Things seen and noted: Sunday Telegraph edition

A joint project between the Harvard-Yenching Library and the National Library of China plans to digitize nearly 51,000 rare books and manuscripts, some dating back to the Song Dynasty, from the Harvard collection.  Once completed, the texts will be publicly available for free on the Web.  Given the division of labor involved here, I think it might be fair to say “the government of China has hired the Harvard Library staff to digitize the collection,” but that doesn’t sound quite as “cooperative”in drafting press releases. (h/t CDT)

Workmen in Jianxi uncovered an ancient tomb on October 2, containing a remarkable well-preserved and well-dressed female corpse.  With little but clothes and a few simple tomb decorations, archaeologists are having trouble dating the body, but agree that it is likely from the Ming or Qing eras and that the tomb was not a royal one.  I love the level of research that went into this.  The same archaeologists are also close to confirming that the body is in fact, not Jimmy Hoffa and the woman had not been treated by Michael Jackson’s doctor prior to her demise, but they have not ruled out the possibility that the remains may be the rapidly

October 11th, 2009

More terracotta army secrets to be revealed

Work in the sites around the tomb of Qin Shihuangdi has proceeded in fits and starts since the terracotta soldiers were first discovered in 1974.  In recent years, Chinese archaeologists have held at bay local officials eager to develop tourism at all costs, and instead approached further excavation cautiously, seeking to avoid damaging priceless antiquities yet to be uncovered.

Work on the Number One Pit at the excavation site has been halted for over twenty years…until this weekend when a further 200 meters will be uncovered with a CCTV film crew in tow to capture the proceedings.

The initial diggings uncovered over 1,000 terracotta figures, it is hoped by the team that further work might uncover not only soldiers, but also possibly teracotta officers or officials as well.

June 9th, 2009

Now that’s a vintage…9000-year old Chinese recreated in Delaware

Jim “Beijing” Boyce called my attention to this piece in National Geographic :

A Delaware brewer with a penchant for exotic drinks recently concocted a beer similar to one brewed in China some 9,000 years ago.

Sam Calagione of the Dogfish Head brewery in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, used a recipe that included rice, honey, and grape and hawthorn fruits. He got the formula from archaeologists who derived it from the residues of pottery jars found in the late Stone Age village of Jiahu in northern China.

The residues are the earliest direct evidence of brewed beverages in ancient China.

“We can’t prove that an alcoholic beverage was definitely produced in the jars—the alcohol is gone—but it’s not that difficult to infer,” said Patrick McGovern, an archaeochemist at the University of Pennsylvania’s Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology in Philadelphia.

McGovern, an expert in the origins and history of alcoholic beverages, performed the chemical analysis on the pottery. He said fruit juices and liquid honey in a temperate climate would easily ferment, allowing for the production of alcohol.

Further evidence for the alcoholic nature of the brew were several identical nearby sites which anthropologists feel might either indicate a ritualistic precision in

June 8th, 2009

Yeah, but “Terracotta Cabana Boys” just doesn’t sell as many tour packages…

From Xinhua:

A Chinese history academic is refuting the modern interpretation of the First Emperor’s terracotta army, saying the figures are servants and bodyguards, instead of warriors as many people believe.

“The clay figures should be taken as copies of the emperor’s guards and servants,” said Liu Jiusheng, associate professor of history at Shaanxi Normal University. “Their layout in the pits, with chariots and horses, represented grand ceremonies with the emperor’s presence.”

Many people believe the 2,200-year-old terracotta army, buried around the mausoleum of Qin Dynasty’s first emperor about 35 km east of Xi’an, indicated the emperor had wanted the clay warriors to help him rule in the afterlife.

The army is known to most Chinese people as the “terracotta warriors and horses”.

Liu, an expert on Qin (221-207 B.C.) history who has been studying the terracotta army for more than 20 years, ruled out the hypothesis.

“It’s against the Chinese tradition and value systems to bury clay warriors in imperial mausoleums — the Chinese traditionally value peace in the afterlife,” Liu said.

In his April, 2009, publication on terracotta research, Liu said the clay figures were most

April 13th, 2009

Friday Round-up: Tibet, Tang Dynasty music (Sorry Kaiser…not that Tang Dynasty), Merchant Ships, Peking Man, Charter 08 Fallout, Athletes’ Ages, and more.

A few quick and final hits on a week of Tibetan nonsense…Michael Albada has a nice piece in the Stanford Progressive that reminds us cutting through the rhetoric from both sides of the Tibet debate is essential to reconciling the situation there:

Tibet has gained a highly romanticized, idealistic image that does not stand up to the test of history. Tibetan history has been bloody, quarrelsome, and oppressive and does not match the idyllic Buddhist paradise painted by writers and Tibetan nationalists in the west. Tibet is not, on the other hand, merely a province that has been ruled by China since antiquity. The debate over Tibetan sovereignty has raged since the Chinese takeover of the region in 1950, yet we are little closer to compromise. Opinions remain highly polarized both within and without Tibet. Both sides assert uncompromisingly and refuse to back down. Both sides ascribe strong nationalistic narratives which distort the true historical background to the controversy. Tibetan sovereignty can best be understood in its full historical complexity; efforts at oversimplification will only prolong the controversy.

I couldn’t agree more, though as I’ve said until hoarse, history is not always the best arbiter of contemporary political disputes.  Not

March 13th, 2009
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