Transeurasian unity from an archaeological perspective

Abstract

Northeast Asia attracts researchers’ attention for its environmental, cultural, linguistic, and genetic diversity. Population migration and cultural contact both go back early in human history there. The Transeurasian (TEA) model hypothesizes about the relatedness among the Mongolic, Tungusic, Turkic, Koreanic, and Japonic languages; also, it sees farming as the driving force for the dispersal of the Proto-Transeurasian across Northeast Asia. This chapter reviews the finds of millets or rice from key archeological sites, as well as the perspectives on the beginning of millet or rice farming, in Northeast China, the Russian Far East, the Korean Peninsula, and the Japanese Archipelago. Then, focusing on evidence related to agriculture, some assumptions underlying the TEA model are examined. The conclusion is that the TEA model has both merits and weaknesses and that archeological evidence in different regions and periods supports the Transeurasian unity to varying degrees.