Please join the Harvard Asian Archaeology Seminar Series for a talk Wednesday, April 19 at 3:00 PM.
"Stable Isotope Fractionations during Silk Production: Foundations for Interpretations of Isotope Signatures in Ancient Silk Textiles"
by Hong Yang (Vice President for International Affairs and Charles J. Smiley Professor of Environmental Sciences, Bryant University and William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Fellow at the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study)
Room 427, Sackler Building, 485 Broadway Street, Cambridge, MA
Organized by Professor Eugene Wang, this workshop is a step towards developing methods of cognitive art history through examining issues of color in the Chinese context with evidence from archaeology and paleography. This workshop will feature 3 talks by Professor Paola Demattè (RISD), Professor Kuangyu Chen (Rutgers University), Dr. Tao Wang (Art Institute of Chicago), and one student presentation by HAA PhD student April Peng. This workshop is generously co-sponsored by the department of History of Art & Architecture, the department of Anthropology, the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller...
Abstract: Iizuka recently began archaeological excavations on Tanegashima Island off Kyushu where the most pronounced change from the terminal Upper Paleolithic (ca. 17,000- cal BP) to ceramic-bearing Incipient Jomon (ICP-J: 14,000/13,500-12,800 cal BP) is found. Southern Kyushu, with its recurring volcanic eruptions and well dated tephra, has the most reliable known regional geochronology associated with the presence of late Pleistocene pottery. Iizuka will test whether increased signatures of sedentism, adoption of new subsistence strategies, and long-distance exchange were responses to... Read more about Anthropology Department Seminar, "Ecosystem Risks and Adoption of Ceramics in the Late Pleistocene of Southern Japan and Its Broader Implications," a talk by Fumie Iizuka
Abstract: As a taphonomist, Dr. E. Grace Veatch’s research focuses on how archaic and modern humans exploited different resources and ecologies within the temporal and environmental contexts of the Pleistocene/Holocene. Dr. Veatch’s approach to reconstructing the past is rooted in Middle Range Theory where she incorporates ethnoarchaeology, experimental taphonomy, and stable isotope analyses to understand the ecological relationship between humans...Read more about Anthropology Department Seminar, "Exploring Hominin Dietary Strategies and Ecologies in Island Southeast Asia," a talk by Grace Veatch
The archaeological exploration of Bukhara lags, compared to other important metropoleis in the wider region (such as Merv or Samarkand), considerably behind. Unfortunately, the lack of data is often compensated by clichés about the 'Silk Road', imagining Bukhara as a flourishing hub of transcontinental trade routes since the dawn of history.
Since 2011, archaeological investigations carried out by the Uzbek-American Expedition in Bukhara (UzAmEB) have considerably advanced our understanding of the archaeology and history of the city and its hinterland –...
ABSTRACT - Although archaeological clues suggest that high mountain zones played a central role in the first emergence of mobile pastoralism in the eastern steppes of Eurasia, the region's...
Please join us at the Anthropology Department Seminar Series on Thursday, October 6 at 3pm for a talk by Dr. Jiajing Wang.
Abstract: The transition to agriculture, characterized by plant domestication, is one of the most consequential events in human history. Despite more than two decades of extensive research, it remains unclear how and why rice domestication originated in the Lower Yangtze River of China. This presentation offers a new approach to explaining this transition by proposing a dialectical model of domestication. Challenging traditional explanations...
