Archaeology of Asia Stream

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Ceramics have long garnered much attention in archaeological research as being present in a considerable percentage of archaeological sites worldwide and often chronologically sensitive as well as reflecting exchange patterns over short and long distances. East Asia and the Pacific Region in particular have seen major developments in ceramic technology from the very earliest ceramics of the world being produced there almost 20,000 years ago to historic-period advances in porcelain and glaze making. Furthermore, there is evidence for both ceramic products and underlying technologies having been exchanged over large areas for several millennia.

This option focuses on the emergence and development of ceramics in the prehistoric and historic Asia Pacific region, providing both general training in ceramic analysis and the specific context needed by students wishing to specialize in the study of the region. From the first modern archaeological excavations in China —which uncovered remarkable prehistoric assemblages of elaborately painted earthenware—to long-standing research on Imperial kiln sites and the recent discovery of the earliest pottery in the world, archaeological ceramics research has played an important part in uncovering the region's past. Traditional archaeological approaches will, therefore, form the foundations of the course. However, students will also be shown how archaeological interpretations of pottery in the past can be shaped within frameworks drawn from ethnographic, ethnoarchaeological, and historical research. In addition, by connecting Archaeological Materials component of the MSc course, students will be given a general introduction to suitable techniques for the analysis of both high- and low-fired ceramics.

The course will consider how geography and climate help us to contextualize early finds and understand the character of later production. Focusing on concrete examples from various periods, the course will show how ceramics can help us to explore innovation, specialization and centralization in production, to both define and transgress the boundaries of cultural units, and to investigate the character of long-distance exchange.

The course is taught by several specialists who will provide students with insight and perspective into a wide range of research theories and methodologies. Within this framework, the students will have the opportunity to develop a framework for a research project of their own that may lead to a MSc dissertation or a DPhil thesis.

Convenor: Dr. Anke Hein

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The Eurasian continent is highly diverse yet interconnected, with people, animals, and even plants moving within and across the broad range of different environmental zones and interacting across space and time. Understanding the patterns of social connectivity, mobility, and human-environment interaction in this vital interstitial zone is currently a major focus of interdisciplinary research.

Addressing itself to students who are seeking to understand the broader context of development of East, Central, Southeast Asian archaeology, European prehistory, or the Classical World, this course introduces the archaeology of Eurasia from its initial settlement by earlier hominins, though with a focus on the late Holocene and the rise of the first nomadic empires. It explores transformation of Eurasian societies, the transmission of technologies and ideas, and the challenge of analytical scales which can make the archaeology of Eurasia appear simultaneously homogeneous and variable.

The lecture part of this course is geared to graduate and undergraduate students alike, providing them with insights into recent research into major archaeological phenomena in this region up to the late 1st millennium BCE. Throughout, the focus will be on three major themes: human movement and dispersals; technological transfer and development; and mortuary customs and ritual practices. Additionally, the tutorials provide an opportunity for graduate students to discuss case studies and develop a greater awareness of the methodological problems of defining identity groups, investigating cultural contact and human movement in the archaeological record, and assessing the relationships between humans and their natural environment.

Convenors: Prof Rick Schulting and Dr. Anke Hein

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This module presents the latest (bio)archaeological research into the origins and establishment of agriculture in western Asia, focussing on the Epipalaeolithic-Neolithic but also considering case studies from subsequent periods to illustrate the long-term development of farming. Through lectures, tutorials and museum-based classes we set out the chronological and material culture framework to assess the direct archaeobotanical and archaeozoological evidence for domestication relationships and management ecology in different ecological settings and through time. Geographically we focus not only on the ‘Fertile Crescent' (the arc of relatively high rainfall extending from the southern Levant in the south-west through Syria, SE Turkey and N Iraq in its central zone and down through the Zagros mountains of Iran in the east) but also on adjacent regions (e.g. central Anatolia) that are proving equally important to the origins story and/or to its longer term consequences.'

Convenors: Prof. Amy Bogaard and Dr. Mike Charles

The Asia-Pacific zone today is home to over half of the world's population, and with it over half of the planet's human diversity. This course brings together the latest research in archaeology, palaeoanthropology, genetics, linguistics, and other historical disciplines to uncover how this diversity emerged in the deep human past. We begin the course by looking at the extreme ecological and cultural diversity that characterises the Asia-Pacific before turning to the history of archaeological research on early human dispersals in the region. Next, we go all the way back to the early Pleistocene period and examine the distribution of fossil primates and hominins in the region. We then move forward in time to explore the multispecies worlds of the Middle Pleistocene; a time when Homo erectus, Neanderthals, Denisovans, and the diminutive Homo floresiensis and Homo luzonensis overlapped and sometimes even interacted with our own species, Homo sapiens. Next, we follow the paths of Homo sapiens throughout the diverse environments of mainland Asia, as they moved into arid deserts, humid rainforests, high altitudes, and cold latitudes. Our focus will then shift to how our species dispersed into the islands of Southeast Asia and then continental Australasia. Finally, we venture to far-flung shores, uncovering evidence for the earliest dispersals of people out of Southeast Asia and into the remote Pacific Islands during the Late Holocene. Throughout the course — canvassing the human experience across millions of years and tens of thousands of kilometres — our focus will be on the expanding repertoire of novel ecologies that humans came to inhabit, as well as how humans began to change and reshape these spaces, creating new anthropogenic worlds in which to live.

Convenor: Dr Dylan Gaffney