Piecing Together Sha Po: Archaeological Investigations and Landscape Reconstruction
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BOOK REVIEWS 321 and abstract ideas. As such, Pristine Affluence HORKY,PHILLIP S. provides a lesson to us all, not in how to escape 2009 Persian cosmos and Greek philosophy: Plato’s associates and the Zoroastrian society, but in how we might work to magoi. Oxford Studies in Ancient strengthen the community of academe. Philosophy 37:47–103. LEE,RICHARD B., AND IRVEN DEVORE REFERENCES CITED 1968 Man the Hunter. New York: Transaction Publishers. ASHMAN ATHARINE AND HANE RONIN C ,K V. , S J. C SAHLINS,MARSHALL 2008 Welcoming a monster to the world: 1972 Stone Age Economics. London: Tavi- Myths, oral tradition, and modern stock. societal response to volcanic disasters. Journal of Volcanology and Geothermal SCHNAPP,ALAIN Research 176(3):407–418. 1996 The Discovery of the Past. London: British Museum Press. ELTSOV,PIOTR A. 2016 The ghost of the state in deep antiquity: SCOTT,JAMES C. A closer look at the Harappan Civiliza- 2017 Against the Grain: A Deep History of tion from the viewpoint of Sanskrit the Earliest States. New Haven: Yale literature, in Connections and Complex- University Press. ity: New Approaches to the Archaeology of – VERELLEN,FRANCISCUS, ED. South Asia: 299 314, ed. S. A. 1998 Culte des sites et culte des saints en Abraham, P. Gullapalli, T. P. Raczek, Chine [Worship sites and cults of saints and U. Z. Rizvi. Walnut Creek, CA: in China]. Cahiers d’Extrême-Asie, Left Coast Press. special issue 10(1). Piecing Together Sha Po: Archaeological Investigations and Landscape Reconstruction. Mick Atha and Kennis Yip. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2016. 260 pp., color and black-and-white illustrations, appendices, index. Hardback HKD450, US $60. ISBN 978-988-8208-98-2. Reviewed by XU Jian, Department of History, Sun Yat-sen University Although from the perspective of the general two decades, the incomparable Sha Po site is public, Sha Po is a well-known holiday significant not only to the academic discipline, destination on Lamma Island, according to but also to the general public as its findings the authors of Piecing Together Sha Po, it is also reveal a complete and unique history of Hong a “microcosm” of Hong Kong archaeology Kong. (p. 26). Sha Po is more than a miniature Regrettably, the fascinating history elabo- version or passive reflection of Hong Kong rated in Piecing Together Sha Po has not been archaeology, however: it is actually the told previously. This situation resulted from cornerstone of the discipline, though some- the nature of Hong Kong archaeology. As the how it remains marginalized and unnoticed authors indicate, reports on Sha Po present a against its commercial metropolitan setting. complicated and sometimes confusing mix- Father Daniel Finn’s surveys and excavations ture of materials and interpretations because on Lamma Island, including Sha Po, almost 80 the site has been worked throughout the years ago marked the debut of Hong Kong entire history of Hong Kong archaeology. archaeology. Few other sites in Hong Kong Although Father Daniel Finn received train- have been worked so constantly and exten- ing in archaeology (as happened during the sively, and by as many generations of initial stages of archaeology in many regions), archaeologists oriented toward diverse theo- archaeology at Sha Po, as well as that of retical and methodological frameworks, as has Lamma Island and Hong Kong more broadly, Sha Po. Yielding abundant remains from remained a venture of amateurs and enthu- successive excavations, especially in the past siasts until it was handed over to professional 322 ASIAN PERSPECTIVES • 2018 • 57(2) archaeologists in the 1950s. A team from the matrix is the best vehicle for conveying Hong Kong Society of Archaeology, headed people’s economic, social, and ideological by Solomon Bard and later William Meac- activities, since they are both facilitated and ham, excavated Sha Po extensively in the restrained by the environment and modified following decades. A more fundamental through feedback and re-orientation to the change in the nature of Sha Po archaeology environment in due course. was brought by the establishment of the The results of the authors’ exploration of Antiquities and Monuments Office (AMO) in Sha Po’s past through a unique archaeological 1976. It entailed that cultural heritage sites perspective consists of three major parts. The should be managed under the sponsorship of first part is introductory in nature. It presents the government, but at the same time the fundamental methodological and theoretical archaeological surveys and excavations shifted issues, introduces the site, and provides a toward commissioned archaeology (termed succinct but precise account of the intellectual “contract,”“commercial,” or “salvage” history of archaeology at Sha Po. The authors archaeology in other places). The demand place Sha Po within broader analytic spec- for archaeological work to be conducted at trums by accurately introducing the concept Sha Po has greatly increased since the 1970s as of “context,” which is used in different senses a result of village development processes, in this book. The first “context” explored is government infrastructure projects, and the specific, concrete, physical environment environmental impact assessments. However, of the site. The contextual consideration of commissioned archaeology inevitably led to topography and geographic setting not only the fragmentation of Sha Po archaeology both allows the authors to evaluate archaeological in terms of the agendas for the work and the finds at the human–environment interface, materials collected. Additionally, the general but also install the small village of Sha Po in a public tends to view the archaeology at Sha Po larger landscape extending to the coastal zones as insignificant due to the absence of of the Hong Kong-Pearl River Delta area. “treasure” or high-quality elite artifacts. Second, the intellectual context is reviewed in Archaeological records and finds are kept in chapter 2, titled “How we know about files that are inaccessible to the public. Such a ancient Sha Po.” While paying respect to situation raises the question: By what means the path-breaking efforts of their forerunners, can the site’s abundant but vernacular and the authors remain alert to the “fragmentary dispersed remains be turned into a relatively and inconsistent nature” of old unpublished holistic account of the past? reports (p. 27). Finally, the authors arrive at The authors of this book have an unusual their methodological context and propose position in that they carry dual identities, first using the concept of “social landscape” in as professional archaeologists in charge of the chapter 3. Application of this term suggests 2008–2010 excavation session and second as that the authors view the landscape as a residents of Lamma Island. In particular, their cultural product, modified by different people local residence encourages them as profes- for different purposes and based on particular sional archaeologist to treat even scattered and interpretations and evaluations of environ- unimportant artifacts as key materials for mental resources. Therefore, the present assembling a coherent and meaningful local landscape is perceived as the result of a history. Yet the question remains: how can continuous modification based on shifting archaeological mosaics be composed into an calculations concerning the costs and poten- integrated account of the past, particularly Sha tial gains in subsistence. The earlier landscape Po’s past? To address this technical problem, can be retrieved by removing later modifica- the authors introduce the landscape concept tions; such reconstructions can go as far back and the “piecing together” methodology as the earliest instance of habitation. By this (reflected in the title of the book). The means, the authors establish several horizons authors imply that the landscape is a matrix, by which archaeological finds that might seem which accommodates archaeological finds of odd at first glance become understandable various dates and from various sources. This within the proposed framework. BOOK REVIEWS 323 In the second part of the book, entitled at length and propose a hypothesis concerning a “Sha Po’s Human Narrative,” the authors kiln-based, salt-lime industry. present more details of a reconstructed history The final episode deals with rice-farming of Sha Po, covering a span of more than 6000 communities and their particular economic years. Considering the essence of archae- and social lives during the Ming (1368–1644 ological materials as segmented, incomplete, C.E.) and Qing (1644–1912 C.E.) dynasties. By and indirect sources, the Sha Po past is discovering and analyzing recycled materials reconstructed here as a series of episodes, used by villagers to fill in walls or pave yards, instead of a single continuous history. Four the authors reveal a grassroots history with chapters correspond to four episodes arranged remarkable detail. The layout of the village in chronological sequence; each episode and the ceramics discovered at Sha Po show coincides with a different subsistence or social that, after suffering under the early Qing strategy based on a specific interpretation of dynasty’s coastal evacuation policy, the village environmental advantage. In every chapter, was restored, expanded, and re-plotted within the authors not only summarize the finds from the past two centuries. Ceramics with brand various excavation sessions, but also inten- names and other modern artifacts confirm tionally embed the archaeology of Sha Po in that the small village maintained international the matrix of other excavations on Lamma connections thereafter. Island, Hong Kong, and the broader coastal Besides summarizing the rather holistic areas. During the first phase or episode known history of Sha Po at the human–environmental as the Middle Neolithic period, Sha Po was interface, the final part of the book raises a new occupied by fisher-hunter-foragers who used issue that has geographic and methodological red-painted fine pottery, fine-corded cooking significance beyond the specifics of Sha Po wares, and associated stone tools.