This book proposes a new model and scheme of analysis for complex burial material and applies it to the prehistoric archaeological record of the Liangshan region in Southwest China that other archaeologists have commonly given a wide berth, regarding it as too patchy, too inhomogeneous, and overall too unwieldy to work with. The model treats burials as composite objects, considering the various elements separately in their respective life histories. The application of this approach to the rich and diverse archaeological record of the Liangshan region serves as a test of this new form of analysis. This volume thus pursues two main aims: to advance the understanding of the archaeology of the immediate study area which has been little examined, and to present and test a new scheme of analysis that can be applied to other bodies of material.

Understanding Authenticity in Chinese Cultural Heritage explores the construction of "authenticity" and its consequences in relation to Chinese cultural heritage - those objects, texts, and intangible practices concerned with China's past. Including contributions from scholars around the world reflecting on a range of different materials and time periods, Understanding Authenticity emphasizes the situatedness and fluidity of authenticity concepts. Attitudes towards authenticity change over time and place, and vary between communities and object types, among stakeholders in China as they do elsewhere. The book examines how "authenticity" relates to four major aspects of cultural heritage in China - Art and Material Culture; Cultural Heritage Management and Preservation; Living and Intangible Heritage; and Texts and Manuscripts - with individual contributions engaging in a critical and interdisciplinary conversation that weaves together heritage management, art history, archaeology, architecture, tourism, law, history, and literature. Moving beyond conceptual issues, the book also considers the practical ramifications for work in cultural heritage management, museums, and academic research. Understanding Authenticity in Chinese Cultural Heritage provides an opportunity for reflection on the contingencies of authenticity debates - not only in relation to China, but also anywhere around the world. The book will be of interest to scholars and students in a variety of fields, including heritage studies, Asian studies, art history, museum studies, history and archaeology.

In commemoration of Lothar von Falkenhausens 60th birthday, this volume assembles eighteen scholarly essays that explore the intersection between art, economy, and ritual in ancient East Asia. The contributions are clustered into four themes: Ritual Economy, Ritual and Sacrifice, Technology, Community, Interaction, and Objects and Meaning, which collectively reflect the theoretical, methodological, and historical questions that Falkenhausen has been examining via his scholarship, research, and teaching throughout his career. Most of the chapters work with archaeological and textual data from China, but there are also studies of materials from Mongolia, Korea, Southeast Asia and even Egypt, showing the global impact of Falkenhausens work. The chronological range of studies extends from the Neolithic through the Bronze Age in China, into the early imperial, medieval, and early modern periods. The authors discuss art, economy, ritual, interaction, and technology in the broad context of East Asian archaeology and its connection to the world beyond.

This book proposes a new model and scheme of analysis for complex burial material and applies it to the prehistoric archaeological record of the Liangshan region in Southwest China that other archaeologists have commonly given a wide berth, regarding it as too patchy, too inhomogeneous, and overall too unwieldy to work with. The model treats burials as composite objects, considering the various elements separately in their respective life histories. The application of this approach to the rich and diverse archaeological record of the Liangshan region serves as a test of this new form of analysis. This volume thus pursues two main aims: to advance the understanding of the archaeology of the immediate study area which has been little examined, and to present and test a new scheme of analysis that can be applied to other bodies of material.

The notion of a "crescent-shaped cultural-communication belt" stretching from Northeast China and Korea along the Tibetan borderlands all the way to Yunnan stands as the late Tong Enzheng's most-cited contribution to the Chinese archaeological discourse (Tong Enzheng 1987). In the 1980s, suggesting such long-distance contact was a bold move. At the time, Chinese and Western scholars alike were afraid of being accused of diffusionistic tendencies in their work, and they thus mostly decided to concentrate on local developments. Only in recent years has it again become acceptable and even desirable to discuss far-reaching exchange networks. Interestingly, the emerging scholarship on such topics has some noticeable lacunae. Discussions on China's long distance contacts, for instance, focus mostly on steppe connections and Western influences on the cultures of the Central Plains. By contrast, material from Southwest China has received much less attention and has but rarely been mentioned in connection with Northeast China; neither have Tong Enzheng's considerable theoretical contributions to the understanding of culture contact and cultural exchange received the consideration they deserve. While Tong Enzheng remains a household name to anyone working in the Southwest, in other parts of China his work is less well known, and even though Tong still carries some name recognition outside of China, few scholars are fully aware of his important contributions. This volume stems from the session "Reconsidering the Crescent-Shaped Exchange Belt - Methodological, Theoretical and Material Concerns of Long-Distance Interactions in East Asia Thirty Years after Tong Enzheng" held at the Fifth World Conference of the Society for East Asian Archaeology (SEAA), held in Fukuoka (Japan) in 2012. The papers collected in the present volume touch on four main topics: Tong Enzheng's life and research, and his place within the development of modern Chinese archaeology; recent developments in the archaeology of Southwest China; material traces and geographic, cultural, and historical preconditions of possible movements and inter-group contacts along Tong's crescentshaped cultural-communication belt; and theoretical and methodological issues in the study of culture contacts and cultural exchange, and of their reflections in the material record.

This volume contains a selection of 43 papers presented at the 5th European Meeting on Ancient Ceramics, at Athens in 1999. This regular meeting provides a forum for the presentation of existing trends in the field of ancient ceramic studies, based on combined scientific/archaeological approaches. These current papers offer an overview of the current status of the highly multidisciplinary research in Europe, both in terms of the many scientific techniques (with a balance between mineralogical and chemical methods) developed and applied, as well as on novel methodological approaches on materials, covering a broad range of periods and geographical regions (from Spain to the Middle East, from Uzbekistan to the Aegean). All the papers of this volume were peer-reviewed for their originality, significance, and technical validity.