Vol. 2 (2008) ISSN 1864-6018 Editor: Barbara SEYOCK |
The Beijing 2008 papers
Panel: Island Archaeology in East Asia – Interaction and Isolation (Barbara SEYOCK)
General Remarks on 'Island Archaeology in East Asia – Interaction and
Isolation'
Barbara SEYOCK
Asia Orient Institute, University of Tuebingen , Germany
publ. April 2009
Introduction
Questioning the notion of the sea as a barrier or as a means of exchange and communication, the panel on 'Island Archaeology in East Asia – Interaction and Isolation' (Fourth Worldwide Conference of the Society for East Asian Archaeology (SEAA), Beijing 2008) attempted to examine the archaeologies of smaller islands round the East Asian coasts from a comparative perspective. Issues such as movements of people and/or cultural elements, spread of technologies and know-how, seafaring, maritime trade and exchange, development of cultural specifics, island-mainland relations, island landscapes and environmental change were brought together here. The dichotomy of islands as places of interaction and isolation thus served as a framework for a discussion of the distinctiveness of island cultures. We thus tried to question the notion of the sea as a barrier or as a means of exchange and communication.
The situation in East Asia, especially relating to the islands we were
addressing in our panel, is of course in many regards different from the concept
of isolation and remoteness, and land centred views, which underlies the general
perception of island archaeology (in the west). Paul RAINBIRD in his recently
published "The archaeology of islands" does postulate criticism in this regard
and would rather turn to an "archaeology of the sea" than concentrating on the
island itself, thus placing islands in a larger framework better addressed as
"maritime communities" and also including coastal areas from neighbouring
regions (RAINBIRD 2007:1–3, 163–173).
This concept has already been established for East Asia from different scholarly
approaches – just to mention the 'sea people' concept of AMINO Yoshihiko, or my
theory of the joined Han and Wa culture around the Korea Strait (AMINO 2007;
SEYOCK 2003, 2004). Most of our papers contribute to the perception of strong
interrelations between the given island/s and the neighbouring coasts.
Did the sea hence really constitute a barrier, or can we regularly neglect it in
prehistoric and historic contexts? Are specific cultural elaborations typical
for an island framework, and if, what kind of such elements can we perceive? Can
islands in the East China Sea and the Korea Straits in consequence serve as key
areas for archaeological modelling? Is it possible to apply concepts addressing
a certain function of a geographical region, such as a 'passage area', to one or
even all of our investigated islands or coastal areas?
Is a model of a specific 'island archaeology' useful at all? Does it make sense
in East Asian contexts? Or do we better focus on each cultural region separately
regardless of it being an island, a coastal, or an inland area?
The islands and coastal regions the panel participants are geographically
focussing on are all situated in Japanese and Korean waters. For Japan and
Korea, the islands and coastal regions the following papers are addressing are
the Izu Islands (Jap. Izu shotō 伊豆諸島) lying south of the Izu
Peninsula in Honshū
本州, Okinawa 沖縄, the main island of what is commonly known as the Ryūkyūs 琉球, the
southernmost Japanese island chain, as well as Jeju Island (Jeju-do 濟州島), the
largest Korean island, lying south of Jeolla 全羅 Province. Always in the focus of
interest for their geographic position, moreover, are the islands lying in the
Korea Strait, Tsushima 対馬and Iki 壱岐.
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Map: Areas of interest (Map basis adapted from ENCARTA 2003). |
Kazuo MIYAMOTO 宮本一夫 from Kyūshū University presents a paper on the "Prehistoric
Interaction through Tsushima and Iki Islands between the Korean Peninsula and
the Japanese Archipelago", focussing on both northward and southward exchange
from the Neolithic to the Iron Age and moreover introducing the latest finds
from the intriguing Iki Island Karakami カラカミ site, where he has carried out
several excavation campaigns.
Cohe SUGIYAMA 杉山浩平 from the University of Tōkyō raises the question why
communities disappeared from not only the Bōta 坊田 and Kokoma ココマ sites on
Miyakejima 三宅島 but from the Izu Islands in general. In his essay on "The Spatial
Distribution Change of Obsidians from Kōzushima in the Yayoi Period" he
elaborates on very recently excavated sites in the Izu islands in central Japan
and the probable impact of volcanic activity on the environment of the Yayoi
settlements.
My own paper on "Jeju Island as a Case Study in Ancient Island-Mainland
Interaction" analyses the situation of protohistoric culture on Jeju,
questioning in how far Jeju people participated in the general developments of
the Korean-Japanese border region.
Kanji TAWARA 俵寛司 from the Tōkyō University of Foreign Studies – his contribution
will be published soon in BSEAA – reconsiders the traditional notion of
"Tsushima Island as a Boundary Region", emphasizing again the close relationship
between peninsular and archipelago cultures by discussing the archaeological
data excavated from Tsushima sites.
Two more papers – publication of which may follow – have been given at the
Island Archaeology panel in Beijing:
Tomoko NAGATOMO 長友朋子 from Jeonbuk National University broadened the geographical
scope of the interrelations between Korean and Japanese coastal regions by
discussing the "The Relationship between Lelang, the South of the Korean
peninsula, northern Kyūshū and Okinawa" with a focus on the impact of Lelang
culture not only on pottery styles, but on the general change of the society in
the Korean peninsula and the Japanese islands.
The concluding presentation came from Hiroto TAKAMIYA 高宮広土 from Sapporo
University who discussed the "Long Distance Exchange and Food Stress in the
Prehistory of Okinawa". By re-analyzing sea fauna remains from different periods
in Okinawa, he challenges the traditional interpretation of a prehistoric people
that lived peacefully and harmoniously on the southern islands for thousands of
years.
References
AMINO Yoshihiko 2007 (1998), Kaimin to Nihon shakai, Tōkyō: Shin-jinbutsu
ōrai sha [網野善彦『海民と日本社会』東京:新人物往来社].
SEYOCK, Barbara 2004, Auf den Spuren der Ostbarbaren. Zur Archäologie
protohistorischer Kulturen in Südkorea und Westjapan. BUNKA - Tübinger
interkulturelle und linguistische Japanstudien, Vol. 8.
Münster-Hamburg-Berlin-Wien-London: LIT-Verlag.
SEYOCK, Barbara 2003, The Culture of Han and Wa around the Korean Straits: An
Archaeological Perspective. In: Acta Koreana, 6:1, pp. 63-86.
RAINBIRD, Paul 2007, The Archaeology of Islands. Topics in Contemporary Archaeology. New York: Cambridge University Press.
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