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This article discusses a study and publication of a collection of Chinese metal artifacts with Islamic scripts that are preserved in the Beijing Niuje Mosque. The artifacts date back to the Ming and Qing dynasties and contain inscriptions in both Arabic and Chinese. The study aims to explore the artistic methods, raw materials, and decorations of the collection, as well as the history of Chinese Muslims. The artifacts provide important evidence of the mutual artistic influences between Chinese and Islamic arts, highlighting the spread of Islamic art to Far East Asia. [Extracted from the article]

A certain number of gold artefacts have been unearthed from the Liujiawa site and Jiezihe site belonging to the late Rui State, from the late era of the early Spring and Autumn Period to the early era of the mid-Spring and Autumn Period (710 BCE–650 BCE). To study the manufacturing technology of these gold artefacts, non-destructive microscopic observation and element composition analysis were carried out by an ultra-depth field microscope and a scanning electron microscope with energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer. The results showed that all the gold objects were made of native gold, with the production processes including hammering, drawing, casting and inlaying. Most of the objects were finished by surface processing. The discovery of gold artefacts in the late Rui State period not only reflects the diversification of the gold artefact technology system in the late era of the early Spring and Autumn Period but is also the evidence of the people association and cultural communication between the Central Plains and northern China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A proposal has recently been made to relabel most of the period of Chinese history commonly known as the Northern Dynasties (386–581 CE) as "the Tabgatch empire." The hope is that such a change might help avoid teleological assumptions that these dynasties were merely half of a temporarily divided China that was destined to eventually be reunified. This change of label also emphasizes the ethnic non-Han Chinese origins of these dynasties' rulers by using a non-Chinese name. Problematizing the very idea of China, the same scholar has even proposed to "jettison the term 'China' altogether." But, while there was indisputably much ethnic and cultural diversity in geographic China during these centuries, and fertile interaction, there remained powerful elements of mainstream continuity stretching from antiquity through the "reunified" Tang dynasty (618–907) and beyond. These continuities included historical memory, institutions, written language, and elite culture, for which China and Chinese may still be as good English designations as any. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Numerous recent discoveries in China of ancient tombs have greatly increased our knowledge of ritual and religious practices. These discoveries include excavated oracle bones, bronze, jade, stone and pottery objects, and bamboo manuscripts dating from the twelfth to fourth century BCE. Inscribed upon these artifacts are a large number of records of numerical sequences, for which no explanation has been found of how they were produced. Structural links to the Book of Changes, a divination manual that entered the Confucian canon, are evident; yet, the algorithm described therein dates to the slightly later second to first century BCE. By combining archeological and statistical evidence, we propose a new methodology that enables us to reconstruct and test cleromantic techniques which can explain how these numerical sequences were generated. Dice and divination stalk use, either in combination or separately, appear in fact to have been underlying the rather stable numerical patterns in ancient China all the way back to the late Shang dynasty (1300–1046 BCE). Bringing to light such a long-standing technique, which awaits further confirmation from the ever-growing database of newly discovered numerical and textual records, can change drastically our understanding of early Chinese history and of the historical development of sophisticated arithmetical practices and the rationalization of chance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines Chinese woven inscriptions dated from the first to fifth centuries CE and excavated in Xinjiang in order to explore the relationship between close reading and close looking as part of the study of writing in art history. It suggests that material processes that underlie the production of writing become legible when writing is seen up close. Yet, to read closely requires a certain distance from the writing, so that these processes do not interfere with the readability of the text. Weavers, however, occupied a unique position where the legible techniques of making writing are inextricable from its readable content. By tracing weavers' design processes, this essay attends to all relevant viewing distances, and takes into account both readable content and legible manufacture, in order to highlight weavers' innovations in script design by way of their material literacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysis of settlement pattern and production organization of the Jinsha settlement suggests that it was less strictly organized than the Sanxingdui settlement and that it was inhabited by heterogeneous social groups during the early Bronze Age. Measuring and evaluating the standardization of two types of pottery vessels (i.e., jars with small bases [xiaopingdi guan 小平底罐] and saucers with pointed bottoms [jiandizhan 尖底盞]) reveal that potters employed different patterns for products to be used in different contexts. Vessels are more standardized at loci close to the sacrificial zone (where ritual paraphernalia were buried), while vessels used as burial goods tend to be smaller. Pottery production was loosely organized, ranging between individual and nucleated workshops, and widely distributed across loci both near the sacrificial zone and on the periphery of Jinsha. The sacrificial zone at the center of the settlement apparently created needs that promoted production activities. The presentation of multiple types of production in the Jinsha core, together with religious activities and public buildings, suggests not only multiple chaînes opératoires for objects but also communal activities and entangled social relations. Such gatherings and driving forces enabled different social groups to redress social tensions while promoting consensus. Crafters might have cooperated when necessary, but they were otherwise organized in a flexible manner, maintaining at most a loose network of production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the results of the analysis of survey archaeobotany samples from the Sushui valley. This provides evidence for changes over time for a region in the proportions of crops, especially rice versus millets. In addition, the composition of samples, both grouped by period and considered on a sample-by-sample basis, are considered as representing routine crop-processing waste, from which it is suggested that typical patterns of routine crop processing (after storage) can be inferred. These patterns, in turn, imply something about processing prior to storage and the social organization of agricultural production, suggesting the hypothesis that crop-processing patterns diversified during the emergence of complex societies with some sites with larger scale practices while others were focused on the household level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The archaeological culture found in Xiaohe Cemetery (1980-1450 BC) is one of the early Bronze Age cultures in Xinjiang, northwestern China. The material assemblages from Xiaohe culture display features with both eastern and western influences. These east-west cultural and dietary interactions may be observed via the diet of the Xiaohe population. This paper examined the stable carbon and nitrogen isotopes of human and animal bones and human hairs from the Xiaohe Cemetery and compared with those of human bones from the Gumugou Cemetery, another Xiaohe culture site. The results indicate that the diets of the peoples from the Xiaohe culture varied significantly over different periods. The unified diets of the earlier periods reflect that an admixed population first settled in the Lop Nur region and primarily engaged in animal husbandry. In the later periods, the transformations in the human diets in this region reflect that new immigrants constantly relocated here and promoted population complexity over time. Moreover, this population occasionally produced small quantities of domesticated wheat and millet. The complex population and diversified economy of the Xiaohe culture were due to the expansion of the coeval cultures in the Eurasian steppe and eastern immigrants. Additionally, the millet cereal was probably mainly used for ritual practices rather than for staple food in the later periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2013, the Department of Archaeology, School of History of Wuhan University and the Panlongcheng City Ruins Museum excavated seven burials of the Shang Dynasty at Yangjiawan Locality within the Panlongcheng Site in Wuhan City. All the burials were vertical earthen shaft burials. Some of the burials featured waist pits, human and/or animal sacrifices. The grave goods assemblage included artifacts made of bronze, jade, stone, pottery, gold and turquoise. Some of the unearthed objects were seen for the first time in the archaeology of Panlongcheng. The burials can be roughly dated to the terminal phase of the Panlongcheng Site. The Yangjiawan Locality yielded the densest distribution of burials in the Panlongcheng Site. It was an important cemetery of the early to the mid Shang Dynasty. The cemetery was in close proximity to a previously excavated large-scale architectural foundation of the Shang Dynasty. Together, these findings are important information for the understanding of the layout of the Panlongcheng Site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1935, the Bavarian State Ethnological Museum, now Museum Fünf Kontinente in Munich acquired several early Chinese objects at a series of sales held at the Berlin auction house of the Jewish art dealer Paul Graupe. The research results presented in this article are based on the findings that were initially prompted by a restitution claim for these objects. According to the title of the auction catalogue, the circumstances of the forthcoming sale appeared to be the liquidation of the stock of the firm Dr Otto Burchard & Co, Berlin, with Chinese art in catalogue volume I, offered on 22 and 23 March 1935 and a further section catalogued in volume II, offered on 29 April 1935. At the sale, the museum bid successfully on thirty-eight artefacts. In addition, two sculptures were donated to the museum after the Second World War which had been bought at the same sale by third parties. The need for investigation raised questions about the reasons that had prompted the auctions and the liquidation of the firm Dr Otto Burchard in the first place, and about the previous provenance of the Chinese objects. In the wider context of provenance research, the earlier history of the objects also had to be investigated. Extensive research covering museum documentation, a wide range of archival records and the assessment of a highly complex financial situation formed the basis for a new perspective on the potentially contentious circumstances of this acquisition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The Abbey Celebrating the Tang [ Qingtang guan 慶唐觀], a Daoist temple on Mount Longjiao in southern Shanxi Province, played a special role in the religious history of China in the Tang dynasty. Because of the myth that Laozi himself emerged from this mountain during the war to found the Tang state, this abbey was closely linked to the political legitimation of the Tang. Even plants in this abbey were regarded as the harbingers of the fate of the state. The emperor Xuanzong erected a huge stele in the Abbey Celebrating the Tang, demonstrating the support enjoyed from the royal house. Images of the six emperors, from Tang Gaozu to Xuanzong, were also held in the abbey. After the collapse of the Tang dynasty in 907, the Abbey Celebrating the Tang lost its political, legitimizing privileges, but its connection with the local community continued to develop well into the Song, Liao, Jin, and later dynasties. The creation and transformation of the Abbey Celebrating the Tang not only show the political influence of popular religion in ancient medieval China but also provide an interesting case of how a Daoist temple grew in popularity and prestige after it lost favor with the state. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on a convention of the International Chinese Snuff Bottle Society to be held in Baltimore, Maryland on October 23–27, 2018, discussing the lecture to be presented by John Ford, the dealers room at the event, and the presentation by dealer Jill Guo.

From November 2012 to May 2013, the Erlitou Archaeological Team of the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of the Social Sciences found a roughly north-south orientated rammed-earth wall (Q7) and hardtrodden road surface parallel to the wall in the vicinity of the workshop zone of the Erlitou Site. The wall was most likely erected during Erlitou Phase II and continued to be in use until the early stage of Phase IV. The trodden roads took form during Phase II and ended in Phase III or early stage of Phase IV. Together with the previous findings, the excavators postulated two competing propositions on the rammed-earth wall in question. It was the west wall of the walled workshop zone or it was the east wall of a walled enclosure has yet to be discovered to its west. The roads were auxiliary facilities of the walled zone when it was in use. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2012, 198 burials were excavated in the Dadianshan Cemetery site in Changning County, Yunnan. The striking differences in burial structure and grave goods of these burials suggest that the cemetery was used by two different ethnic groups. The structure of the burials can be classified into earthen cave burials, earthen pit burials and urn burials. The first type has never been seen in the Bronze Age archaeology of Yunnan. They yielded rich assemblage of grave goods predominantly comprising bronze artifacts, the main types of which were sabers, spearheads, bracelets, yue-battle axes, swords, buckles, etc. They were likely associated with the ancient Ailao people of the late Spring-and-Autumn to late Warring- States Periods. The second burial type was prevalent in Bronze Age Yunnan. These burials yielded small number of or no grave goods. In addition to bronze, the grave goods assemblage also comprised of iron, bimetallic, stone and pottery artifacts. They were likely associated with the Di and Qiang people during the mid Warring- States Period to the late Western Han Dynasty. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main body of the site of Huahaizi No. 3 in Qinghe (Qinggil) County, Xinjiang, is a stone cairn surrounded by a stone circle with cross-shaped spokes. Around it, stone circles and stone cairns for sacrifices are located. In addition to two deer stones, shieldshaped stones, a simple wooden frame structure and fragments of human bones and sheep teeth used as sacrifices were found. The scientific data and the style of the deer stones show that this site was in use from around the 9th century BCE. The archaeological remains and artifacts show that this site and similar remains are for sacrificial activities, which might be related to the worship of sun, the moon and other celestial bodies or phenomena. The Sandaohaizi Site and similar remains found nearby as well as at the Arzhan kurgans in Tuva, Southern Siberia would have been left by the same people; Sandaohaizi was the summer ritual center of this early nomadic society and Arzhan was its royal necropolis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

From December 2012 to January 2016, the First South China Archaeological Team, Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and Hainan Museum conducted excavations to the Qiaoshan and Lianziwan Sites in Lingshui County and Yingdun Site in Sanya City, all in Hainan Province. The unearthed artifacts showed that the polished red-coated pottery wares and sandy pottery wares found in the south of Yingdun Site clearly belonged to different archaeological cultures, based on which the cultural remains of the Yingdun Site are divided into the early and late phases. The artifacts belonging to the early phase are pottery wares, stone tools, strung ornaments made of fish bone and large amount of marine and terrestrial animal remains. The Lianziwan Site in Lingshui County yielded potsherds, stone tools and large amount of animal remains. The cultural remains of the Qiaoshan Site can be also divided into the early and late phases. The early phase yielded pottery wares and stone tools, and the features of the late phase were mainly the surface of the Stratum 3 and burials, the artifacts of which were pottery wares and stone tools. Based on the stratigraphicalrelationships and the characteristics of the unearthed artifacts, the basic chronological sequence of "Cultural remains of Yingdun Site→Cultural remains of Lianziwan Site → Cultural remains of Qiaoshan Site" can be established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the years 2014 and 2015, the Joint Excavation Team at Zhouyuan conducted excavations of the rammedearth foundations in the northern area of Hejia Village, a residential-burial area, a chariot-and-horse pit and a horse pit centered by the Fengchu palace complex, as well as five ponds and canals in a water reticulation system. The artifacts found in the rammed-earth foundations include golden foil objects, turquoise pieces, protoporcelain artifacts, lacquer objects, jades and cowry shells. The features found in the residential-burial area include burials, ash pits and house foundations, and these features contained artifacts such as bronzes, pottery and proto-porcelain vessels, jades, stone implements and lacquer objects. The excavations of the five ponds and canals in the water reticulation system and the previous fieldwork results showed that there was a well-planned water reticulation system consisting of the natural river system and an artificial canal system including water ponds, headwater canals, trunk canals and branch canals of different levels at the Zhouyuan Site. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The discoid core and the Levallois core are important symbols of the Middle Paleolithic Age in the west of the Old World. The two types of artifacts show not only technical relationships but also differences. The discoid core can be classified into two sub-types, namely the unifacial and the bifacial classes. In China, discoid cores may have appeared in the upper Middle Pleistocene, and prevailed in the lower and middle Upper Pleistocene, which corresponded to the middle Paleolithic Age in Europe and to the Middle Stone Age in Africa. The discovery and study of discoid cores provide significant insight into the culture of the Middle Paleolithic Age in China. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In July through September 2012, the tomb of Mme Yi, the De Consort of the Later Tang Dynasty was excavated. It was a brick multi-chamber tomb consisting of the passage, the entrance, the corridor, the main chamber and the side chambers, the full length of which was 24.1m. 208 pieces (sets) of grave goods were unearthed from this tomb, including porcelains, silver and bronze wares, iron objects, bone implements, lacquer wares, architectural parts and the epitaph. This tomb show more styles of the Han Culture, which was special among the tombs of the Liao Dynasty of the same time. The content of the epitaph made up the insufficient records of the historical textual materials and provided important materials for the researches on the relationship between the Khitan and the Later Tang and Later Jin Dynasties in the Five-Dynasties Period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the auctions of Chinese snuff bottle in New York in September 2017 which include the collection of Dr. Faith and Sylvan Golder at Bonhams and the Ruth and Carl Barron Collection of Fine Chinese Snuff Bottles at Christie's.

With a focus on Chinese bronze antiquities, this study examines the relationship between collecting and studying in early twentieth-century Japan and investigates how ancient Chinese forms were appropriated for different purposes. Japanese reception of Chinese bronze antiquities can be summarized in three phases. Firstly, the 1903 exhibition organized by the Imperial Museum presented a mixture of the karamono tradition of Japan and the jinshixue antiquarian knowledge of China. Secondly, in the 1910s, the Chinese antiquarian view became dominant as acclaimed Chinese collections were transported to Japan in large numbers. Finally, in the 1920s, the Chinese antiquarian view yielded to modern art historical and archaeological analysis when unearthed bronzes gained attention and the modern discipline of archaeology was introduced to Japan. Analysis of bronze reproductions further sheds light on the triangulation of collecting, studying and appropriating in each phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In an accompanying paper (Journal of Anthropological Research 73(2):149-80, 2017), the authors assess current archaeological and paleobiological evidence for the early Neolithic of China. Emerging trends in archaeological data indicate that early agriculture developed variably: hunting remained important on the Loess Plateau, and aquatic-based foraging and protodomestication augmented cereal agriculture in South China. In North China and the Yangtze Basin, semisedentism and seasonal foraging persisted alongside early Neolithic culture traits such as organized villages, large storage structures, ceramic vessels, and polished stone tool assemblages. In this paper, we seek to explain incipient agriculture as a predictable, system-level cultural response of prehistoric foragers through an evolutionary assessment of archaeological evidence for the preceding Paleolithic to Neolithic transition (PNT). We synthesize a broad range of diagnostic artifacts, settlement, site structure, and biological remains to develop a working hypothesis that agriculture was differentially developed or adopted according to "initial conditions" of habitat, resource structure, and cultural organization. The PNT of China is characterized by multiple, divergent evolutionary pathways: between the eastern and western parts of North China, and between and the Yangtze Valley and the Lingnan region farther south. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The author discusses the use of the exhibition of the Chinese terracotta army as a teaching tool. She mentions how the exhibition can be worked into the curriculum for the study of ancient history, suggestions for managing a student visit, and suggestions for investigation of the artifacts.

In the past several decades, our understanding of the Laozi has been revolutionized by the discovery of new textual materials. While research has focused on various manuscript copies, the discovery of other cosmogonic texts dated to the late fourth century BC indicate that the Laozi was not as unique as it once seemed. Taken together, these texts show a radical shift in philosophical orientation occurring by the late 4th century BC, a change toward concerns with cosmogony and accounts of human beings as merely one part of the natural world. The goal of this paper is to analyze the various elements of this shift, using the Taiyi Sheng Shui 太一生水 (Great One Generates Water), Hengxian 恆先 (Constancy First), and Fan Wu Liu Xing 凡物流形 (All Things Flow into Form), along with the Laozi bamboo strips found at Guodian. The first section examines the commonalities between the various cosmogonies; the second places cosmogony in the context of other distinctive concerns that the texts share, turning toward the implications of the cosmogonies for human action. The final section examines one of the fundamental points on which the texts disagree. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]