This paper reviews recent genetic evidence for the origins of the traditional cultivated bananas of the Pacific, and shows that they are unexpectedly complex. Current assumption of their prevailing west-to-east spread from Southeast Asia into the Pacific thus needs modification. Although bananas are widely assumed to have been part of the set of crops transported to Polynesia at first settlement, the linguistic evidence on which this is based underestimates the diversity of bananas in the New Guinea region and is suspect. Archaeological evidence of bananas is so far very tenuous. Recent genetic evidence of the parentage of most groups of cultivated bananas shows that the primary step toward edibility occurred in the Philippines– New Guinea region. Early movements westward across Island Southeast Asia must have occurred, and the complexity of hybrids makes regionally dispersed development likely. There is no demonstrable link with Taiwan or the adjacent coast of China. There is no evidence that the genetically distinct lineages of bananas found in Polynesia were brought together in the putatively ancestral Lapita crop assemblage of the northern New Guinea region. The complex phylogeny of the cultivated Pacific bananas may thus suggest multiple prehistoric introductions of bananas to Polynesia. If bananas were part of the founding set of crops of Remote Oceania, the question ''which bananas?'' is currently unanswered.

This study uses XRF (X-ray fluorescence) and ICP-MS (inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry) analyses to determine the chemical composition of raw material used in stone tool production. The goal is to identify where stone adzes, which are common in Neolithic sites on the coast of Mainland China, were produced and if they were transported from the production areas to other places. Our study focuses on adzes from three Neolithic sites located on the Fujian coast of Mainland China, opposite Taiwan. The sites date to between 6500 and 3500 b.p. All of the adzes we sampled are made of volcanic rock. A diverse selection of raw materials, including basalts, andesites, and dacites, was used in manufacturing the adzes, indicating that they are made of rock deriving from many di¤erent geological formations. None of the adzes have identical chemical signatures. There is no evidence of specialized centers for adze production. Some of the adzes were probably produced locally, while others were obtained through exchange. This project sets the stage for future research to trace the development and the extent of southeast China Neolithic exchange networks.

This study reports on analysis of a sample of animal bones from Pleistocene levels of Lang Rongrien Rockshelter, Thailand. Analysis identified small proportions of marine and/or freshwater fish bone, freshwater/terrestrial snail shells, and bird bones, as well as large proportions of tortoise, turtle, and mammal bones. Comparison with three other faunal assemblages underscores salient characteristics consisting of a high proportion of turtle and tortoise and an absence of pigs in the Lang Rongrien sample. Analysis of the faunal assemblage suggests that, in contrast to other sites such as Niah Cave and Moh Khiew that were occupied on a long-term basis, the Pleistocene levels of Lang Rongrien were intermittently occupied by foragers who may have been practicing a seasonal round that involved transhumance from interior to coast.

People of the Jomon period (currently dated from about 14,000 b.c. to the first millennium b.c.) began to make lacquer ornaments as early as 7000 b.c. and by the fourth millennium b.c. were creating elaborately decorated, low-fired pottery vessels that appear to have been used for feasting. In the Final period of the Jomon, grave goods appear in a substantial percentage of burials. Without reliance on agriculture, Jomon people appear to have achieved a high level of social complexity. However, the evidence from a few case studies concerning lacquer, elaborate pottery, and burials seems to show that while part-time specialization provided a wealth of rich material culture, sustained hierarchy was not achieved and there was an emphasis on exchange and solidarity, as in other middle-range societies. This article reviews new material and debates.

As evidenced from the Korean archaeological record, there is an increased use of plant domesticates and a decrease in other food sources during the Holocene. These changes in overall human diet breadth culminate with the Late Neolithic–Bronze Age (c. 3500 B.P.) transition where dependence on hunted and gathered food packages decreases during the former period and full-scale agriculture becomes the norm during the latter cultural stage. This dietary shift appears to coincide with Holocene shoreline stabilization and overall large-scale population increase and movement through time. It is proposed here that two primary reasons exist for the change in overall diet breadth: (1) increasing shoreline stabilization during the Holocene and (2) an increase in hunter-gatherer population pressure due to a sedentary lifestyle. Both of these factors would have led to some degree of territorial circumscription, resulting in a progressive decline in overall hunter-gatherer foraging e‰ciency. In turn, this would have prompted the Holocene Korean Peninsular peoples to find other ways to offset their lowered overall foraging efficiency that had originally focused primarily on higher-ranked food resources (e.g., deer, wild boar). In this case, Korean peoples expanded their overall diet breadth to include a lower-ranked set of food packages (e.g., fish, shellfish) that by the advent of the Bronze Age eventually included plant domesticates regularly.

This paper presents a multifaceted study of a collection of stoneware ceramic vessels in the Guthe Collection of the Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan. These vessels, recovered in the Philippines but manufactured in multiple production sites across East and Southeast Asia, provide insights into premodern economic interactions and maritime trade. Our study of this collection drew on multiple approaches to identify coherent groupings of vessels associated with locations and traditions of production. These include instrumental neutron activation analysis (INAA) of pastes; laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) of glazes; stylistic analysis of decorative motifs and their execution; and study of morphological attributes. Results of our analyses point to at least four production areas for these ubiquitous trade wares and lay the groundwork for future research on Southeast Asian maritime trade from the twelfth through nineteenth centuries A.D.

Reviewed by: The Prehistoric Archaeology of Norfolk Island, Southwest Pacific Marshall I. Weisler The Prehistoric Archaeology of Norfolk Island, Southwest Pacific. Atholl Anderson and Peter White, eds. Sydney: Records of the Australian Museum Supplement 27, 2001. 142 pp., illustrations, maps, photographs, tables, bibliography. Softcover. AU$55.00. ISBN 0-7347-2305-9. From our first days as students of Pacific prehistory we are told that the Neolithic colonization and settlement of Oceania ranks as one of the great achievements of Hawai'i Press. [End Page 410] humankind. Set within the grand southern ocean are a number of isolated landfalls whose successful settlement pushed the capabilities of Oceanic colonists to their extreme limits. If the condition of isolation wasn't enough to strain the colonization process, many of these remote islands typically had limited marine and terrestrial resources, low rainfall, and periodic drought. In the higher latitudes, cooler temperatures constrained horticulture and fostered a new and limited array of marine life. In this regard, the high volcanic Norfolk Island (~35 km2) is a standout example. Situated in the subtropical zone, four hundred nautical miles south from New Caledonia and an equal distance north of New Zealand, it has evidence of prehistoric settlement, yet was found abandoned when observed by Europeans in 1774. During four field seasons between 1995 and 1999, a multidisciplinary team organized by Atholl Anderson and Peter White sought to (1) investigate the source of the inhabitants and whether multiple origins had been involved; (2) investigate the extent of isolation during its prehistoric occupation; and (3) document any significant impact of prehistoric colonists on the geomorphology, vegetation, and faunas (p. 2). The volume is devoted primarily to excavations conducted at the Emily Bay site. Situated along the south rocky shore inland from the sandy beach at Emily Bay, the largest known habitation site on the island extends for about 3000 m2 with a 30 cm-thick cultural layer containing sparse cultural material. Features included scoop hearths, trash pits, post holes, and a pavement. Bioturbation from muttonbird burrows and nest sites is very common (p. 136). The most abundant artifacts are basalt flakes, East Polynesian adzes, and two dozen obsidian flakes. Nonstone artifacts were few but consisted, most notably, of a harpoon point, a one-piece rotating hook of marine ivory, and a drilled tab. Pacific rat (Rattus exulans) bones were common and mtDNA analysis indicated source populations in central East Polynesia and New Zealand. Surprisingly, turtle bone was uncommon. Sea birds were a major source of food as well as fish caught on baited hooks; shellfish was a minor dietary contribution. Fourteen chapters describe and analyze the stratigraphy, radiocarbon dating, artifacts, fauna (including mtDNA of rats), other midden, land snails, and pollen cores and a summary chapter. To get a good sense of the Emily Bay settlement I strongly suggest reading the summary narrative on pages 138–139 before tackling the rest of the volume. Below I discuss the analytical chapters. I found the chapter on domestic and religious structures to be one of the most engaging because it is a good example of holistic anthropological archaeology and an effort was made to place the religious structure within the broader context of Polynesian culture-history. The religious feature was not a marae but, more accurately, a shrine (Sinoto 2001), as a marae is an open space or clearing. The Emily Bay shrine consists of a 15 m2 exposed section of pavement, three upright stones, what looks like a slab-lined fireplace, an oven, and much domestic food and tool refuse. The physical evidence for the shrine by itself was not totally convincing until the linguistic and ethnographic evidence was set within the comparative regional context. One important point omitted was that the shrine is just east of the probable house site, which reveals a pattern seen repeatedly in late prehistoric Hawai'i; that is, shrines are situated east of the main habitation feature within a residential complex or kauhale (Weisler and Kirch 1985: Figs. 9–11). This is an important and recurring pattern found within Polynesian residential sites, and the Emily Bay data extends the practice some four centuries than previously documented. Turner et al. analyzed technology...

Reviewed by: Tracing Thought through Things: The Oldest Pali Texts and the Early Buddhist Archaeology of India and Burma Peter Skilling Tracing Thought through Things: The Oldest Pali Texts and the Early Buddhist Archaeology of India and Burma. Janice Stargardt. Amsterdam: Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2000. 60 pp. ISBN 90-6984-304-8. Tracing Thought through Things is the seventh Gonda lecture, delivered on 12 November 1999 at the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. The author, Janice Stargardt, is one of the small number of British archaeologists who have given sustained attention to Southeast Asia. She starts with a concise review of the setting: archaeology in Indology; iron tools and food resources; continuity of settlement; and urbanization, trade, and Buddhism. Rice, "along with bananas and coconuts, may have been introduced into India from South East Asia" (p. 11). Iron production, agricultural developments, and rice cultivation were factors that "provided the necessary preconditions for the extraordinary flowering of new religious and philosophical thought in the 1st millennium BC, that shaped the intellectual and religious history, first, of India and then exerted a profound influence on the wider world" ( p. 12). Unfortunately, problems arise when we come to Amarāvatī. The suggested association of the Caitika school (Stargardt uses the form Caityaka: the name is variously spelt, as we shall see) with the Great Caitya at Amarāvatī is not borne out by available evidence: at best it is a hypothesis that has [End Page 386] been exaggerated over the years until it has become fact.1 Two Amarāvatī inscriptions use the term. The first does not say, as rendered by Burgess, that the Great Caitya was "in possession of " "the school of the Caitikīyas," but that a "wheel of the Dharma" was set up and donated to that school at the western gate of the Mahācetiya of the Blessed One (bhagavāto mahācetiye cetikiyā naṃnikāsa [read nikāyasa] parigahe aparadāre dhamacakaṃdedham[maṃ ṭhā]pita).2 In the second inscription, "jaḍikyānam"—the form used here—can be dative or genitive plural. Its referent is ambiguous. It can refer to the donor or her husband (see Sivaramamurti, who, intentionally or not, is also ambiguous: "the wife of the householder Sidhatha of the Jaḍikiya school"). It cannot be a genitive plural referring to the Mahā cetiya, which belongs to the Blessed One (bhagavat). It could be dative plural: the lamp pillar was donated to the Jaḍikiyas: "Khadā, wife of the householder Sidhatha, with her daughters, sons, mother, brothers, daughters-in-law . . . have set up a lamp pillar for the Jaḍikiyas . . . at the foot of the Great Cetiya of the Blessed One."3 But the epigraph with its difficulties cannot be strong evidence for Caitikas "possession" of the Mahācetiya, and indeed we know very little about how the early caityas were managed.4 The Caitikas were an early branch of the Mahāsāṃghika school.5 In addition to at Amarāvatī, they are mentioned once each at Ajanta and Nasik.6 None of their scriptures survive, and virtually nothing is known about their doctrines: only three are listed in Vasumitra's classical compendium of tenets, all three shared by the Pūrvaśailas and Aparaśailas. (The Caitikas were not, as Burgess would have it, "otherwise called the school of the Pūrvaśailas.") It is sometimes assumed, quite wrongly, that the school had a special association with caityas, and that the presence of caityas or stūpas means the presence of Caityakas. On the contrary, Vasumitra ascribes to them the view that offerings to caityas do not bring great fruit.7 Caityas dominate the early Buddhist sites of India and South-East Asia.8 The ideology of relic worship, hence caityas, developed in the earliest Buddhism and continues to the present. Its authority rests in the words of the Buddha himself, in the Mahāparinirvāṇasūtra—a fundamental text for all schools. The cult is not the property of any single school, and the main . schools all mencourage the worship of caityas. The Uttaragrantha of the Mūlasarvāstivādin Vinaya makes frequent...

Five decades of research history on the late Upper Paleolithic in Hokkaido (northern Japan) shows that microblade assemblages appeared by approximately 20,000 B.P. and that various microblade technologies were developed during late Pleistocene. The empirically observed good association between the morphological features of lithic raw materials and the reduction sequences of microblade cores demonstrates that morphological features of procured lithic raw materials (i.e., size and surface condition), which were constrained by unique geological and geoarchaeological characteristics in Hokkaido, created remarkable variability in reduction methods of microblade technology. This implies that geoarchaeological perspective can contribute to understanding technological variability in microblade assemblages in northeastern Asia.

This paper introduces the essays in this volume. The challenging complexities of site formation and cave taphonomy in humid tropical environments are emphasized, as is the need for more sophisticated understanding of the geomorphological, biological, and taphonomic processes that affect tropical caves if archaeological remains within them are to be better understood. As the case studies in this collection illustrate, however, tropical cave excavations in peninsular and island Southeast Asia continue to provide new information that is shaping the agenda of discussions about the pathways of colonization of Pleistocene and Holocene human populations, their lifeways as foragers and farmers, and their belief systems as represented by their burials and cave art. The papers also emphasize the complexity of cave use in this region through time and space, but perhaps the most important argument of the volume is that the human use of caves here, past and present, can be understood only as integral components of wider cultural landscapes.