Dr. Keith Knapp
History 365:
The Archaeology of East Asia
TR 8:00-9:15am
Office hours: M, 1:10-4:45pm, T, 1:10-2:30, R 1:10-2:30, or by appointment. Office # 432C.
Telephone: 3-6935, e-mail: [email protected].
Course Description: Through looking at archaeological remains and discoveries, this course
explores the history and material culture of East Asia up until the year AD 1300. One of the
primary goals of the course is to discover how the land areas now occupied by the modern
nation-states of China, Japan, North Korea, and South Korea came to form a largely culturally
coherent region that we now designate as “East Asia.” The course will stress archaeology
because, even though the Chinese historical record is incredibly rich, it is also extremely bias. It
mainly tells us about the history and ideas of the ruling class and tends to downplay regional and
ethnic differences. As for Japan and Korea, their historical records only come into existence
through their interaction with China and are rather late in time. Thus, archaeology provides an
independent record that tells us not just how the elite envisioned their world, but how people of
all walks of life and different regions actually lived. Another important goal of this course is to
endeavor to avoid looking at the history of early East Asia through nationalistic lenses. We will
be looking at East Asia largely before there ever was a “China,” “Japan” or “Korea.” To a lesser
extent, we will look at the history and material culture of periphery regions that also had an
important impact on East Asia, most notably the areas of modern-day Mongolia and Vietnam.
By the end of the course, I hope students will 1) have a good understanding of the cultural and
political characteristics that East Asian cultures share, 2) will comprehend that what is often
designated as essentially Chinese, Japanese, or Korean is arbitrary, relative, and contested, and 3)
will have some sense of the methods and aims of the discipline of archaeology.
Class Requirements: Students must attend class: attendance will be taken. Students who miss
more than 20% of the class periods, whether their absences are excused or not, will fail the
course. Students who are rowdy, read materials that are extraneous to the course in class, chew
tobacco, or talk during lectures, will be asked to leave the classroom and be marked as absent.
Students must read all of the assigned texts. Assigned reading must be done prior to the first
class of the week. Each student must participate in class discussion, write both a short and long
paper, take five quizzes, and attend the two examinations. The short paper will be an analysis of
Bing: From Farmer’s Son to Magistrate in Han China. It should be four or five pages long. The
long paper will consist of a research paper on a topic selected by the student. It will be at least
eight pages long and will incorporate multiple secondary sources. Instruction sheets on how to
write these papers will be handed out. The examinations will consist of short identifications of
terms and artifacts as well as essay questions. The composition of your grade is as follows:
quizzes 20%, participation 10%, short paper 10%, mid-term examination 15%, long paper 20%,
and the final examination 25%. Participation consists of asking questions, volunteering
opinions, and showing that you have read the class assignments. Papers handed in after the
deadline will be reduced half a grade for each class period that it is late. Students who cheat on
tests or engage in plagiarism will be reported for honor code violations and will receive a “F”
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grade for that test or paper. Scheduled tests are mandatory formations. Makeup tests Will NOT
be given without a written note from a doctor or other appropriate official. Guard duty or other
military activities do not excuse you from scheduled tests.
Textbooks:
Gina L. Barnes, Archaeology of East Asia: The Rise of Civilization in China, Korea, and Japan.
Oxbow Books, 2015 (978-1-78570-070-5)
Michael Loewe, Bing: From Farmer’s Son to Magistrate in Han China. Hackett Publishing
Company, 2011.
Charles Benn, China’s Golden Age: Everyday Life in the Tang Dynasty. Oxford University
Press, 2002.
James Delgado, Khubilai Khan’s Lost Fleet: In Search of the Legendary Armada. University of
California Press, 2009.
Class Schedule
Week One: Orientation (1/14)
Reading: Barnes, Archaeology of East Asia, chapters 1& 2, 2-44
Orientation, nationalistic biases, methodology of archaeology, geography of East Asia
Week Two: Neolithic East Asia (1/19 & 1/21)
Focus: Cultures of Yangshao, Hemudu, Longshan, Chulmun, Hongshan, Jomon, and Ainu
Reading: Barnes, Archaeology of East Asia, chapters 6 & 7, 126-180
Film: “The Mummies of Urumqi” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kl6siGw18kQ
“Jomon People’s Life in Reproduction” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bC-VUVcEU-0
“Ainu, the First People of Japan” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=endv3PVpXFg
“Prehistoric Japan” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9aw8HBgV0VM
“Mumun Period,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G7PfvasGAtM
1/21 Geography quiz
Week Three: Early Chinese States (1/26 & 1/28):
Focus: Fu Hao Tomb in Anyang
Reading: Barnes, Archaeology of East Asia, chapters 8 & 9, 181-230
“China’s Bronze Age: The Shang Dynasty”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRQKp_vjVSY&list=PLZjXWOTXmcWSTkkLtUA4R7G
7KcDwD2OMq
Week Four: Eastern Zhou China (2/2 & 2/4)
Focus: Guodian Laozi, Marquis Yi of Zeng’s tomb
Reading: Barnes, Archaeology of East Asia, chapter 10, 231-254,
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www.indiana.edu/~p374/Daodejing.pdf
http://www.daoisopen.com/guodianlaozi.html
Videos: “The Ancient Chinese Tomb of Marquis Yi”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK4T6YwNrec
2/4 Laozi quiz
Week Five: The unification of China (2/9 & 2/11)
Focus: The First Emperor’s Mausoleum, the Long Walls
Reading: Barnes, Archaeology of East Asia, chapter 12, 285-308
Film: “Trekking the Great Wall”
Week Six: The Han & Xiongnu Empires (2/16 & 2/18)
Focus: Mawangdui tomb, Han border defenses, & Whether Xiongnu = Huns
Reading: Bing: From Farmer’s Son to Magistrate in Han China
Videos: “The 2,000 Year-old Mummified of Lady Xin Zhui”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iXgyLYtRrFw
2/18 Quiz and Discussion on Bing: From Farmer’s Son to Magistrate in Han China
Week Seven: Early Mumun Korea & Yayoi Japan (2/23 & 2/25)
Focus: Yoshinogari and Himiko
Websites: Yoshinogari: Heritage Site Coverage http://www.panojournalist.com/?p=1;
Yoshinogari Historical Park http://www.yoshinogari.jp/en/
Reading: Barnes, Archaeology of East Asia, chapter 13, 309-330. “Japan in the Wei Dynastic
History”
2/25 Short paper on Bing is due
Week Eight: Mound Cultures in Korea and Japan (3/1 & 3/3)
Focus: Korea’s Three Kingdoms, Himiko, Haniwa, & Horse rider theory
Reading: Barnes, Archaeology of East Asia, chapter 14, 331-360
Videos: “Shionji yama kofun restored” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n8AHWYC5QEI
“Begin Japanology: Burial Mounds” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dvgQjxM9D2s
3/3 Mid-term Exam
Week Nine: The Steppe invades China: China’s Era of Disunion and the arrival of
Buddhism 3/8 & 3/10
Focus: Sogdian tombs, Buddhist grottoes & statuary, tomb figurines, engraved sarcophagi
Reading: Barnes, Archaeology of East Asia, chapter 15, 361-383
Week Ten: China at its Height – Sui/Tang China (3/15 & 3/17)
Focus: Famensi, Tang imperial tombs, Tang murals,
Reading: China’s Golden Age
3/17 Discussion and Quiz on China’s Golden Age
Week Eleven: The Southern Yue and the Birth of Vietnam (3/22 & 3/24)
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Focus: Bronze drums, the Yue people, Dian Culture, & the Nanzhao State
Readings: Charles Holcombe, “Before Vietnam,” in his The Genesis of East Asia: 221 B.C.A.D. 907, 145-164 & “Francis Allard, “Stirrings at the Periphery: History, Archaeology, and the
Study of the Dian” (I’ll send you a PDF of these articles)
Week Twelve: Spring Break
Week Thirteen: Nara Japan and Silla Korea (4/5 & 4/7)
Focus: The early Japanese capitals, Buddhist temples and statues, wooden tablets, Silla
unification of Korean peninsula.
Readings: “The Constitution of Prince Shotoku” and William Wayne Farris, “Capitals” in his
Sacred Texts and Buried Treasures: Issues in Historical Archaeology of Ancient Japan and Gina
Barnes, “The Emergence and Expansion of Silla from an Archaeological Perspective.” (I’ll send
you a PDF of these documents).
4/7 Quiz and Discussion of the Constitution of Prince Shotoku
Week Fourteen: The Liao, Jin, and Song Empires in China (4/12 & 4/14)
Focus: The capitals of the Alien Dynasties, Liao grave goods and murals, and filial piety
stories and theater scenes within Song Tombs
Reading: Hsingyuan Tsao, “For Heaven’s Sake: Different Worlds for the Dead in the Liao and
Song Dynasties,” in her Differences Preserved: Reconstructed Tombs from the Liao and the
Song Dynasties and Nancy S. Steinhardt, "The Funerary Traditions of North and Northeast
Asia," Optional: Gwen Bennett, “The Archaeological Study of an Inner Asian Empire” (I will
provide PDFs for all of these articles)
4/14 Term papers due
Week Fifteen: The Mongols and their Invasion of Japan (4/19 & 4/21)
Focus: Deer stones, Turkish stone figures and inscriptions, Mongols in China, and the
remains of the Mongol invasion fleet in Japanese seas
Readings: Khubilai Khan’s Lost Fleet
Film: “Grass”
4/21 Quiz and Discussion of Khubilai Khan’s Lost Fleet
Week Sixteen: Summation
4/26:
Final Examination
4/30: 1pm
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