Archaeology Of China

Развитие снаряжения верхового коня на территории Китая в III в. до н.э.- III в. н.э. шло в русле тенденций, характерных для степной зоны Евразии, о чем свидетельствуют находки седел, их изображений и моделей династий Цинь, Хань, Вэй и Западной Цзинь. В III-I вв. до н.э в Центральной Азии и Китае продолжали использоваться мягкие седла (pad-saddle) скифского типа с полукруглыми упорами (supports). Первые седла с луками известны в памятниках хунну I в. (Царам и Ноин-Ула, к.6), но их конструкция была несовершенна – луки помещались под наружную оболочку упоров. Роль полок (panel) выполняли подушки мягких седел. Такие седла можно назвать полужесткими. Во II в. в Китае мягкие седла еще используются, но уже в III в. в широкий обиход входят полужесткие седла более удачной конструкции - с полукруглыми луками, закрепленными поверх упоров. В IV-V вв. они сосуществуют с седлами с высокими П-образными луками, которые применяются, преимущественно, в тяжелой кавалерии. По-видимому, именно седла с полукруглыми луками послужили основой для тюркских седел с деревянным ленчиком (saddle-tree), изобретенных не позднее VI в. – уже во второй половине VI в. они появляются на китайских изображениях.

Despite almost a century of research, the Chinese Paleolithic chronocultural sequence still remains incomplete, although the number of welldated sites is rapidly increasing. The Chinese Paleolithic is marked by the long persistence of core-and-flake and cobble-tool industries, so interpretation of cultural and social behavior of humans in East Asia based solely on comparison with the African and western Eurasian prehistoric sequences becomes problematic, such as in assessing cognitive evolutionary stages. For the Chinese Paleolithic, wood and bamboo likely served as raw materials for the production of daily objects since the arrival of the earliest migrants from western Asia, although poor preservation is a problem. Contrary to the notion of a "Movius Line" with handaxes not present on the China side, China does have a limited distribution of Acheulian bifaces and unifaces. Similarly, Middle Paleolithic assemblages are present in the Chinese sequence. Although the available raw materials have been assumed to have limited applicable knapping techniques in China, this notion is challenged by the appearance of microblade industries in the north in the Upper Paleolithic. In the south, early pottery making by foragers emerged 20,000 years ago, thus preceding the emergence of farming but heralding the long tradition of cooking in China.

ABSTRACT: The development of prehistoric studies in Europe and Western Asia has powerfully influenced the
terminology and conceptual frameworks of Palaeolithic archaeology. However, attempts to impose these on
archaeological records elsewhere, such as East Asia, risk seriously distorting interpretations of the material and a
failure to appreciate its significance. In particular, the Chinese Palaeolithic record provides major contrasts with
that of Europe and Western Asia, and challenges prevailing notions of hominins' cognitive and adaptative capabilities
based primarily on the lithic analysis. Early hominins beyond Africa were not tied to savanna environments and
were able to exploit a range of habitats as a result of the flexibility afforded them by social and cognitive
developments. Similarly, cultural influences conserved stone technologies, so that there is no necessary link between
tool forms, cognitive ability and habitat characteristics. However, study of tool reduction sequences provides insights
into the learning processes underlying the production of particular assemblages. Core and flake industries persisted
in China for much of the Pleistocene, and while hand axe assemblages are known from the south of the country, they
differ from those found in Europe and Africa. Levallois and several other Middle Palaeolithic industries are generally
absent, although some instances are known from western and northern areas of the country. Early (> 25 kya)
microlithic industries occur in north China, with late cobble tool assemblages in the south, probably coincident with
the extent of bamboo forests. South China also provides examples of pottery from Upper Palaeolithic contexts dating
from < 20 kya. The implications of these distinctive aspects of the Chinese archaeological record for understanding
past human behaviors are briefly discussed, as are some more general issues associated with modeling early human
cognition.

https://hjas.org/

A recent article argued that “texts can be used as tools for enacting identities in social settings” (Reading Research Quarterly 44.4 (2009): 416). Considering the multitude of manuscripts yielded by fourth through first-centuries BCE burials, such a statement seems pertinent for early Chinese society as well. What does it say about the self-concept of an individual when his ability to write and / or read assumed a prominent role in funerary rites?
This paper analyzes evidence of literacy that may be found in Chinese textual sources (received and archaeological) and tombs by applying identity concepts developed in anthropology and the social sciences to Chinese funerary data. It not only argues that the actual ability to write is palpable through certain kinds of texts that were associated with writing paraphernalia, but that literacy in particular was a crucial aspect of the self-representation of a particular group of people, namely the shǐ 史 (“scribes”).

The transition to farming is often written in the language of progress. The search has been for the oldest sedentary farming settlements, the processes of plant and animals domestication and the profound societal alterations that accompanied the choice to change lifeway. Perhaps because most of us come from long-standing farmer ancestry, we tend to assume that farming is a superior and more secure way of life. Is there any data to support this? Evidence from southern Africa since the 1970s has shown that the Kalahari hunter-gatherers living in what is a comparatively harsh environment have/had a relatively easier life, with considerably more leisure time and a longer life expectancy than those living in early farmer groups (Lee and DeVore, 1976). Many hunter-gatherers in East Asia will have had even more comfortable and leisure filled lives than those of the Kalahari Bushmen. It is therefore important to ask the question as to why East Asian hunter-gatherers took up farming and whether all hunter-gatherer groups made this choice swiftly and willingly. I use evidence from studies into hunter-gatherer interactions with farmers in sub-saharan Africa to consider this question. It was originally hoped that groups such as the Bushmen of southern Africa, the Pygmies of central Africa and the Hadza/Sandawe of East Africa could give us glimpses into a universal hunter-gatherer past. Revisionist studies since the 1970s have sought to undermine this hope and have emphasised that early research recorded the end product of at least two millennia of interaction, influence and change from being amongst pastoralists and farmers. Archaeology has made significant contributions to this debate, providing evidence for the nature and extent of interaction, continuity and change. Today we are therefore well-positioned to consider the specifics of how hunter-gatherer groups responded to the coming of livestock keepers and farmers in different parts of Africa. This paper will review African interaction models so as to consider their implications for East Asia. I do not provide a general model for interaction, indeed I would be ideologically opposed to any attempt at this kind of universalism, but I seek to provide a convincing glimpse of the kinds of real-world complexity and contextuality in the choices made by East Asian hunter-gatherers in their responses to the presence and influence of farmers.

INDEX oRal PResentations 1 Arbogast R.-M., Turck R. -Status and role of dogs in neolithic western Europe. 2 Avieli N. -Thai Migrant Workers in Israel and the Dog-Eating Myth. 3 Bealcovschi S. -La place du chien de compagnie dans la culture, les pratiques et l'imaginaire nordaméricain contemporain. 5 Ben-Dor M. -Why domesticate wolves at the end of the Pleistocene. 7 Blanchard C. -Les sans-abris accompagnés de chiens: analyse anthropologique autour d'une marginalité urbaine méconnue. 9 Bogdanov E. -The role of the dog in the society of the Xiongnu (fine arts and written sources). -Using X-ray microtomography to discriminate between dogs' and wolves' lower carnassial tooth. 13 Bottari A. -The image of the dog on ancient coins in the Mediterranean area. 15 Bottéro F. -The dog and the Chinese script. 16 Boudadi-Maligne M., Mallye J.-B., Costamagno S., Ferrié J.-G., Barshay-Szmidt C., Deguilloux M.-F., Pémonge M.-H., Barbaza M. -The relationship between humans and dogs in the Azilian layer of the Moulin rock-shelter (Troubat, Hautes-Pyrénées, France). 17 Bräuer J., Tomasello M. -Cooperation in a hunting-like paradigm: wolves versus dogs. 18 Braulinska K. -A kitchen dog was never good for the chase. Dogs in ancient Egypt and their modern descendants. 19 Cerilli E., Fatucci M. -The dog in the castle: a dog skeleton from Castle of Santa Severa (Latium, Italy).

Even early humans, on the eve of evolution, desired to decorate themselves with ornaments made of rare materials (be it boar fangs,
shark teeth, or ostrich feathers). In the Stone Age, as befits the epoch,
colorful minerals were especially well-liked. Suffice it to recall a find
from Layer 11 in Denisova Cave—a bracelet of dark green
chloritolite, dated to about 30 000 years before present (Derevyanko, Shunkov, and Volkov, 2008). It seems that people of those days must have already developed an aesthetic perception of such things (“It really looks good!”). What is beyond doubt is that the decorations meant prestige and high status, as evidenced by a large body of ethnographic data. Another practical—from the perspective of traditional culture—purpose of colored stones is their magical effect as amulets, including for the treatment and prevention of diseases as well as hex and evil eye. Publications on these topics swarm all over the Internet, but in this case home-grown astrologers and healers illicitly exploit truly ancient beliefs

Archaeology of Domestication

Jan Turek -  Letní semestr 2021/2022, rozsah (2/0)
The emergence of the Neolithic introduced one of the most fundamental turning points in the history of humankind. People left this imaginary Eden of symbiosis with animal species to start their new role of stewards and destroyers of the nature. In this way humans completed their departure from nature into the world of their own culture and civilization. With a sedentary life and a newly acquired knowledge of the production and reproduction of their food sources, people set off to the path to their overpopulation and ruling over the entire planet and after more than 12,000 years to continue beyond its gravity. However, not everything was positive on this departure from the paradise, and soon people also tasted the bitter taste of the forbidden fruit that the first farmers seized. Along with the change of diet a general deterioration in the health of the Neolithic population occurred and we can even talk about the first civilisation diseases.
The course is suitable for students of archaeology, social and cultural anthropology, human ecology, history and other social sciences. It includes an outline of the current discussion on the conditions, methods and evidence of the emergence of cereal agriculture in the Western Asia. In addition to archaeological evidence of changes in the subsistence strategy, changes in the symbolic systems, cosmology and religion of the first agricultural civilizations, as well as demographic and social aspects of neolithisation, will be taken into account. The process of domestication will be investigated in various climatic-ecological contexts with emphasis on explanation of local variability in diversification of agricultural strategies. The topic also includes the spread of the Neolithic way of life outside the Neolithic epicentre, i.e. to the northwest of Asia Minor, the Balkans, Europe and North Africa. Subsequent cultural development and population cultural variability of newly domesticated areas will also be discussed. Finally, we compare the development in Western Asia and Europe to the domestication processes in other parts of the world, such as East/Southeast Asia, Indian Subcontinent, Australia and Polynesia, Americas, Sahel and South Africa. This worldwide review of early sedentary populations and variability of domestication strategies provides a basic reference of current research in the field of archaeology, anthropology and prehistoric human ecology.

This book examines the emergence of imperial state in East Asia during the period ca. 400 BCE–200 CE as a network-based process, showing how the geography of early interregional contacts south of the Yangzi River informed the directions of Sinitic state expansion.

Drawing from an extensive collection of sources including transmitted textual records, archaeological evidence, excavated legal manuscripts, and archival documents from Liye, this book demonstrates the breadth of human and material resources available to the empire builders of an early imperial network throughout southern East Asia – from institutions and infrastructures, to the relationships that facilitated circulation. This network is shown to have been essential to the consolidation of Sinitic imperial rule in the sub-tropical zone south of the Yangzi against formidable environmental, epidemiological, and logistical odds. This is also the first study to explore how the interplay between an imperial network and alternative frameworks of long-distance interaction in ancient East Asia shaped the political-economic trajectory of the Sinitic world and its involvement in Eurasian globalization.

Contributing to debates around imperial state formation, the applicability of world-system models and the comparative study of empires, The Imperial Network in Ancient China will be of significant interest to students and scholars of East Asian studies, archaeology and history.

"...This drought event was the ISM century-scale drought recorded at Mawmluh KM-A, ML. 1, 2, and at region-wide circum-Indian Ocean basin speleothem, marine and lake cores that include those for the 4.2 ka BP event in the Ethiopian highlands and Nile River. This occurred synchronously with the westerlies’ 4.2 ka BP abrupt event reduction of Mediterranean, West and South Asian precipitation, the EASM events in China, the north Atlantic glacial, lake and marine core events, and the North and South American 4.2 ka BP events. Meanwhile, the archaeological evidence for the synchronous collapse of Egyptian, Mediterranean, West Asian, and Indus settlement systems at 4.2 ka BP appears increasingly robust."

First volume of the new series, Inner and Central Asian Art and Archaeology:

How Objects Tell Stories. Essays in Honor of Emma C. Bunker, eds. Katheryn M. Linduff and Karen S. Rubinson

Series edited by Judith A. Lerner and Annette L. Juliano

The unusual ‘antenna’ design of the pommels of the akinakai (in the form of antennae or volutes) drew the attention of researchers of the Scythian blade weaponry quite early. In addition, the shape of the pommel lies on the basis of all known classification schemes of Scythian swords and daggers. Researchers have long paid attention to the amazing similarity of this type of decoration with those that were made in the Late Bronze and Hallstattian time in Central Europe. However, for the Central European daggers, the antenna pommel is a rather late phenomenon and is fixed not earlier than in HaB period. Moreover, Early Nomadic (e.g. Chernogorovka-Novocherkassk) swords and daggers with the antennae pommels are still unknown. Due to chronological observations, the time of the appearance of the antenna pommel is the 2nd half of the 7th century BC. During this period, the simple antennae pommels are independently connected with the three main regions: the North Caucasus, the Dnieper Forest-steppe and the Carpathian-Danube. In the Early Scythian period, the antenna pommel is more of an experimental exception than a formal tradition. Ambivalence in the design of the pommel is demonstrated by the history of the Scythian blade weapon during all periods, beginning with the Early Scythian. So, there are known the Kelermes and Gudermes akinakai with antennae or volutes. In the Middle Scythian period, the antennae are known for such types of akinakai like Shumeyko, Vettersfelde and single-edged swords of the Nógrád type. The time of the wide distribution of antennae pommels is the end of the Middle Scythian period (550-425 BC). From the mid 6th century akinakai with ornitomorphic pommels appear on the territory of European Scythia, but these items are not associated with the Early Scythian production centers. Apparently, the appearance of ornithomorphic and zoomorphic pommels fit within the framework of the common Eurasian tradition, e.g. griffin daggers spread in the Volga-Ural, Semirechye, Sayano-Altai and Northern China at this time. A realistic ornithomorphic pommel of the Găiceana type appears on a wide series of swords and daggers with a hilt in a form of the Thracian shield. Since the 5th century BC, the simplification of the ornithomorphic pommels begins, taking the evolution away from the realism. Already at the end of the 5th century BC ornithomorphic design is finally schematized, turning into an ornamental approach. Over time, a typological series of antenna pommels in the form of heads of birds of prey, starting with the big realistic forms, gradually evolves towards minimization and schematism, possibly connected with the loss of the original image.

Shul’ga P.I.
Scythian cultures in the territory of China
in the VIII – VI cc. BC.
Summary
The present article describes the main Scythian cultures in the
territory of China and considers questions of their interaction
with ancient cultures of Kazakhstan and Southern Siberia. Rich
archaeological materials, which were received recently in Xinjiang
and Northern China, confirm the assumption of existence of the
western and east historical and cultural communities in the VIII –
VI cc. BC. Cultures of Xinjiang, Kazakhstan, Altay, Tyva and West
Mongolia are thought to belong to the western community,
while cultures of Mongoloids of Northern China, Mongolia and
Transbaikal belong to eastern community. Cultural contacts, were
generally carried out within communities and had a meridional
focus that is well traced on features of horse equipment

Dear Colleagues, I still haven't made it to getting the Digest out once every two weeks, but hopefully I will hit the mark soon. Thanks for your patience. First, I want to thank Ian Fraser for supplying me with the citations for the last digest's articles on the Laoguanshan site. Due to an oversight, I forgot to thank Ian last issue; please accept my apology. Thanks too to Helen Wang for all of her encouragement.

An important witness for the readings in Chinese Buddhist texts is found on the hundreds of stone slabs stored in caves and underground at Fang Shan.

"The Rock Cut Canon in China: Findings at Fang shan,"  The  Buddhist Heritage  edited by Tadeusz Skorupski,  Buddhica Britannica Series Continua I, Institute of  Buddhist Studies, Tring U.K., 1989.

В статье анализируются материалы, свидетельствующие о значимой роли собаки в погребальном обряде мужунов-одного из сяньбийских племен, населявших Южную Маньчжурию в III-V вв. н.э. Выявлено, что, несмотря на сообщения китайских письменных источников о том, что животные, приносимые в жертву в ходе похоронного ритуала, сжигались, уже у ранних сяньби, наряду с сожжением существовала также практика сопроводительного захоронения собак (целых тел или голов). Как показывают материалы погребений конца III-начала V в., собака продолжала играть важную роль в погребальном ритуале мужунов. Наиболее представительным комплексом является могила супруги Фэн Суфу (415 г.) в уезде Бэйпяо городского округа Чаоян пров. Ляонин, в которой имелись сопроводительные захоронения двух собак, а также изображения собак на настенных росписях. Захоронение головы и лап собаки обнаружено также в погребении 74AGM154, датируемом концом III-серединой IV в., близ дер. Сяоминьтунь в Аньяне, пров. Хэнань. Изображение собаки, стилистически чрезвычайно близкое к росписями в могиле жены Фэн Суфу, обнаружено в элитном погребении 1 у дер. Бэймяоцунь к западу от г. Чаоян, пров. Ляонин. Показано, что захоронения, совершенные по традиционному обряду мужунов-сяньби, были характерны и для представителей других этносов, в частности, северояньский аристократ Фэн Суфу происходил из знатного китайского (ханьского) рода, находившегося под сильным культурным влиянием мужунов-сяньби. В то же время, погребальный обряд мужунов также претерпевал трансформации, связанные с влиянием китайской (ханьской) культуры, что нашло выражение в распространении погребальных настенных росписей.
The article analyzes the evidence on the role of dogs in the funeral rite of the Murongs – one of the Xianbei tribes which inhabited Southern Manchuria in the 3rd — 5th centuries AD. It has been established that despite the reports of Chinese written sources on burning the sacrificial animals during the funeral ritual, the early Xianbi also had a practice of accompanying burials of dogs (whole bodies or heads). According to the evidence from the burials of the late 3rd — early 5th centuries, dogs continued to play an important role in the Murong funerary rituals. The most representative complex is the tomb of Feng Sufu’s wife (415) in Beipiao County in Chaoyang Municipality of Liaoning Province, which contained the accompanying burial of two dogs as well as images of dogs in wall paintings. The burial of dog’s head and paws was also discovered in tomb 74AGM154, dated to the late 3rd — mid 4th centuries AD, near Xiaomingtun village in Anyang Municipality of Henan Province. The image of a dog made in extremely similar style to the murals from the tomb of Feng Sufu’s wife, was found in the elite tomb No. 1 near Beimiao village, west of Chaoyang City in Liaoning Province. It has been shown that burials according to the traditional rite of the Murong Xianbei were also typical for the representatives of other ethnic groups, including the Northern Yan aristocrat Feng Sufu. He came from a noble Chinese (Han) clan which was under strong cultural influence of the Murong Xianbei. The funeral rite of the Murongs also underwent transformations associated with influence of the Chinese (Han) culture, which found its expression in the spread of tomb murals.

In this paper the thesis is submitted that there is something fundamentally amiss in Western Sinology (Zhōngguóxué, as distinct from Hànxué, which is a kind of old-fashioned philology): ‘China experts’ either pretend to be knowledgeable about everything related to China, in which case they cannot be taken seriously, or–– eventually––admit not to be scientific all-rounders with respect to the country, in which case they cannot be called ‘China experts’. The author expects no tenured professor of Chinese Studies/History to share this view. Having exposed the weakness, indeed the scandal of old-style Sinology, he also points out the way junior Sinologists should go. The fork in that road is two-pronged: translating or collaborating.       

In 550—500 BC, an original series of akinakai with realistic ornithomorphic pommel appears on the territory of European Scythia and this group is not related to the Early Scythian production centers. Apparently, the appearance of these ornithomorphic and zoomorphic pommels fits into the framework of the common Eurasian tradition. During this short period of time the daggers with the pommels in the form of opposed heads of birds of prey appear on the entire territory of the Scythian world. We can highlight several areas where these daggers were most popular: the Volga-Ural region, Zhetysu, Western Siberia and Northern China. Most likely, the role of the original area (where the image canons and morphology of the griffin dagger were formed) could be assigned to Central Asia consisting of Altai, Tuva and Minusinsk Hollow. The abundance and diversity of species of griffin daggers could confirm this idea. There are very original items among them which are very specific only for Altai-Sayan region: daggers with griffin pommels and hilts decorated with sitting predators.

Early post-glacial archaeological assemblages in the Gobi Desert of Mongolia
have been identified by the presence of microlithic tools and are seen as chronologically
separate from the later “Neolithic” assemblages, which are defined by the presence of
artifacts such as pottery, grinding stones, bifaces, and adze/axes. Although chronometric
dates are currently unavailable, differences in the distribution of these artifacts indicates
that their presence or absence is not necessarily dependent on a single cross-regional
chronology. While technological complexes in the dune-playa regions appear to have
undergone a transition in tool kits that incorporated Neolithic technologies, microlithic
technologies in the desert-steppes and foothills of the adjacent Gobi-Altai range
continued to be used without the addition of those elements. Differing exploitation
strategies of separate ecological zones is the most likely explanation for this interregional
variation, but a current lack of knowledge about the nature of technological
change in either region complicates our understanding of how these environments were
used. By focusing upon one series of artifact assemblages, those from the dune-playa
Shabarakh-usu site in the South Gobi province, it is possible to use inter-assemblage
variation in raw material use and artifact types to suggest explanations for this suite of
differential adaptations and gain a better understanding of what aspects of variation are
related to chronological change rather than site function.

The paper analyzes images of dogs in rock art of China. According to the semantics of compositions the following groups can be distinguished: hunting dogs, herding dogs, guard dogs, using of dogs in rituals, mythological and folklore motifs and other images. According to the distribution of different thematic groups of images, two big areas – northern and south-western – can be seen. In northern regions of China (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, Gansu Province) the scenes of practical use of dogs (hunting, grazing, guarding herds and dwellings) prevail, which can be explained by the characteristics of the economic structure of the nomadic peoples who inhabited these territories. The images of a horseman followed by a dog and a bird of prey seen in Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia can be interpreted as depictions of some motifs of heroic epos of Central Asian nomadic peoples. Other compositions in northern regions have been found to depict not only “realistic”, but “mytho-ritual” interpretations as well. In south-western regions (Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, Yunnan Province, Sichuan Province) the images of dogs in ritual and/or a mythological context are more common. It is likely connected with the less practical importance of dogs in the agricultural economy and the higher status of this animal in the spiritual culture of the peoples of Southern China. Rock paintings in Cangyuan County, Yunnan Province, is an exception which combines the images belonging to both traditions, namely a picture of a hunting dog and a dog as a sacrificial animal. Some images cannot yet be deciphered unequivocally.

Комиссаров С. А., Соловьев А. И., Николаева Н. Ш. О характере перехода от Древности к Средним векам на территории Китая (по данным археологии) // Вестн. Новосиб. гос. ун-та. Серия: История, филология. – 2017. – Т. 16, №. 4: Востоковедение. – С. 30–35.

The article summarized the works of authors in the project devoted namely to investigations on the archaeological data for transitional period from Antiquity to the Middle Ages. Among the main results of the project conception of «extended transitional period» (from the late Eastern Han up to the beginning of Tang) is to be mentioned. It helps us to remove a contradiction with complete denial of any boundary between Antiquity and the Middle Ages presented in historiography. According to mass materials from ordinary burials all the changes in construction and implements were realized through quantitative development. Studying of elite burials with fixed dates – such as a mausoleum of Cao Cao, the graves of Luo Rui, Yu Hong, An Jia etc. – is also important. In the latter graves with sarcophagus’ bas-reliefs and colored pictures one could see representation of the myths and cults of Zoroastrianism, Manichaeism, and Nestorianism. So, the tomb of Yu Hong (and other «Sogdians») is told to be an example of medieval multi-culturalism.
Cave temples and monasteries appeared in V–VI AD among nomads of Northern China. Architectural image of these monuments was formed under direct Middle-Asian (Sogdian) influences and mediate Indian impact, with powerful nomadic factor as well.
Complex studying is the most effective on mass materials, such as collection of wooden and terracotta figurines from Astana cemetery (in Turpan) which was connected with local state Gaochang during 498–640 AD. The statuettes of horse-riders mostly represented cavalry, mounted with different types of armor. At that time the Great Silk Road developed very intensively, and many nomad states tried to control at least some part of it. So, military hardware and military art were in a good progress there. The craftsmen of Astana fixed exact features of faces and many details of garments and armament. Because of that we know that the people of Astana (or some part of them) were Caucasoid by race and Turks by their ethno-cultural characteristics. An idea of heavy cavalry was likely lend them from the neighboring Iranian peoples. Formation of the new combat branch had not been finished yet because no one plate of horse armor was found as well as no one pair of stirrups. But situation changed quickly, and many figurines of horsemen using the stirrups were excavated in the Late Tang burials within the same cemetery. That was Avars (Ruran tribes) who become known about stirrups during the wars with Turks and brought this knowledge to Europe. But the problem of military development is quiet complicate and will need a special investigation.

Zhukaigou site locates in the southern central part of Inner Mongolia, it consists remains from the end of Neolithic period to early Bronze Age. Former researches focused on chronological stages and cultural factors. This paper will re-study the houses of Zhukaigou site by summarizing the characters of houses, reconstructing the structures and studying the processes of building. According to constructing process and function, there are two kinds of houses, one for public use, including manufacture, meeting and religion purpose; the second is for private use of daily life. Besides, the evolution of state of house is based on adaption of human to changes in aspects like environment, economy and society. This paper also discusses the changes of natural and cultural contexts which motives the development of Zhukaigou site.

In this article the thesis is submitted that there is something fundamentally wrong with Western Sinology, or 'Chinakunde', or 'Zhongguoxue' (as distinct from 'Hanxue', which is a kind of old-fashioned philology aggrandised with quasi- if not pseudo-philosophy). 'China experts' either pretend to be knowledgeable about everything related to China, in which case they cannot be taken seriously, or - eventually - admit not to be scientific all-rounders with respect to the country, in which case they cannot be called China experts. The author, who graduated in Sinology from Leyden University and in economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam, not only believes that the study of China has to be taken to a higher level (a belief, he expects, no tenured professor of Chinese Studies/History will share); he also explains how this long overdue task could be accomplished. The study of China should be neither mile-wide-but-inch-deep nor mile-deep-but-inch-wide; it should (and could!) be mile-wide-and-mile-deep. The heyday of Sinology is yet to come.

Global cooling during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) posed significant challenges to peoples living in northern Eurasia. Using micromorphology, pollen and non-pollen palynomorphs (NPP), and faunal analyses, this study reconstructs the local paleoenvironmental contexts of repeated ephemeral occupations at Shizitan 29 in Shanxi Province, North China, across the LGM, from ca. 28 to 18 Ka cal BP, followed by a gap until a final occupation ca.13.5 Ka cal BP. Among the significant finds at Shizitan 29 are remains of 285 hearths and a rich lithic assemblage that contains the earliest radiocarbon-dated evidence for microblades in China, appearing first in Layer 7. The environmental data show that the low mountains and tributary river valleys of the Yellow River in the Loess Plateau provided abundant sources of water and food in spite of environmental fluctuations. Microblade-producing groups repeatedly visiting this locality survived severe climate change by making use of fire, selective herbivore hunting, processing plant foods with grinding stones, and symbolic ornamentation such as ostrich shell beads. NPP data also indicate the potential presence of flax and other fiber processing. The Shizitan 29 data demonstrate how humans adapted to challenging local conditions throughout the LGM, allowing them to stay within this northerly region without migrating to warmer southern latitudes.

Constituées de bronzes dominés par la figure animale, les collections antiques de l'Iran, du Caucase et des steppes orientales du musée Cernuschi sont ici rassemblées dans leur intégralité sous le terme d'art animalier, la définition de ce dernier étant volontairement élargie au plateau iranien. Il définit habituellement la production artistique des populations des steppes eurasiennes, de la Grande Muraille de Chine à la Mer Noire. Animaux sauvages et domestiques sont' représentés de manière réaliste ou stylisée, mais un sens du mouvement comme saisi sur l'instant en caractérise toujours le style.

Présents dans tous les grands muses consacrés aux arts de l'Asie, ces bronzes animaliers font depuis deux décennies l'objet de publications exhaustives. Ils constituent toujours le point fort de quelques collections privées, et le succès d'expositions consacrées à ce sujet en France, "L'Or des Scythes", "L'Or des Amazones", "L'Or des Thraces" a révélé l'intérêt du public pour cette forme d'art, tant ces cavaliers nomades restent indissociables d'une part de rêve.

Objets d'abord connus par des trouvailles fortuites, collectionnés en Europe dès la fin du me siècle, ils sont restés longtemps orphelins de tout contexte archéologique, regroupés sous des dénominations diverses évoquant des cavaliers nomades galopant d'un bout à l'autre de l'Eurasie. Les observations tirées des fouilles récentes en Mongolie, I en Chine et dans les républiques du Caucase concluent au contraire à la coexistence de cultures régionales distinctes, où mode de vie, i artefacts et milieu naturel sont étroitement liés. Les steppes eurasiennes constituèrent toutefois une voie de communication remarquable, par où transitèrent motifs iconographiques et certaines inventions que reprirent à leur compte les sociétés sédentaires voisines.

For forty years, there has been a widely held belief that over 2,000 years ago the Chinese Qin developed an advanced chromate conversion coating technology (CCC) to prevent metal corrosion. This belief was based on the detection of chromium traces on the surface of bronze weapons buried with the Chinese Terracotta Army, and the same weapons' very good preservation. We analysed weapons, lacquer and soils from the site, and conducted experimental replications of CCC and accelerated ageing. Our results show that surface chromium presence is correlated with artefact typology and uncorrelated with bronze preservation. Furthermore we show that the lacquer used to cover warriors and certain parts of weapons is rich in chromium, and we demonstrate that chromium on the metals is contamination from nearby lacquer after burial. The chromium anti-rust treatment theory should therefore be abandoned. the good metal preservation probably results from the moderately alkaline pH and very small particle size of the burial soil, in addition to bronze composition. The Qin Terracotta Army of Xi'an is an array of life-sized, realistic ceramic figures representing warriors, stationed in three large pits within the mausoleum of Qin Shihuang (259-210 BC), the first emperor of a unified China. Over two thousand ceramic warriors have been excavated so far, and it is estimated that several thousand more remain buried 1-4. These warriors were armed with fully functional weapons made primarily of bronze. From the partial excavation of Pit 1 alone, dozens of spears, lances, swords and hooks have been recovered, in addition to over 80 ferrules that would have been attached to the distal end of shafted weapons, over 260 crossbow triggers and as many as 40,000 arrowheads, typically found in bundles of one hundred that originally were the contents of one warrior's quiver. In most cases, the organic components of the weapons, such as wooden shafts, quivers, scabbards or crossbow stocks, have largely decayed. However, the preservation of the bronze is remarkably good overall, with many of the weapons displaying shiny, almost pristine surfaces and sharp blades (Fig. 1). Since the first excavation of these bronze weapons in the 1970s, researchers highlighted the arguably exceptional state of preservation of the weapons after over two thousand years buried 1:306-7&341-8,5. They hypothesised that Qin weapon-makers could have utilised some kind of anti-rust technology to prevent them from decaying in their afterlife. The identification of chromium oxide enrichment on the surface of a few weapon samples led to suggestions that an early precedent of so-called chromate conversion coating (CCC) 6,7 could have been applied by Qin craftspeople in order either to prevent corrosion and/or to darken the weapon surface colours. Furthermore, laboratory experiments demonstrated that CCC was viable given the raw materials and technology available at the time, even though replication experiments were not conclusive 5. After that, references to 'corrosion resistance' aided by chromium and the 'highly developed technology' of weapon-makers appeared in excavation reports and other publications, which have been further amplified by translation into English and other languages, and reproduction in popular media 1,2. Two studies have challenged this hypothesis in academic publication: based on

Important objectives of the four-year enviroGRIDS project encompass the improvement of transnational cooperation, the use of state of the art Information and Communication Technologies for data analysis and sharing and the application of environmental models for monitoring present and predicting future states of the environment for the Black Sea region. In such a transnational context, there is a dire need for the environmental sciences to evolve from a simple, local-scale vision toward a complex, multiuser , multilayered holistic approach. BASHYT (http://swat.crs4.it/) is a Web based, GIS oriented, information and support tool, part of the Black Sea Catchment-Observation System (BSC-OS). It exposes a set of applications for data management, analysis and visualization and a complete server and client side development framework (wiki like) to create Web contents. The core of the portal relies on the hydrological semi distributed SWAT code to model the water cycle and predict the effect of management decisions on water, sediment, nutrient and pesticide yields on large river basins. Furthermore, BASHYT aims at quantifying the interconnectedness between (human and natural) pressures and states of water body receptors at different space and time scales. The aim is to enhance environmental management capacity to assess water resource and to share and process large amounts of key environmental information. Within an experimental and innovative programming environment, modules have been developed to run near real-time applications based on numerical solvers (SWAT is just one example), run pre-and post-processing codes, query and map results through the Web browser. A set of web OGC services and a complete Application Programming Interface (API) are also exposed by the portal. We expect to improve the ways in which land management systems can operate and improve model usability to aid in making management decisions and watershed-scale modeling.