Fang Hsiao-Ju 方孝需 in the Light of Early Ming Society

The ancient names huangniao, canggeng and several related terms, usually thought to represent the oriole, appear in Zhou and Han texts, for example in Shijing, Erya, Shanhaijing, and various commentaries. The present article comments on these names. It shows that there was an early stage in which a difference was made between canggeng and huangniao, while in later times, from the Han period onwards, these distinctions gradually disappeared. The article also suggests that, originally, canggeng probably stood for Oriolus chinensis, i.e., the black-naped oriole, while huangniao may have meant several other birds; later on, however, all terms were used for O. chinensis.     

The Location of Lake Titicaca’s Coastal Area During the Tiwanaku and Inca Periods: Methodology and Strategies of Underwater Archaeology

For more than 30 years, numerous research projects have revealed the dense and complex human settlement of the lacustrine basin of Lake Titicaca in Bolivia and Peru. Physical evidence of such establishments has been discovered in plains, valleys, and highlands connected to the lake. These remains confirm human occupation and development in this environment, particularly during the Tiwanaku (AD 500-1150) and Inca (AD 1400-1532) Periods. The research project discussed in this paper includes consideration of submerged areas through underwater archaeology. This investigation involves analysis of two areas that have evidence of ancient human occupation but are poorly documented: the coastal and lacustrine regions. Due to its dominance in the landscape, Lake Titicaca has always been a major feature in the life and identity of populations of this vicinity. These inhabitants have developed socio-economic and ritual behaviours directly associated with the lake that have left cultural and material prints that are the foci of the present study.     

Invading Mongols and the Preservation of Korean Traditions: The Monk Iryŏn and the Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms

In the thirteenth century, when the Kingdom of Kory?—a state ancestral to modern Korea—was threatened culturally as well as politically by Mongol invasion and domination, a leading monk of that era, Iry?n, undertook to record the folklore of the ancient period, the era of the so-called Three Kingdoms, and to compile it into a major work. This effort might now be called ‘salvage folklore’, but the way in which Iry?n conducted his research and analysed his materials suggests that he should be regarded as Korea’s first folklorist, and that his work, the Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms, should be regarded as the earliest extant compendium of folkloric material from Korea.     

Early history of the state — West and east

Michael Mann, The Sources of Social Power, vol. 1, A History of Power from the Beginning to A.D. 1760, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1986, pp.549. UK £12.95 (paper).

John A. Hall, Powers and Liberties: The Causes and Consequences of the Rise of the West, London, Penguin Books, 1986, pp.272. $14.95 (paper).     

Icarus of Basel? Oecolampadius and the Early Swiss Reformation

This article examines the role of Johannes Oecolampadius in the establishment of reformation at Basel specifically and his place in the Swiss Reformation generally. In this context there is an overview of reformation tactics and activities at Basel in the 1520s, especially concerning the role of the city council, popular movements advocating iconoclasm, and the Anabaptist problem. Oecolampadius' relations with Luther, Zwingli, Erasmus and the radical reformers are considered.     

Settlements and Seafaring: Reflections on the Integration of Boats and Settlements Among Marine Foragers in Early Mesolithic Norway and the Yámana of Tierra del Fuego

The abundant Early Mesolithic (11,500–10,000 cal. BP) settlements at the raised shorelines in Norway and Sweden represent the earliest documented marine foragers in northern Europe. In the Scandinavian seascapes, both traveling and subsistence depended on seaworthy vessels. However, this highly mobile lifestyle was likewise dependent on settlements on firm ground. Departing from actor-network theory and symmetrical archaeology, I explore the structural relations between extensive use of boats, basic co-residing units, and activity patterns at settlements. The empiric basis for my study is the excavated Early Mesolithic coastal sites in the Ormen Lange project in Central Norway, dated to ca. 11,000–10,800 cal. BP. I suggest that the structural uniformity that is observed in the settlements may be related to the dependency on boats for subsistence activities as well as transport and settlements, creating human-thing dynamics that interlocked co-residents and boat crews, logistics, and activity patterns. This dynamic regime is also explored with ethnohistorical and archaeological references to the Yámana in the Beagle Channel, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina.     

Crop Fertility Conditions in North-Eastern Gaul During the La Tène and Roman Periods: A Combined Stable Isotope Analysis of Archaeobotanical and Archaeozoological Remains

ABSTRACT

Considerable archaeobotanical datasets describe cereal cultivation in north-eastern France, from the Iron Age to the Roman period. This study aims to complement these by using stable isotope analysis on charred cereal grains. Soil fertility was investigated through δ¹⁵N and δ¹³C analyses of 1480 charred cereal grains, dated from the Late La Tène to the Late Antiquity periods. In the Île-de-France, charred grain Δ¹³C values suggested good hydric conditions, with drier episodes in the 1st and 3rd century AD; while in Champagne, the lower Δ¹³C values for spelt reflect the lower water holding capacity of the chalky soils. A wide range of cereal δ¹⁵N values (0.8–8.7‰) implies a wide range of soil fertility conditions. Jouars-Pontchartrain and Palaiseau (Île-de-France) yielded the highest cereal δ¹⁵N values, whereas Acy-Romance (Champagne) delivered among the lowest. From these three sites, the δ¹⁵N values of red deer bone collagen were used to estimate the reference δ¹⁵N values for unmanured plants. Unlike in Acy-Romance, there were significant differences in Palaiseau and Jouars-Pontchartrain, indicating that the cultivated cereals inherited their high δ¹⁵N values from manured soil. At Jouars-Pontchartrain, the δ¹⁵N value (almost 9‰) suggested a high trophic level manuring source, possibly from pig and/or human faeces.     

The East Asian War of 1592–98 and the court politics in the Ming dynasty

Abstract

This article argues that to understand the Ming decision-making in the sixteenth-century Korea War (1592–8), we must understand its institutional context. The article chronologically compares the major events of the Korea War with the actions of central figures of the Ming and, using the mutual antagonism between Xing Jie, supreme commander during the second stage of the war, and Zhao Zhigao, senior grand secretary in the Grand Secretariat, argues that Beijing was another theater of the Korea War. In this theater, battles were fought between the “doves” (Zhao Zhigao, Shi Xing, and Shen Weijing) and the “hawks” (Zhang Wei, Shen Yiguan, and Xing Jie).