TRENDS IN JAPANESE ARCHAEOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES ABROAD

China
Makibayashi keisuke1
In this article, study trends and their characteristics from ﬁscal 2012 are stated onresearch in Japan or by Japanese citizens on China, mainly from theses, academic
societies and symposiums. Frankly speaking, one main study trend was the diversityof studied periods and studied regions. study used to concentrate on before the Qin/
han dynasties or on the Central Plain region. For example, the origin and formationof Chinese civilization was the major theme in Chinese archaeology. however, inrecent years, a movement to understand the history of nomads in western regions ofChina, grasslands, and Northeast asia is conspicuous. in these regions, there are manystudies on analyzing bronze tools, and it may represent that northern bronze culture, i.e.
nomads, played quite a large historical role. Joint research with natural scientiﬁc ﬁelds
is quite active especially for bronze tools, and studies are progressing on manufacturing
techniques, and production/consumption. studied periods are also expanding from yin/
Zhou dynasties (northern bronze culture/early nomads) to medieval (song, Liao andJurchen). NakaZaWa hiromasa, Study of Medieval Archaeology in the Northeast Asia:
Mohe, Bohai and Jurchen is a good work which systematically discussed archaeology ofnorthern tribe nations in the medieval. another meaningful work is MiyaMOTO kazuo
and GaO Dalun ed., Prehistoric Society in Eastern Tibet that handled another so-called
peripheral region, the Sichuan-East Tibet region, and it veriﬁed another cultural offset
that goes from grassland to the sichuan region. They both contribute to the constructionof asian history that is not tied to a Central Plain centered historical view.
also, diversity of studied regions caused a movement to reconsider Central Plainmonism. studies on technology and social formation of early farming, the structure ofTudun tomb from the Qin/han dynasties, roof tiles of the Central Plain and peripheralregions, and tomb structure and tomb systems of the southern dynasty in southern andNorthern Dynasties period, clariﬁes various historical formations in China. It indicatesthat dynamism of Chinese regions is also varied, leading to an intriguing reconsiderationof diffusion theory to Japan and negotiation history with Japan.
On the other hand, excavation research of important sites related to the Central Plain
1 Research Center of Ancient East Asian Iron Culture, Ehime University, Bunkyo-cho, Matsuyama City,

Ehime Prefecture, 790–0826, Japan(makiba@ehime-u.ac.jp)

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ARCHAEOLOGIA

dynasties were conducted steadily such as iiJiMa Taketugu ed. Western Zhou Sites
in Weihe River Basin, China II, and Nara National Research Institute for CulturalProperties Preliminary Report of the Excavation at Baihe Kilns in Gongyi City, HenanProvince. This indicates that while Chinese archaeology in Japan is expanding its
research region outside the Central Plain, the Central Plain is held fast. Methodologicalapproaches were outstanding. OkaMURa hidenori introduced methodologies of art
history into his han mirror study, and he even brought out thoughts and lifestyles ofmirror artisans in the social situation of the time. he drastically transformed traditionalarchaeology that depended on stereotypical classiﬁcation methods.
Thus, the author expects that pluralism of asia will be grasped rather than diversityof China, by expanding studied regions and periods. however, study on environmental
history seems weak, although it is a popular ﬁeld in Japanese history. TSURUMA
kazuyuki and GE Jianxiong ed. History and Environment of Civilization in the East
Asian Ocean may become a trigger. Joint research between ichthyology and archaeology
by NakaJiMa Tsuneo and others urges fusion of science and literature. This is a newtrial.
in the end, the author would like to point out that Japanese researchers are positively
performing at various international conventions in any language. at international
academic conferences in China or in western academic conference such as sEaa,
Japanese researchers are holding sessions and leading discussions. increase of suchactivities are expected in the future.

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