Tang Dynasty horses, Xuan Zang and the Silk Road

An introduction to the Penn Museum's famous Tang dynasty horse sculptures with the University of Pennsylvania's East Asian Languages and Cultures graduate student, Sarah Laursen.



The Penn Museum's Keeper of the Asian Collections, Stephen Lang, discusses the Buddhist monk Xuan Zang and the Silk Road.

Secrets of the Silk Road Symposium: Closing Remarks

Closing remarks from Wang Binghua, Director Emeritus of the Xinjiang Institute of Archaeology, and from Philip L. Kohl, Professor of Anthropology and Slavic Studies at Wellseley College, for the symposium "Reconfiguring the Silk Road: New Research on East-West Exchange in Antiquity".
March 19, 2011 at the Penn Museum

Looking East from Constantinople: Byzantium and the Silk Road by Dr. Robert G. Ousterhout

On May 4, 2011 at the Penn Museum a lecture in the series Great Adventures along the Silk Road:
Looking East from Constantinople: Byzantium and the Silk Road by Dr. Robert G. Ousterhout
Medieval Constantinople was the greatest emporium of the eastern Mediterranean, where East and West came together. After a brief overview of the Byzantine capital, the talk will chart the routes merchants took traveling eastward from Constantinople, as well as the cities, sites, and landscapes they passed along the way. It will also examine the luxury goods and exotic commodities they brought back with them.

Serindia, Sir Aurel Stein and the Discovery of the Dunhuang Manuscript Hoard.

Not news but tastefully displayed, Sir Aurel Stein's masterpiece "Serindia" in a blog by Rare and Unusual Images from F.A. Bernett Books

The original was printed in 1921 with 500 copies.
The current price for the complete et of these books is between € 16.625 and € 50.000!

This is what you would get for € 50.00!

SERINDIA. Detailed Report of Explorations in Central Asia and Westernmost China carried out and described under the orders of H. M. Indian government by Aurel Stein, K. C. I. E. Indian Archaeological Survey. With descriptive lists of Antiques by F. H. Andrews, F. M. G. Lorimer, C. L. Woolley, and others ; and appendices by J. Allan, L. D. Barnett, L. Binyon, É. Chavannes, A. H. Church, A. H. Francke, A. F. R. Hoernle, T. A. Joyce, R. Petrucci, K. Schlesinger, F. W. Thomas.
by Sir Aurel STEIN

Bookseller: Librairie Herodote
(Paris, FR, France)

Book Description: Oxford, At The Clarendon Press, 1921. Couverture rigide. Book Condition: Très bon. Edition originale. 5 vol. gds in-4° ; [Text]-XXXIX-de la p. 1 à la p. 547, très nbses reprod. photographiques h.-t. [1-144]/VIII-de la p. 549 à la p. 1088, très nbses reprod. photographiques h.-t. [145-236]/XI-de la p. 1089 à la p. 1580, très nbses reprod. photographiques h.-t. [237-345]-59 plans h.-t. dont 2 repliés in-fine [1-59]/[Plates]-X-175 planches h.-t. [I-CLXXV]/[Maps]-1 carte repliée non ch. [General Map]-1 carte repliée non ch. [Index]-94 cartes repliées [1-94], pleine toile d’époque couleur brique illustrée or, dos lisse imprimé or, filets à froid d’end. et titre or avec fleuron sur les plats, étui moderne, rel. uniforme de l’éditeur, bel exemplaire. Yakushi, Catalogue of the Himalayan Literature, S 717. Édition originale très rare complète illustrée de 345 reproductions photographiques hors texte, 59 plans hors texte, 175 planches hors texte et 96 cartes repliées dans un portefeuille. Tirage : 500 exemplaires. First edition. VERY SCARCE COMPLETE. 500 COPIES ONLY. VERY GOOD SET.

Price: € 50.000

Aurel Stein – Flowers to Lajos Lóczy

From Imre Galambos's Blog "Chinese Manuscripts from April 19, 2011

Last summer we were at Lake Balaton in western Hungary and decided to take a day trip to the Balatonarács cemetery to visit the grave of the famous Hungarian explorer and geologist Lajos Lóczy (1849-1920). In the West, he is mostly remembered as the person who first told the young Aurel Stein about the Caves of the Thousand Buddhas near Dunhuang, where Stein later purchased the largest collection of Chinese manuscripts ever found. It is through Stein’s acknowledgment in his publications that Lóczy’s name became known in Dunhuang studies. (His name is pronounced loh-tsee, unlike how it is transliterated in some Chinese or Japanese references.)
Lóczy himself visited China, including Dunhuang, in 1878 as the geologist in the Hungarian expedition of Count Béla Széchenyi (1837-1918). At the time, the manuscript library was still unknown and the members of the expedition only described the wonderful murals and statues in the cave temples. An account of this visit was published in 1881 by Gustav Kreitner (1847-1893), the expedition’s Austrian member, under the title Im Fernen Osten: Reisen des Grafen Bela Szechenyi in Indien, Japan, China, Tibet und Birma in den Jahren 1877-1880. Lóczy’s also published a book and later a detailed scientific report in three volumes, all in Hungarian. To this day, these works are largely inaccessible to the international community. A translation of his description of the visit to Dunhuang was published by Lilla Russell-Smith in “Hungarian Explorers in Dunhuang” (Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2000, vol. 10, no. 3: 341-362).
Years ago I have read a biography of Lóczy, which mentioned that Aurel Stein sent flowers to his grave from Kashmir. These were supposed to be some alpine flowers the type of edelweiss. Now that I had a chance to visit the grave in person, I was curious to see whether I could find any flowers. The village of Balatonarács has since been incorporated into the town of Balatonfüred and finding the cemetery was not a straightforward task. Once inside, however, we immediately noticed the grave, erected not far from the entrance, a bit to the left. But it took us a while to notice the flowers, even though they were pressed under a circular sheet of glass right beneath Lóczy’s relief portrait. An inscription in Hungarian read, “Last greetings from Aurel Stein in Kashmir.” Since Lóczy died in 1920, I assume that these flowers date to that year, too. They are withered but nevertheless remarkably well preserved.

Thus this cemetery in a little village near Lake Balaton preserves a tiny piece of history related to the great days of the exploration of Central Asia.

On Tocharian Origins

From "Dineke's Anthropology Blog, May 20, 2011





Where did the Tocharians originate from?
J.P. Mallory's recent talk has been somewhat of an eye-opener for me, as Prof. Mallory brought to my attention two important issues:
The lack of a clear connection between Afanasyevo and the Tarim Basin.
The existence (in Tocharian) of a rich agricultural IE terminology related to cereals, as well as the domesticated pig, which cannot be easily explained if Tocharians arrived in Xinjiang from the steppes to the north, and, ultimately from eastern Europe.
To begin with, I want to point out an important issue: we cannot assume that the earliest Caucasoids of Xinjiang, including some of the famous early Tarim mummies were Tocharian speaking. There are several arguments why this is so:..................................

Interested? Go to Dineke's Anthropology Blog

Her conclusion, I'm glad to share with you:

Conclusion
The mystery of the Tocharians may be that there is no mystery. The Tocharians are revealed to have been just another West Asian branch of the Indo-European family that, unlike most of its cousins, went east, absorbed Northern Caucasoid, Mongoloid, and South Asian population elements, emerged long enough in history to leave us a written record of their presence, before succumbing to the Xiongnu and the Mongols.

Thankfully, by combining the remnants of their language, and fragments of their DNA in their descendants, we are able to reconstruct the history of this, once forgotten people.

200,000 ancient coins from Northern Song Dynasty unearthed, weighing 4 tonnes

Archaeologists in east China's Jiangsu Province have unearthed about 200,000 ancient coins in a well on a construction site in the city of Suzhou.

The coins, weighing around 4 tonnes, were believed to be from the Northern Song Dynasty (960-1126), the city's archaeological institute said in a press release.

Construction workers found the well and coins first on Wednesday. Archaeologists rushed to the site and spent one day digging out coins in a protective manner.

Archaeologists assumed that the large amount of coins might be hidden by some rich family during war in relatively-prosperous Suzhou. The exact source has yet to be confirmed.

Source: Xinhua

Race to save Buddhas from bulldozers

It might be called the battle of the Buddha's feet, a struggle to rescue one of the great Buddhist sites in Afghanistan.

The deadline has just been cut to a year for a team of Afghan and foreign archaeologists to rescue what they can from the sites of four shrines and temples round Mes Aynak - the Copper Mountain - in the plains of Logar, 25 miles south of Kabul.

The Chinese have signed a 20-year lease to make this the biggest open-cast copper mine in the world outside Africa. They plan to blow up the mountain and what is left of the Buddhist temples, hoping to dig as much as they can of the copper estimated to be worth £45 billion.

Initially, they're offering £800 million a year for the concession.

It is a race between Afghanistan's cultural past and commercial future. A team of 32 archaeologists is moving everything it can from the site, rediscovered in the Sixties, rebuilding one of the temples and putting the treasures in a custom-built museum.

They are helped by 900 local Afghan workers. Initially they were given three years, but under pressure from the Chinese, President Karzai has said the conservation must end for the blasting and mining to begin late next year.

"The site is very important because this was a main junction on the Silk Road. The monks came here and settled between the 5th century and the 8th century, lured by the copper," said Philippe Maquis, the leading French archaeologist at the site. He points to large pieces of handsome Buddhas, complete with swirling drapery - said to be inherited from the Greeks who came here with Alexander the Great.

A battered statue three times life-size shows the Buddha in "Pari Nirvana" - the stage before nirvana, the highest state of consciousness.
Next to the figure are two huge stone feet, more than four times life size. "These pieces are the same style and from the same time as the great Buddha statues of Bamiyan," said Mr Maquis.

The Buddhas of Bamiyan were blown up by the Taliban in March 2001. Mes Aynak has not suffered such outright vandalism, although Osama bin Laden moved his main training camp here in 1999. "I think we can really do it," said Dr Omar Sultan, 61, deputy culture minister, a renowned archaeologist. "If we get the funds and the team of 40 archaeologists, I get the job of essential conservation done by the deadline."

Looking across the monastery and the camp for Chinese workers, it is a scene of utter tranquillity. But in two years the mountain which has lured mystics, pilgrims, and entrepreneurs - often all three in one - for more than 5,000 years will be blasted to oblivion.

It is the starting point of yet another invasion of Afghanistan, this time by the Chinese in their relentless charge for the world's mineral riches.

Source: London Evening Standard by Richard Fox

Rescue Excavation of Buddhist Relics in Mes Aynak, Afghanistan

Article by Dianne C. Brown, May 16, 2011

After years of armed conflicts, amongst the terrible human cost, Afghanistan has also suffered the loss of thousands of archeological objects and hundreds of ancient sites.

One of those sites is Mes Aynak, located in a mountainous region 40 kilometres from the capital. Mes Aynak is a hill topped by an ancient monastery. This site was discovered by archaeologists in the 1960s, but it has never been excavated. Archaeologists discovered that, two millennia ago, this region served as a critical conduit in the spread of Buddhism to Central Asia and China. It is believed that Mes Aynak could provide and entirely new insight into the origin of one of the world’s major religions.

During the late 1990s, the hill was a training camp of Osama Bin Laden. First, the Taliban brutally destroyed the site’s 1,700 year old statues of Buddha, the largest of their kind in the world. Today the ancient monastery is again under threat of destruction, this time from a copper mining company.

In 2007, the Afghan government negotiated a 30-year mining concession with the China Metallurgical Group Corporation for copper production at the Mes Aynak site. Archaeologists have since started emergency excavations in a bid to remove and preserve only those pieces that could still be saved. Dozens of ancient statues, defaced and vandalized, can be found there. The rescue excavation is undertaken by the National Institute of Archaeology and the Délégation Archéologique Française en Afghanistan. Only one small part of the site is fully excavated, just enough to reveal a vaulted chapel, monks’ cells and storerooms. Many polychrome terracotta statues were found, including a unique statue of the sleeping Buddha.

Omar Sultan, the Deputy Minister for Information and Culture said that the pace of excavation is accelerating, and will include an increase in the number of archaeologists on site from 30 to 65, and a massive increase in laborers from 90 to 900. While the archaeological works are ongoing, the site will be secured by a force of 1,600 soldiers. Excavation costs for the accelerated project are estimated to be nearly $28 million, and are financed partly by the Ministry of Mines.

Some of the most important finds have already been transferred to the National Museum in Kabul. Unfortunately, the facilities of this museum are often inadequate to appropriately house such valuable pieces. In response, the government has announced plans to construct a new museum just seven kilometers from the site, in Logar province. Both the government and attending scientists hope to move the most important and sensitive material to this new museum.

Deputy Minister Sultan has a personal interest in Mes Aynak. In 1976, he worked on an initial survey of this site together with Soviet archaeologists. Although time is running out for this rescue excavation, Sultan remains an optimist, telling reporters “Yes, we do have enough time. We have an agreement with the ministry of mines to safeguard the archaeology.”

The Copper Mine at Mess Aynak

Open publication - Free publishing - More afghanistan

New Archeological Discoveries in Xinjiang

First dig at Toyoq Grotto finds Buddhist temple ruins
Recently, Chinese archaeologists excavated the Toyoq Grotto for the first time and made a lot of important discoveries, including frescoes, paintings on silk, pieces of literature, pottery, sculptures and articles for daily use.

The Toyoq Grotto was a region where the Buddhist culture of the Central Plains and that of the Western Regions converged. The construction of the Toyoq Grotto started in the Sixteen Kingdoms Period. During the fifth and sixth century, the Grotto was decorated with a vast number of Buddhist temples and caves and gradually became a Buddhist holy site for the ruling class.

Many new discoveries have been made recently in the Toyuk caves of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The caves have been under archaeological excavation since last October.
The original artwork was created in the Toyuk caves between the 4th and 13th century, spanning a period of more than a thousand years.
The caves are the key point for the study of the Buddhist art of caves introduced from regions west of Xinjiang. The painting techniques were brought into China's interior areas from parts of Central Asia and beyond.

The first phase of excavation started from March this year and will come to a close soon. With the in-depth process of excavation, some important archeological finds have been surfaced.
Chen Ling, associate professor of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said, "What is essential is that we have discovered a central cave painting over a large area and it is integral with a rather good content. Also it is of great importance to the time of cutting inside Toyuk, the art of caves and the origin of fresco. The second is the wall with Uygur script, which may be the biggest one ever spotted in China or abroad."

To know more, click HERE to watch the video.

Salvage work continues on Nan'ao One

30 May, 2011 CCTV.CN
An ancient Chinese ship, Nan'ao One, has captured the nation's imagination as underwater salvage work on the vessel continues.
The highlights of today's operation include a closer look at the main structure of the ancient vessel, including the bow, stern, masts, sails, and possibly the anchors and cargo cabins.
The merchant ship sank in the "San Dian Jin" waters off the coast of Nan'ao Island nearly six centuries ago during the Ming Dynasty, a time of prosperous commerce and foreign trade. It was accidentally discovered by a group of local fishermen in 2007.
Nearly 3000 relics have been recovered from the ship, including a great number of blue and white porcelain pieces. The salvage work is still continuing.

For the video of this operation (45 sec) click HERE

For a live broadcast of the salvage operations on the 25th of May, 2011 (54 min 24 sec), click HERE

Afghanistan

From the Lectures series by the Penn Museum, called "Great adventures along the Silk Road, Dr. Frederik Hiebert held a lecture on Afghanistan on April 6, 2011 at the Penn Museum

A Manuscript with a History

May 1, 2011 was the last day of the exhibition "A Prince's Manuscript Unbound" about Muhammed Juki's Shahnamah at the Asia Society Museum in New York.

On February 9, 2011, art historian Barbara Brend lectured on Muhammad Juki's Shahnamah of Firdausi, the 15th-century Persian illuminated manuscript. (54 min.)
To watch this lecture, click HERE.

New book on the history of Tibet

Tibet a history by Sam van Schaijk

Situated north of the Himalayas, Tibet is famous for its unique culture and its controversial assimilation into modern China. Yet Tibet in the twenty-first century can only be properly understood in the context of its extraordinary history. Sam van Schaik brings the history of Tibet to life by telling the stories of the people involved, from the glory days of the Tibetan empire in the seventh century through to the present day. He explores the emergence of Tibetan Buddhism and the rise of the Dalai Lamas, Tibet's entanglement in the 'Great Game' in the early twentieth century, its submission to Chinese Communist rule in the 1950s, and the troubled times of recent decades. Tibet sheds light on the country's complex relationship with China and explains often-misunderstood aspects of its culture, such as reborn lamas, monasteries and hermits, "The Tibetan Book of the Dead", and the role of the Dalai Lama. Van Schaik works through the layers of history and myth to create a compelling narrative, one that offers readers a greater understanding of this important and controversial corner of the world.

AUTHOR BIOGRAPHY:
Sam van Schaik is an expert on the early history of Tibet and Tibetan Buddhism. He is based at the British Library in London where he works for the International Dunhuang Project. He is also the founder of the website www.EarlyTibet.com.

Prized Afghan antiquity is rescued by British art dealer

The 2nd-century Gandharan Buddha thought to have been looted from the Kabul national museum. Photograph: British Museum

An anonymous art dealer passionate about Afghan heritage has teamed up with the British Museum in an effort to buy and repatriate a spectacular antiquity believed to have been looted from the Afghan national museum in Kabul during the 1990s.
The British dealer, who said he had a "very strong emotional attachment" to Afghanistan, resolved to buy the 2nd-century Gandharan Buddha after he recognised it in a photograph sent by a colleague in Japan. The sculpture, which had disappeared in the bloody civil war, had been bought by a Japanese collector.
The British dealer, who is insisting on anonymity but spoke to the Observer about his determination to save the Buddha, said: "I begged him to give it back. He didn't care. In Japan, even if the object is stolen, you can't prosecute. So I decided to buy it."
The problem was that in Britain, purchasing stolen goods is a criminal offence, but the dealer was undeterred. He informed only the director of the British Museum, Neil MacGregor, and a curator, St John Simpson, of his plan.
"It was a big risk, but I had the [museum's] blessing," he said. "I thought that could have helped, although Customs officers don't believe in 'good faith' and there could have been serious trouble. I was doing something very moral, but illegal."
He has an enduring passion for Afghanistan, having travelled extensively there in the 1970s: "I saw the piece in Kabul then. I remember perfectly where it stood. This was my homage to their civilisation and their suffering."
Simpson, curator for ancient Iran and Arabia, said: "We had to seek legal advice. But the consensus was that, if this was the only way in which this piece could be returned, that's what we had to do. The clear public benefit outweighed the grey area."

With the museum's blessing, the dealer used his own money to persuade the Japanese collector to sell the 1.2 metre-high Buddha. Negotiations lasted a year.
Simpson described the rescue as "terribly appropriate", coming as it did on the 10th anniversary of the Taliban's destruction of the Bamiyan Buddhas in Afghanistan: "They're gone forever. But one very important piece can be returned. This is a very important and stunningly beautiful piece."
Omara Khan Massoudi, director of the National Museum of Afghanistan, described it as "one of our most treasured objects". One source put the sculpture's value at £600,000, but the British Museum said it is "without value, given its provenance".
The Buddha, which is shown performing a miracle with flames rising from his shoulders and water pouring from his feet, will be displayed in the British Museum's Enlightenment Gallery from Wednesday, before it is returned to Kabul after the close of "Afghanistan: Crossroads of the Ancient World". The show has proved so popular that it has been extended until 17 July.

About 75% of the Kabul museum's antiquities have been destroyed or looted. They reflected the rich heritage of a land that was once a crossroads of eastern and western ancient civilisations.

Source: The Guardian, 29 May 2011

The Silk Road in Late Antiquity

Peter Brown spoke on the Silk Road in Late Antiquity:: Politics, Trade, and Culture Contact between Rome and China, 300-700 CE at the Silk Road Symposium held at the Penn Museum on March 19, 2011.

This is a study of the modes of political and cultural communication which led to a rare level of "intervisibility" between the various societies and states along the Silk Road in the Late Antique period (roughly 300-700 CE). It will examine the cultural meanings of the objects which passed along the Silk Road as examples of a form of "archaic globalization". It ends by examining the meaning to contemporaries of the deliberate hybridization of objects taken from distant lands that were put on display in their respective societies. It is this bricolage of objects, to create spaces that were perceived both as local and non-local, which accounts for the passing of cultural and artistic influences along the kingdoms of the Silk Road from Byzantium to China in the Late Antique period.

Peter Brown is the Philip and Beulah Rollins Professor of History and Director, Program in Hellenic Studies at Princeton University.

More at http://www.penn.museum/silkroad

East/West Diffusion of Domesticated Grains along the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor

Michael D. Frachetti spoke on the East/West Diffusion of Domesticated Grains along the Inner Asian Mountain Corridor at the Silk Road Symposium held at the Penn Museum held on March 19, 2011.

Inner Asia has commonly been conceived as a region of Nomadic societies surrounded by agricultural civilizations throughout Antiquity. Societies of China, SW Asia, and Eastern Europe each developed agriculture in the Neolithic, while the earliest evidence for agriculture from the Eurasian steppe shows it was not a major part of local economies until the Iron Age (c. 700 BC). Newly discovered botanical evidence of ancient domesticated wheat and millet at the site of Begash in Kazakhstan, however, show that mobile pastoralists of the steppe had access to domesticated grains already by 2300 BC and that they were likely essential to the diffusion of wheat into China, as well as millet into SW Asia and Europe in the mid-3rd millennium BC. Currently, Begash provides the only directly dated botanical evidence of these crisscrossed channels of interaction. Whatsmore, the seeds from Begash were found in a ritual cremation context rather than domestic hearths. This fact may suggest that the earliest transmission of domesticated grains between China and SW Asia was sparked by ideological, rather than economic forces. This paper describes the earliest known evidence of wheat in the Eurasian steppes and explores the extent of ritual use of domesticated grains from China to SW Asia, across the Inner Asian mountains.

Michael D. Frachetti is Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology, Washington University in St. Louis

More at http://www.penn.museum

Samarkand in the Age of Tamerlane

Samarkand in the Age of Tamerlane (Timur Lang)
by Dr. Renata Holod
Old Samarkand- Afrasiyab was completely destroyed by the Mongol invasion of 1220. The centuries-old site stood abandoned. The new Timurid Samarkand arose in the surrounding gardens to become a model for early modern cities of western Asia.

Another lecture from the "Great Adventures along the Silk Road" series from the Penn Museum.
This lecture was held on March 2, 2011

Nan'ao: Hub of maritime silk road

More than 2-thousand cultural relics have been recovered from the Nan'ao One, an ancient Chinese merchant ship that sunk off Guangdong Province more than 400 years ago. Paul Crowe takes a closer look at the salvage operation which resumed last month.
The shipwreck lay at the bottom of the South China Sea for more than 400 years before it was discovered by chance. A group of fishermen found it four years ago off Nan'ao island, a cluster of small islands off Guangdong Province.
The ship is 35 meters long and 8 meters wide, and is the first late Ming dynasty ship ever discovered.
Initial excavation work began in 2009, but suffered setbacks due to poor weather and sea conditions.
This year marks the fourth round of salvage operations.
Cui Yong, Team Leader of Nan'ao One Underwater Archeology Team said "The underwater relics are well preserved. We've found the cords we left last year are still intact, so we'll continue the work suspended last year."
About 2000 relics have been recovered since April 26th, when the operation began. Most of them are dishware such as plates, tins and bowls with exquisite graphics and paintings.
Out of nearly 3 million sunken ships in oceans around the world, the South China Sea has the most. It's estimated it has more than 2000 ancient ships.
The Underwater Archeology Center of China was set up in 1986, when the country felt the urgency of exploring the undersea world. After 20 years' development, archeologists from the agency have taken part in many underwater treasure explorations.
Cui Yong said "We're on a fast growing track, our workload may be the largest over past 20 years, we've been working in many coastal provinces and abroad. We're moving neck and neck with other countries technically. The integral salvage of Nan'ao No.1 is unprecedented, I think our country is taking the lead in this regard. "
This salvage of Nan'ao No.1, the best preserved sunken ship from the Ming dynasty, is expected to last until July. The relics from the vessel are valuable for the study of ancient porcelain production technologies and the country's ancient "Marine Silk Road", a passageway for ancient China to the outside world.

Information provided by cctv.com

The Search for Kublai Khan’s lost fleet: archaeological research at Bach Dang in Vietnam

The Search for Kublai Khan’s lost fleet: archaeological research at Bach Dang in Vietnam.by Mark Staniforth

In recent years the Maritime Archaeology Program at Flinders University has developed a collaborative archaeological research project with the Vietnamese government’s Institute of Archaeology (IA) and the US based Institute for Nautical Archaeology.
View the Power Point Lecture and click HERE

About Mark Staniforth
Associate Professor Mark Staniforth has broad experience in historical archaeology, maritime archaeology and museums in a career that spans over twenty-five years. He was the State government maritime archaeologist for the Victoria Archaeological Survey in Victoria (1982-1987) and curator of maritime archaeology at the Australian National Maritime Museum in Sydney (1987-1993). He has worked as a consultant for the Australian Commonwealth government (National Historic Shipwrecks Research Plan 1995), the Canadian federal government (advice on national shipwreck legislation), the NSW state government (Parramatta River Survey), for the Hobsons Bay Council in Victoria (pipeline watching brief) and for the Land Management Corporation (Port Adelaide Waterfront Redevelopment Project) Mark has conducted archaeological survey and excavation in all Australian states as well as overseas, both underwater and on land across a wide range of archaeological sites.
Mark is currently a professional member of ICOMOS. He has been the Chair of the NSW State government’s Maritime Archaeology Advisory Panel (MAAP) 1988-1993), the president of the Australasian Institute for Maritime Archaeology (AIMA 1985-87) and the Australian Association for Maritime History (AAMH 1998-2003). He has served for two terms on the Advisory Council on Underwater Archaeology (ACUA 2000-2008) including three years as deputy Chair (2001-2003) and three years as Chair (2004-2007).
Mark is currently an Adjunct Research Fellow with the Maritime Archaeology Program in the Department of Archaeology at Flinders University. He is the author of Material Culture and Consumer Society published by Plenum Press of New York in 2003. he is the editor (with Mike Nash in 2006) of Maritime Archaeology: Australian Approaches (Plenum Press. New York) and (with Mike Hyde in 2001) of Maritime Archaeology in Australia: A Reader (Southern Archaeology. Blackwood, SA.) He has published more than 70 publications in Australian and International journals in a thirty year career in maritime archaeology

Archaeological surveying and excavation at Dong Ma Ngua site in 2010

Archaeological surveying and excavation at Dong Ma Ngua site in 2010
by Jun Kimura, Research Associate, Institute of Nautical Archaeology at Texas A&M (PhD candidate, Maritime Archaeology Program, Flinders University)

Site: Dong Ma Ngua (DMN), Nam Hoa commune, Yen Hung district, Quang Ninh province
Date of the fieldwork: 15th April -8 May, 2010
Director of the excavation: Dr. Le Thi Lien, Institute of Archaeology (IA), Vietnamese Academy of Social Sciences
Advisors: Dr. Mark Starniforth, Associate Professor, Maritime Archaeology Program (MAP), Flinders University, Dr. James P. Delgado, Director, Institute of Nautical Archaeology (INA)
Texas A&M Participants: Ms. Nguyen Mai Huong, Kieu Dinh Son, Dr. Bui Thi Mai, Dr. Michel Girard, Charlotte Minh Ha Pham, Jun Kimura and Burton Britt Jane.
The excavation was sponsored by Quang Ninh Provincial Government.

Introduction
Figure 1. There is a local area known as a Shipwreck Place by local people, suggest to conduct excavation to find ship remains.

This is a brief report on archaeological fieldwork conducted at the site of Dong Ma Ngua (DMN) located along Bach Dang River during 15th April -8 May in 2010. The excavation follows the 2009 season work by a project team from INA, MAP, IA that proceeded to a test excavation (Sasaki R & Kimura, J 2010a; 2010b). Besides the outcome of the fieldwork, this report includes a proposal for the next November/December Survey should target the implementation of survey on Ngon song Kenh” or “Kenh Riverhead”. The area has been reclaimed and hardly see on the map, yet it is used to be surrounded by the Duong Giang high ground and has been known as a part of Kenh River. The Kenh River is one of the three major channels that used to connect Bach Dang River and Chanh River, yet might have many small streams. There is a higher ground area locally called “Shipwreck place”, located along the border of the ancient Kenh River (Figure.1). This particular area is regarded as a relevant location where the team should proceed to an intensive survey by coring and using other remote sensing equipments. Based on some perspectives in this report, the survey in the next season aims at identifying targets and is expected to lead better understanding of the naval battle between the Yuan/Mongolian and Dai Viet.

Summary of the fieldwork
Figure 2. Dong Ma Ngua site. H1 trench in the right side and H4 is trench in the left side, divided by the string line. The stakes diagonally driven in different orientation. (Photo by Nguyen Mai Huong).

The fieldwork is divided into two periods, contributed by different members of the team. During the first fieldwork from 15 – 25 April, two Bench-marks (BM) were set around beside a fish pond known as the DMN site and excavation commenced. The second period of the fieldwork consisted of 10 days from 30 April to 8 May, and another two BMs during the last phase and small trenches are extensively opened around the fish pond. Throughout all this period, four permanent benchmarks (BM) were set. By the end of the fieldwork, four trenches (H1, 2, 3, 4) have been opened on the DMN site (Figure.2). They are located in the fish pond (dried) and measuring approximately 20 x 15m. Two additional test pits (TS1 & TS2) were opened at the rice fields around DMN to confirm the sediments in the surrounding area and to develop our understanding of the topographical features. As a result of the excavation in the fishpond (DMN), 55 stakes (plus two large wood pieces) were identified. Moreover, a large number of ceramic shreds were identified (possibly dating to after the 15th century, some seem to be earlier though, Dr. Le Thi Lien is currently analysing them). A small-square earthen coffin, likely to be dated to after the 17-18th century, was found in one of the two test trenches (TS1).
Archaeological works conducted in the trenches of the fishpond include sediments profile recording and stakes recording (detailed descriptions, measurements, photos). Small wood samples were also collected from all of these recorded stakes. By using a total station, the position of these stakes and a few important topographical features around the site, such as a concrete irrigation channels, BMs, fish ponds, waterways and high grounds were recorded. Photo mosaics of the exposed stakes in the trenches H3 and H4, showing the stakes concentration, were produced. Recovered artefacts vary, classified into shreds of ceramics, fragments of earthen tiles, pieces of bricks, remains of stakes, wooden remains, one corroded metal object, pieces of bone (likely from a mammal and a bird). All of them were numbered and some of the ceramic shards and the wooden elements were photographed.

Conclusion
The fieldwork conducted from April to May allowed us to inspect DMN in detailed level. Due to various limitations and to the nature of the excavation site that was initially chosen by the local authorities, the team did not extend the survey and excavation area. All the work contributed to a better understanding of the stakes‟ driven pattern, their use, and a clearer reconstruction of the past landscape was achieved. It is clearer that stakes have been intensively distributed in narrower area and limited space. Therefore, a simplification that stakes have located among natural barriers such as higher ground and river rock must be carefully reviewed. On the final day, preliminary results were presented at the authorities‟ meeting. Participants included the Director of the Institute of Archaeology in Hanoi, the Previous Minister of the Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, the Representative of Regional Communist Party, officials from the District, the Province and of the Commune. The significance of this kind of meeting is to withdraw people‟s attention and raise public interest for wider support including preservation of recovered artefacts and relevant management of the site contributed by broader level of people.
References

Lê, Liên Thị 2005. "Báo cáo kêt Quả Khảo Sát Thám Sát: Bãi cọc Bạch Đảng Đỏng Vạn Muơi. (Report of the Archaeological Exploration and Excavation of the Bach Dang Stake Field in Dong Van Muoi)." Internal Report for the Institute of Archaeology, Hanoi.
Sasaki, R, & Kimura, J, 2010a 'A case study: Archaeological evidence of the Yuan/Mongolian invasions at Bach Dang river and Takashima', Introduction to Maritime archaeology and insight to its application in the Asia-Pacific Region, from IPPA 19th Congress, Hanoi.
Sasaki, R, & Kimura, J, 2010b 'The Bach Dang Battle Site Survey Project 2009', INA Annual, in print, Texas.

The Ancient Southern Silk Road of China

Nanhai I and the Maritime Silk Road

Nanhai I and the Maritime Silk Road by Li Qingxin

This book talks ahout the excavation activities and salvage of Nanhai I —wrecked ship of the Song Dynasty period in Ancient China, and construction of the Maritime Silk Road Museum. In ancient times, there existed both the overland and maritime silk roads. Nanhai I is the oldest, largest, and well-preserved merchant ship of the Song Dynastyutilized for ocean trade so far and an impartant existing witness of the ancient Maritime Silk Road.

Source:China Scientific Books

China's Tocharian mummies - Silent witnesses of a forgotten past

I've published about it before but with the recent big Silk Road Exhibitions it's good to watch again the NOVA documentary from 1998.

The European Mummies Of China Someone who knows the past, is better able to understand the course of the present... Unbelievable documentary about the Tocharian mummies which have been excavated in North-Western China. Four thousand years ago, a community lived in the Tarim Basin -- in what is now the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China -- in the heart of Asia. The Tarim Basin people thrived there for at least 1,500 years. There are indications that they survived as a culture even into the second century. Then they disappeared. Now their remains are being reclaimed from the sands, and the people of that extinct nation are challenging scientists and scholars to fathom who they may have been, and -- if an answer can be found -- where, in prehistory, they came from. According to sweeping physical evidence, they were not Chinese. They were not even Asian in the present day meaning of the word. They were Tocharians; a Caucasian people and, more importantly, Indo-European/Aryan. To see more, click HERE and HERE.

Ancient road, inscriptions found in central China province

ZHENGZHOU, May 20 (Xinhua)-- Archaeologists in central China's Henan Province said they have found an ancient road and several inscriptions near the Hanguguan Pass, a road used by trading caravans during China's dynastic period.
The relics were discovered on a cliff 200 meters east of the Guan Tower in the village of Dongguan, where part of the pass is located. About 100 meters of road were uncovered.
The inscriptions found were incomplete, but archaeologists were able to decipher characters indicating that they were created during the Tang Dynasty (AD 618-907).
Historians said since the road served as a passage to the ancient Silk Road, the new finds might qualify to be listed on the World Heritage List.
The Hanguguan Pass was originally built before the Qin Dynasty (221-206 BC) near the city of Lingbao.
During the Han Dynasty (202 BC - AD 220), the pass was relocated to nearby Xin'an County. It was militarily and economically significant at that time, as it linked Luoyang and Xi'an, two of China's ancient capitals.

The Xinjiang Textiles: More Corridors in the Goldmine

Another video of the renown Silk Road Symposium in the Penn Museum on March 19, 2011 by Elizabeth Wayland Barber
The Xinjiang Textiles: More Corridors in the Goldmine

The textiles in the "mummy" exhibit touring the USA display a far more interesting array of techniques than the information available in advance indicated. This talk offers further description, analysis, and historical placement both of some remarkable masterpieces and of some pieces that give more insight into early practices for making cloth and clothing. One is impressed again by how much we have lost elsewhere-by how rare and informative these textiles are within the Eurasian archaeological record.

Nestorians and Manichaeans on the South China Coast

Nestorians and Manichaeans on the South China Coast in the time of Marco Polo
A talk by SAM LIEU (Macquarie University)
This lecture was held on April 22, 2010 at the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies

This lecture is based on material finds of Christian (both Nestorian and Catholic) and Manichaean remains found at the port-city of Quanzhou which was famous under the name of Zayton in the time of Marco Polo as a great centre of foreign residents on the South China Coast.

***

Samuel N.C. Lieu is Professor of Ancient History at Macquarie University and has been one of the directors of the UNESCO-sponsored Corpus Fontium Manichaeorum project. He is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities and current president of the International Association of Manichaean Studies. He has published extensively on the history of Manichaeism and on the religious and military history of the Late Antiquity.

To listen to the podcast of this lecture, click HERE

Yamchun Fortress

At the end of the first millennium B.C. construction of strong fortresses began in the West Pamirs due to the threat of military attacks by neighbours. The first was the Yamchun fortress (near the present-day village of the same name, also known as Zamr-i-atash-parast or Kafir - qala) built in the 3rc* century B.C. on the right bank of the Panj River in the foothills of the Vakhan range. It stands on a cliff continually washed by tributaries of the Panj the Yamchun and Vikhut Rivers the steep banks of which are inaccessible the whole year round. The slope was used in planning the fortress.

Yamchun fortress unapproachable turrets
It was built in a triangle shape with its base pointing into the valley, and consisted of three parts a citadel, a bastion and the barracks surrounded with walls and strengthened by rectangular towers and two squares, each of which was also surrounded by high walls, fortified with 36 rectangular and oval towers with embrasures (portholes). In case of attack a huge number of people could hide inside the fortress. The walls have no foundations and they are made of machine-tiled stones on a solid clay base.
The total height of the walls is about 3m and the width about 1.5m. There are portholes in the walls at various heights: the height and width of them ranges from 30-55 cm, and the distance between them is 1.5-2.5m. The portholes get wider from he outside. There are 2 sets of fortress walls, one inside the other. The outer wall, up to 2m thick, is either made entirely of stones, or of stones in the lower part and unbaked bricks in the upper part. The inner wall is similar to outside one, but is only 50-60cm thick.
It also has crack portholes directed inside the fortress The distance between the outer and inner walls is about 2m. When constructing the walls the builders interlay-ered the stones with thin beams to make the walls firmer in places, and today one cannot help but admire the skills of the ancients who made the walls and towers earthquake-proof. All the walls are connected by a chain of towers equipped with thin portholes about 1m high and approximately 30cm wide, arranged like a chessboard in a staggered order with a few layers covered with slightly-angled tiles to allow marksmen in the fortress to defend the Panj valley from several sides.
It also has crack portholes directed inside the fortress. The distance between the outer and inner walls is about 2m. When constructing the walls the builders interlay-ered the stones with thin beams to make the walls firmer in places, and today one cannot help but admire the skills of the ancients who made the walls and towers earthquake-proof. All the walls are connected by a chain of towers equipped with thin portholes about 1m high and approximately 30cm wide, arranged like a chessboard in a staggered order with a few layers covered with slightly-angled tiles to allow marksmen in the fortress to defend the Panj valley from several sides.

Yamchun fortress
The towers are about 3.5-4m in diameter, the walls are 1-1.5m thick, and the distance between the portholes is 2-5m. The towers were constructed with stones with occasional clay grout and in some places covered by clay plaster. The upper side of some of the towers is made of baked bricks.
Most of the towers are equipped with portholes pointing outwards as well as inwards, and even inside the inter-wall corridors and compartments, which considerably increases the defensive capability of the towers and, hence, the fortress. Thus, defenders of the fortress were always able to attack enemies from the rear if the outer line of defence was broken through.
Stones for constructing the fortress (there are hundreds of thousands of them) must have been brought from various remote areas, since there were metamor-phic rock, granite and slate rocks, biotite pieces and other forms of mica.
The size of the fortress is striking. This powerful structure was of the greatest importance for the area. Defending against approaches from every side, it was a strategically placed and well-built complex that allowed
the supervision of people and shipment flows from the Pamirs to ancient Bactria (Tahoriston), India and Iran and back.
However, some aspects of the fortress are puzzling: the Panj valley, with a 2.5-3km wide river floodplain next to the fortress, is absolutely flat, and the Panj flows down not against the northern but the southern slope of the mountain. How could ancient people shoot into the valley with arrows - which were most likely the main weaponry at that time - during enemy attacks? An arrow's range is not very long. Perhaps the Panj River at one time ran closer to the right-bank slope, even propping it up. This question remains unanswered.
Today one can reach the fortress by vehicle. From the main road, coming from Ishkashim, you need to turn left towards Tuggoz village, and then continue 5-6km up along a rather steep village road to Yamchun village, which is located beside the main road on the mountain slope.
There is a hot radon spring 1-2km from the fortress. Medicinal water wells up from under the mountain at a temperature of 40-42°C. The water is useful for treatment of gastro-intestinal, liver, gall-bladder, joint, bone, musculoskeletal, urological and gynaecological disorders. There is a sanitarium half a kilometre from the spring where one can stay overnight.

Indo-European Dispersals and the Eurasian Steppe

Lecture during the Secrets of the Silk Road Symposium in the Penn Museum on March 19, 2011
Indo-European Dispersals and the Eurasian Steppe
By J. P. Mallory

Contacts between Europe and China that bridged the Eurasian steppelands are part of a larger story of the dispersal of the Indo-European languages that were carried to Ireland (Celtic) in the west and the western frontiers of China (Tokharian, Iranian) in the east. Reviewing some of the problems of these expansions 15 years ago, the author suggested that it was convenient to discuss the expansions in terms of several fault lines – the Dnieper, the Ural and Central Asia. The Dnieper is critical for resolving issues concerning the different models of Indo-European origins and more recent research forces us to reconsider the nature of the Dnieper as a cultural border. Recent research has also suggested that we need to reconsider the eastern periphery of the Indo-European world and how it relates to its western neighbors.