During the seventh century C.E., Japan adopted a new bureaucratic system called ritsuryo. This system was partly supported by taxing rural areas. Taxes were paid to the capital in Nara in the form of tributes of local agricultural, marine, or dairy products. The history of these tributes is mainly based on the written record; little material evidence has been secured to reconstruct how and where these tribute items were produced. This article focuses on the major tribute product from the Pacific coast, a bonito sauce recorded under the names nikatsuo (boiled bonito) and katsuoirori (bonito broth). We analysed lipids extracted from large ceramic cooking vessels known as nabe excavated from archaeological sites in the Suruga Bay area. These vessels were thought to have been used to produce bonito products at an industrial scale. Clear evidence of marine resource processing is confirmed in these vessels through the presence of chemical compounds related to aquatic organisms and stable carbon isotope values of individual fatty acids, indicating large-scale bonito product processing occurred at these sites. The results newly point to the possibility that such large-scale production of tributary bonito products may have been practised as early as the Asuka Period (592-710 C.E.), earlier than the Nara Period (710-794 C.E.) previously recognised.

ABSTRACT: Organizational and technological transformations characterized Late Neolithic China within and beyond the Central Plains region. Evidence of the adoption of new ceramics technologies such as the fast wheel provides insight into social dynamics during the Late Longshan period in the Wei River Valley. A case study of the Kangjia site indicates the limited application of the wheel-throwing technique for manufacturing local styles of pottery. This suggests that potters elected to integrate the new technology within pre-existing local production practices. Cultural preferences for a local style, a stable learning framework for transmitting potting knowledge, and modest ceramic needs would have restricted large-scale production of wheel-thrown vessels. A similar technological style of fast wheel production in nearby settlements indicates the presence of a shared community of practice, especially in the eastern Wei River Valley. This network was likely part of a broader system of long-distance regional connections with communities in the Central Plains. Keywords: ceramics, wheel-throwing technique, local production practices, social networks, Late Longshan, Keshengzhuang Culture, Wei River Valley.

abstract: This article provides an overview of Hoa Lu's urban landscape, including the structure of its inner and outer enclosures and natural elements integrated into its urban form in the tenth century c.e. This study argues that Hoa Lu's pattern of occupation aligned with the general form of Vietnam's largest historical settlements. Its urban complex can be understood as a large area with multiple zones, combining wide, bounded, less densely occupied outer areas with central enclosed zones, some sections of which may have contained more concentrated occupations. Tenth-century Hoa Lu should thus be viewed as a patchy, low-density type of settlement, as part of a larger pattern of Vietnamese urbanism.

abstract: The Jiahu site, located in the Central Plains of China, exhibits notable social complexity and distinct ideological characteristics. Analyses focused on human trauma documented in the burials, along with likely weapons for both blunt force trauma and piercing, and traces of potential defensive works, indicate the significance of intergroup conflicts at the site. An elite subset of the settlement population, composed predominantly of adult males, assumed multiple roles encompassing ritual practitioners, military leaders, and skilled hunters. These roles suggest an interplay of interlocking sources of social power in this early sedentary society, with a likely foundation in intercommunity conflict. This interplay of various social factors not only explains the early development of complexity in Jiahu society but also reveals the close connection between prehistoric violence and ideology in prehistoric transegalitarian society.

Archaeology in Lopburi Province has been under long-term development since the 1970s and has led to the discovery of Khao Wang Prachan Valley (KWPV) as one of three currently known primary copper production (mining and smelting) sites in Southeast Asia. However, since the 1980s, archaeometallurgical research has focused mainly on the two sites of Non Pa Wai (NPW) and Nil Kham Haeng (NKH), dated from the Neolithic (ca. 1800 B.C.) to Early Iron Age (ca. 2300 B.C.), that are known to have large sequences of archaeological material linked to copper production. Although other sites with evidence of copper production are known in this restricted geographical area, their assemblages have not previously been subjected to archaeometric study. This article discusses the results of archaeometallurgical analyses of slags from Khao Sai On (KSO), Tha Kae (TK), and Phromthin Tai (PTT) with sequences dated during the Middle-Late Iron Age. Slag analysis reveals that different smelting behaviours were occurring at these sites. One heterogenous smelting behaviour at Khao Sai On was probably linked to a smaller community practicing metallurgy among other activities, while Phromthin Tai shows more homogeneous production linked to a larger settlement. Although these three sites are located within 26 km of each other, smelters were probably exploiting different local copper deposits around KWPV. The results seem to support a community based type of production where production behaviours are linked to local geology, technical competence, and intensity of exploitation.

Remembering Douglas Ernest Yen (20 March 1924–7 July 2023) Patrick V. Kirch Douglas E. Yen passed away peacefully at the age of 99, in Clovis, California. He was one of the most influential ethnobotanists and archaeobotanists of the Pacific and Asia region, even though his becoming an ethnobotanist was not planned but rather "accidental" in nature. I offer this reflection on Doug's life from the perspective of one who was mentored by him at an early age, then became a collaborating colleague, as well as a life-long friend. In his final years we kept in touch regularly by phone and I had the pleasure of seeing him from time to time in California and Hawai'i. Doug was born in Wellington, New Zealand, to Lily and Ernest Hai Yen, who owned a Chinese import store. Growing up, Doug played field hockey, tennis, and table tennis very competitively in school; he continued playing tennis into his 60s and [End Page 140] table tennis into his 80s. As a child, Doug attended St. Mark's Church School, then Wellington College (what we would call a high school), from which he graduated in 1942. Later that year he matriculated at Victoria College (then the University of New Zealand), but transferred to Massey College (now known as Massey University of New Zealand) in 1944, because he wanted to focus on agricultural science. Massey College, in Palmerston North, was New Zealand's primary center for teaching and research in agriculture. Doug received his Bachelor's degree in Agricultural Science in 1946 and a Master's degree in the same field the following year. Upon seeing a photograph of a lovely young woman at his sister's house, he asked to be introduced. Her name was Nancy Wah Lee. She and her sister Alice had been caught in Hong Kong during the Japanese invasion on December 7, 1941. The sisters managed to flee the Japanese army during the war by means of a harrowing journey that took them across China and over the Himalayas to India, after which they made their way to New Zealand to join relatives. Doug and Nancy were married on April 6, 1949, and remained devoted life partners. In 1948, Doug was appointed to the position of Plant Breeder in the Crop Research Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) located in Lincoln, New Zealand. He was promoted in 1953 to Officer-in-charge of the Vegetable Breeding Station, Crop Research Division, DSIR, in Otara, near Auckland, a post that he continued to hold until 1966, when he relocated to Honolulu's Bishop Museum in Hawai'i. During the period at the Otara station, Doug began to come into his own as a researcher, publishing papers on such topics as "Seed variation in pea rouges" (1954, in New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology 36: 117–121) and "Selection of cabbage strains for New Zealand" (1956, in New Zealand Commercial Grower). It was also during this period that he began a long-term interest in the sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas), known to the Māori people of New Zealand as kumara, their most important traditional crop. Realizing that old Māori varieties of kumara as well as traditional knowledge of their names and properties were disappearing, in 1954 Doug began a program of visiting rural Māori communities to collect sweet potato material, bringing this back to the Otara station for planting in a living collection. In time this would become the most comprehensive collection of Ipomoea batatas in the world; eventually much of the collection would be transferred to Japan, where it continues to be curated at the Institute of Crop Science, Tsukuba, and at Kyushu Agricultural Research Center. While Doug's early efforts at sweet potato collection were simply rooted in his desire to preserve the old varieties with their potential to breed better commercial hybrids, his formidable intellect soon had him grasping at larger questions. There had been considerable academic debate as to the origins of the sweet potato and its dispersal into the Pacific, some scholars arguing for a South American origin, others for an African origin. Consulting with faculty at the...