Archaeological Research in Asia最新文献

{"title":"Political boundary between Dvāravatī and Ancient Khmer kingdoms: The recognition of ancient frontier networks in Eastern Thailand before the 11th century CE","authors":"Patcharaporn Ngernkerd,&nbsp;Rasmi Shoocongdej,&nbsp;Saritpong Khunsong","doi":"10.1016/j.ara.2025.100647","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ara.2025.100647","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper examines the nature of the political boundary between the Dvāravatī and Ancient Khmer kingdoms in eastern Thailand between the 7th and 11th centuries CE. Using a theoretical framework based on the Mandala model, this frontier is examined via spatial analyses between the large, rectilinear towns such as Si Mahosot and Muang Phai and smaller, surrounding communities. The combination of settlement layout, epigraphy and sculptural remains shows a fluidity of cultural influence and power of Khmer kings in this peripheral region. The boundary between the two kingdoms is perhaps viewed as being a gap in settlement in the central plain of the region, but it shifted to the western part of eastern Thailand around the early 11th century CE. Such fluctuations in territorial boundaries are a common occurrence in the history of other ancient states.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51847,"journal":{"name":"Archaeological Research in Asia","volume":"43 ","pages":"Article 100647"},"PeriodicalIF":1.1,"publicationDate":"2025-07-28","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144721157","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Wild yaks, domesticated yaks, and the emergence of transhumant pastoralism in the Mongolian Altai","authors":"Esther Jacobson-Tepfer","doi":"10.1016/j.ara.2025.100642","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ara.2025.100642","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>This paper makes use of rock art (petroglyphs) to clarify two interconnected problems within the archaeology of the Mongolian Altai: the origins of yak domestication and the emergence of the culture of transhumance.</div><div>The yak (<em>Bos grunniens</em>) is the only large, domesticated animal appearing within the Early Bronze Age petroglyphic record of Mongolia's Altai mountains. Given the interest in this animal's domestication and use in the Tibetan Plateau and its importance in the development of transhumance in northern Inner Asia, the scientific neglect of the yak in Altai prehistory is problematic: its simultaneous appearance in the pictorial record with the wild yak (<em>Bos mutus</em>) strongly suggests that other than the Tibetan arena, there was a northern center of yak domestication in the Altai, from where it spread across the northern tier of Mongolia, the Sayan, and into present-day Buryatia. The petroglyphic record also allows us to reconstruct the early emergence of yak-based transhumance, first for hunting and foraging cultures (c. 3250–1800 BCE) and then for the development of high elevation pastoralism during the middle and late Bronze Age (c. 1800–1000 BCE).</div><div>The documentary evidence from rock art and its implication of a northern center of yak domestication support the argument for a background in the Early Bronze Age Afanasievo culture, itself credited with bringing the domestication of taurine cattle (<em>Bos taurus</em>) and sheep to northern Inner Asia. Consideration of compositions centered on yak imagery further reveals the social and cultural impact of Late Holocene environmental change as it forced people higher into the mountains for hunting and herding. Within the pictorial record involving the yak image is documented the contribution of that animal toward the shaping of high elevation habitation and culture in the Altai–Sayan uplift and beyond.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51847,"journal":{"name":"Archaeological Research in Asia","volume":"43 ","pages":"Article 100642"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144606120","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The prehistoric Bilat Cave shell assemblages in Mindoro Island, Central Philippines: A coastal environment and lifeways study","authors":"Marie Grace Pamela G. Faylona ,&nbsp;Alfred F. Pawlik","doi":"10.1016/j.ara.2025.100641","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ara.2025.100641","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Prehistoric coastal shell assemblages are an important resource for reconstructing subsistence strategies and human responses to sea-level and environmental changes. This study presents a report of Bilat Cave, an archaeological site in the southernmost part of Mindoro Island in the Philippines. The cave is located on the coast of Occidental Mindoro and close to Ilin Island, where the sites of Bubog 1 and 2 have yielded stratified shell middens with a chronological sequence of at least 35,000 years.</div><div>A 100 × 50 cm shell column from Bilat Cave was collected for archaeomalacology analysis to examine the paleocoastal sequence. All layers have gastropod and bivalve mollusc shells indicative of marine, estuarine, and freshwater environments. The results show distinct variations in the diversity and frequency of species. Bivalve <em>Geloina coaxans</em> and rocky shore gastropod shellfish are most common in the well-preserved shell deposit. The appearance of freshwater shells, specifically Thiaridae, at the bottom of the column shows a transitional environment with both marine and riverine influences. The transformation in shell use highlights significant adjustments in human subsistence strategies to environmental and ecological stimuli at the site between the Late Pleistocene and the Holocene.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51847,"journal":{"name":"Archaeological Research in Asia","volume":"43 ","pages":"Article 100641"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144578853","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Dental caries as indicators of agricultural practices in the foothills of Neolithic China","authors":"Doudou Cao ,&nbsp;Xiangyu Liu ,&nbsp;Wanfa Gu ,&nbsp;Hong Zhu ,&nbsp;Ruojing Zhang ,&nbsp;Zhiqing Zhou ,&nbsp;Qingli Wei ,&nbsp;Jiaxing Zou ,&nbsp;Yujie Qiu ,&nbsp;Jian Chen ,&nbsp;Lanpo Ding ,&nbsp;Emma Pomeroy ,&nbsp;Haibing Yuan","doi":"10.1016/j.ara.2025.100645","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ara.2025.100645","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Dental caries has long been associated with increased reliance on starchy crops during the agricultural transition, yet recent evidence reveals a more intricate relationship between diet, environment, and oral health. Neolithic China, with its diverse agricultural practices across fertile foothills and river valleys, offers valuable contexts to examine how varying subsistence strategies shaped dental health. This study explores the impact of different lifestyles on dental health in China's foothill regions during the middle to late Neolithic (∼5500–3700 BP). A total of 2885 teeth of 149 adults from three sites were examined: hunter-gatherers from Niuheliang in northeastern China (478 teeth, 30 individuals), millet agriculturalists from Qingtai in the Central Plain (1769 teeth, 83 individuals), and rice farmers from Gaoshan in the southwestern region (638 teeth, 36 individuals). Caries was recorded by sex, age, tooth location and severity, with corrections made for antemortem tooth loss. Hunter-gatherers exhibit the lowest prevalence (26.7 % of individuals, 3.4 % of teeth), followed by rice farmers (36.1 % of individuals, 4.9 % of teeth), with more densely settled millet farmers showing the highest prevalence (75.9 % of individuals, 14 % of teeth). Caries rates increase with age, but sex differences are not significant across sites. This gradient suggests a significant association between intensive millet farming and increased caries, while rice farming and mixed hunter-gatherer strategies appear less detrimental to dental health. By situating these results within the context of diverse subsistence strategies in Neolithic China's foothills, this study underscores the importance of localised environmental and cultural factors in shaping health outcomes.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51847,"journal":{"name":"Archaeological Research in Asia","volume":"43 ","pages":"Article 100645"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144570899","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Examining the Dalma culture in the northern Zagros of Iran: Insights from the excavation of the Belachak site","authors":"Sepideh Jamshidi Yeganeh ,&nbsp;Morteza Khanipour","doi":"10.1016/j.ara.2025.100640","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ara.2025.100640","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>From the late 6th millennium BCEE to the 5th millennium BCEE, the emergence of occupational specialization and social complexities can be traced in Southwest Asia. During this transformative period, the Dalma culture expanded significantly, encompassing vast regions that included northwest and western Iran, western Mesopotamia, and the southern Caucasus. Despite extensive research on this period, critical questions concerning its chronology, origins, patterns of expansion, and socio-economic structures remain uncleared. Research indicates that, alongside rural settlements, nomadic communities also existed during this time, likely playing a significant role in intra- and interregional cultural interactions. The site of Belachak 3, located southwest of Lake Urmia, was excavated by the first author of this paper to study the cultures of this region during the Chalcolithic period. This paper aims to analyze the Dalma period based on the findings from this site and other sites of the same period. The results of the excavation reveal that Belachak 3 was a temporary settlement used during the first half of the 5th millennium BCE by nomadic communities. The study of pottery from this site, along with the analysis of pottery from other Dalma sites, clearly shows that pottery production in Dalma communities was household. The absence of prestige goods or Communal Architecture indicates that, unlike contemporary societies such as Bakun or Cheshmeh Ali, the Dalma society was egalitarian. However, the presence of obsidian suggests that Dalma communities-maintained trade connections with other regions.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51847,"journal":{"name":"Archaeological Research in Asia","volume":"43 ","pages":"Article 100640"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-07-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144563739","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Application of elemental and mineralogical analysis of ceramics from the Late Bronze Age settlement of Dongal (Central Kazakhstan) in search of nonlocal wares","authors":"I.Yu. Silachyov ,&nbsp;V.G. Loman ,&nbsp;A.A. Migunova","doi":"10.1016/j.ara.2025.100644","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ara.2025.100644","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Data on the chemical composition of archaeological ceramics are very important and convenient whenever their provenance is concerned. The present methodical investigation was aimed at revealing the local or nonlocal origin of some pottery samples from the Dongal settlement (Central Kazakhstan, Late Bronze Age) based on the analysis of their elemental and mineral composition. The methods of X-ray powder diffraction, X-ray fluorescence, and instrumental neutron activation analysis were applied for the first time to differentiate 16 samples from the settlement. The phase composition heterogeneity, confirmed by the results of multivariate statistical analysis of the element content, identified two compositional groups of the wares ascribed to different clay sources close to the site. Explicit investigation revealed a sample incompatible with the others in terms of rare earth element fractionation, which can be admitted as a nonlocal one on that ground. The results demonstrate the high potential of the approach to find differences in ceramic wares unobvious through traditional visual analysis.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51847,"journal":{"name":"Archaeological Research in Asia","volume":"43 ","pages":"Article 100644"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144510906","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Interpreting archaeological mortuary jar traditions in the Philippines: Forms, lids, and regional connections in Island Southeast Asia","authors":"Anna Pineda ,&nbsp;Don Matthews","doi":"10.1016/j.ara.2025.100626","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ara.2025.100626","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The jar burial tradition in the Philippines is commonly perceived as a single entity, but it is clear from recent analysis that similarities are occurring throughout the region based on interment method and associated artefacts. Nevertheless, there is little discussion that includes jar forms and lids as basis for comparison. This study considers this information while also taking unpublished and untranslated reports into account. This research uses excavators' observations, unpublished photos, drawings, and reconstructed jars in museums to identify physical attributes. In doing so, a pattern emerges suggesting that the jars and lids are indicators of differing burial traditions. We distinguish at least four jar burial traditions in the Philippines based on the combined pattern of jar burial body form and their associated lids.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51847,"journal":{"name":"Archaeological Research in Asia","volume":"43 ","pages":"Article 100626"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144270781","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"The lithic assemblages of Idan I and VII: New insights on the beginning of the Epipaleolithic in the Southern Levant","authors":"Itay Abadi,&nbsp;Adrian Nigel Goring-Morris","doi":"10.1016/j.ara.2025.100637","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ara.2025.100637","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>In this paper, we present a comprehensive techno-typological study of the lithic assemblages from two newly excavated sites in the Arava Valley (Israel), dated to ca. 24,000 years ago. The two assemblages feature comparable bladelet reduction sequences oriented to produce a variety of obliquely truncated backed bladelets made on straight, narrow blanks, with some typological variability detectable between them.</div><div>The Idan occupations are contemporaneous with the Masraqan and Nebekian industries during the early part of the Early Epipaleolithic (EEP) that, following Garrard and Byrd (2013), we refer to here as Initial Epipaleolithic (IEP).</div><div>We suggest that the Idan localities represent an IEP facies, stylistically more reminiscent of the Nebekian assemblages in the Transjordian highlands, but differing technologically in the absence of the microburin technique.</div><div>We highlight the different developmental trajectories of backed microliths in different regions within the Southern Levant, illustrating the complex cultural dynamics at the beginning of the Epipaleolithic.</div><div>We propose that these developmental trajectories are influenced by different population densities and adaptation strategies of forager groups in diverse environmental settings within the Levant.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51847,"journal":{"name":"Archaeological Research in Asia","volume":"43 ","pages":"Article 100637"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144212630","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Subsistence and survival along the medieval long-wall system of northern China and Mongolia: A zooarchaeological and historical perspective","authors":"Tikvah Steiner ,&nbsp;Gideon Shelach-Lavi ,&nbsp;Johannes S. Lotze ,&nbsp;Zhidong Zhang ,&nbsp;Amartuvshin Chunag ,&nbsp;Angaragdulguun Gantumur ,&nbsp;Rivka Rabinovich","doi":"10.1016/j.ara.2025.100639","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ara.2025.100639","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The medieval wall and trench system of China and Mongolia covers ∼4000 km and consists of a series of rammed-earth walls, ditches, and hundreds of associated structures. This was not a unified system but rather different sections that were built by different political entities and perhaps for different purposes between ca. 1000 to 1220 CE. Among those lines, the earliest is the northernmost section dated to the period of the Liao empire (916–1125 CE). It is located deep in the sparsely populated steppe of today's northeastern Mongolia (Dornod Province) as well as in parts of China and Russia. Recent excavations at Site 23 along the northern line revealed a rich and well-preserved faunal assemblage from a midden pit dated towards the end of the Liao empire (ca. 1050 CE). Common Mongolian domesticates sheep, goat, horse, cow, and dog were identified, as well as wild species: gazelle, rabbit, mustelids, large raptors, and fish, including Amur catfish. Based on bone fusion, size, and teeth eruption, many of the sheep/goat bones and dogs belong to very young animals under six months. Historical texts, such as the <em>Liaoshi</em> (Liao history) and <em>Qidan guozhi</em> (Records of the Kitan empire), were the only source of knowledge available regarding human-animal relations, as very little is known of subsistence practices during the Liao period from faunal analysis in itself. The historical record documents aspects of Liao-era animal husbandry, hunting, fishing, and imperial diplomatic/tributary animal exchange between the Liao governors and local tribes. Through integration of textual evidence and the excavated faunal material, we can interpret the subsistence activities of a distinct Liao frontier garrison for the first time, going beyond the often-generic descriptions of the historical record which pertain more to the elite than the common people. This analysis allows us a glimpse behind the texts at the varied and flexible economic practices taking place deep in the Mongolian steppe.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51847,"journal":{"name":"Archaeological Research in Asia","volume":"43 ","pages":"Article 100639"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-04","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144212631","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Bronze Age wool textile and fur items from northern Eurasia: Identification of the fiber origin and differentiation between domestic animal species","authors":"N.I. Shishlina ,&nbsp;O.F. Chernova","doi":"10.1016/j.ara.2025.100635","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.ara.2025.100635","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>The preserved Bronze Age wool textile samples obtained from various sites in the southern Caucasus and northern Eurasia were used to carry out technological analysis of the fibers in order to identify animal fiber origin. The aim of our study was to compare the dataset of the Bronze Age archaeological wool fibers and the reference dataset of mammalian species based on such characteristics as the structure of the wool fibers and hairs. The two identified types of raw material for woolen cloths in the southern Caucasus, the steppe, forest-steppe and forest belts of eastern Europe, southern Siberia and Kazakhstan demonstrate that the use of secondary products such as goat underwool and sheep wool is likely to have been linked to changes in animal husbandry in some local societies and appearance of various specialized types of local animal husbandry, including deliberate keeping of sheep for production of meat and milk and gradual transition towards wool production that was necessary to meet the needs of prehistoric society in innovation raw materials and novel cloths. Horse leather/hairs were also used to make items, presumably, clothes. In all likelihood, during the transition from the third to the second millennia BCE some northern Eurasia regions began to adopt specialized goat and sheep husbandry for wool, such specialization is reflected in the age composition of the sheep and goat flocks based on the analysis of archaeological assemblages, for example, an assemblage from a settlement in the southern Urals attributed to the Srubnaya (Timber-Grave) culture which dates to the first half of the second millennium BCE. The analysis of our dataset did not identify hairs and fur of other animals (domestic dog, camel, ground-squirrel, hair, beaver, etc.), though bones of these animals have been found in archaeological contexts in various areas of the study region. This analysis has revealed a special role that goat and sheep wool played in the production of novel wool cloths in northern Eurasia.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":51847,"journal":{"name":"Archaeological Research in Asia","volume":"43 ","pages":"Article 100635"},"PeriodicalIF":0.9,"publicationDate":"2025-06-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144196247","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"历史学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}