[Article] Prehistoric Remains Found in Aceh Town.

September 27, 2010 | Jakarta Globe | Antara

Takengon, Aceh. Two archeologists from Medan have found evidence that a village in Central Aceh district had been inhabited by prehistoric humans.
Ketut Wiradnyana and Lucas Partanda Koestoro announced on Sunday that they had found artifacts such as a a square stone axe, a niche, pottery pieces and a human skeleton inside a cave near Danau Laut Tawar, a lake in Kampung Mendale.
“One of our latest discoveries is a human skeleton which we found in the Ujung Karang Kebayakan area, another excavation site near Kampung Mendale,” Ketut said.
The skeleton’s exact age has yet to be confirmed, since the excavation is still ongoing.
Ketut said the artifacts would have to undergo a carbon dating test at the National Atomic Energy Agency (Batan).
Last May, residents of Jayapura district in Papua Province found prehistoric relics at two different locations.

[...Read the full article here...]

[Colloque] La place des morts dans les mégalopoles d'Asie orientale.

Colloque de clôture du programme ANR Funérasie
Campus CNRS Michel-Ange, Paris 16°

De par leur gigantisme, les mégalopoles d’Asie orientale sont confrontées de façon particulièrement aigüe aux grands défis urbains : saturation de l’espace, engorgement des réseaux, dégradation de l’environnement, creusement des inégalités sociales... Chercheurs et édiles se mobilisent pour passer au crible toutes les dimensions de la ville, à grand renfort de communication. Toutes, sauf une : la question funéraire. Personne ne nous dit ce qu’il advient des morts dans ces agglomérations déca-millionnaires. La question se pose avec d’autant plus d’acuité que, précisément dans cette région, la démographie des morts est appelée à connaître la plus forte croissance au monde dans les décennies à venir. Comment gérer le gonflement de cette population invisible là où se joue la plus âpre concurrence entre les diverses activités humaines pour l’occupation des sols ? De quelle façon les diverses composantes de l’industrie funéraire s’adaptent-elles à la demande accrue de sépultures et aux nouvelles attentes rituelles de sociétés urbaines en mutation rapide ? Dans ce colloque, des spécialistes du Japon, de la Chine et de la Corée du Sud confronteront leurs observations de terrain pour éclairer les enjeux économiques, spatiaux et symboliques de la question funéraire dans la région la plus urbanisée de la planète.

Programme (623Kb/.pdf)

Contact : aroquiam[at]msh-paris.fr

Sources : « La place des morts dans les mégalopoles d'Asie orientale », Colloque, Calenda, publié le mardi 28 septembre 2010, http://calenda.revues.org/nouvelle17447.html / Url de référence : Site du Réseau Asie, rubrique Agenda

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[Article] Ancient tomb site uncovered.

July, 06 2010 | Viêt Nam News

HA NOI — Archaeologists working at a site in Ha Noi's Dong Anh District have stumbled across 11 tombs dating back to the Phung Nguyen culture, days before they were about to wind up the dig.
The Phung Nguyen remains, the best-preserved of any found in and around the city, date back about 4,000 years, archaeologists from the Viet Nam Archaeology Institute said.

Well preserved: The Phung Nguyen burial plot found in Dinh Trang, Dong Anh District. — Photo courtesy of the Viet Nam Archaeology Institute

The tombs were discovered 1.5m below ground.
"All the tombs are of people who were living during the Phung Nguyen civilisation, date back 3,500 to 4,000 years," said Lai Van Toi, PhD, who is in charge of excavating the site.
One of the tombs, provisionally called number nine, contained the well-preserved remains of a woman aged between 35-40, Nguyen Laân Cuong, deputy general secretary of the Viet Nam Archaeologists Association told Viet Nam News.
The woman was about 1.55m tall and was buried face up, with her arms lying by her sides and her head bent towards her left shoulder, Cuong said.
Her skull was a long ovoid shape, and her eye sockets were relatively low in her face. She also had a large nose.
Typical of the aristocracy of the Phung Nguyen culture in Xom Ren in the northern province of Phu Tho, her front-teeth had been removed, as was the case with the other skeletons unearthed. Skeletons dating from the Phung Nguyen culture found in Dong Dau in the northern province of Vinh Phuc, Hang To in Son La and Man Bac in Ninh Binh were also found to be missing their front teeth.
The custom was popular among the ancient peoples of south China, Japan and Oceanaria.
Some ceramic objects were found on the woman's left thigh and the left side of her hip. Archaeologists also found traces of red dust on her left knee bone, as has been seen in other ancient tombs.
The Dinh Trang site has been excavated seven times. During the last excavation, archaeologists found a total of 11 tombs, eight of which contained skeletons and teeth mostly of children.
Archaeologists said further research would be conducted on the tombs to learn more about the Phung Nguyen culture and the Dong Son civilisation, which dates back 2,000-3,000 years and existed in today Phu Tho, Yen Bai, Hoa Binh, Ha Noi, and the central provinces of Thanh Hoa, Nghe An and Ha Tinh. — VNS

[Article] Hundreds of jar tombs unearthed in Phu Yen.

24-05-2010 | VietNamNet Bridge | Duong Thanh Xuan
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Hundreds of “jar tombs” (urns) have been discovered in a ten hectare area along the banks of Ky Lo River in Phu Yen province.

The urns are of different sizes, ranging from 1.2 to over 2m long and 0.5-0.6m wide, and were found along the Ky Lo River in the two villages of Tan and Tan Phu in Xuan Son Nam commune.

At the archaeological site, hundreds of terra-cotta jar jars have been unearthed. They are oval, with two open tips like doors. Apart from broken pieces of the jar is debris from bowls, plates and white bricks, which are very thin but heavy.
Bui Van Tan, 62, a resident, noted that his village was formerly located on the relic site, but had been swept away by a horrible flood in 1924.
This area became a sugar cane and cassava field until it was ruined by the November 2009 flood, which exposed the urns.
Some residents collected fences and crowns from this site that they sold to antique traders.
Jar tombs belong to Sa Huynh Culture.

More photography

Iron Age discovery uncovers prehistoric burial customs in Laos [The Earth Time / MMAP]

Vientiane, Laos - The discovery of Iron Age human bone fragments in Laos has shed new light on the region's prehistoric burial customs, state media reports said Friday. A team of Lao and foreign archeologists foundthe fragments last week in a burial ground believed to be about 2,000 years old when South-East Asia was in the Iron Age, the Vientiane Times reported.

The discovery was made during a dig known as the Middle Mekong Archaeological Project, which is a joint effort between Laos' Department of Heritage and the University of Pennsylvania Museum in the United States.

"Last week, we unexpectedly found two skulls and a fragment of a third, a baby, along with some body bones," said Joyce White, associate curator at the University of Pennsylvania Museum. "It is quite a significant discovery of Lao archaeology."
Also among the items found was a burial pot containing human bones, which was the first such example of a secondary burial, or the custom of dismembering a corpse and removing all flesh so the bones could be placed in a container.
Although the practice was common in neighbouring Thailand and Vietnam, this was the first evidence of a secondary burial in what is now Laos.
The project is funded by the Henry Luce Foundation.

22 jan 2010 - Copyright DPA

Read more

On Middle Mekong Archaeological Project's blog : see the article.

Thanh Hoa commune lays claim to Le king’s reburial site

A commune in the central province of Thanh Hoa is insisting that King Le Du Tong (1679-1731) of the Le Dynasty be reburied where his coffin was found, instead of another location planned by his descendants.

The body of King Le Du Tong after being discovered in 1958(photo ci-contre)

The king should be reburied at Xuan Giang Commune’s Bai Trach Village, where his body was discovered in a coffin in 1958, residents said in a complaint sent to several high-ranking agencies of the government and the Party last month.
“Reburial means to bring him back to where he rested,” Do Thi Kinh, wife of Do Van Luong, who discovered the coffin, told Thanh Nien.
Under the plan prepared by the descendants of the Le Dynasty (1428-1788), the king’s mortal remains will be moved from the National History Museum in Hanoi to Ban Thach Village in Xuan Quang Commune on December 26.
A representative from the Le family said both villages belonged to the Le’s hometown before the French colonialists divided them during their rule between 1887 and 1945.
However, they chose Xuan Quang because some of Le Du Tong’s royal descendants – King Le Hien Tong (1497 – 1504) and King Le Chieu Thong (1786-1788) – are buried there.
Xuan Quang also has the advantage of having a large area already been zoned as a historic site for royal tombs, said Truong Quoc Dinh, chairman of the People’s Committee of Tho Xuan District, which manages Xuan Quang and Xuan Giang communes.
Authorities of Tho Xuan District and Thanh Hoa Province are yet to reach any conclusion on the reburial location, but they have already held meetings with related agencies to discuss the issue.
Under a decision by the central government, the Thanh Hoa People’s Committee is supposed to choose the location, and cooperate with the Le family and the Ministry of Culture, Sports and Tourism in holding the reburial ceremony.

Source: Thanh Nien

Séminaire EFEO - Paris: 23/11/2009

ECOLE FRANÇAISE D'EXTRÊME ORIENT

 

Séminaire mensuel de l'EFEO Paris

Chen Chao-jung

(Institut d'histoire philologique de l'Academia Sinica)

Gender, Status and Wealth;

An Investigation based on Shang and Zhou Bronzes and Burial Items

EFEO

Maison de l'Asie

Lundi 23 novembre (12h30 - 14h) - Grand Salon

22, avenue du Président Wilson

75 116 Paris.

Métro: Iéna ou Trocadéro.

Pierres tombales islamiques du 10ème siècle, Indonésie

Some of the earliest evidence for Islam in Southeast Asia 

A beach strewn with Islamic tombstones in Indonesia’s Acheh province, uncovered the devastating 2004 tsunami, shed light on the spread of Islam into the region. The tombstones date as early as the 10th century and are some of the earliest evidence for the spread of the religion into Southeast Asia.

Aceh tombstones hint Islam spread to S.E. Asia 3 centuries earlier
Kyodo News, 16 October 2009

Taking a stroll along the shore of this sleepy village in Indonesia’s northernmost province of Aceh at low tide is like walking on a bleak burial ground as scores of old gray tombstones are strewn about.

Submerged for centuries under the sea, they only came to light after the devastation wracked by the 2004 Indian Ocean quake and tsunami on the coast of Aceh, on the island of Sumatra, killing more than 170,000 people.

Some as old as the 10th century, the tombstones, with a mix of Hindu and Islamic influences, hold a secret to Aceh’s distant past and reveal new archeological evidence about the spread of Islam to Southeast Asia.

Ibrahim, an Acehnese archaeologist who has been studying these tombstones closely, estimates over 1,000 of them lie under the
sea on the coastline of Kampung Pande, a village near the provincial capital Banda Aceh, and are often exposed at low tide.

Source: SEAArch.