SEAA Student Award Program
The SEAA Student Award Program is designed to promote and reward quality research by beginning and junior scholars in the field of East Asian archaeology. Awards will be made to two undergraduate and two graduate students in conjunction with SEAA’s biannual worldwide conferences. Applicants are expected to submit papers which contribute to the discipline through the reporting of original field research, novel interpretations of published archaeological data, or thought-provoking theoretical and methodological perspectives on the practice of archaeology in East Asia. As a condition of the award, students are expected to present their papers at the SEAA conference which follows the announcement of awards.
- Each award consists of a $1000 cash prize, free registration for the conference which follows the announcement of awards, and a complimentary 4-year SEAA membership.
- Papers should be in English, submitted as a Word document, and should not exceed 4000 words (including bibliography). Illustrations are permitted.
- Members of the SEAA Executive will not participate in the evaluation of the submitted papers. The papers (minus all identifying information) will be passed along to the award committee, which will consist of archaeologists of East Asia who do not currently have students applying for the award.
- The SEAA Vice-president, in conjunction with the Conference host, will determine how best to allocate time at the conference for the awardees to present their papers. The awardees will also be formally recognized at the SEAA General Meeting during the conference.
Previous Winners
Student Conference 2021
No Supper for the Ancestors: An analysis of Shang Utilitarian Mortuary Ceramics at Daxinzhuang, Jinan
William Harrison, Graduate Student, Department of Anthropology, University of Toronto
This paper scrutinizes differences between the use of utilitarian ceramics and bronze vessels within Shang Dynasty tombs. Assuming that bronze vessels and ceramic vessels were used by Shang mourners to connect with the dead through food and feasting, this paper compares and contrasts bronzes and ceramics using a synthesis of published research and original statistical analysis on pottery from the Daxinzhuang site. The analysis demonstrates that pottery vessels were not analogous to bronze vessels, showing that they were offered in separate ceremonies with different audiences. However, statistical analysis shows that ceramic burial vessels tended to be unused, throwing their relationship to food and feasting into doubt. This paper highlights the needs for further research on lesser-studied burial goods and provides a foundation for further research on burial ceramics, the role of food in Shang burial, and the process of socializing new ancestors.
The Grave Value Analysis and Stable Isotopic Analysis of Shangshihe Cemetery
Rongyu FU, BA Student, School of History, Zhengzhou University
Historic documents of the Zhou Dynasty recorded distinct differentiation of social classes to regulate funerary and dietary practices. Fu Rongyu’s research focused on a cemetery showing distinct social stratification in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty (771–476 BCE) in Shangshihe, Henan Province, China. The research assessed differences in grave values and diet structure between people of different social ranks, sex and age groups using grave value analysis and stable carbon and nitrogen isotopic analysis. The study indicated that there were significant differences in total grave values between people of different social classes, independent of age and sex variables. Isotopic analysis indicated that people buried with two or three coffin layers consumed more protein-rich food than people who were buried with one layer. Also, it appears that the elderly had better nutrition than the young, however, there was no sex-based difference in nutrition. These findings revealed that people of the Guo State maintained stratification in their social structure while in exile. Evidence of social stratification should be considered when assessing the nutrition and health of ancient individuals and communities.
The Emergence of Early Complex Societies in Western Tibet -- The example of Dingdong, Jiwen and Kardong settlement sites
Hailun XU, PhD Student, School of Archaeology and Museology, Sichuan University
By taking two dimensions, namely, specialization and hierarchy, and by analyzing settlement patterns, we can explore the motivation for the gradual development of early society in western Tibet. Through recent archaeological excavations and based on the previously published materials, this paper focuses on the three settlement sites of Dingdong, Jiwen and Kardong, together with other sites and cemeteries of the same period and region. It tries to make an exploratory interpretation of the social complexity of the early Metal Age in western Tibet by exploring settlement site morphology, spatial distribution of the sites and their resource domains. Accordingly, I hypothesize that the stage when social production in western Tibet specialized and social stratification developed significantly was in the Early Metal Age, represented by sites such as Kardong, between about 200 BC - AD 600. The emergence of advanced wheat farming and sheep breeding techniques, settlement architecture with increasingly subdivided functions, and even hierarchical burial groups all represent the transformation of economic production activities, political structures, and ideological systems from simple to complex. The reason for this change may be large-scale population movement, but due to the available materials, we can only briefly construct an overview of the social development of the Early Metal Age in western Tibet by using three typical sites as the core settlement groups.
The Archaeological Landscape of Western Zhou: Mound-like Sites in Jianghuai Region, Southern China
Yixuan HAO, BA Student, Department of Archaeology, School of history, Wuhan University
My study focused on the mound-like sites in the Jianghuai area from the Western Zhou Dynasty. By analyzing chronological sequences of the pottery, relationships between various artifacts recovered from these sites were sorted out. Due to cultural traditions and location factors, I found that there are differences in settlement modes in two places I analyzed. People in the western Jianghuai region lived on the edges of their sites, discarding garbage or handling public affairs in a central area. There are also small-scale sites with special functions, such as being dedicated to sacrificial offerings. These small sites may have helped connect surrounding settlements. In the western part of the region I analyzed I found that there are no divergences in settlement levels. In the eastern part of Jianghuai, on the contrary, people lived in the center of mound-like sites, and other facilities are placed in the outer areas. In addition to many small villages, there is also a magnificent city with walls in this area, which may be indicative of a hierarchical settlement pattern. Based on analysis of pottery styles, the Jianghuai region can be divided into two parts, one of which belongs to ‘Huaiyi,’ who may be related to the Wu culture south of the Yangtze River. The two settlement patterns in the Jianghuai area reflect the existence of two diametrically opposed social organization methods in the surrounding areas of Zhou Culture. The "hierarchization" of settlements was not the only choice for the people around the Zhou Dynasty.
The Climatic, Demographic and Economic Influences on the Rise of Shimao in the North Loess Plateau, China
Ying Tung FUNG, PhD Student, Institute of Archaeology, University of Oxford
The recognition in 2011 of the extraordinary site Shimao (ca. 2000–1600 cal. BC) as a late Neolithic stone fortification, and the unusual combinations of herd animals, millet, ceramic tripods discovered at this 400-hectare site and other sites in the climate-sensitive North Loess Plateau (the Shimao region), have led to the question of how the climatic, demographic and economic factors may have interacted and brought fluorescence to Shimao and more broadly to the south of the region. This paper considers multiple sources of published data to explore the developmental trajectory in time and space from a wholistic regional perspective. The radiocarbon dates are reviewed and subjected to Bayesian modelling for a firmer chronology; other information including settlement size and distribution, and economic basis as judged from faunal abundances and mortality profiles are considered within this chronological framework. The findings suggest that after the southwards demographic shift between 2100 and 2000 BC, the population presumably became more nucleated at Shimao, a new economic system, meanwhile, was formed to sustain the societies in the south.
SEAA8, Nanjing, Jun 7-11th, 2018
The Xiongnu As Barbarian: Construction through mistranslations and ideological baggage
Janice NGIAN, BA Student, Sociology, McGill University
What processes feed the construction of the Xiongnu as "barbarian"? This paper examines (i) mistranslations, (ii) theoretical frameworks and (iii) historical interpretations that cast the itinerancy of the Xiongnu as inherently inimical to complex political organization. First, it explores the appropriateness of "barbarian" as a translation for the Han definitions of Yi-Di. Next, it addresses the lack of theoretical pigeonholes into which the Xiongnu's "complexity" can fit, resulting in their sidelined role as dependent upon the Han. Finally, it suggests that historical texts are both situated in their time of writing, and contextualized in archaeological findings, to prevent a reproduction of their biases.
Making on the Move: Textiles and Mobility in the Archaeological Record
Kristen PEARSON, BA Student, Departments of Classical Studies and Anthropology (Archaeological Science), University of Pennsylvania
This paper explores the potential for using archaeological textile assemblages to address the questions of mobility and mobile lifeways in ancient Inner Asia. By considering the textile chaine operatoire through the lens of mobility and seasonality, features of textile production and use emerge that may be linked to mobile pastoralism. Reference is made to ethnographic studies of mobile textile production and to the Khitan period Uzuur Gyalan assemblage, which was excavated in 2016 in Khovd Aimag, Mongolia. Analysis of this assemblage was undertaken beginning in the summer of 2017 with the permission of the Cultural Heritage Center of Mongolia and the Mongolian National Museum.
Bioarchaeological analysis of commingled human skeletal remains from an urn coffin in South Korea (Three Kingdom Period)
CheLin JEON, MA Student, Bioanthropology Lab, Department of Anthropology, College of Social Sciences, Seoul National University
The main purposes of this research are to identify how many human skeletal remains were buried in a recent um coffin found in South Korea and to determine the bio-anthropological features of each individual. The result determined a minimum of 9 individuals, including 2 adult males, 3 adult females, one possible adult female and 3 non-adults. Age was highly random from infant (2-4 years) to old adult (over 50 years). Also, pathological evidence was examined in the cranial elements and limbs. This um coffin is the only one in South Korea, but quite well preserved. Thus this case is of significant importance in recovering the health condition and lifestyle of the population at that time.
Early Qin Centers: GIS-based Forays into State Structure Analysis
Christopher KIM, PhD Student, Anthropology, Columbia University
This paper presents several examples of basic GIS spatial analysis utilizing data gathered in a 2004 archaeological survey of the upper Xihan River valley in southeastern Gansu Province, China, to demonstrate that the combination of new archaeological evidence and GIS approaches can have useful applications for addressing questions of regional settlement patterns, past political landscapes, historical geography, and state structure. The case study examined is the early Qin state in the early first millennium BCE. This paper also reveals the value of and need for more regional surveys and settlement-oriented fieldwork in Chinese archaeology, particularly for the Bronze Age, which has traditionally been dominated by mortuary archaeology.