phenomenon in Calatagan sites, Southwest Luzon. A group of the 15th-16th CE cemeteries comprises nearly eleven hundred interments, also represents more than twenty various types of disposals. Since Fox’s excavation and brief report, which were more than 50 years ago, our understanding of those mortuary practices is still poor. The purpose of this paper is to reveal the detailed information of those interments, as well as to examine multiple levels of comparisons among them. Based on the investigation, thus, this paper also discusses the relevant issues of the varieties of disposal types in Southeast Asian archaeology.

C4 Lara, Myra

Victor Paz

Archaeological Studies Program, University of the Philippines

Helen Lewis

School of Archaeology, University College Dublin, Ireland

Jonathan Kress

Independent Scholar

Jack Medrana

Archaeological Studies Program, University of the Philippines

TEMPORALITY OF HUMAN INHUMATION THROUGH ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND OSTEOLOGICAL ANALYSES: A LOOK AT THE ILLE SITE ASSEMBLAGE

This paper describes the archaeological contexts and some results of osteological analysis on remains from burials found in a cave site at Ille, New Ibajay, El Nido Palawan, Philippines. At least four general burial ‘phases’ were recognized during excavations at Ille: a mid to late 18th century cemetery comprising of extended burials oriented to the south; a slightly older cemetery of extended burials oriented to the east or west; a Neolithic phase characterized by extended inhumations associated with stone markers, and; a 9000 BP phase composed of cremation burials. As of the 2009 excavation season, about 70 burials were found to comprise the most recent cemetery; about four are considered to be included in the slightly older cemetery; at least two burials are considered Neolithic, and five cremation burials were found so far. Burials from the first three phases are all primary but remains from the cremation phase received bone modifications in terms of disarticulation, defleshing, fragmentation, and burning. Found associated with two skeletons in the most recent cemetery are copper rings; one skeleton from the second phase is found associated with Indo-Pacific beads and a metal dagger; a burial considered to be Neolithic is associated with large shell discs and hammerstones.

C4 Lloyd-Smith, Lindsay R.

The Cultured Rainforest Project, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, UK

VARIABILITY IN NEOLITHIC BURIAL PRACTICE AT NIAH CAVES, SARAWAK

The Later Prehistoric cemetery in the West Mouth, Niah Cave (Sarawak) is one of the largest investigated in Island Southeast Asia, with 89 primary extended burials and 93 secondary burials thought to date to between 1300 BC and 200 BC. As well as the well known West Mouth, the nearby site of Lobang Jeragan, completely excavated in 1962, contained 25 primary and 21 secondary burials now thought to date to a 250 year period sometime between 950 BC and 450 BC. Spatial and chronological analysis has shown that mortuary practice at both sites followed similar historical trajectories, from primary extended burial, followed by unburnt secondary burial, and then cremated burials. These two sites provide an excellent opportunity to compare contemporaneous burial practices at the local level, and their potential implications for our understanding of the societies who buried their dead there.

C4 Kusmartono, Vida Pervaya Rusianti

Centre for Archaeology, Banjarmasin, Department of Culture and Tourism, Indonesia

DAYAK MORTUARY: DISPOSAL MODES, SPATIAL ARRANGEMENT AND ITS SIGNIFICANCE

The pre-Hindu conception of the world and its manifestations can still be seen today among some societies in Indonesia. The conception of the world is perceived by the societies as a sacred world of an ideal order constituting superior existences, their dwelling, and a place of all beginnings. This ideal order also represents extreme opposite aspects of duality that as a whole creates balance. The cognizant of the macrocosm and the need to live in harmony with nature lead the society to create a replica of the sacred world, which is manifested not only among the living but the dead as well. In many societies the dead are respected greatly due to the belief that the spirit of the deceased will finally return ‘home’ joining the ‘father’ of humans and the supreme deity in the sacred world. The ‘home’ being congenially organized is often represented in the realistic world by features of the universe, either on architecture or landscape. A sacred landscape is a cultural signature of a society performing its ideology, which in a micro scale is indicated by its spatial arrangement. A group of tribes who continue to believe in maintaining the conception of the balance of duality are the Dayak; the Dayak is one of the direct descendants of the Austronesian-language-speaking-people, who mainly resides in the hinterland of Kalimantan. The Dayak show their inmost ideological belief reflected in mortuary practice and other non-religious activities. Therefore, I would like to discuss the placing of the dead in a specific spatial arrangement based on archaeological evidences in association with the ancient Dayak cosmology. The spatial arrangement will provide information on how they perceive and interact with their surrounding nature.

C4 Umar, Dwi Yani Yuniawati

National Research Center for Archaeology, Jakarta, Indonesia

THE DISTRIBUTION OF STONE VATS IN CENTRAL SULAWESI

The Central Sulawesi Province is very rich in remains from the period of the megalithic tradition development. These remains comprise stone vats, megalithic statues, stone mortars, pitted stones, engraved stones and others. From the megalithic remains in Central Sulawesi, of interest are the stone vats, that are found only in this region and bear similarities to those in Mekhong Valley, Lao (Madelaine Colani 1935).

These stone vats are called Kalamba, meaning boat and its cover tuatena, by the local people. Kalamba is a stone vat cylindric in shape with an opening at the end. The megalithic remains in Central Sulawesi are found distributed in four areas they are Bada Valley (South Lore district, Poso regency), Besoa Valley (Central Lore district, Poso regency), Napu Valley (North Lore district, Poso regency) and Palu Valley (Donggala regency).

Besides in Central Sulwesi the kalamba is also found at around Lake Toba, North Sumatera Province (Hoop 1938), and Donggo, West Nusa Tenggara Province but not as many as in Central Sulawesi.

C4 Oxenham, Marc

School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University, Australia

THE SOCIAL AND BIOLOGICAL CONSTRUCTION OF CHILDHOOD IN ANCIENT VIETNAM

This paper examines the differential mortuary treatment of subadults and adults in the late neolithic cemetery site Man Bac (~3,800-2,600 ybp), situated on the southern fringes of the Red River Delta, Vietnam. The focus of this mortuary analysis is to explore aspects of the social and biological construction of childhood as revealed through the manner in which adults have treated their young during funerary rituals. It is hypothesised that several broad social and biological categories of subadult age or development are expressed in the mortuary treatment of Man Bac children. The discussion of these findings will build on our knowledge of the construction of childhood though the eyes of adults in ancient Vietnam.

C4 Coupey, Anne-Sophie

University of Rennes I, France

FUNERAL CONTAINERS IN THE SOUTHEAST ASIAN IRON AGE: PRESERVED REMAINS AND SIGNS PROVIDED BY BONE’S POSITION

Type of funeral containers has a real significance in the funeral practices. The material used to make up the coffins depends not only on its availability in the region and its easiness to make, but on the regard for cultural and perhaps religious traditions of the time. Size of the coffins and probable ornamentation (preserved or not) should have had an ostentatious function. On a same site and during the same period, several types of coffins were used. They can be different according to the age at death. Beside the ceramic jars - burial containers of infants -there are traces of outlines of wooden coffins and some linear delimitation effects or compression of the skeleton. Bone’s and grave goods positions indicate a decay in an empty space, so inside a body container. It is possible to restore the general shape of coffins and their rigidity, therefore the material they were made of. Obviously, funeral containers reveal a part of the status of the deceased and of his cultural environment.

C4 Pautreau, Jean-Pierre, Anne-Sophie Coupey, Christophe Maitay, Emma Rambault, Aung Aung Kyaw

University of Rennes I, France

IRON AGE RITUAL AND GRAVE GOODS IN THE SAMON VALLEY (UPPER BURMA)

The Burmese-French joint project aims at studying burials from Iron Age in the Samon valley (south of Mandalay). Since 2001, approximately 500 graves from eight burial sites have been excavated in this area. Their study allowed us to better know the ways of burial, to specify the archaeological context of some of the artefacts, and to add some chronological markers to our knowledge of the Iron Age in Upper Burma. Sometimes organized in rows, sometimes in groups (family?), almost all of the graves are individual and primary. The deceased were buried with the head towards the East (in 6 sites) or towards the north (2 sites).The main grave goods - set of 3 pottery vessels, stone and glass beads, some iron tools and weapons and some copper-alloy items - indicate a cultural cohesion of all these communities living on the basin side of the Samon river during the last 4 centuries BC and the beginning of History.

C4 Kanungo, Alok Kumar

Homi Bhabha Fellow, Dept. of Archaeology, Deccan College, India

BURIAL PRACTICES AMONG THE NAGAS IN TRANSITION: SURVIVAL OF ONE OF THE MOST ELABORATE FUNERAL CEREMONIES OF THE WORLD

India being a country of many communities it is natural to have various types of methods of disposal of the dead. Indian kings did not build pyramids for themselves but the indigenous people living in hilly terrain of northeast India practise one of the most elaborate burials and their grave goods have been the richest. Unfortunately less work has been carried out on the burial practices of the Nagas than on the megaliths of the past.

The unique practice of burial and rituals related to the same among the Nagas is fast disappearing. Nagas living in Nagaland have given up practising their ancestral way of burial in the last few decades from Angami and Ao to Konyaks as the Christianity made inroads among them. Nagas living in Arunachal Pradesh have only recently been forced to abandon many of the burial practices. We know nothing about the Nagas living in Myanmar. The Nagas were extraordinarily sensitive to everything connected with the subject of post-death ceremonies and practices. They believe that the spirits of the dead have power over the living, that they can ruin the harvest and kill the infact in the womb. It is therefore important not to incur the displeasure of the spirits by failing to perform the prescribed rituals. The Ninu massacre of 1874-75 is an eloquent proof of how the Wanchos reacted violently when there was an interference in their burial practices and killed more than 80 British soldiers. However, this practice has been entirely abandoned a few years ago. From keeping the body for six months in the house in 1839 (first reported by M. Bronson), present day Aos do not keep the dead body even for the distant relatives to pay their last respect. Exposed burial among the Nagas of the Arunachal Pradesh was abandoned by the converted Christians in 1990s and made to stop in 2002 at gun point by one of the Naga insurgency groups. For the same reason the practice of the secondary burial has also disappeared. This may be a good sign for hygienic purpose but without Wanchos history being written and their origin being known we are lacking an important evidence which is vital to understand their past. However, there still remain many evidences related to the burial practices among the Wanchos which should be recorded either now or never. For example, no smoking of dead is done inside the house anymore though the body is kept in kitchen till the relatives and friends arrive from nearby villages, if not for weeks, at least for a few days; exposed burial are just being stopped so relics of this and secondary burials are still standing; though most of the cist/pot burial are covered under earth but still there are villages where these are existing in abandoned condition. Still the last generation of people are alive who practised the secondary burial. There still are old people who processed the skulls for the secondary burial. However, the dating of the chamber/cist containing multiple heads of several generations and identification of the cause of death is a serious problem as different methods are employed by people of different villages for detaching the skull from the body. Besides the skull is nailed/drilled haphazardly for ornamentation. Still the practices of post burial feast and offering of very elaborate and expensive grave goods are prevalent. This paper is an attempt at recording the history of changes in burial practices and surviving customs.

SESSION C5

C5 Morwood, Michael J.

University of Wollongong

Westaway, Kira E.

Macquarie University

Island of fire: volcanoes as agents of death, destruction and migration on Flores Island, Indonesia

Volcanoes forming the central spine of Flores Island have dominated every square metre of island space since it was formed ~12 million years ago by submarine volcanism. The stratigraphy and archaeological evidence found at two sites on Flores can be used to reconstruct the relationships that existed between hominins and volcanoes on this section of the Indonesian archipelago. These sites are: Soa Basin, an ancient lakeshore environment near Bajawa in central Flores and Liang Bua an inland cave site located in the mountainous region of Ruteng in western Flores. Both sites display evidence of massive volcanic destruction; with large erosion contacts, thick tephra deposits and lack of occupation deposits immediately after each event. This evidence suggests that the dominance of Flores by volcanoes was not restricted to just visual appearance but influenced the survival and preferred location of hominins and other fauna, particularly Stegodon. Morwood will discuss the influence of volcanism on the ~800 ka hominins from Soa, while Westaway will recount the impact of the 17 ka eruption on the inhabitants of Liang Bua. The sediments at Soa are inherently volcanic, ranging from deep tuffs to ignimbrites and lava flows, and demonstrates the consistent volcanic influences on the sedimentology and environment of this area. In contrast, the sediments at Liang Bua are periodically punctuated with evidence of volcanic events, with the two largest occurring at ~17 and 12 ka. The volcanic events at Soa caused death, destruction and possibly the extinction of certain Stegodon species (Stegodon sondaari), while the Liang Bua events may have caused migration to another less affected area of Flores.

C5 Clarkson, Chris

Harris, Clair

University of Queensland

Haslam, Michael

University of Oxford

AFTER THE BIG BANG: ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE FOR THE IMPACT OF THE TOBA SUPER-ERUPTION ON HOMININ POPULATIONS IN INDIA

Archaeologists and climatologists continue to debate the impact of the Sumatran Toba super-eruption (74kya) on global climate, vegetation and human populations. Preliminary results are reported for archaeological and palaeoenvironmental research conducted in two river valleys in India, where Toba tephra deposits are extensive. These are the Jerreru River Valley in Andhra Pradesh in southern India, and the Son River Valley of Madhya Pradesh in the north. The two sampled regions provide an opportunity to compare long sequences in very different geographic zones - both of which contain lithic assemblages and Toba ash deposits. Based on the chronology of human occupation and evidence for long-term continuity in stone-working practices, we hypothesize that the impact of the Toba eruption on hominin populations may have been less severe than other researchers have proposed.

C5 Dizon, Eusebio

National Museum of the Philippines

PHILIPPINE ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITES COVERED BY VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS

Volcanoes must have played a significant role in the choice of human occupation. No matter how dangerous volcanoes can be, people were and are still attracted to them. People must have been attracted to volcanoes, for their intrinsic beauty and the vast fertile land they have in their surrounding areas. In the Philippines, there have been a number of archaeological sites found near or around volcanoes such as in Zambales and Pampanga, Sorsogon, Batangas, Batanes, etc. Sites buried in deep sand dunes in the Sabtang Island of Batanes are suggestive of tsunamis. This paper will present a picture of these sites when they were abandoned by volcanic eruptions.

C5 Melendres, Rhayan G.

University of the Philippines

THE MOUNT PINATUBO ERUPTION AND ITS EFFECTS ON THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLE OF CENTRAL LUZON, PHILIPPINES: EVIDENCES FROM ARCHEOLOGY, ETHNOHISTORY AND ETHNOGRAPHY

Mount Pinatubo is an active stratovolcano located in Central Luzon Philippines. Before its eruption in 1991, this inconspicuous and heavily forested mountain supported thousands of indigenous people in particular the Aytas. Earlier large eruptions occurred 17,000, 9000, 6000–5000 and 3900–2300 years ago. Each of these eruptions seems to have been very large, ejecting more than 10 km³ of material and covering large parts of the surrounding areas with pyroclastic flow deposits. Scientists estimate that the most recent eruption before 1991 happened about 450 years ago, and after that, the volcano lay dormant. And these eruptions adversely affected the indigenous people of Central Luzon. This paper will look at the consequences and effects of these eruptions on the lives of the people of the Central Luzon most specially among the Aytas. It will focus on changes on political and social structure, resource mobilization and exchange, architecture and settlement patterns and lifestyle of the people. Evidence will come from archeological, ethnohistorical and ethnographic data.

C5 Eiji Nitta

Kagoshima University

The Shikiryo site: a 9^th century settlement and agricultural field buried by the eruption of Mt.Kaimondake, south Japan

Recent excavations at the Shirkiryo site in Kagoshima Prefecture have provided rich evidence about how villagers in southern Japan reacted to a major volcanic event. During the night of 25 March 874 AD, Mt.Kaimondake erupted and within a few days, a blue-grayish hard ash layer (Aokora), together with surge and mud flows, buried a large region. Archaeological research at the Shikiryo site has unearthed a rice paddy field, farmland and a dwelling house buried by the ash. The excavations of the rice paddy found hollows of rice roots that showed a harvest higher than average for this time period. Excavations revealed how the villagers had attempted to recover from this disaster, but the scale of the ashfall was too large and the site was abandoned.

C5 Sato, Hiroyuki

University of Tokyo

Soda, Tsutomu

Institute of Tephrochronology for Nature and History

Izuho, Masami

Sapporo Center for Buried Cultural Property

TEPHROCHRONOLGY AND HUMAN ACTIVITIES OF LATE PLEISTOCENE IN KYUSHU ISLAND, JAPAN

There are many Quaternary volcanoes in Kyushu Island. In particular, Aso, Aira, Ata, and Kikai caldera volcanoes frequently erupted on a large scale in the past. The pyroclastic flow and tephra-fall of the eruption of Aira volcano (28-29ka), which was one of the largest in history, impacted catastrophically on the southern Kyushu region and those who lived there. After this volcanic event, the preceding Pan-Japanese strategy of cultural adaptation came apart and differentiated into several original new strategies, through the diffusion of new technological information and cultures from the adjacent areas such as the Korean peninsula and the Setouchi region.

C5 Summerhayes, G.R.

Leavesley, M.

Otago University, New Zealand

Hope, G.

Australian National University

Mandui, H.

National Museum and Art Gallery of Papua New Guinea

Fairbairn, A.

University of Queensland

Kosipe's volcanic landscape

The Kosipe region is important for the early prehistory of Papua New Guinea. First excavated by Peter White in the 1960s, it has recently been the focus of major archaeological and palaeo-environmental research. The research has pushed the human antiquity of Papua New Guinea further into the Pleistocene and is providing a unique perspective on people-land interactions. It is apparent, however, that to understand the archaeological significance of this site, it is necessary to understand the region’s volcanic history. This paper will outline the critical relationship between the volcanic events of this region, and Kosipe’s unique archaeological record.

C5 Torrence, Robin

Australian Museum

THE ROLE OF VOLCANISM IN THE ORIGIN AND SPREAD OF LAPITA POTTERY, PAPUA NEW GUINEA

Tephra derived from the W-K2 eruption of Witori volcano in West New Britain, Papua New Guinea comprises a significant stratigraphic marker that separates the remains of early cultural groups that produced and used large obsidian stemmed tools from those of subsequent societies which made Lapita style pottery. Is this a case of mere correlation between cultural change and natural disaster or did the Witori event play a significant role in the loss of one kind of material culture and the adoption of another or in the migration of a new population? A recent study using Bayesian modeling of radiocarbon dates places this natural disaster remarkably close to the timing for the earliest appearance of Lapita pottery in the Bismarck Archipelago. Proposals for the role of the W-K2 eruption on the origin and subsequent spread of Lapita pottery into Remote Oceania are debated.

C5 Lilley, Ian

University of Queensland

INSIDE OUT AND OUTSIDE IN: THE IMPORTANCE OF REGIONAL CONTEXT IN LOCAL REACTIONS TO VOLCANIC ACTIVITY.

This paper considers how events and process associated with localized volcanism can pull in people, goods and ideas from areas a long way from the volcanic epicentre, as well as push people, ideas and things outwards, away from the communities most immediately affected. The focus will be on trajectories of change in the North New Guinea - Vitiaz - West New Britain region over the last 3,500 years, and specifically the similarities and differences in the wider human impacts of the eruptive history of the Willaumez-Hoskins volcanoes during this period. The aim is to remind ourselves to consider the broader geohistorical contexts of "Living with Volcanoes."

C5 Bedford, Stuart

Spriggs, Matthew

The Australian National University

ISLANDS OF ASH AND CORAL: 3000 YEARS OF HUMAN ADAPTATION TO VOLCANIC ACTIVITY IN VANUATU, SOUTHWEST PACIFIC.

Of all the Pacific islands, Vanuatu has been recently assessed as the archipelago most frequently affected by a range of natural catastrophes. One that is a constant threat is that of volcanic activity and eruptions. Currently active volcanoes are present in the north, centre and south of the archipelago. Archaeological research that has been carried out across Vanuatu indicates that ash-fall, both catastrophic and more benign, features regularly in the composition of the stratigraphy of sites. A number of excavated sites are discussed here which demonstrate both the hazardous and beneficial nature of these volcanic eruptions and how ni-Vanuatu have adapted to their ever present threat.

C5 Sheppard, Peter J.

University of Auckland

A VOLCANO IN THE BACKYARD: IMPACT OF THE RANGITOTO ERUPTION ON MAORI OCCUPATION OF AUCKLAND

The Auckland Harbour is dominated by Rangitoto, a basaltic volcano which forms Rangitoto Island just adjacent to the island of Motutapu. When Maori first occupied the harbour, some 800 years ago, Rangitoto apparently did not exist, but the island of Motutapu contains some of the earliest sites in the region. When Rangitoto erupted, Motutapu was covered in a thick deposit of ash which would have had a significant impact on the inhabitants and natural environment of the island, yet people returned quickly from the nearby undamaged islands and mainland, if only to survey the destruction, as evidenced by foot-prints in the ash. This paper surveys the archaeological and geological research which has been conducted on Motutapu over the last 40 years and considers its potential for assessing volcanic impacts on settlement at the micro or local scale.

SESSION C6

C6 Barton, Huw

School of Archaeology and Ancient History, University of Leicester, LE1 7RH, UK

LEARNING TO FORGET ON THE PATH TO THE PADI FARM.

Abstract: The production of sago – the starch derived from the interior pith of several species of palm – appears to have a long history in Borneo. Historic records indicate that sago was still utilized on a regular basis well into the twentieth century by many groups that are now considered to only produce and eat rice. There are several indigenous sago producing palms in Borneo (Eugeissona; Arenga; Caryota) and one major introduction from New Guinea (Metroxylon). Amongst the Penan of Borneo, sago is still a key food resource, but amongst many farming communities, it has been relegated to the margins; an inferior food for inferior people, though the plant remains a useful timber for craft and the fronds for thatching. Some farming communities, such as the Kelabit of the uplands of interior Borneo now claim that they have never eaten sago – ever, while their own history suggests otherwise. This paper explores the role of sago amongst farming communities and in particular the importance of ‘forgetting’ sago to in order to farm rice.

C6 Denham, Tim

Monash University, Australia

HUMAN OCCUPATION OF THE MONTANE RAINFORESTS OF PAPUA NEW GUINEA: SNAPSHOTS FROM THE PLEISTOCENE TO PRESENT

Renewed multi-disciplinary investigations at a series of archaeological sites across the highland spine of Papua New Guinea clarify the occupation chronology of the region, as well as enable relatively in-depth regional interpretations of human-environment interactions through time. A series of interpretative scenarios are woven against this evidential background to infer how people subsisted in, and eventually transformed, montane rainforest environments towards the present. The nature of these human-environment interactions varied greatly spatially and through time.

SESSION C7

C7 Carter, Alison

University of Wisconsin, USA

Trade and Exchange Networks in Iron Age and Early Historic Cambodia: Preliminary Results from a Study of Stone and Glass Beads

Iron Age and Early Historic Cambodia has often been left out of discussions regarding trade, exchange and socio-political development in Southeast Asia. This study seeks to fill these gaps by studying stone and glass beads from several Iron Age and Early Historic periodites in Cambodia. Beads are excellent indicators of regional and international trade, of socio-economic and technological organization, as well as ideology and status. Compositional analysis of beads can add another level of understanding to the production and distribution of beads across a broad landscape. This study will present preliminary results of Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) compositional analysis from Iron Age and Early Historic site across Cambodia and discuss the implications this research has for our understanding of trade and interaction networks in Cambodia and across Southeast Asia more broadly during this period.

C7 Chan, Sovichetra

Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, Cambodia

Cultural potential of Basak, Svay Rieng

Svay Rieng is a province located along the Khmero-Vietnamese border in the Mekong Delta. Previous inventory catalogued by French scholars indicated a relatively sparse archaeological sites distribution in the area. However, current inventory has documented over 300 archaeological sites in this province. The sites registered are mostly remnants of brick religious monuments with the largest concentration of remains found at Basak, located along the Vaico River. Excavation by Jean Commaille in 1902 revealed the original layout of a brick temple complex surrounded by wall and moat, as well as statues and inscriptions that were attributed to the Angkor period. In addition to pre-Angkorian artifacts including lintel and inscriptions were also uncovered. This evidence demonstrates the long-term occupation of Basak from the pre-Angkor to Angkor period. This paper will discuss the following topics: a) description of sites along the Vaico River and Bassak; b) the influence of the irrigation system from the Angkor region based on inscription; and finally, c) a proposed cultural resources management of the area.

C7 Chhay Rachna

APSARA Authority, Cambodia

Heng Piphal

University of Hawai’i at Manoa

The Crossdraft Kiln, an evaluation and THE use of Khmer kilns from late 9^th to 13^th centurIES.

During the last few years, many kiln sites in Angkor region have been excavated by national and international teams, such as Tani, Thnal Mrech (also known as Anglong Thom), Sor sie, Khnar Po, and Bangkong kiln sites. All these kilns used a crossdraft technique to produce glazed and unglazed ceramics. Depending on their dating, the productions and the evolution of the crossdraft’s use, provide some understanding of the characteristics of Crossdraft kiln from the late 9^th to the 13^th century of Angkor. This paper will focus on the difference between localization and the ideas of kiln construction. Then on the development of the kiln’s firewall and firing chamber, that show the potters’ concept of crossdraft kiln to produce ceramic. Some examples of their production will also be presented.

C7 Dega, Michael

Latinis, D. Kyle

Naga Research Group

Possible Production Centers of Cambodian Circular Earthwork Ceramics as explained through XRF Analysis

X-Ray fluorescence (XRF) analysis of several earthwork ceramic assemblages lends possible interpretations that ceramic production centers are identifiable within the fairly homogenous site grouping. The earthwork sites, occurring across a basaltic plateau in eastern Cambodia/western Vietnam, have been assessed as having internally homogenous site characteristics and material records. The XRF study provides an additional level of analysis to assess diversity within the earthwork assemblages and potentially, has meted out ceramic production centers within the site grouping.

C7 Ea Darith

APSARA, Cambodia

KOL VILLAGE: A Set of Community Structures in Angkor Period

Kol Village is one of sets of community structures in the Angkor period located to the west of Angkor, approximately 50 km along the ancient road from Angkor to Phimai. The recent survey found that people have been living there from pre-historical times to the Angkor period and continuing to the present. Kol village was probably home to a large community during Angkor period because of the remains of some structures such as water infrastructures, roads, bridges, monuments, rest house, hospital chapel, habitation mounds, and ceramic shards. In order to understand some of these structures, we excavated two trenches to study road structures and a bridge. This study provided us ample information about the technology of building a road and a laterite bridge, as well as the connections between people from one place to another by ancient roads and sets of community structures in the Angkor period.

C7 Evans, Damian

University of Sydney

The Development of Early Urbanism in Cambodia: Results of Archaeological Field Surveys 2008-9

Recently, the many years of archaeological surveys at Angkor undertaken by members of the Greater Angkor Project have been extended to include a range of other temple complexes in Cambodia, including Banteay Chmar, Sambor Prei Kuk, Preah Khan of Kompong Svay and Koh Ker. Evidence has been uncovered at several of these sites to suggest that, like Angkor, they possessed sophisticated and extensive water management systems and extended urban complexes beyond the central temples which have defined them archaeologically for more than a century. This paper will present a comparative overview of the recent finds and discuss the implications of the new maps of these sites for our understanding of the nature of early Khmer urbanism and settlement patterns.

C7 Fehrenbach, Shawn

University of Hawa’I, Manoa

Earthenware Ceramic Technologies of Early Historic Angkor Borei, Cambodia

Organizational changes between the Late Prehistoric and Early Historic periods (c. 500 BCE – CE 500) in Southeast Asia involved increasing socio-political complexity leading to the emergence of the region’s earliest states. Archaeological ceramics provide an abundant data source for considering the social, political, and economic realms of ceramic production. This paper examines ceramic production at the Mekong Delta site of Angkor Borei by positioning technological variability in relation to both localized and regional processes of state development. Chemical and morphological analyses are employed to interpret patterns of continuity and variability in the technical choices made by ceramic producers at Angkor Borei. Results provide a nuanced perspective on the extent to which this important center was participating in developing regional and inter-regional interaction spheres, while also recognizing the importance and persistence of local traditions and potential cases of innovation.

C7 Feneley, Marnie

University of Sydney

THE EVOLUTION OF THE KHMER DRAGON

A collection of lintels in the lexicon of Khmer imagery feature the mythical beast called the Reachisey. The Reachisey, a dragon like creature is uniquely Khmer, and its inclusion in the depiction of Vishnu Anantaśāyin has arisen through a Khmer interpretation of the Viúṇuite creation story. Its origins stem from existing Khmer mythology fused with transmigratory influences, including the Makara, the Gagasṃha of India and the Cham dragon. A crocodile mythology, which may have predated Brahmanic influence, is evidenced through local stories and artistic evidence. This mythology has over time been linked to Vishnu most famously at Prasat Kravanh and at Kbal Spean, where the crocodile can be found among the carvings of the river bed. The 12th Century saw the popular use of the Reachisey as a bed for the reclining Vishnu, co-existing with the Nāga, and affirming its place as a powerful water symbol.

C7 Hendrickson, Mitch

University of Sydney

Industries of Angkor: Material production at Preah Khan of Kompong Svay

Preah Khan of Kompong Svay (PKKS) is both the single largest Angkorian enclosed city and the purported centre of iron production for the Khmer Empire. INDAP represents the first comprehensive investigation of the history and production of industrial material (metal, ceramics) and settlement (temples and landscape) at this important site. This paper presents initial results of surveys and geophysical investigation within the city focusing specifically on the distribution of iron production sites. More importantly, this work re-examines the important role that the ethnic Kouy, Cambodia’s traditional iron smelters, may have played in the placement and development of PKKS.

C7 Heng Piphal

University of Hawai’i, Manoa

Chronology of Sambor Prei Kuk

This paper will focus on the date of the pre-Angkorian capital of Sambor Prei Kuk–Isanapura. This is a critical topic regarding the early state formation and development, which Chinese accounts termed Chenla during the early 6^th century A.D. Providing a chronology of the capital would provide more insight regarding politics, economics, and ideology which might have changed from the time of Bhavavarman I to Jayavarman II. The paper presents a controversial issue regarding the role of ideology, religious to be specific, structured within the politics and economics of pre-Angkor Cambodia.

C7 Heng Sophady

Ministry of Culture and Fine Arts, Cambodia

Village 10.8 Iron Age Cemetery in the Red Soil Plateau, earthen of Mekong River

Despite identifying many new sites in recent years, most sites in the red soil area of eastern Kampong Cham remain a mystery and under-researched. The archaeological site of Village 10.8 was surveyed and excavated by the archaeological team of the Memot Centre for Archaeology between 2002 and 2008. This work revealed approximately 40 burials, a wide range of burial goods showing a possible link to the Dong Son culture, and radiocarbon dates between around 400B.C. to 50 B.C. Village 10.8 may therefore be an important transitional site between the Metal Age and the early historic period. Future research is required to date and understand the function of Village 10.8 before it is destroyed by agriculture and infract structure development in the area.

C7 Im Sokrithy

APSARA, Cambodia

A Study of Village Structures in the Angkor Area: Were they applying the Indian Treatise of Urbanization when Indianization covered Ancient Cambodia?

This paper will demonstrate an approach of a study on the structure of villages, where are known as prehistoric sites by scholars for years, situated within Angkor area. These villages classified as circular mound moat by their pattern. Based on research work done by Professor Bruno Dagens on the Indian Treatise Mayamata (Dagens 1970) and the research of Professor Jacques Gaucher on Angkor Thom (Gaucher 2005), we examined the structure of ancient villages in the Angkor area. The findings show continuing occupation on sites from the early in Cambodian history to the present. Villages are spatially concentrated around a central point represented by wooden posts. Two main roads, East-West and North-South, crossed each other at the central point thus dividing the village into four quadrants. The paper will examine the origin of this concept of spatial organization.

C7 Leisen, Hans

von Plehwe Leisen, Esther

University of Cologne

Hendrickson, Mitch

University of Sydney

Secrets within the Stone: Investigation of sandstone temples from Preah Khan of Kompong Svay

The paper presents a first overview of investigations on the sandstone materials used to build temples within the Angkorian city of Preah Khan of Kompong Svay, Cambodia. Part of the Industries of Angkor Project, the aims of this research is to identify the different sandstone varieties by their petrographic and physical properties, locate potential historic quarries, and formulate conservation concepts for the temple. Current work has focussed on non-destructive techniques in the field like macroscopic examination, water uptake measurements and determination of the magnetic susceptibility. Future work will examine the physical parameters of different stone varieties in the laboratory.

C7 Lustig, Eileen

University of Sydney

Cycles of influence: An epigraphic study of rulers and elites in the Angkorian period

To gain an appreciation of the control exercised by the Angkorian Empire, its political economy is studied by analysing aggregated spatial and temporal data from Pre-Angkorian and Angkorian period inscriptions. The success of the pre-modern Khmer state depended in part on its long-established communication and trade links and on an administration decentralised through regional centres. The mode of control varied with distance from the capital. Its political economy is marked by three simultaneous cycles indicative of changing power relationships: cycles of royal inscriptions; of non-royal inscriptions; and fluctuating control over peripheral territories. Its processes and strategies were sufficiently flexible for it to endure for approximately six centuries. At some stage from the 14^th century, key processes and strategies for maintaining its integrity as an empire became less effective than before, marking the end of the cyclical pattern.

C7 Miksic, John

National University of Singapore

The Bakong Kilns Near Roluos

A survey in the area near the Bakong temple in Roluos in December 2007 conducted by APSARA and students from the Royal University of Fine Arts, Phnom Penh, identified numerous kiln sites in that area. Two of these were subjected to emergency excavation in January 2008, and a single radiocarbon date was obtained. The sample size is small, so that conclusions from these results regarding the course of Khmer ceramic evolution must be provisional, but the finds here form an interesting contrast to those known from other kiln sites in the areas further north, at Tanei and on Phnom Kulen itself. The subject of ceramic studies in Khmer archaeology as practiced by Khmers is evolving rapidly, and further insights into the role of ceramics in ancient Khmer society, which in turn should eventually enable us to understand the organization of production and the economy in the empire.

C7 Phon Kaseka

Institute of Culture and Fine Arts, Royal Academy of Cambodia

CHEUNG EK CIRCULAR EARTHWORK SITE AND CULTURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

.The Cheung Ek circular earthwork, 770 m in diameter and surrounded by a moat and earthen wall, located west of the Cheung Ek Lake, has been investigated. Two pre-Angkorian temple foundations and three ancient water reservoirs were recorded and mapped. The research found 61 kilns, two of them located in the area of the circular earthwork, 11 temple foundations, and some habitation mounds. The Cheung Ek circular earthwork is not an isolated site but has a connection to the Bassc River. It has connection to neighboring sites such as Sre Ampil and Angkor Borei. People of the Cheung Ek circular earthwork developed their living settlement from a round village into a normal village. The cultural layer is very thin. The habitation activity was not very long.

One of the kilns inside the circular earthwork was investigated. The structure of the kiln was completely destroyed. Pottery was collected as well as beads, glass and other animal remains. The two dates from the northern and southern part of the kiln come out as 5^th and 7^th century AD. According to the dating, the Cheung Ek kiln is the oldest kiln in the history of Cambodia. The paper will describe the investigations at the Cheung Ek circular earthwork site.

C7 Federico Carò

Department of Scientific Research, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Janet G. Douglas

Department of Conservation and Scientific Research, Freer Gallery of Art/Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

SCULPTURAL MATERIALS OF THE ANGKOR PERIOD: PETROGRAPHY OF KHMER STONE USED FROM THE 9TH TO THE 14TH CENTURY

Our research focuses on the stone materials used by the Khmer in the production of sculptures during the Angkor period, which ranges from the 9h to 14th centuries AD. At the beginning, Mesozoic sandstone formations in Cambodia were employed principally a source for cladding material, and these materials were subsequently extended to use for sculpture in the round. Koh Ker sculptural production, confined in time in the second quarter of the 10th century, appears to have been the first in the Angkor period where the use of a new and distinctive stone material emerged. About two centuries later during the Bayon period, we see the appearance of another distinctive type of stone used for sculpture. In order to illustrate changes in the sculptural artistic medium through time and across geographical areas of Cambodia, petrographic data on over a hundred provenanced and unprovenanced sculptures from the National Museum of Cambodia, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, and the Musée Guimet are herein presented. A comprehensive petrographic and geochemical study of stones used by the Khmers for sculptural purposes would be a helpful tool for archaeologists, museum curators, and others who are investigating the context and provenance of Khmer stone sculptures from various perspectives.

C7 Stark, Miriam T.

Morrison, Alexander

University of Hawai’i Manoa

Changing Agrarian Landscapes: Economic and Political Development in Cambodia's Mekong Delta

Southeast Asian landscapes like the Mekong Delta were dynamic arenas of change in the first millennium CE. Research through the Lower Mekong Archaeological Project concentrates on Cambodia ’s Mekong Delta to explore interrelated roles of settlement and landscape change from c. 500 BCE – 1000 CE. This research blends historical ecological and landscape approaches to study interactions between human populations and their environment in a longitudinal perspective. This paper investigates how geographical factors influenced settlement and land use, and how those populations changed their landscape as they reorganized into complex polities. Findings from the 2003-2005 field seasons are combined with contemporary land-use data to form the empirical foundation of this paper, which particularly emphasizes the role of changing agrarian strategies. Use of a multiscalar analytical strategy offers insights on changing social, economic, and political boundaries within mainland Southeast Asia during the first millennium C.E.

SESSION C8

C8 Blench, Roger

Kay Williamson Educational Foundation, Cambridge

Seizing back art history from the art historians: some case studies

The amount of material on sculptural styles in the Indo-Pacific region and our understanding of their distribution has increased markedly in recent years, but their interpretation in terms of prehistory has apparently not kept pace. The paper suggests that we should be able to correlate both iconic objects and broad stylistic patterns with the language phyla of the region, especially in the Pacific, where external interaction has been limited compared with mainland SE Asia. To exemplify this idea, the paper looks at two case studies, the art styles of New Guinea and the bulul, the seated figure with arms crossed, which is found at least from the Philippines to the Aru islands and possibly further. In the case of New Guinea, the similarities between art styles across the whole island suggest a type of convergence analogous to the Papuan languages which are noted for their lexical diversity and phonological uniformity. The bulul are co-associated with the Austronesian expansion and can probably be mapped against individual subgroups. The object is to suggest that we can use the detailed studies of art historians to build a broader regional prehistory.

C8 Carlos, Jane

University of the Philippines

CANARIUM HIRSUTUM W. IN TERMINAL PLEISTOCENE TO HOLOCENE PHILIPPINES: IMPLICATIONS OF ANCIENT PLANT USE

Carbonized nut fragments were recovered from the archaeological sites of Eme Cave in Cagayan, Northern Philippines and Ille Cave in Palawan, Southwestern Philippines. Determined as Canarium hirsutum, W., these were found in layers radiocarbon dated from 10,000 to 1600 years ago. The presence of this nut in the terminal Pleistocene to the Holocene at two different areas of the Philippines is indicative of its importance as a food resource in ancient times. It also suggests the forested and warm palaeo-environment around the two cave sites and the reliance of early people on forest resources.

C8 Dwyer, Daniel

Charles Darwin University, Australia

DONG SON AND ISLAND SOUTHEAST ASIAN BOAT TECHNOLOGIES: SOME SIMILARITIES AND COMPARISONS

Noted and discussed here are similarities between some maritime technologies of insular Southeast Asia and the motifs displayed on Dong Son bronze artefacts from northern Vietnam. The island technologies are gathered from the archaeological record in the southern Philippines, bas-relief depictions at Borobudur in central Java, and ethnographic data collected in eastern Indonesia. Elements discussed include bipod masts, quarter steering oars, bow sweeps, external lashings, and decorative designs. Also raised is an interpretation of a tympanum motif as a double outrigger canoe. Acceptance of this interpretation would make the motif the earliest known recording of double outrigger canoe technology anywhere in Southeast Asia and could reopen for debate the origins of sponsons and outriggers in the region.

C8 Goto, Akira

Nanzan University, Nagoya, Japan

HOW IS THE JAPANESE ARCHIPELAGO AN ISLAND? A PERSPECTIVE FROM INDIGENOUS JAPANESE ARCHAEOLOGY AND ANTHROPOLOGY

Japanese archaeologists, ethnologists and historians have used a concept of "kai-jin" that means a maritime (=”kai”) people (=”jin”). The kai-jin was pronounced as "ama" in Japanese classical literatures to indicate fishing and salt-making people, and later it came to mean particular maritime clans who were responsible for specialized fishing as well as for piloting and naval war in the Yamato Dynasty. In recent usage, “ama” means specialized diver-fishers. In this presentation, I will argue that the "kai-jin" concept that has been used by Japanese archaeologists, historians and ethnologists for years is useful for grasping the maritime groups living in insular situation in Asia and the Pacific. In addition to "sea nomads" who live in house boats, I propose to include other type of groups in the concept of "kai-jin": e.g. the group who has a permanent costal village but a part of the family (usually men) emigrate for several months or even several years for the purpose of fishing, craft and trade. An example comes from the maritime potter-trader of Mare Island south of Tidore, Northern Maluku. I do not argue that the kai-jin concept is useful to grasp a particular ethnic group. Instead, I argue that “kai-jin” originally comprises multi-ethnic groups who adopted a common way of living or maritime habitus. Comparative discussions will be made of the prehistoric maritime groups such as Lapita and the Okhotsk cultures.

C8, Higashimura, Junko

Kyoto University Museum, Kyoto, Japan

THE INSULARITY OF WEAVING TECHNIQUES AMONG FORMOSAN ABORIGINIES

Taiwan aborigines use foot-balanced back-strap looms for weaving. Ethnographic studies show that there are variations in shapes of parts for their looms.On the other hand in Japan it is clear from archaeological and ethnological data that foot-balanced back-strap looms became extinct for technical exchanges between East Asian countries.It is supposed that weaving techniques of Taiwan aborigines have developed in isolation for a long time.

C8 Ishimura, Tomo

Nara National Research Institute for Cultural Properties

LOSS OF POTTERY IN OKINAWA AND OCEANIA

Prehistoric loss of pottery has been of interest to archaeologists for decades, and this process has been observed both in some parts of Oceania and the southern part of Okinawa (Sakishima Islands), Japan. These two regions have many common features in physical environment and material culture. The research of aceramic sites in the Sakishima Islands (2500-800 BP) showed some evidences of a great mobility of the people, in the light of the settlement setting and the material culture. This contradicts the notion that a breakdown of exchange and interaction lead to a decline of pottery industry. The example of the Sakishima Islands has some implication for understanding the same issue in Oceania.

C8 Nakamura, Daisuke

Korea University

CHARACTERISTICS OF PREHISTORIC LIAONING PENINSULA

There is a deep relation between the Liaodong and Shangdong peninsulas starting from 4000 B.C. when agriculture was brought from Shangdong to Liaodong peninsula. Later on, in about 2000 B.C., almost the same Shangdong peninsula pottery style appeared in the Liaodong peninsula. Then, while the pottery influence of the Shangdong peninsula disappeared from Shuangtouzi third period in Liaodong peninsula, the exchange was continued in the form of rice which was imported from the Shangdong peninsula where it already had paddy fields.

However the people who lived in the southern part of the Liaodong peninsula made cairns as their traditional graves. These are different from the burial system of the Shangdong peninsula throughout the period. In addition, the cairns and pottery of the Liaodong peninsula do not spread past its northern and western boundaries. When the Liaoning style bronze dagger came in from the north, ornamental pottery different from other areas kept on being used in the southern part of the Liaodong peninsula. Agriculture along with stone implements had diffused from Shangdong peninsula to the Korean Peninsula via the Liaodong peninsula. The pottery style and burial system of the Liaodong peninsula did not, however, influence other areas in contrast to agricultural relations.

The fact that there were Yan and Han dynasty forts in the Liaodong peninsula in the 3rd century B.C. shows the importance of this place as a transit area to the east. However the people living in the Liaoning peninsula were not cultural pioneers but intermediary traders for people living in areas surrounding them. This is believed to be caused by the area’s unique island characteristics.

C8 Sand, Christophe

Institute of Archaeology of New Caledonia and the Pacific

Iizuka,Yoshiyuki

Academia Sinica, Taipei

Russell Beck

New Zealand

REWRITING THE HISTORY OF THE KANAK “JADE CIRCLE”. PRELIMINARY RESULTS ON NEPHRITE SOURCING IN NEW CALEDONIA

Ethnographic studies about the origin of the stone adzes and axes produced by the Kanak population of New Caledonia during the last 1500 years before European contact, had built at the beginning of the XXth century, a simple scenario of adzes made of “serpentine” and flat ceremonial axes made of “jade”, quarried on the outer island of Ile Ouen in the southern part of the archipelago. Renewed studies on the petrography of the artefacts and the geological sources of the stones have started to show a much more complex story. Identification of the use of a number of similar, but different stone types, mainly anorthite from Ile Ouen and nephrite and semi-nephrite with diopside from at least one nephrite source on the main Island of New Caledonia, shed a completely new light on the pre-European stone production developed on this small remnant of Gondwanaland in Southern Melanesia.

C8 Shibutani, Ayako

Department of Comparative Studies, the Graduate University for Advanced Studies, Japan

CHANGES IN PLANT UTILIZATION FROM LATE PLEISTOCENE TO MIDDLE HOLOCENE IN JAPAN

Japan has experienced major alternations in forest distribution from late Pleistocene to middle Holocene. These environmental changes affected human choices and access to food sources. Especially, after temperate forests became more extensive, more settled patterns of living spread northwards and hunting-gathering-fishing people began cultivating vegetables and cereal crops. This paper shows changes in plant utilization from the late terminal Pleistocene to middle Holocene, using residue analyses of starchy tissues on early grinding stone tools in Japan. The aim is to demonstrate a correlation between environmental impact and human activities.

C8 Uozu, Tomokatsu
History Research Center, Otemae University, Japan

THE INSULAR TECHNOLOGICAL COMPLEX AND ITS CONTRIBUTION TO STATE FORMATION IN JAPAN: AN ANALYSIS ON METALLURGY

In Japan, recent excavations show that iron tools developed rapidly in the latter Yayoi Period. Especially, in Kyushu-district and the Sea of Japan coastal region, the ironware from Korean Peninsula was introduced into the regional elite's burial goods. From the end of Yayoi Period to the beginning of Kohun Period (AD 200-300), evidence which indicates the existence of a large-scale smithery village is found at Hakata-wan coast in north Kyushu. It's possible to assume that Hakata-wan was made a relay place of distribution of the iron material and ironware from Korean Peninsula to Japan. This is also proved from the burial ironware by technology from Korean Peninsula in early Kohun Period.
When this evidence is taken into consideration, it is suggested that ‘the Ancient Harbor City (AHC)’ which becomes a distribution center of goods (especially ironware and prestige goods) was indispensable for state formation in Japan. Simultaneously, the Ancient Kingdom Capital (AKC) is formed in the location of hinterland. Such a combination of AHC and AKC must be an early stage of state. In Asia, such processes seems quite common at coastal areas around China (and India).

SESSION C9

C9 Sand, Christophe

Ouetcho, André

Bolé, Jacques

Baret, David

Institute of Archaeology of New Caledonia and the Pacific

Dotte, Emilie

Université Paris I

CHRONOLOGY OF TRADITIONAL KANAK SETTLEMENTS: ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA FROM THE TIWAKA VALLEY (NEW CALEDONIA)

Over the past 20 years, a number of research programs from our local Department of Archaeology have started to study traditional Kanak settlement patterns in an archaeological perspective. Surveys have shown an unexpected density of habitation and horticultural sites, pointing to a significant intensification process before first European contact, with the building of sometimes massive settlements, characterized by large, high habitation mounds. This result has come in sharp contrast to ethnographic descriptions of traditional society, and has prompted, amongst other things, renewed questionings on the exact chronology of these settlements. The paper will present a series of case studies on settlement patterns and the results of chronological excavations from Kanak settlements in the Tiwaka valley (northeast of New Caledonia’s ‘Grande Terre’), to start to better define the detailed dynamics of traditional Kanak society in time and space.

C9 Ayres, William

University of Oregon

ARCHAEOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE ON MONUMENTAL ARCHITECTURE FROM POHNPEI, MICRONESIA

As a venue for political action deeply embedded in hierarchical social status differences, Nan Madol, Pohnpei, represents perhaps Micronesia’s most complex ritually-focused administrative place, both in the distant and the recent past. One purpose of archaeological research there has been to define changing site function through archaeological survey and excavation programs. A goal has been to establish how variation in monumental architecture and related archaeological data can be used to understand interaction at the local, community, and regional scales. Provenance of building materials, and other artifactual remains, at Nan Madol indicates something of the social and political catchment of early Pohnpeian leadership and community. As well, evidence from Nan Madol and related sites provides a way to test the hypothesis that the forms and the scale of mortuary expressions are positively related to the social and political scale of ritual and social marking. A combination of data from petrographic analysis of stone building materials, site distributions, portable artifact types and styles, and architectural forms provides a basis for testing hypotheses about the status of the site and its evolution over time as a central place in Pohnpeian and eastern Micronesia. At the same time, the archaeological and oral historical records provide another perspective of heterarchical arrangements of political and social interaction.

C9 Peterson, John A.

Carson, Mike T.

Micronesian Area Research Center, University of Guam

Bayman, James

Kurashina, Hiro

Department of Anthropology, University of Hawaii at Manoa

LATTE VILLAGES IN GUAM AND THE MARIANAS: MONUMENTAL OR COMMUNAL STRUCTURES?

The functions of latte structures in Guam and the Marianas have been treated in two significant perspectives that deserve examination relative to their monumental character. The classic ethnographic and ethnohistoric perspective interpreted latte structures as part of village complexes with both residential and communal functions. Materialistic interpretations, on the other hand, and more recently, characterized latte structures as chiefly houses with size possibly denoting relative power or rank among villagers and villages in the Marianas. Recognition of postholes in current investigations of coastal sites in Guam suggests that wooden pile or stilt houses are much more common than previously recognized, and this, along with other data, suggests that the more visible remains at archaeological sites of latte structures have biased interpretations of village proxemics. In the last two decades considerable data have accumulated regarding both coastal and upland latte villages. These suggest, as did much of the earlier ethnographic work in the region, that latte sets were likely special use structures such as men’s houses, women’s houses, or canoe sheds, and not simply “chiefly residences”. Recent ethnological studies also suggest that power in Micronesian communities is often horizontal, not vertical, and may not leave diagnostic markers in the material cultural record. Based on this understanding, we propose a model for testing village proxemics as illustrated by case studies in the Marianas and from current investigations at the Ritidian Unit, Guam National Wildlife Refuge, in Guam.

C9 Cauchois, Hinanui

University of Hawaii at Manoa

MONUMENTALITY, INTERIOR SETTLEMENT, AND DEFENSIVE PRACTICES IN PAPETOAI VALLEY, MO’OREA, SOCIETY ISLANDS

This paper presents the first results of an archaeological project conducted in the main valley of Papetoai, Mo‘orea, in the Society Islands (French Polynesia). This research project, as part of a PhD supervised by Dr. Michael Graves (University of New Mexico), looks at the development of inland settlement patterns in relation to expansion of agricultural systems and defensive practices. Built upon archaeological and historical materials as well as oral traditions, its goal is to develop a general model that will explain how inland areas of the Society Islands developed from remote uninhabited zones into areas where agricultural resources were established and possibly defended, and ultimately used as refuge areas for groups, seeking independence from political integration in the archipelago. This model will also be compared with other regions of Polynesia (Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, New Zealand and Hawaii) to look at different trajectories.

C9 Kahn, Jennifer G.

Bishop Museum, Hawaii

THE CONSTRUCTION, DEDICATION, AND FUNCTION OF AGGREGATE MARAE SITE COMPLEXES IN THE WINDWARD SOCIETY ISLANDS

Multi-marae or Aggregate Marae site complexes are ubiquitous in the ‘Opunohu Valley, Mo‘orea (Society Islands) but have not yet been dated at a fine scale. Such concentrations of temple sites are considered material equivalents of kin-congregations, where lineages proliferated and segmented through time. I report on new mapping, excavations, and dating of ‘Opunohu Valley aggregate site complexes to link marae construction sequences to temple typologies, most notably, to date the occurrence of ahu (altar)-bearing marae and the advent of aggregate site complex construction. In many cases the nature of the temple construction fill deposits indicate feasting events that took place at the time of temple construction, allowing for precise construction events/ritual commemoration events to be dated. Contextualizing the spatio-temporal sequence of temple construction in relation to house construction allows for a more holistic view of Society Island marae function to be offered in two prehistoric socio-political districts in the ‘Opunohu Valley. These data are then related to community and regional wide shifts in socio-political organization, land tenure, and territoriality, most notably occupational specialization and mechanisms for elites to establish and affirm social difference and political domination.

C9 Maric, Tamara

Université de Paris 1, Panthéon-Sorbonne & Service de la Culture et du Patrimoine, Papeete

HIGH ALTITUDE MONUMENTAL RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE: A COMPARISON OF PAPARA AND PAPENO‘O VALLEYS, TAHITI, SOCIETY ISLANDS

This paper presents examples of monumental religious architecture from the island of Tahiti (Society Islands), and its link with the different social classes found within Tahitian society. The marae were stone religious structures, which were closely linked with the familial and social status of their owners. Besides the religious function, they served as symbols of landowning and territorial and social cohesion. Other types of marae were devoted to different specialized purposes, in particular, subsistence activities (fishing, making stone tools, healing, and so on).

Following ethnohistorical accounts and previous archaeological studies, some architectural types of complex marae can be associated without much doubt with the social elite, while the most simple types can correspond to lowest social classes and/or specialized activities. I examine their geographical location, spatial association with habitat and agricultural sites, to aid in reconstructing the overall settlement pattern of the ancient districts, the general spread of different social classes within the territory, and their possible inter-relationships.

My case study focuses on the margins of occupation in altitude, where agricultural sites are present. The types of remains in those marginal areas are compared with settlement pattern in more accessible areas: Are these agricultural sites representative of usual production? Are there material indications of elites’ presence, or control on production? I present examples from Papara, a locality of Tahiti with elites of high political status, supposedly one of the highest ranking districts situated in the Windward Islands. The territorial limits of this locality allow for access to marine resources, large coastal and fertile plains, and sectors of lands cultivated in central mountains of the island. On the opposite side of the island, the archaeological remains of the large Papeno‘o Valley are examined in relation to local resources, agricultural sites, and basalt.

C9 Wallin, Paul

Gotland University

Solsvik, Reidar

Kon-Tiki Museum

TRACING RITUAL BEHAVIOR AND TEMPORAL DIMENSIONS: CASE STUDIES FROM RECENT WORK ON HUAHINE, FRENCH POLYNESIA

In this paper we are going to present a case study recently carried out at marae Manunu, Huahine, French Polynesia, tracing ritual behavior on the courtyard of this national temple. In combining phosphate analysis, not previously applied to Polynesian ritual structures, with osteological analysis of midden materials excavated at the site, and a detailed reading of ethno-historical sources, we can gain a more comprehensive picture of ritual activities carried out at the site. Discrete patterns on their own may in this way become visible and meaningful. Another case study concerns how it is possible to approach the dating of both architecturally complex and architecturally simple ritual sites. We believe that an approach that considers the life cycle of ritual structures is essential in framing the temporal longevity of marae sites. Thus, the later phases of use and rebuilding is just as important as isolating the first construction sequence, when trying to understand these structures/sites, their history, and their location in the settlement and island landscape. We consider these methods useful for future work on ritual structures in East Polynesia, but they may have an equal high potential in studying simple ritual sites further west in the Pacific.

C9 Rolett, Barry V.

University of Hawaii at Manoa

EMERGENCE OF MONUMENTAL ARCHITECTURE IN THE MARQUESAS ISLANDS (EAST POLYNESIA)

Marquesan monumental architecture may have emerged and flourished in the context of social competition among relatively isolated chiefdoms. Systematic survey and excavation of monumental architecture in Vaitahu Valley provides evidence supporting this interpretation. Our Vaitahu study area contains a complex of sites including a high-status residence and two nearby religious me‘ae, one of which yielded a set of four stone tiki. These sites were built and occupied from the late prehistoric to the early historic era. Long term patterns in the interisland exchange of basalt adzes help to reveal changes in the degree of friendly interaction among separate chiefdoms. WD-XRF analysis of adzes from the Vaitahu sites supports previous findings that interisland exchange declined significantly after AD 1450. This change is best explained by a late prehistoric contraction of interaction spheres, suggesting that Marquesan monumental architecture developed in a setting of increasingly competitive chiefdoms with hostile relationships that limited opportunities for friendly exchange.

C9 West, Eric W.

NAVFAC Pacific

Rolett, Barry V.

University of Hawaii at Manoa

THE USE OF ZOOARCHAEOLOGY WITH OTHER LINES OF EVIDENCE TO INTERPRET MONUMENTAL ARCHITECTURE: A CASE STUDY FROM TAHUATA, MARQUESAS ISLANDS (EAST POLYNESIA)

On Tahuata in the Marquesas Islands of East Polynesia controlled excavations directly within monumental architecture have contributed important information about the past. Radiocarbon dating and relative dating indicate the monumental architecture of Vaitahu Valley was constructed and occupied between the late prehistoric and early historic periods (ca. 1700-1900 AD), and confirms the Hanamiai Dune site on the coast was continuously occupied from ca. 1025 AD to 1850 AD. Age data from pig teeth excavated at both research areas reveals a pattern of selectively harvesting pigs before they became adults to maximize production efficiency. The data presented from Vaitahu Valley was collected from a sample of 194 pig teeth excavated from four monumental architecture sites including high status residential and ceremonial sites. Stable isotope data from the pig teeth show pig diet changed over time from a combination of terrestrial and marine protein sources, to a diet of strictly terrestrial protein. We interpret these findings in the context of the emergence of Marquesan monumental architecture.

C9 Allen, Melinda S.

University of Auckland

VARIABILITY IN MEGALITHIC DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE AS A PROXY FOR SOCIO-POLITICAL CHANGE, MARQUESAS ISLANDS

Variability in domestic architecture offers an opportunity to track changing status and power relations within and across communities. Domestic architecture in the Marquesas Islands is particularly well suited to this endeavour, as stone pavements, terraces, and platforms were used for house foundations by both elites and non-elites, with considerable variation in structure size, raw materials, internal complexity, and spatial attributes. Of particular interest in the Marquesan case is transformation from the ancestral hereditary chiefdom to the contact-period situation, where the importance of genealogical associations were reduced, leadership rights in varied realms contested amongst elites at large, and the role of individual achievements elevated. The argument is made that domestic structures should be particularly sensitive markers of individual attempts to exert control over resources, other community members, and more generally ideology. Specifically, changes in the character and frequency of status markers in house foundations, and the character, abundance and distribution of elite domestic sites within communities, are anticipated to inform on when and why the socio-political structures observed at western contact emerged.

C9 Stephen, Jesse

University of Hawaii at Manoa

McCoy, Mark

University of Otago

Ladefoged, Thegn

University of Auckland

Graves, Michael W.

University of New Mexico

TRACKING CHANGES IN MONUMENTAL RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE: MAUI AND HAWAI‘I ISLAND

Recent archaeology in Hawaii has refocused attention on traditional religious architecture (heiau)—its variability, identification as such, patterns of spatial or directional organization on the landscape, possible changes in architectural forms, and estimates of labor investment to name but a few. This paper addresses the thorny issues of identification when ethnohistoric or contemporary records are lacking, and the sometimes differing views of archaeologists (consulting and academic) and Native Hawaiians on what constitutes a heiau. Research in Kohala, Hawai‘i island will illustrate how we have attempted to resolve this issue. We also report on our efforts to examine co-evolutionary changes in heiau architecture as indicative of inter-group interaction and the degree to which monumental forms serve to express competitive ability on the island of Maui.

C9 Morrison, Alex E.

University of Hawaii, Manoa and International Archaeological Research Institute Inc.

Filimoehala, Chris

University of Hawaii, Manoa

Bell, Matthew

International Archaeological Research Institute Inc.

MULTI-SCALE REMOTE SENSING APPROACHES FOR DOCUMENTING MONUMENTAL ARCHITECTURE ON RAPA, NUI, CHILE

The island of Rapa Nui is perhaps best known for the more than 700 megalithic statutes located across the island’s landscape. However, a diversity of other monumental archaeological features exists on the surface of the island. This presentation explores a variety of remote sensing techniques for recording monumental architecture. These methods include low elevation aerial photography, blimp and kite assisted aerial photography, and satellite imagery. 3 dimensional methods are also discussed. Finally, the ramification of these recording techniques for heritage management and archaeological research is considered.

SESSION C10

C10 Field, Julie S.

Ohio State University

Lape , Peter V.

University of Washington

PALAEOCLIMATES AND THE EMERGENCE OF FORTIFICATIONS IN THE INDO-PACIFIC

A number of recent studies from Europe, China, North America, and Central America have suggested correlations between climate change and broad cultural responses including war, economic decline, and societal collapse. The available palaeoclimatic data from the Indo-Pacific region are compared to the frequency of fortifications constructed in the Holocene. The results suggest that some regions experienced conflict during periods of coolness that match the chronology for the Little Ice Age (AD 1450-1850) in the Northern Hemisphere. Periods of storminess and drought associated with the El Niño Southern Oscillation have less of a temporal correlation with the emergence of fortifications in the Indo-Pacific, but the spatial distribution of the most severe conditions associated with this cycle suggests a causal relationship that requires additional study.

C10 Nunn, Patrick D.

Chandra, Reemal

Qolicokota, Kalivati

Sanjana, Shalni

Veitata, Sainimere

The University of the South Pacific, Suva, Fiji

CHRONOLOGY AND SIGNIFICANCE OF INLAND, UPLAND SETTLEMENTS IN THE BA RIVER CATCHMENT, VITI LEVU ISLAND, FIJI: RESULTS FROM INITIAL INVESTIGATIONS

The Ba River catchment occupies most of the northeast part of Viti Levu Island (Fiji). Details of its prehistoric settlement history are almost completely unknown although a number of fortified hilltop and cave sites are reported from here and the adjoining Vatia Peninsula. A study funded by the Vetlesen Foundation began in March 2009 and focused on locating, excavating, analysing and interpreting key sites in this part of Fiji. The main research question is whether or not the majority of these sites, as with those in the Sigatoka Valley (southwest Viti Levu Island), were established and occupied only after the AD 1300 Event when a food crisis (driven by sea-level fall) forced people away from island coasts and into defendable sites in island interiors. This presentation will give details of the preliminary investigations of the Ba River valley fortifications and discuss future research plans.

C10 Veitata, Sainimere

University of the South Pacific, Fiji

Field, Julie S.

Ohio State University

TRANSIT CAMPS OR EARLY INLAND OCCUPATIONS? THE EARLY FORTIFIED SITES AT KOROIKEWA, NADRUGU (BA VALLEY) AND TATUBA (SIGATOKA VALLEY), VITI LEVU ISLAND, FIJI

The Ba and the Sigatoka River valleys make up most of north and west Viti Levu Island, the largest in the Fiji group. While there has been extensive research conducted in the Sigatoka River valley, no prehistoric sites in the Ba valley have been described before this study (funded by the G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation). Excavations at Koroikewa, a 900-m high ridge-top site above Nadrugu Village in the Ba valley, and Tatuba, a fortified cave in the higher reaches of the Sigatoka valley, show that they were first occupied by people 1500–2000 BP, much earlier than the majority of inland sites on Viti Levu. Questions about the functions of these early inland sites revolve around the question of whether they were transit sites, perhaps for people crossing the island along these long broad valleys, or genuine inland occupations by persons fleeing conflict and/or undertaking subsistence activities in the immediate vicinity.

C10 Robb, Kasey

Nunn, Patrick D.

University of the South Pacific, Fiji

CHRONOLOGY AND SIGNIFICANCE OF INLAND, UPLAND SETTLEMENTS IN THE BA RIVER CATCHMENT, VITI LEVU ISLAND, FIJI: RESULTS FROM INITIAL INVESTIGATIONS

The Ba River catchment occupies most of the northeast part of Viti Levu Island (Fiji). Details of its prehistoric settlement history are almost completely unknown although a number of fortified hilltop and cave sites are reported from here and the adjoining Vatia Peninsula. A study funded by the Vetlesen Foundation began in March 2009 and focused on locating, excavating, analysing and interpreting key sites in this part of Fiji. The main research question is whether or not the majority of these sites, as with those in the Sigatoka Valley (southwest Viti Levu Island), were established and occupied only after the AD 1300 Event when a food crisis (driven by sea-level fall) forced people away from island coasts and into defendable sites in island interiors. This presentation will give details of the preliminary investigations of the Ba River valley fortifications and discuss future research plans.

C10 Sanjana, Shalni

Robb, Kasey

University of the South Pacific, Fiji

FORTIFIED SETTLEMENTS OF THE VATIA PENINSULA, NORTH-COAST VITI LEVU ISLAND, FIJI

Archaeological investigations on the Vatia Peninsula, located on the north coast of Viti Levu Island in Fiji, have identified inland fortified hilltop and cave sites. Initial dating of these fortified sites suggests they represent societal responses to the climate-driven food crisis that affected the tropical Pacific during the AD 1300 Event. Although this study (part of a larger project funded by the G. Unger Vetlesen Foundation) is still in progress, a description of all the sites investigated thus far in this area will be given, with initial results concerning their chronology and functions. The fortified sites along the Vatia Peninsula sometimes exhibit different levels which may show the social hierarchal system existing during the time of occupation.

C10 Bulbeck, David

Department of Archaeology and Natural History, The Australian National University

Ian Caldwell

University of Leeds, UK

THE HISTORICAL ARCHAEOLOGY OF INDIGENOUS FORTS IN SIXTEENTH TO NINETEENTH CENTURY SOUTH SULAWESI, INDONESIA

In the early twentieth century the Netherlands Indies government imposed full colonial rule over southwest Sulawesi, more than 350 years after the first European visit to the region. Indigenous fortresses were constructed throughout these years, in response to at least three identifiable factors. These were: (1) population density, (2) competition for supremacy, and (3) military technology. (1) Towns and cities of up to 50,000 inhabitants arose throughout the lowlands in critical locations for controlling agriculture and trade, mainly of rice and slaves. The Macassar port was a cosmopolitan city throughout most of the period, and many smaller centres experienced a similar stability; elsewhere there were major population shifts in response to economic and political changes. (2) Possession of Macassar – the peninsula’s main port – was the key to controlling the rice-growing lowlands by virtue of its excellent harbour and fertile hinterland. In the seventeenth century, possession switched hands from the indigenous Makasars to the Dutch, who controlled the export trade, in partnership with the Bugis, South Sulawesi’s main ethnic group, who dominated the rice growing regions of the peninsula. In Luwu, a broad coastal region north of the Dutch-Bugis sphere of control, local rivalries continued unabated until the early twentieth century. (3) The most solid fortresses and defensive walls of brick and masonry were erected in Macassar and its environs, due to the introduction of technological expertise, the city’s exposure to cannon fire, and the focused massing of troops. Elsewhere, indigenous construction of forts (varying in complexity from single walls to quadrangular enceintes) continued to rely largely on earthen embankments and timber/bamboo palisades.

C10 Lape, Peter V.

University of Washington

COMPARING AND EXPLAINING FORTIFIED SITES IN TIMOR LESTE AND EASTERN INDONESIA

A number of fortified settlements have now been excavated by the author and other scholars in Island Southeast Asia and Oceania. Although there is some evidence that many of them were initially constructed during periods of climatic variability, environmental changes do not completely explain the long term use history of these places, many of which remain centrally important in contemporary SE Asian societies. This paper will review data from several sites in Timor Leste and eastern Indonesia and propose avenues for future investigations.

C10 Chao Chin-yung

Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan

Lape, Peter V.

University of Washington, USA

THE APPEARANCE AND PERSISTENCE OF LATE PREHISTORIC DEFENSIVE SETTLEMENT PATTERNS IN MANATUTO, TIMOR LESTE

A number of recent archaeological researches have proposed diverse models to the origins of defensive settlement patterns in this region. This paper suggests that causes for the initial appearance of defensive sites could have largely varied from the persistent ultilization of these sites.

C10 O’Connor, Sue

Brockwell, Sally

The Australian National University

da Silva, Abilio

Direcçãonacional da Cultura, Ministério da Educação, Timor Leste

RECENT RESULTS FROM INVESTIGATIONS INTO PREHISTORIC FORTS AND WALLED SETTLEMENTS IN TIMOR LESTE

The remains of fortified walled structures abound in remote hilltop locations in the contemporary landscape of Timor Leste. Previous investigations suggest that they began to be constructed about 1300 AD. Some archaeologists have linked the emergence of fortified settlements in Timor Leste with a period of rapid climate change, environmental variation and reduced rainfall leading to resource scarcity and inter-group conflict (cf Lape and Chao). In the light of more recent results from field work in 2008 and 2009, this paper presents a re-examination of the evidence. It describes a recent collaboration between archaeology and anthropology to document the nature and timing of cultural change in East Timor over the last 1000 years, through a detailed investigation of the fortifications. The results are tested against independent scientific data to establish whether climate change was in fact a catalyst for cultural change, or whether fortifications were the result of other social and economic factors. We suggest that although some forts may have been occupied as early as the 14th century, the peak of occupation was in the 15th-16th centuries, later than the climate change indicators, which suggests that factors other than environmental ones may have been responsible.

C10 Fenner, Jack N.

Sally Brockwell

Sue O’Connor

Archaeology and Natural History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University

BAYESIAN MUSINGS ON THE DATING OF THE FORTIFIED SETTLEMENT AT MACAPAINARA, EAST TIMOR

Investigators have proposed a number of alternative scenarios to explain why people constructed and maintained fortified settlements in East Timor. Some of these scenarios involve climatic or social interactions that occurred at different time periods, so establishing the foundation dates for a series of fortifications would distinguish among the scenarios and reduce the uncertainty. We investigate the foundation date for one such fortified settlement at Macapainara, using Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon and other data to assign specific probabilities to proposed initial occupation dates for the site. We also provide an initial rough estimate of the marine shell radiocarbon offset (ΔR) for eastern East Timor.

C10 McWilliam, Andrew

The Australian National University

SOCIAL DRIVERS AND FORTIFIED SETTLEMENTS IN TIMOR LESTE

Archaeologist's Lape and Chao (2008) have argued that defensive fortified settlements emerged in East Timor during the late Holocene (post 1000 years BP) due to severe and rapid climatic events associated with ENSO variation. The key El Nino impact was decreasing and variable rainfall leading to protracted droughts from1000AD with a peak period 1300-1400AD. This in turn resulted in food scarcity and gave rise to the construction of defensive fortifications particularly in areas which had permanent water flows and which remained agriculturally viable during drought. People built forts to protect themselves against others who lived in more distant regions and who were suffering food shortages, or so the argument goes. This paper draws on a range of historical and archaeological evidence to suggest an alternative set of social drivers for processes of fortification. They comprise historically momentous changes in social conditions that coincided with the advent of Portuguese colonialism in the region from the early 16th Century (1500) and included four key social drivers, namely, the introduction of trade in firearms and gunpowder, the introduction of maize into Timorese livelihoods, a boom in sandalwood trading from the late 16th century, and a thriving trade in human slaves. Environmental effects have played an important role in the development of Timorese livelihoods and residential choices, but in the case of fortified defensive settlements, it looks like socio-economic drivers rather than drastic climate change that deserve attention.

C10 Villanueva, Zandro V.

University of the Philippines

INVESTIGATION OF A MOATED-FORTIFIED SETTLEMENT SITE IN LUBANG ISLAND, PHILIPPINES

This paper explores the nature of culture contact experience of the early historical polities in the Philippines. Most of the early historical fortifications in the Philippines are natural formations or Spanish church structures that served both as a place of worship and/or a defensive construction against other hostile polities. The presence of moated-fortified settlement sites in the Philppines are hardly found in the islands. This study is an investigation of a moated site that served as a fortification and settlement site by the local people and later on re-used by Spanish colonial populations in Lubang Island, Northern Minodoro, ca. AD 1200- AD1800. The historical analysis and the result of the archaeological excavation at Lubang Island allows us to reexamine the entanglements of local populations against the colonial culture and how these entanglements have been perceived, mediated, and even transformed by the actions of native peoples in the past.

C10 Neri, Leee M.

University of Philippines, Philippines

SPANISH STRUCTURAL RUINS FOUND IN THE COASTAL AREA IN NORTHERN MINDANAO, PHILIPPINES

This paper is the result of the initial archaeological survey conducted in2007 and 2008 along the coastal area of northern Mindanao, particularly in the provinceof Misamis Oriental, Philippines. Seven visible structures of Spanish ruins were identified. Majority of these ruins were already abandoned and only a number were preserved and protected. These seven ruins are located in the municipalities of Initao, Laguindingan, El Salvador, Opol, Jasaan, Balingoan, and the city of Gingoog. These ruins are very significant to our collective understanding of the past. They are part of local histories that shape their respective towns and the local community in general.

C10 Fife, L. Ray

University of New England, NSW, Australia

BACH MA: HISTORY AND ARCHAEOLOGY AT A FRENCH COLONIAL HILL STATION IN CENTRAL VIETNAM, 1930-1990

The character of French hill stations in Indochina changed leading up to World War II as internal and external threats to French colonial rule developed. An historical and archaeological study of Bach Ma Hill Station near Hue in Central Vietnam suggests that the French mountain holiday resorts were developing new roles during the Japanese occupation of Vietnam. The material fabric of Bach Ma also reflects the character of colonial social interaction between different social groups. The history and the material fabric of Bach Ma symbolise not only the character of French colonial rule, but also Vietnamese resistance to it.

SESSION C11

C11 Ulm, Sean

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies Unit, University of Queensland

Evans, Nicholas

Department of Linguistics, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University

Rosendahl, Daniel

Memmott, Paul

Aboriginal Environments Research Centre, University of Queensland

MODELLING THE EMERGENCE OF KAIADILT CULTURE IN THE SOUTH WELLESLEY ISLANDS, GULF OF CARPENTARIA, NORTHERN AUSTRALIA

Norman Tindale famously characterised the Kaiadilt people of the South Wellesley Islands as an ancient relict population which had ‘stood apart from the general flow of people who, over the last 50,000 years or more, have entered into Australia’. Indeed, the isolation of Bentinck Island has been long been cited as a major factor in the development of the distinctive biology, language and material culture of Kaiadilt people. But when did this distinctive cultural form emerge and how did it develop? We present a model for occupation and cultural developments on the South Wellesley Islands based on new excavations which reveal occupation confined to the last 2000 years. These results are not only at odds with Tindale’s theorising, but prompt a re-thinking of linguistic models which suggest initial occupation in the last 1000 years. Results are consonant with a period of major change documented in Indigenous lifeways across northern Australia in the last 1700 years, post-dating a major gap in the occupation of islands associated with increasing frequency of ENSO events

C11 Sand, Christophe

Bolé, Jacques

Ouetcho, André

Baret, David

Institute of Archaeology of New Caledonia and the Pacific

THE RISE OF THE “TRADITIONAL KANAK CULTURAL COMPLEX” IN NEW CALEDONIA: INTENSIFICATION PROCESSES IN A SOUTHERN MELANESIAN ARCHIPELAGO

Archaeological investigations conducted over the last two decades in New Caledonia have allowed us to profoundly reshape our understanding of the last 1000 years of the cultural chronology, by highlighting a major intensification of land use, associated with the emergence of what we have defined as the “Traditional Kanak Cultural Complex”. This summary paper will focus on the different aspects of intensification that can today be better studied through a whole array of archaeological discoveries, ranging from the development of terraced taro pond-fields to large settlements of raised house-mounds and long distance exchanges across the archipelago.

C11 Specht, Jim

Australian Museum

CONNECTED OR CUT-OFF? PAPUA NEW GUINEA’S ISLAND PROVINCES DURING THE LAST MILLENIUM

Archaeological research in the island provinces of Papua New Guinea has been dominated for the last 25 years by concerns with Pleistocene colonisation, Holocene flaked stone industries and issues relating to Lapita pottery origins and dispersal. In contrast, little attention has been devoted to the last millennium of human history in this region. This is surprising, as this period witnessed the emergence of socio-economic structures that became the focus of much anthropological research during the 20th century. Furthermore, it was a period during which the Indo-Malaysian archipelago was drawn into the wider world economic and political systems through intense interaction with various Asian and European agencies. The paper examines what this interaction might have meant for the societies of the island provinces of Papua New Guinea, outside interest in which appears to have started only within the last 200 years.

C11 Addison, David J.

Samoan Studies Institute, American Samoa Community College

THE ORIGIN OF THE POLYNESIANS: AN ALTERNATIVE VIEW

This paper discusses the last 1000 years in Samoa and Samoa’s influence in the region during this period. Archaeological, linguistic, and oral historical data are used to explore the idea that “Polynesians” arose in Samoa’s Manu’a Islands ~1500 years ago and spread over the next centuries into West Polynesia profoundly changing the region with more limited influence on islands farther west.

C11 Hunter-Anderson, Rosalind L.

Anthropology Dept, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA

LAST MILLENNIUM CLIMATE CHANGES AND EVOLUTION OF ANCESTRAL CHAMORRO

CULTURE IN THE MARIANA ISLANDS, MICRONESIA

Evolution of Ancestral Chamorro culture is associated with a century-scale climate oscillation from the Medieval Warm Period (MWP) to the Little Ice Age (LIA). Over the Last Millennium, seasonal tropical western Pacific climates shifted from wetter to drier, and typhoons became more frequent. These climatic changes had dramatic implications for agricultural populations in small islands such as the Marianas. Generally favorable agricultural conditions during the MWP (c. 1100-650 BP) resulted in relatively reliable harvests and a rise in human population size and social complexity. Less favorable climate for growing tropical crops during the LIA (c. 650-100 BP) made harvests less reliable and provoked technical and social changes reflected in the archaeological record. These include settlement

expansion from coastal to upland settings, more food and water storage capacity (subterranean pits and larger ceramic vessels), and contraction of social networks within the archipelago. A case study from Guam and comparative settlement data from Rota, as well as compositional analyses of ceramic data from the southern Marianas, illustrate or manifest these adaptive responses.

C11 Sand, Christophe

Ouetcho, André

Bolé, Jacques

Baret, David

Institute of Archaeology of New Caledonia and the Pacific

Dotte, Emilie

Université Paris I

CHRONOLOGY OF TRADITIONAL KANAK SETTLEMENTS: ARCHAEOLOGICAL DATA FROM THE TIWAKA VALLEY (NEW CALEDONIA)

Over the past 20 years, a number of research programs from our local Department of Archaeology have started to study traditional Kanak settlement patterns in an archaeological perspective. Surveys have shown an unexpected density of habitation and horticultural sites, pointing to a significant intensification process before first European contact, with the building of sometimes massive settlements, characterized by large, high habitation mounds. This result has come in sharp contrast to ethnographic descriptions of traditional society, and has prompted, amongst other things, renewed questionings on the exact chronology of these settlements. The paper will present a series of case studies on settlement patterns and the results of chronological excavations from Kanak settlements in the Tiwaka valley (northeast of New Caledonia’s ‘Grande Terre’), to start to better define the detailed dynamics of traditional Kanak society in time and space.

C11 Lilley, Ian

University of Queensland

ALL OR NOTHING – THE LAST 1,000 YEARS IN REGIONAL PERSPECTIVE

The last 1000 years comprise the whole of the prehistory of some societies in the Western Pacific, if New Zealand is included, and at least around a third of the prehistory of those other parts of Remote Oceania in the region, but this period makes up only the very last tiny fraction of the vast human history of places first colonized in the Pleistocene. These significant variations in temporal scale and thus in the historical dynamics under consideration in this session require careful thought, because they underpin some considerable differences in the patterns of emergence, development and archaeological signatures of traditional indigenous societies in the region.

SESSION C12

C12 Bestel, Sheahan

Monash University, Australia

RESIDUE ANALYSIS OF PEILIGANG (8500-7000 BP) STONE SICKLES FROM NORTH CHINA

A selection of the characteristic stone sickles from three Peiligang (8500-7000 BP) sites in central Henan of the Middle Yellow River region were examined for plant residues. The sickles have always been assumed to have been used as cereal harvesting tools, however no use-wear studies have previously been carried out on this type of tool to confirm this hypothesis. An examination of the residues from the tools has shed light on this debated topic.

C12 Dai Xiangming

National Museum of China

CHANGES OF SETTLEMENT PATTERNS AND DEVELOPMENT OF SOCIAL COMPLEXITY IN THE EASTERN YUNCHENG BASIN, NORTH-CENTRAL CHINA

We carried out the full-coverage surveys from 2003 to 2006 in the eastern Yuncheng Basin, north-central China, and reconstructed the process of the changes of settlement patterns from the Neolithic to the early Bronze Age (ca. 5000-1300 B.C.). This process can clearly reflect the changes of social organizations and the development of social complexity through time. In general, the eastern Yuncheng Basin witnessed a long-term social evolutionary process, from simple and egalitarian societies to hierarchical complex societies. It may have represented a typical trajectory of social development in central China.

C12 FANG Hui

Shandong University, China

CINNABAR REMAINS IN NEOLITHIC AND EARLY BRONZE AGE CHINA: A PERSPECTIVE ON RITUAL AND POWER

Through observing cinnabar remains in archaeological excavations, the author points out that cinnabar were used in three different ways mainly during Neolithic and Early Bronze Age China: daubing on holy objects such as special pot or wall, sprinkling to express religious ceremony and ritual, and laying out under body of death. All these three methods could be traced back to 6,000 years BP, and the third one, laying out at bottom of burial, was gradually developed into an irrepealably step on nobles’ funeral in Longshan period and continued till the late Bronze Age.

C12 Ford, Anne

The University of Otago, New Zealand

STONE TOOL PRODUCTION-DISTRIBUTION SYSTEMS AT HUIZUI, CHINA

The Erlitou culture (1900-1500 BC) has been postulated as the earliest state-level society in China, with evidence for social stratification, palatial/temple remains, craft specialization and elite good production. Whilst much attention has been focussed upon the production and distribution of elite goods, in comparison, little is known of the utilitarian items. This paper will focus upon the evidence for stone tool production and distribution during this time period by investigating raw material procurement, production and distribution for five tool types at the site of Huizui, located in Henan Province, China.

C12 Fullagar, Richard

Scarp Archaeology and University of Wollongong, Australia

Li Liu

La Trobe University, Australia

Sheahan Bestel

La Trobe University, Monash University, Australia

Duncan Jones, Wei Ge, Anthony Wilson, Shaodong Zhai

La Trobe University, Australia

STONE TOOL-USE EXPERIMENTS TO DETERMINE THE FUNCTION OF GRINDING STONES AND DENTICULATE SICKLES

Within a broader study of early Chinese agriculture, stone tool-use experiments were undertaken to document usewear on sandstone and tuff implements used to process Quercus acorns, Avena oats and Setaria millet. Other experiments examined usewear on denticulate slate sickles used to harvest Quercus acorns, Poaceae grass and Typha reeds. Results support other studies that indicate different patterns of abrasive smoothing, striation formation and polish development together provide a basis for distinguishing some of these tasks. This research is aimed to establish a database for functional analysis of grinding stones and sickles from the early Neolithic Peiligang culture. More controlled experiments are required to identify critical variables (e.g. silica in husks) that affect usewear patterns.

C12 GE Wei

The University of Science and Technology of China

FOOD FOR THE ANCESTORS OF QIN: STARCH ANALYSIS OF FUNERARY VESSELS FROM LIXIAN, GANSU

Starch grains have been found in many archaeological contexts and can provide significant evidence concerning the use of plants in the past. Starch residue analysis was applied to artifacts excavated from the Xishan site in the southeast of Gansu province, China. The site dates to the western Zhou dynasty (1100-771 BC). A total of 475 starch granules were recovered from 7 stone tools and 8 pottery containers. These starch granules were preliminarily assigned to six different genera. The results suggest that the people in the kingdom of Qin cultivated and consumed a variety of plants in the late Zhou dynasty.

C12 Hung Ling-yu

Washington University in St. Louis

Jianfeng Cui

Peking University

A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION OF POTTERY PRODUCTION AND EMERGING SOCIAL HIERARCHY AT THE LATE NEOLITHIC LIUWAN SITE, QINGHAI, NW CHINA.

The Liuwan cemetery is a large and well-preserved prehistoric site located in the upper Yellow River region. Great quantities of painted pottery vessels have been unearthed from this cemetery; however, some graves were furnished with many more vessels than the others. Based on new evidence attained from our firsthand observations and chemical analyses, this paper addresses how the increasing demand for vessel quantity from commoners and emerging elites was fulfilled in terms of pottery production and exchange.

C12 Jones, Duncan

La Trobe University, Australia

CORRELATING EXPERIMENTAL AND ARCHAEOLOGICAL USE-WEAR PATTERNS ON GROUND STONE TOOLS: A CASE STUDY FROM THE EARLY HOLOCENE SITE OF SHANGSHAN, CHINA.

Excavations at the site of Shangshan, Zhejiang province, have produced abundant ground stone tools whose function has been postulated as potentially either or both cereal and nut processing activities. In order to test these hypotheses, experimental use-wear studies have been undertaken on replicated ground stone tools, and patterns of wear produced in these controlled experiments compared with those recorded from archaeological ground stone tool samples. These comparative results are then discussed as part of a larger microresidue and use-wear analytical collaborative project on early Holocene tool use in south China.

C12 Li Xinwei

Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, China

THE EMERGENCE OF EXCHANGE NETWORK OF SACRED KNOWLEDGE AROUND 3300 BC IN EASTERN CHINA

The establishment of exchange networks of prestige goods and sacred knowledge has long been regarded as one of the most important leadership-strategies in complex societies. The exchanges link elites in different societies, and the act of exchange validates their relationship as equals and at the same time reinforces their superior status within their respective societies. Through the procurement of exotic wealth goods and sacred knowledge by long-distance exchange, elites could claim universal powers which were essential to prove their divinity and nonlocal legitimacy. The years around 3300 BC witnessed the wide diffusion of ancient cosmology related objects and designs in eastern China, such as jade objects conveying cosmological knowledge (the jade turtle, bird, hook-cloud object, pit-dragon etc.) and the octagonal star design on jade objects and white pottery. This demonstrates that exchange networks of cosmological knowledge might have emerged and played an important role in the development of complex societies in different cultural regions in eastern China. The exchange networks were also crucial for the formation of the‘Chinese interaction sphere’ described by K.C. Chang.

C12 LIU Li

La Trobe University, Melbourne, Australia

Xingcan CHEN

Institute of Archaeology, Beijing

ACORN EXPLOITATION AND TRANSITION TO SEDENTISM IN EARLY HOLOCENE, CHINA

The development of sedentism during the early Holocene in China was a long process with great temporal and spatial variation, and was closely associated with the technology of processing and storing starchy foodstuffs, particularly nuts, tubers and cereals, mostly as wild plants. Based on information from residue analysis and experimental archaeology, we investigate one type of plants, acorn, which appears to have been intensively exploited by early Holocene populations, leading to increased sedentary way of life in many parts of China.

C12 MIN Rui

Yunnan Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, China

EXCAVATION OF THE HAIMENKOU SITE IN JIANCHUAN, YUNNAN

The recent excavation at the Haimenkou site in 2008 has revealed much information about this important settlement. The cultural deposits are divided to three phases, including late Neolithic (5300-3900 BP), early Bronze Age (3800-3200 BP), and middle to late Bronze Age (3100-2500 BP). In addition to some 4000 wooden poles, which were parts of pile-dwellings, we also uncovered human burials, bronze, hearths, rice, millet and wheat. These discoveries provide new evidence for understanding settlement patterns, bronze metallurgy, and agricultural development in southwest China.

C12 ZHANG Chi

Peking University

HUNG, Hsiao-chun

Australian National University

THE ORIGINS AND SPREAD OF AGRICULTURE IN SOUTHERN CHINA AND SOUTHEAST ASIA

The Yangtze Valley is widely assumed to have been the origin region for the earliest rice agriculture in Southeast Asia. However, due to the rarity of reported rice remains and reliable C14 dates, the progress of agricultural development in southern China proper, south of the Yangtze Basin, remains poorly understood. This article reviews recent discoveries of rice remains from archaeological sites in Lingnan-Fujian-Taiwan and Southwest China. It is suggested that the expansion of rice agriculture from the Yangtze Valley occurred via separate coastal and inland routes at different times, into Fujian-Guangdong and Guangxi respectively, as well as by different processes of introduction.

C12 Schepartz, Lynne A.

Florida State University, USA

Miller-Antonio, Sari

California State University at Stanislaus, USA

Fang Hui

Shandong University, PRChina

RITUAL, SHANG IDENTITY AND SOCIAL COMPLEXITY AT DAXINZHUANG, A MIDDLE-LATE SHANG (1300-1100 BC) SITE IN SHANDONG PROVINCE

Three cemeteries dating from the middle to late Shang culture yielded 61 human skeletons and a rich collection of grave goods including bronze and pottery vessels, weapons, and jade and shell ornaments. Analysis of the mortuary patterns reveals significant variation in body positioning and tomb architecture that appears to be the key way that social distinctions were expressed. Different burial circumstances include pits (rectangular or rounded), graves with a platform at the head, graves with a full platform (ercengtai), and graves with multiple platforms surrounding inner and outer wooden coffins. The standard burial position was supine with the legs extended, the hands on the pelvis or at the sides, and an underlying waist pit containing a dog skeleton. Other positions included prone, on the side, or irregular limb placement. Individuals buried on their side or in irregular positions are most often ‘accompanying’ individuals interred with another individual in the standard position. They were also recovered from tomb platforms which they shared with numerous dog skeletons. Some irregularly positioned individuals have cutmarks across their skull base and cervical vertebrae, and as a group, their dental health was poorer. Although lacking the clear status differentiations exemplified by the huge sacrificial pits of the Shang cemeteries at Anyang, the Daxinzhuang site provides evidence for important social distinctions that affected the life and health of the population.

C12 Yao Ling

The University of Science and Technology of China, China

STARCH GRANULES ON STONE ARTIFACTS FROM XIAOHUANGSHAN REVEAL EARLY PLANT USE IN ZHEJIANG, CHINA

As an analytical technique in archeology, the extraction and analysis of starch grain from the unearthed artifacts has been widely used in the gathering and reconstruction of the original information of the archaeological sites. Although such work is just beginning in China, starch grain as an important plant residue, has already been extracted and studied from a variety of archeological materials. By using this technique, we performed extensive research on the unearthed stone artifacts from Xiaohuangshan archaeological site in Zhejiang province, which could date back to the time between 6000 B.C. and 7000 B.C; they have been widely accepted as milling stone tools or their pieces which were used in grain processing. After careful extraction, large numbers of starch granules were found on the surface of the stone tools. By comparing with the samples from modern plants under microscope, many species of the starch were identified including grasses (Oryza and Coix L.), beans (Vigna), nuts and tubers. However, there were still a variety of the starch granules that remained to be identified. Furthermore, the results showed that starch grains of some species were dominant in quantity, but they did not include rice. Based on the results, we proposed that, although rice appeared in the diet, it was not yet a major source of food for ancient people settled in Xiaohuangshan. This period should be just at the beginning of the transition from a wide range plant gathering to an agricultural society which relies on a few plants, such as rice cultivation.

C12 Zhang Juzhong

Yin Lai

The University of Science and Technology of China, China

DYNAMIC RESEARCH OF PREHISTORIC ECONOMY IN JIAHU ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE

In the book of WUYANG JIAHU, based on the study of production tools from Jiahu site in Henan province in China, it has been proposed that rice cultivation is the main form of Jiahu primitive agriculture, accounting for about a quarter in local economical productive activities while the other three-quarters are hunting and fishing. In the seventh excavation of Jiahu archaeological site in 2001, a large number of plants and other specimens have been found in flotation samples. The results indicate that rice was grown as early as 8000 years ago, while the economy was mainly based on hunting and fishing. In other words, the rice cultivation is only a secondary supporting production activities compared with fishing and hunting. The Jiahu site represents an early models in the process of the formation of rice farming in China, which shows a ‘farm-like non-agricultural' stage. In the seventh excavation, an interesting phenomenon is also noticed that the majority of funerary objects, excavated from Phase III tombs in the southwest region, are farm implements while the other graves mainly contain fishing and hunting tools. Could it mean that at the same settlement different human groups are likely to pursue a variety of production modes, or that they have different economic divisions of labor? By studying these production tools by different area, period and group, it is known that in each period economic and productive activities are engaged in a slow change in various human groups which are distributed in Jiahu settlement during 1000 years; it also could be seen that primitive agriculture shows a development trend and that the economic structure reflected by the burial lagging is behind the phenomenon of buildings.

SESSION C13

C13 Jin, Zhengyao

University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, Anhui Province, China

Yan, Lifeng

Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, Anhui Province, China

Tian, Jianhua

Li, Ruiliang

Department of History of Science and Technology and Archaeometry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, Anhui Province, China

Cui, Jianyong

Isotope Laboratory, Beijing Research Institute of Uranium Geology, Beijing 100029, China

A COMPARETIVE STUDY ON ALLOY AND LEAD ISOTOPY DATA OF BRONZES FROM ROYAL AND NOBLE TOMBS IN YIN RUINS

It is no doubt that the Yin Ruins bronzes is very important for the study of bronze metallurgy during the Shang dynasty (16th - 11th century BC). The royal and the noble bronzes unearthed from the metropolitan region of the Shang Kingdom show us a unique beauty and power, and reveal that ancient metal casting has reached its first high stage in the Anyang era. Lead isotope and element composition analyses have been carried out on bronze artifacts from the royal tomb No.1004, the Fuhao tomb and a noble tomb No.160 at Yin Ruins by thermal ionization mass spectrometry and inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES), we will attempt to discuss the results by comparison in this paper.

C13 Wang Changming

Jin, Zhengyao

Department of History of Science and Technology and Archaeometry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, Anhui, China

Hwang, Jiann-Yang

Michigan Technological University, USA

ESTABLISHING PB AND CU ISOTOPE SIGNATURES OF SOME NATIVE COPPER SOURCES IN NORTH AMERICA: IMPLICATIONS FOR ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROVENANCE STUDIES

¹⁴C dating indicates that native copper had been utilized by American Indigenous people since 6800 BP. The use continued until European smelted copper entered North America in the 17th century. Archaeological studies show that native copper is the only material made into copper artifacts in North America. Understanding where native copper originated in artifacts provides critical information regarding trading routes and indicates the interaction of cultures as well as the exploitation and use of copper mines. This paper presents the results of a pilot study of Pb and Cu isotope using thermal-ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) and multiple-collector plasma-source mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS) and assesses the potential of these two new geochemical techniques for native copper provenance research in North America.

C13 Zhu, Bingquan

Key Laboratory of Isotope geochronology and Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciebce, Guangzhou 510640, Guangdong Province,China

Jin, Zhengyao

University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei 230026, Anhui Province, China

GEOCHEMICAL EVIDENCES FOR NORTHWARD TRANSPORTATION OF RESOURCES IN BRONZE AGE CHINA

Based on Pb isotopic mapping diagram of East Asia and Pb isotopic data of bronzes, the unearthed bronzes in North China mostly show the features of Yangtze, Cathysia or high radiogenic lead resources, and the bronzes showing lead isotopic features of local lead resources only occur in the four sites. However, the unearthed bronzes in the Yangtze and Cathysian areas all show lead isotopic features of local resources. Thus lead resources for making bronzes or themselves in North China were mostly transported from the Yangtze or Cathysian areas. The major Cu resources in North China are located in the Zhongtiaoshan area; however there are short of tin and lead resources. There are abundant Cu and lead resources in the middle and lower course of Yangtze, but still short of tin resources. The major tin resources only occur in the Cathysian area.

There are 5 large MVT lead deposits with isotopic compositions of high radiogenic lead in the northeastern Yunnan, and numerous native copper and Cu-sulfide deposits distribute in all this area. There are abundant tin resources in the southern Yunnan. Therefore, the resource group occurred in Yunnan, Southwestern China, probably is a predominant candidate for making the Shang bronzes with high radiogenic lead. These resources or products were also northwardly transported to the Chengdu basin, North China and middle-lower course of Yangtze.

SESSION C14

C14 Mizoguchi, Koji

Graduate School of Social and Cultural Studies, Kyushu University, Japan

THE CENTRALIZATION OF POWER AND THE GENERATION OF THE TRANSCENDENTAL: A NETWORK APPROACH TO THE KOFUN (MOUNDED TOMB) PERIOD OF JAPAN