Monash University
Thursday 2nd May 5.30pm to 7 30pm
MAI, 8th floor, Building S, Conference Room S805 (opposite the lifts), Caulfield Campus, Monash University
This is a free public event but RSVPs are essential: please reply to Marika Vicziany@monash.edu
Marika Vicziany@monash.edu
The Bronze Age in western China is best known because of the ancient mummies that have been discovered in Xiaohe, in the centre of the Taklamakan Desert of Xinjiang. Our understanding of the Xiaohe culture, however, has been limited to gravesites and grave goods. No settlement sites or evidence of housing has been discovered in this area. New research, however, is broadening our knowledge about the Bronze Age by focussing on other parts of western China, in particular at the foothills of the Tianshan Mountains near the Kazakhstan border. Dr Jia has been working with Australian colleagues (Sydney and Monash Universities) and Chinese scholars in this area focussing on the relationship between western China and the neighbouring Bronze Age cultures of Eurasia. He will speak about his findings from an analysis of the houses, settlement patterns, ceramics, grinding stones and the herding activities of the Bronze Age peoples. He will also report on the fortified hills discovered recently in the Bortala Valley and what these tell us about Bronze Age peoples from some 4,000 years ago.
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Peter Weiming Jia is a Senior ARC Research Fellow at the University of Sydney. He has worked on starch residue analysis and other archaeobotanical studies in China. He has been involved in archaeological fieldwork on the Bronze Age in Xinjiang for more than a decade.