Southeast Asian Archaeology

Researchers from different fields like archaeology, history, philology and natural sciences present their studies on ancient gemstones. Using precious minerals as an example, trade flows and craftsmanship, but also utilisation and perception are discussed in a cross-cultural and diachronic approach. The present volume aims at three main questions concerning gemstones in archaeological and historical contexts: »Mines and Trade«, »Gemstone Working« as well as »The Value and the Symbolic Meaning(s) of Gemstones«.
This volume contains the proceedings of the conference »Gemstones in the first Millennium AD« held in autumn 2015 in Mainz, Germany, within the scope of the BMBF-funded project »Weltweites Zellwerk – International Framework«.

We investigate pattern and process in the transmission of traditional weaving cultures in East and Southeast Asia. Our investigation covers a range of scales, from the experiences of individual weavers ('micro') to the broad-scale patterns of loom technologies across the region ('macro'). Using published sources, we build an empirical model of cultural transmission (encompassing individual weavers, the household and the community), focussing on where cultural information resides and how it is replicated and how transmission errors are detected and eliminated. We compare this model with macro-level outcomes in the form of a new dataset of weaving loom technologies across a broad area of East and Southeast Asia. The lineages of technologies that we have uncovered display evidence for branching, hybridization (reticulation), stasis in some lineages, rapid change in others and the coexistence of both simple and complex forms. There are some striking parallels with biological evolution and information theory. There is sufficient detail and resolution in our findings to enable us to begin to critique theoretical models and assumptions that have been produced during the last few decades to describe the evolution of culture.

The Roots of Asian Weaving: The He Haiyan collection of textiles and looms from Southwest China. Eric Boudot and Chris Buckley, Oxbow Books, Oxford, 2015.

This ground-breaking book documents the weaving traditions and textiles of one of Asia’s most ethnically diverse areas, placing them in a regional context. It represents a novel approach to anthropological and ethnographic studies, based on detailed field reports and an explicitly comparative approach, integrating both statistical (Bayesian phylogenetic, Neighbornet) and classical methods to present a unified picture.

The first three chapters describe the ethnographic and linguistic and historical background to the region, focussing on the diversity of ethnicities, and their (sometimes turbulent) relations with the dominant Han Chinese polity. The authors review historical and archaeological remains of textiles and looms from the region, and present a revisionist account of the development of loom technologies.

The core of the book consists of detailed fieldwork, based on more than a decade of first-hand study. The authors record the traditions of Miao, Yao, Buyi, Dong, Zhuang, Maonan, Dai and Li weavers from Guizhou to Hainan Island. Their investigation focuses on decorated textiles made on the loom (as opposed to embroidery or appliqué), since these are the most complex and most conservative part of the weaver’s repertoire. They describe the looms and techniques of these groups, including diagrams, descriptions and photographs of the weaving processes and woven structures. Interviews with active weavers reveal the social dimensions of weaving and the items that are made from woven cloth, including marriage and burial related customs. Each tradition is illustrated with precisely provenanced examples of textiles from each sub-region, drawn from the He Haiyan collection in Beijing, including many nineteenth century examples. The research was carried out with a sense of urgency, since many traditions are disappearing, and in some cases are limited to a small number of elderly weavers. These accounts form a primary ethnographic source for weaving cultures in the region, many of which have never been documented before.

In the final chapter the authors present a comparative analysis of loom technology across the Asian mainland, using techniques derived from linguistics and biology (Bayesian analysis and Neighbornet plots). They use these to chart the evolutionary history of looms in Asia, demonstrating that all the major traditions in East Asia, Southeast Asia and Island Southeast Asia are structurally and functionally related, in spite of their apparent diversity, and have their origins on the Asian mainland in the same region that includes the apparent homlands of many of the major linguistic groups. The results have far-reaching implications for the understanding of how complex culture develops and spreads. The findings also shed light on widely-discussed topics such as the development of the Chinese Drawloom, showing how key features of the complex patterning device on this loom were derived from Tai-Kadai looms.

Palaeogeographic reconstructions of Palawan Island using Geographic Information Systems based on present-day bathymetry show extensive changes in land area with respect to sea-level fluctuations during the Late Quaternary. Our analysis shows that a lowering of at least 135 meters from present-day levels is needed in order to expose a narrow land connection between Palawan and Sundaland. This most likely last occurred during OIS 12 (ca. 440 Ka) and probably OIS 16 (ca. 630 Ka), facilitating overland colonization between the two islands. The reconstructions further illustrate the extent of land exposed, which was likely covered by open savannah vegetation during the LGP and inhabited by several large mammal species now extinct on the island. Sea-level rise at the end of the Pleistocene caused the inundation of shallow shelves of Palawan, and this, accompanied by a conversion to closed rainforest environments, was probably responsible for the disappearance of most of the large mammal fauna of Palawan. Coastline reconstructions demonstrate that the appearance of mid-Holocene shell middens in the Philippine archaeological record is due to the formation and proximity of mangrove forests during sea-level high-stand, rather than a consequence of changes in human subsistence strategies.

Contents:
专题论文

宋代潮州陶瓷之路

　　——以笔架山窑瓷器生产与外销为中心【黄　挺】／3

日本出土的宋代潮州窑产品与相关问题

　　——以福冈市博多遗址群出土为主【田中克子】／20

潮瓷下南洋：19世纪以来潮瓷与东南亚潮人陶瓷业【李炳炎】／32


海洋、宗教与女性研究

　　——以近代潮汕地区的信教妇女为例【蔡香玉】／54

“海洋亚洲”的废婢运动

　　——以近代中国广州、中国香港、新加坡为个案【李　雯】／77


马六甲施善华商与公众记忆

　　——以甲必丹李为经（1614～1688）为例【苏尔梦（C. Salmon）】／92

试析1571～1940年中菲贸易之兴衰【龚　宁】／103


粤海关史研究的传承与创新

　　——在“粤海关与海上丝绸之路”学术研讨会上的致辞【陈春声】／132

海关史研究若干基本问题刍议【谢　松】／136

粤海关“笔帖式”考述【阮　锋　范少垒】／170

乾隆年间粤海关监督唐英研究——以新发现的中西史料为中心【黄　超】／183

粤海关税务司贝泐（F. H. Bell）与省港大罢工【王一雕】／204

粤海关近代档案的概况与价值【黄　朴　刘　琳　米建平　陆天舒】／217

中国近代海关文档管理制度评析【李娜娜】／226


清代十三行图像史料内涵初探【王　睿　欧婷婷】／238

清代广州中西体育交流及其影响【冷　东　阮　宏　罗章鑫】／261

通向海洋之路：清代香山岐澳古道考【王一娜　周　鑫】／277

清末民初广东双毫大量输港现象研究

　　——以江门关近代文献记录为中心【李富周】／306

近代东亚灯塔分级指标辨析【伍伶飞】／323


学术述评

演绎早期全球史大戏的佳作

　　——读李伯重先生《火枪与账簿：早期经济全球化时代的中国与东亚世界》【李庆新】／341

“粤海关与海上丝绸之路”学术研讨会综述【王一娜】／345


后　记／352

征稿启事／355

(Articles with abstracts in English)

Manuscripts／357

Changing weather patterns, increasing frequency and intensity of natural hazards, and rising sea levels associated with global climate change have the potential to threaten cultural heritage sites worldwide. This is especially the case for maritime heritage sites located in the low-lying coastal and delta regions of Asia. Maritime heritage can reflect both highly localized cultural products based on the coupling of people and maritime environments and the historic footprints of complex maritime networks that connect people, ideas, and material over vast distances, creating unique cultural spheres. Furthermore, maritime heritage sites potentially serve as or contain records of how past societies have been impacted by and adapted to past environmental stress. Therefore, their degradation threatens local/regional/global cultural patrimony as well as evidence of human resilience and fragility in the face of environmental change. This makes a strong case for urgent preservation. However, the possible damage caused by climate change and the scale of vulnerable maritime heritage pose seemingly insurmountable challenges. In this paper, we present the ways in which maritime heritage sites across Asia are vulnerable to environmental stresses, such as changing sea levels, coastal erosion, flooding, and storm surges. Our objective is to draw upon our experience documenting endangered cultural heritage across South and Southeast Asia to illustrate that there are unique conceptual and practical characteristics of maritime heritage that complicate effective management and conservation efforts on the scale required to prevent massive loss by climate change. We conclude by stressing the need to reconceptualize debates about the custody and stewardship of maritime heritage and the urgency of employing a wide range of innovative preservation solutions to ensure maritime patrimony is not lost to the rising tides.

Archaeological evidence shows that a predecessor of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami devastated nine distinct communities along a 40-km section of the northern coast of Sumatra in about 1394 CE. Our evidence is the spatial and temporal distribution of tens of thousands of medieval ceramic sherds and over 5,000 carved gravestones, collected and recorded during a systematic landscape archaeology survey near the modern city of Banda Aceh. Only the trading settlement of Lamri, perched on a headland above the reach of the tsunami, survived into and through the subsequent 15th century. It is of historical and political interest that by the 16th century, however, Lamri was abandoned, while low-lying coastal sites destroyed by the 1394 tsunami were resettled as the population center of the new economically and politically ascen-dant Aceh Sultanate. Our evidence implies that the 1394 tsunami was large enough to impact severely many of the areas inundated by the 2004 tsunami and to provoke a significant reconfiguration of the region's political and economic landscape that shaped the history of the region in subsequent centuries.
tsunami | Sumatra | Aceh | postdisaster recovery | hazards

“Catalogue”, in John N Miksic (ed.), 2009, Southeast Asian Ceramics: New Light on Old Pottery, Singapore: Southeast Asian Ceramic Society, pp.100–165. Published on the occasion of the exhibition of the same title “Southeast Asian Ceramics: New Light on Old Pottery”, 14 November 2009–25 July 2010, at the NUS Museum, National University of Singapore.

Archaeological evidence shows that a predecessor of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami devastated nine distinct communities along a 40-km section of the northern coast of Sumatra in about 1394 CE. Our evidence is the spatial and temporal distribution of tens of thousands of medieval ceramic sherds and over 5,000 carved gravestones, collected and recorded during a systematic landscape archaeology survey near the modern city of Banda Aceh. Only the trading settlement of Lamri, perched on a headland above the reach of the tsunami, survived into and through the subsequent 15th century. It is of historical and political interest that by the 16th century, however, Lamri was abandoned, while low-lying coastal sites destroyed by the 1394 tsunami were resettled as the population center of the new economically and politically ascen-dant Aceh Sultanate. Our evidence implies that the 1394 tsunami was large enough to impact severely many of the areas inundated by the 2004 tsunami and to provoke a significant reconfiguration of the region's political and economic landscape that shaped the history of the region in subsequent centuries. tsunami | Sumatra | Aceh | postdisaster recovery | hazards