BOOK REVIEWS

Cambodian Architecture: Eighth to Thirteenth Centuries. Jacques Dumar<;:ay and Pascal Royere. Translated by Michael Smithies. Leiden: Brill Academic Publishers, 2001. xxx + 165 pp, 104 figures, 44 photographs, bibliography, chronology, in­ dex. Hardbound. $107.00. IBSN 90-04-11346-0. Reviewed by Eleanor Mannikka, Indiana University ofPennsylvania

Although Jacques Duman;:ay shares a co­ The drawings and the photographs are author status with Pascal Royere for Cam­ excellent and rank among the best con­ bodian Architecture: Eighth to Thirteenth Cen­ tributions the book has to offer. They rep­ turies, most of the chapters bear his own resent years of work, and in the case of the mark. Four out of the six temples tha~ in-; ­ drawings, especially enhance and expand dividually head each chapter were su~~gd the text. Another good feature of the book and published by Jacques Duman;:ay. With­ is the synopsis that appears at the end of out a doubt, his extensive publications and several chapters in which the preceding, personal experience shape this book. often abstruse points are brought together After a brief introductory segment, the in a paragraph that is easy to understand. text is organized into two parts. The The chronology of Jayavarman VII's life shorter first part covers the constraints and monuments is very helpful and al­ imposed on builders and the second and though brief, it clarifies the chronological much longer part, as well as the conclusion, relationship between the monuments con­ examine major temples, wooden architec­ structed under his reign. That alone is a ture, and city planning. Excellent drawings valuable reference tool. and black-and-white photographs clarify A topic as broad as Cambodian architec­ and expand the text, while a chronology, ture over a period of six hundred years bibliography, and index complete the ref­ cannot be covered in a little over one hun­ erence material. dred pages. The authors are architects and Michael Smithies translated and edited their focus narrowed this vast range of in­ the original French text and for the most formation to primarily construction tech­ part, the translation is easy to read although niques and hydrology. If one is not an ar­ he should be reminded that "shaft" is a chitect or unfamiliar with both water better translation for the French puits than control and the site of Angkor, then this "well." Readers who do not speak French book is definitely too technical. The writ­ will not understand why the Khmer put ing is directed toward researchers with a wells underneath their sanctuaries. There long-established interest in Angkor and its are multiple editing mistakes that involve temples, and toward anyone working in misspellings, faulty grammar, or typing restoration there. errors that the publisher should have As far as construction techniques are caught and corrected. They do not neces­ concerned, there is information on shear sarily represent any failing on Smithies' points and hooped roofs far too specialized part. for a general audience but at the same time,

Asian Perspectives, VoL 42, No.1 © 2003 by University of Hawai'j Press. 162 ASIAN PERSPECTIVES . 42(1) . SPRING 2003

there are interesting insights into the quan­ struction in a valuable and thought-pro­ tity of stone used in building-over 1200 voking way that makes an important con­ blocks in one corner tower of Ta Keo. I tribution to the pool (excuse the pun) of happened to like learning about how sand­ our current knowledge-and sometimes stone is quarried but not everyone may not. When emphasis is placed on water share that fascination. control as the only reason for the rise and Jacques Duman;:ay would be the com­ fall of the kings at Angkor, it is overkill. panion of choice for anyone taking a tour Palace intrigues, foreign invasions, a change through Angkor. His knowledge is ency­ in religious and political beliefs, changes in clopedic and his demeanor both happy and the social structure, even a possibly incom­ enthusiastic. But when separated from that petent king are all swept aside. The authors tour of Angkor and faced with pages of make no compromises in their assertions: text, the same descriptions and explanations "The architecture was the expression of a that work well when one is looking at the form of despotic power which control over architecture itself, deteriorate into a tedious waterresources alone made possible" (p. 109). rendition of doorways, stairways, and end­ This aptly illustrates one of the flaws in the less architectural detail. It is just not the book: an overstatement of a theory that is same as being there. put forward as an established fact without The long, labyrinthine descriptions are acknowledging other theories by recog­ nevertheless, sprinkled here and there with nized scholars-or contributing factors. fascinating and little-known facts. For any­ Once cast in the light of a despot, any one willing to peruse the whole, the archi­ Khmer king walking onto these pages is tectural insights of the authors offer great robed in blackened raiments. A king's edu­ vistas in a landscape that tends to be flat and cation in Sanskrit, in the sciences, in the dehydrated, in spite of, or sometimes be­ arts, and in other fields mentioned in the cause of the focus on hydrology. inscriptions is not noted in this book. As in Among these many gems in which hy­ certain theories they propose, the authors drology becomes fascinating, is some anec­ fail to present a well-rounded picture and dotal information on the collapse of a dam instead, rush to judgment. on the River Opak that would have caused This judgment is tempered slightly when flooding so disastrous as to force the cen­ the authors say "... the [royal] architectural tral Javanese government and population undertakings were begun not only to the to migrate to east Java (p. xviii). This is a glory ofa king but also for that ofthe gods, valuable fact to add to the growing list of who were apparently worshiped by every­ why this major population shift on Java one [apparently?]. The laying out of the occurred in the early tenth century. kingdom in the form of a mandala was Another interesting segment in the book a way of inviting the gods to come and concerns the military organization shown reside among the subjects of a king cap­ in the reliefs on the south side of the third able of self-evidently conforming to divine gallery ofAngkor Wat (started c. A.D. 1113) wishes." In general, however, the treat­ as compared to the organization in the ment of Khmer kings as nothing but des­ reliefs at the Bayon (started c. A.D. 1181). pots is consistent throughout the book. The authors extrapolate the hodgepodge of Another recurrent theme in the book is mixed ethnic groups and a rougher-looking the mistaken notion that King Jayavarman army at the end of the twelfth century and II was held captive on Java until he escaped suggest the same mix applies to the workers and made it back to Cambodia. While this on the Bayon and other temples. This is cited to bolster similarities in a few con­ point is well taken because the almost struction techniques shared by Java and careless work on Jayavarman VII's temples Cambodia, it is not necessary. If the authors is a matter of record. bring up architectural evidence that is Sometimes the field of water control is compelling, that is enough to suggest some brought into the picture of temple con- sort of contact between the two nations. BOOK REVIEWS

Once again, the tendency to hold forth structures at Sambor Prei Kuk and other with a heavy hand can undermine their early sites was not relevant. The authors theories rather than reinforce them. would once again be better served if they For some time now, it has been noted presented their theories in a larger context, that the word Jva (long "a") in the famous allowing the reader to draw his or her own Sdok Kak Thom inscription is not the same conclusions. word as Java, with no long "a" at the end. When the authors leave purely archi­ The few inscriptions that mention Jva tectural and construction methods behind come from the eastern side of what is now and delve into iconography, inscriptions, Thailand. This would most likely place Jva or other nonarchitectural themes they are in that area. In more than one thousand sometimes right and sometimes wrong. Khmer inscriptions, Javanese suzerainty The discussions of Neak Pean, the West over any part of Cambodia is never even Mebon, the Bayon, and a few other tem­ obliquely indicated. ples involve some mistaken notions that a There is another instance when the fa­ closer reading of the literature would elim­ mous devaraja object is confused with the inate. For example, Neak Pean's early ded­ main image in the king's pyramid temple, ication to the life of the Buddha as attested and that is patently never the case. The by its four lintels is not acknowledged. In­ statements that the faces on the Bayon's stead, the authors step back to a pre-Bud­ towers are connected to the concept of the dhist period and suggest the temple was temple as the body of a divinity should Shivaite. This and similar statements left me have been more guarded and definitely not confused. proffered as the solution to what or who In spite of the flaws and problems cited the faces represent. here, there is a wealth of practical informa­ Another Java-related problem is that tion in this book that is quite useful and the authors do not always balance the missing in other publications. On balance, evolution of Khmer temples on the one this small book with its photographs and hand, and outside influence on the other. drawings and insights into architectural Whether intentional or not, statements like construction is a handy reference. If readers "... monuments on the Kulen plateau are able to gloss over theories that they show a clear influence of [sic] Javanese might find objectionable or otherwise un­ temples like those at Gedong Songo or the acceptable, then combing the text for in­ Dieng plateau in Java" (p. xviii) make it formation has its rewards. seem as though the evolution from brick

Burnished Beauty: The Art of Stone in Early Southeast Asia. Edited by Christopher Frape. Bangkok: Orchid Press, 2000. 168 pp, 176 color plates, 3 maps. $100. ISBN 974-8304-88-4.

Reviewed by DOUGALD O'REILLY, Faculty ofArchaeology, Royal University ofFine Arts, Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Burnished Beauty, a catalog of stone artifacts for the eyes. The book is divided geo­ from an exhibition organized by the Hong graphically into sections. It opens with an Kong Museum of Art and the Oriental introduction and notes leading into a brief Ceramic Society of Hong Kong is a feast discussion of jade culture in Viet Nam by

Asiall Perspectives, Vol. 42, No.1 © 2003 by University of Hawai'i Press. 164 ASIAN PERSPECTIVES . 42(1) . SPRING 2003 the editor, Christopher Frape. This is fol­ photographs of stone artifacts, divided into lowed by a short discussion of new excava­ sections. Each section of the catalog pro­ tions in Viet Nam at the Trang Kenh site. vides a brief overview of the archaeology The rest of Burnished Beauty is divided into of the region, followed by photographs sections, northern Viet Nam, central and of selected artifacts. An explanatory note, south Viet Nam, Thailand and Laos, Indo­ providing information on the probable use nesia, Philippines, and Taiwan. These sec­ and morphology of each artifact, accom­ tions are, in tum, divided into chronol­ panies the photographs. ogical periods, starting with the earliest Each artifact is identified by type, such as artifacts. halberd or dagger. A broad cultural associa­ Frape attempts to address and clarifY the tion is given and dates provided. The color definition of terms related to jade in China and type of stone and dimensions are also before turning to briefly discuss the social presented. The photography is very well value and meaning of the stone. Frape then done and serves to accent the beauty of the considers the presence ofjade through the artifacts. The lack of provenance informa­ various "cultures" in Viet Nam such as tion is regrettable. This should have been Phung Nguyen, Dong Dau, Go Mun, and listed in cases in which provenance was Dong Son and the morphological changes known. It is clear, however, that many of of artifacts made from the material. the artifacts are in the hands of private The essay following Frape's is a rather owners and hence provenance information curious inclusion, which is, in effect, an may not be available. excavation report presenting the findings of Burnished Beauty is a good general re­ research at the jade-working site, Trang ference for those interested in the stylistic Kenh. The authors list the stone and ce­ evolution of stone artifacts in selected parts ramic artifacts recovered. The importance of Southeast Asia. The astounding beauty ofthe site in the production ofjade artifacts of these artifacts make the book a worth­ is only mentioned in an editor's note. One while addition to any library. This said, cannot help feeling that this contribution is Burnished Beauty would have made a better out of place in the catalog, although the reference book if examples of quotidian excavation is mentioned in some instances artifacts could have been included but one in photographic notes on artifacts from must note the title of the book and be early Vietnamese sites. satisfied with what is offered. The main body of the book comprises

Heaven and Empire: Khmer Bronzes from the 9 th to the 15th Centuries. Marlene L. Zefferys, Nicholas S. Zefferys, and Jeffrey Stone. Bangkok: White Lotus Press, 2001. xiv + 141 pp, 98 color plates plus many black and white. $37.50. IBSN 974753493-2.

Reviewed by HELEN IBBITSON JESSUP, Noifolk, Connecticut

Metal-working skills have always offered a stone or clay artifacts, are treated in a man­ criterion of social development. Artistic ner transcending mere use. The incised and expression evolves when utilitarian objects molded ritual urns and ewers of the Shang like an iron axe head or a bronze water in China and the drums of Dongsonian container, themselves the descendants of craftsmen in Viet Nam offer proof oflevels

Asian Perspectives, Vol. 42, No.1 © 2003 by University of Hawai'j Press. BOOK REVIEWS of sophistication that came to define cul­ pieces of sculpture brought back to France tural identity. by Delaporte. In addition, renowned wri­ It is therefore always welcome news ters such as Pierre Loti (Un peIerin d'Angkor, when a publication appears to expand in­ 1912), and Andre Malraux (La Voie royal, sights into the production of bronze 1930) published widely read accounts of objects. The authors of this book are cor­ Angkor. rect in stating that Khmer bronzes are While a brief historical overview is use­ among the least recognized and understood ful to introduce works presented in a book of Southeast Asian forms. In his definitive like this, the authors' inevitable and under­ analysis of Khmer stylistic evolution of standable need to generalize has unfortu­ 1955 (La Statuaire khmere et son Evolution. nately led to inaccurate oversimplifications Saigon: EFEO, 1955), Jean Boisselier, for in several instances. There is, for example, example, devotes 267 pages to stone sculp­ no evidence for their claim of a "wave of ture but only an appendix ofseven pages to Indian immigration" to Cambodia (p. 1), bronzes. and the Chinese they mention (p. 2), if we The Introduction, in explaining the rea­ are to rely on written evidence, were emis­ sons for the pervasive ignorance of South­ saries of the Chinese emperor, not traders. east Asian art, states that "... the first Eur­ In describing the beginnings of the Angkor opeans coming into contact with Southeast kingdom the authors state that Jayavarman Asia's classical art and architecture took II "declared himself the supreme sovereign little notice. No mention is made in any or god-king" (p. 2). In fact, the epigraphic records of the striking temples" (p. xiii). evidence we have for the ceremonial ori­ This is somewhat misleading. The admir­ gins of the state of Angkor in A.D. 802 (the ing descriptions of Khmer temples by the inscription of Sdok Kak Thom of 1052) Chinese emissary Zhou Daguan (Chou Ta­ makes it clear that the king was consecrated Kuan), in The Customs of Cambodia (pub­ as universal monarch (cakravartin) by the lished before 1312 C.E.), had been trans­ Brahman Sivakaivalya in conjunction with lated into Italian by the Jesuit mission in the installation of a devaraja. We still have Beijing by 1789 and into French by Abel no hard evidence of what exactly the de­ Remusat by 1819. varaja was, whether a linga symbolizing the There were published first-hand ac­ king's protection by his chosen divine pa­ counts in Europe even earlier, a Spanish tron or a divine spirit that was invoked as sixteenth-century example referring to the the sanctifYing power of the reign, or some "temple with five peaks" (clearly Angkor other entity. The claim that the Khmer Wat) as "one of the wonders of the world." kings were perceived as gods is unsubstan­ In 1668 Father Chevreuil wrote of Angkor tiated in historical records but the miscon­ Wat's renown, while in 1858 Charles­ ception now seems to be set in stone. Emile Bouillevaux published an account There is no space here to list all the of his 1850 visit to Angkor, saying "The introduction's inaccuracies, but among the Angkor pagoda, which is fairly well pre­ more important are the claims that the served, is the jewel of the Indochinese "very sophisticated irrigation system served peninsula and worthy of ranking alongside a substantial part of the population" (we our most beautiful monuments." Better have no proof of this, logical though the known still are French publications by inference may be); that "gigantic volumes Henri Mouhot (1863), Francis Garnier of earth removed for the building of the (1873), and Louis Delaporte (1880), all irrigation system were transported and used illustrated. At the Universal Exposition of to construct a series of artificial mountains 1878 in Paris the great naga balustrade of of soil capped by temples and shrines" (the Preah Khan (recently brilliantly recon­ baray were diked, not dug, so there were structed in its entirety in the rebuilt Musee no huge volumes of fill to remove; fur­ national des arts Asiatiques-Guimet) was thermore, many of the temple mountains presented as an example of the seventy were erected on natural hills, while those 166 ASIAN PERSPECTIVES . 42(1) . SPRING 2003

that were not had cores of laterite); that Chapter 5 offers an account of the pro­ Angkor Thorn, like Angkor Wat, is a cess of bronze casting. This is a welcome "temple site" (it is a city). Given their in­ and useful addition to the book. land locations, Ayutthaya and Phnom Penh The book suffers from what is probably are strangely identified as centers of mari­ the problem of typesetting by non-native time commerce (p. 4). speakers of English. A few random exam­ Chapter 2 addresses artistic achievement. ples include misspellings of Narasimha and Here, too, the reader is somewhat dis­ Parashurama (p. 12), Bakong (p. 15), Tonle tracted by dubious claims. The shrines of Sap (p. 16), usnisa (p. 31), yogini (p. 34), temple mountains do not contain images Koh Ker (p. 37), Parvati (p. 38). This of "the kings themselves" (p. 7). It is hard problem may also account for the occa­ to reconcile the remark that "Tenth cen­ sionally wrong equivalent of inches for tury Khmer sculpture began to take on a centimeters (PIs. 15, 63, 69, 83). The Na­ conventional and relatively insensitive mas­ tional Museum of Cambodia is misde­ siveness" with the evidence of the extraor­ scribed as The Phnom Penh Royal Mu­ dinary refinement of the tenth-century seum of Fine Art. Pre-Rup and Banteay Srei styles, among The descriptions of the plates are marred the most delicate in Khmer art. Further­ by several errors, of which a selection fol­ more, to state that the artists creating the lows. There is a misidentification under bronzes presented in this book "did not see Plate 18: the standing figure, described as a themselves as artists, but brought a sense of (Buddhist) bodhisattva (but confusingly also eternity to the act of creation" is to indulge as the Brahmanistic deity Vishvakarman) in unfounded though sympathetic specula­ is clearly Vishnu-Vasudeva-Narayana (see tion. catalog entry No. 69 describing this same The chronology is marred by several object in Sculpture of Angkor and Ancient errors. In the chapter on religion, it is Cambodia; Millennium of Glory, which is claimed that Buddhism was founded in the listed in this book's bibliography on p. 47). sixth and fifth centuries of the Common Under Plate 32, it should be noted that Era; in fact, it was founded around 500 Prajnaparamita is the bodhisattva of tran­ B.C.E. In Chapter 4, in a chronology table, scendental wisdom, not "the female mani­ the reader should be aware that there is no festation of the Bodhisattva." The mudra "Deva Raja sect" (see above); that Preah under Plate 34 is vitarkamudra, not abhaya­ Ko was built in A.D. 879 by Indravarman, mudra, while under Plate 42, there are in­ not by Jayavarman III, who ceased to reign sufficient grounds for describing the sculp­ around 860; that it is an over-interpretation ture as Shiva. In similar vein, attributing of the evidence to suggest that Jayavarrnan the images in Plates 66 and 73 to the Koh VII "Believed himself to be the Bodhisattva Ker period is arbitrary; there is little prece­ who gives mercy to all human beings"; that dent to judge by-bronzes of that style and Banteay Srei was dedicated in A.D. 967­ period are very rare. Unsubstantiated, too, 968, not the thirteenth century, while Ta is the description of the figure in Plate 96 Prohm was built in A.D. 1186 by Jayavar­ as Vishvakarman. The articles for Plates 44 man VII. In addition, it should be noted and 45 have been switched and the result­ that the Baphuon style encompasses three ing descriptions are confusing. more decades than the reign of Suryavar­ The quality of the plates is good on the man I, and that the Baphuon temple itself whole, but there is unfortunately no iden­ dates from the reign of Udayadityavarman tification of the reproductions of the excel­ II. The builder ofAngkor Wat and the key lent line drawings. monarch determining the name of that Whatever the shortcomings of this book, style was Suryavarman II, not Dharanindra­ it responds to the important need to have varman, while that of the Bayon and the a broader exposure to the variations of Bayon style was Jayavarman VII, not ~rib­ Khmer sculptural style and to be made huvanadityavarman. aware of objects in private collections, BOOK REVIEWS which too often disappear from public holdings and to seek to broaden our un­ view. The collectors are to be congratu­ derstanding of the art of Khmer bronze­ lated on their willingness to publicize their making.

Health in Late Prehistoric Thailand. Kathryn M. Domett. BAR International Series 946, Oxford: Archaeopress, 2001. xii + 180 pp, 48 figs., 100 tables, bibliography, $45.00. ISBN 1-84171-238-8.

Reviewed by MICHELE T. DOUGLAS, Fort Worth, Texas

Health in Late Prehistoric Thailand is Kathryn search aims and hypotheses, provides a very M. Domett's Ph.D. dissertation in full. At a brief review of the prehistory of Thailand, cost of approximately $45 (£30), the 180­ and introduces the archaeological sites and page paperback volume, brightly bound in the measures of health used in the analysis. red, is an excellent value, especially since Chapter Two provides more detail on each the dissertation is not readily available by of the four sites, including summaries of other means. the excavation, skeletal sample, environ­ The book synthesizes "variation in ment, natural resources, technology, and health" among four prehistoric skeletal se­ social structure. While two of the sites ries in Thailand that span the early agricul­ (Khok Phanom Di and Ban Na Di) are tural period, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. familiar to scholars of Thailand prehistory, Two skeletal samples are from the south­ the other two sites are recently excavated east-Khok Phanom Di (KPD), an early and this book is the first publication of agricultural series and Nong Nor (NN), a much of the skeletal data. Noticeably miss­ Bronze Age series. Two skeletal samples ing from the Khok Phanom Di and Ban Na are from the northeast-Ban Lum Khao Di summaries are discussions of previous (BLK), a Bronze Age series and Ban Na Di skeletal analyses. This omission, in the case (BND), an Iron Age series. Three under­ of the well-published Khok Phanom Di lying hypotheses shape this synthesis: (1) sample, leaves the reader wondering why similar natural environments will result the author neglects to mention the skele­ in similar health profiles (KPD = NN, tal evidence for genetic anemia, a crucial BLK = BND); (2) the health profile of component of health for these people. As people living in the northeast will contrast well, the author gives short shrift to two with that of people living in the southeast other well-known skeletal series (Ban (KPD/NN =F BLK/BND); and (3) the cul­ Chiang and Non Nok Tha), failing to cite tural and environmental changes over time, any works by Bayard, White, or Pietru­ such as intensification of rice agriculture, sewsky. Unfortunately, poor preservation will result in an improvement in health of the Nong Nor skeletal sample results in profiles (KPD > NN > BLK > BND). available data for only selected variables in Health profiles are generated using census the health profile. data, joint disease, trauma, dental patho­ Chapters Three through Seven present logical conditions, and variables of growth the measures utilized in the synthesis of and growth disturbance. health. Each chapter begins with an intro­ The book is comprised of eight chapters, duction to the topic, review of the meth­ five appendixes, and the references. The ods, presentation of the results for each Introduction (Chapter One) details the re- sample, comparison of the results among

Asiall Perspectives, Vol. 42, No.1 © 2003 by University ofHawai'i Press. 168 ASIAN PERSPECTIVES . 42(1) . SPRING 2003 the samples, discussion, and summary. The handling of these difficult data sets by author uses Tayles' (1992) age and sex esti­ combining articular surfaces into functional mates and other data collections after units and examining the upper and lower checking for interobserver error using a limbs separately. Osteoarthritis in the spine sample of Khok Phanom Di skeletons. is discussed by vertebral segment (e.g., cer­ Chapter Three (Census) presents very basic vical, thoracic, lumbar). Although intri­ palaeodemographic information for the guing differences are revealed in the dis­ skeletal samples, omitting life table analysis cussion, the level of significance has been and other estimators (e.g., juvenile/adult set so low (1 percent) that many of the dif­ ratio, mean childhood mortality) because of ferences are not addressed. In Appendix B poor preservation in several of the samples. the author suggests that in multiple two­ No geographical or temporal trends are sample tests there is an increased risk of found, but the very high subadult mortality both types of statistical errors and that it in the Khok Phanom Di sample and a peak was more important to reduce the occur­ in female mortality at a younger age than in rence of Type I errors (accepting a false males in the Ban Lum Khao sample are hypothesis) than Type II errors (rejecting noteworthy. a true hypothesis). However, since these Growth and growth disturbances are dis­ errors have an inverse relationship, as the cussed in Chapter Four. Few differences level of significance is lowered from the among the series are noted in comparisons customary 5 percent to 1 percent there will of mean humeral diaphyseal length and be an increased chance of rejecting a true dental age in subadults, while adult stature hypothesis and this is what the reader dis­ estimates demonstrate the peripheral posi­ cerns by examining the data. tion of the Khok Phanom Di sample. Chapter Six reviews the evidence for Growth disturbances are assessed using trauma, including "non-vertebral" fractures Harris lines (samples are too small for any and spondylolysis, in each of the four skel­ reliable conclusions) and linear enamel etal series. Eleven figures document the hypoplasias in the deciduous and perma­ kinds of fractures noted. Fractures of the nent teeth. Again, the Khok Phanom Di larger long limb bones are observed in sample stands out for greater adult fre­ the northeastern samples relative to the quencies of linear enamel hypoplasia than southeastern samples. The highest preva­ the other three samples. Adult cortical lence ofall fractures occurs in the Ban Lum bone mass assessments using radiographs of Khao sample, but no convincing evidence the second metacarpal show no statistically for warfare is found. The spondylolysis ana­ significant differences between the sexes lysis suffers from a lack ofprevalence data. within each site or among the sites. A Chapter Seven covers dental health and model for subadult frailty is presented (pp. disease, presenting multiple comparisons 63-66) that incorporates mortality data among the sites by sex and age group «30 with data for growth disturbances. This years and >30 years), using the tooth discussion is an excellent example of how count method. Advanced attrition, carious skeletal data can be interpreted and pro­ lesions, periapical cavities, and premortem vides a nice structure for the synthesis of tooth loss are addressed in all four skeletal the evidence for growth disturbances. series. There is a decline in carious lesions However, the discussion would have been and periapical cavities over time, as well as much more informative had the reader differences between the northeastern and been told about the evidence for genetic the southeastern samples. In contrast to anemia in the Khok Phanom Di sample, other global populations with marine likely a major factor for the outlier status of resources, the Khok Phanom Di sample this skeletal series. defines the relatively high end of all dental Chapter Five reviews the prevalence pathological conditions except dental at­ of osteoarthritis of the appendicular and trition. The temporal decline in carious vertebral skeleton in three of the skeletal lesions with intensifying agriculture is ex­ samples. The author follows Tayles' (1992) plained by the lack of cariogenicity of rice. BOOK REVIEWS

Chapter Eight begins with a summary of peated (pp. 13-14, 139-140), dropped let­ the skeletal evidence for each of the health ters from several words (p. 33), and a com­ indicators, followed by a nice discussion of mon and very irritating extra space inserted possible pathogen loads and nutritional data before many commas and periods. These relative to the natural environments of each problems were not present in the original of the sites. These factors are used to ad­ dissertation and so are likely consequences dress the first two hypotheses: the health of the conversion process, excusable per­ profiles of the two southeastern samples haps but still distracting. would be similar (no) and the health pro­ Health in Late Prehistoric Thailand adds files of the two northeastern samples would important skeletal data to the expanding be similar (sort of), and secondly, that database on prehistory in Southeast Asia the health profiles of the southeastern and and would be valuable to Southeast Asian northeastern samples would be dissimilar archaeologists and bioarchaeologists. This (unknown). For the third hypothesis, the study supports the conclusion that the cultural aspects (i.e., subsistence, metal­ transition to intensified agriculture in lurgy, and social structure) of each series are Thailand, and by extension Southeast Asia, postulated to form a continuum, with an had few if any of the harmful effects expected improvement in health profiles on health that it did in other parts of the over time. So the Khok Phanom Di sample world (e.g., North America). Comparisons lies at the "simple" end of the continuum, of these four skeletal series support other the Bronze Age Nong Nor/Ban Lum Khao analyses that have demonstrated the samples lie in the middle, and the Iron Age uniqueness of the Khok Phanom Di sam­ Ban Na Di sample lies at the "complex" ple, and the lack of homogeneity in other end. Although this hypothesis must be localized samples. This heterogeneity, adjusted because the Ban Lum Khao sample among contemporaneous peoples in similar is not similar to the Nong Nor sample, environments, is also found in the material actually falling between the Khok Phanom culture and is a fascinating topic for future Di and Nong Nor samples, the amended skeletal studies in Thailand and Southeast hypothesis (KPD > BLK > NN > BND) Asia. of an improvement in health over time is then accepted. There are ample tables and figures REFERENCE CITED throughout the text that help the reader visualize the data. Although the burial plan TAYLEs, N. figures in Chapter 2 are blurry, the remain­ 1992 The People of Khok Phanom Di: Health as Evidence of Adaptation in ing graphics are of good quality. Other a Prehistoric Southeast Asian Popula­ technical problems include several places tion. PhD. diss. University of Otago, where sentences were transposed or re- Dunedin, New Zealand.

Lao Pako-A Late Prehistoric Site on the Nt1m Ngum River in Laos. Anna Kallen and Anna Karlstrom. BAR International Series 777. Oxford: Archaeopress, 1999. 56 pp. Appendix, 18 photos, figures, maps. ISBN 0-86054-995-X.

Reviewed by NITTA ElJl, Kagoshima University, Japan

Little archaeological research has been un­ excavations in the Plain ofJars in Laos dur­ dertaken in Laos. French scholars, such as ing the French colonial regime. It was im­ M. Collani, conducted general surveys and possible to conduct field surveys in Laos

Asian Perspectives, Vol. 42, No.1 © 2003 by University of Hawai'i Press. 17° ASIAN PERSPECTIVES . 42(1) . SPRING 2003 during the Viet Nam War, but until 1975. (FAD 1992). Located on a large mound, D. Hein conducted the first excavations Karn Luan is a village and cemetery site after this period on the kiln site, Sisattanak, where many burial jars were found. I had in south Vientiane in 1989. I briefly exca­ the opportunity to see the burial jars at vated in the Plain of Jars in November Karn Luan during excavations by the land­ 1994 and revealed burial pits and a burial owner and the Fine Arts Department. jar that contained human bones and teeth; Here, a jar burial consists of a larger, lower an iron knife and a clay spindle whorl came jar and a smaller, upper jar. The smaller jar from beneath the large stone jar. Thongsa is placed over the lower one like a lid. An­ Sayavongkhamdy, too, excavated in the other smaller jar is placed inside the lower Plain ofJars and found the same as I. He jar. This also occurs at Lao Pako. The low­ also excavated a cave site near Luang Pra­ er jar at Karn Luan is decorated with an bang in 1994. applique motif-whose x-shaped crooked Lao Pako is yet another interesting pre­ strips are pinched by a comb-like pallet historic site located in the Mekong Basin. It (Nitta 1996). According to the burial is situated 40 km from Vientiane on the goods, Karn Luan is contemporaneous with bank of Nam Ngum River and is famous Ban Chiang's late period. Furthermore, for many archaeological finds. Kallen and red-painted pottery, which is similar to Ban Karlstrom excavated Lao Pako from N 0­ Chiang painted pottery but different from vember 1995 to January 1996. They iden­ Roi Et ware, is distributed in the region of tified two cultural layers containingjars and Ubon Ratchathani. The pottery found at slag, which had resulted from iron-working Lao Pako indicates a cultural tie between activities. Based on the jars and iron slag, Nam Ngum, Sakhon Nakhon, and the Lao Pako was determined to be a habita­ lower Mun basins by the river route. tion site with a burial jar cemetery. The second observation regards the iron I would like to make two observations working at Lao Pako. Metallurgical analysis regarding the jar burials and iron working of the slag is required to determine exactly at Lao Pako. First, one jar excavated at Lao which process was used in iron production. Pako (J23; Plate 14 on p. 17) is critical for A smelting process using sand iron results in examining the cultural ties between Lao slag containing titanium. Unfortunately we Pako and Northeast Thailand via Mekong have no data on the metallurgical analysis River transportation. Further, it represents of the slag. It is difficult to determine the one of the mortuary customs of Mainland iron-working process only by the shape of Southeast Asia. The jar's applique decora­ the slag. However, the shape and the char­ tion is the key for comparison with other acter of the slag can indicate the method areas. The applique decoration at Lao Pako used to produce iron. Smooth-surfaced slag consists of a rope-motifstrip of clay applied may be formed by a smelting process, and a onto the shoulder of the jar. The decora­ refining process may produce coarse and tion is made by pressing a comb-like or flat porous slag. The photographs of the slag pallet against the strips. Two horizontal found here indicate that there are three strips are applied on the shoulder, and a types of slag: slag caused by a smelting pro­ crooked handlebar moustache-like strip is cess, slag caused by a refining process, and set at the "screwhead" knob on the lower slag from the bottom of the furnace. Most horizontal strip. Applique decoration is of the slag found here appears to have been widely distributed in the upper Chi and produced during the refining process. The Songkhram basins in Northeast Thailand, authors suggest that laterite was used as the such as at Ban Nadi (Higham and Kijngam ore for producing iron. As mentioned 1984: 54-57, fig. 3), Non Pa Kluay (Wilen above, it is very difficult to determine the 1989: fig. 69), Ban Chiang, and Ban material without metallurgical analysis. Chiang Hian. However, the Lao Pako mo­ Iron ore is found in the mountainous area tif is more similar to that of the burial jars near the Phu Lon copper mine, and cop­ at Karn Luan north of Ubon Ratchathani per- and bronze-working sites are near the BOOK REVIEWS

Mekong. This means that iron-ore deposits continued studies on jar burial customs and are distributed near Lao Pako. It was prob­ iron-working activities in Laos and in the ably not difficult for Lao Pako people to Mekong Basin. retrieve iron ore. Prehistoric people used material depending on the ease of ex­ REFERENCES CITED traction; for example, the people of Ban Don Phlong, Buriram Province, used iron FAD (FINE ARTS DEPARTMENT) nodules as material because they lacked 1992 Archaeology of Pak Mun. Bangkok: iron ore. FAD and EGAT. No iron-working features were found at HIGHAM, CHARLES, AND AMPHAN KIJNGAM Lao Pako. The excavation of the iron­ 1984 Prehistoric Investigations in Northeastern Thailand. 3 vols. BAR International working site at Ban Don Phlong provides a Series 231. Oxford: Archaeopress. glimpse of what a prehistoric iron-working NITTA, EIJI site would have looked like (Nitta 1997). I 1996 Comparative Study on the Jar Burial believe Lao Pako used the same features as Traditions in Vietnam, Thailand and Ban Don Phlong to produce iron. At Ban Laos. Kagoshima University Historical Don Phlong they built a shaft furnace of Science Report 43 : 1-19. clay, connected a clay tuyere with pipe, 1997 Iron-smelting and salt-making indus­ tries in Northeast Thailand. Bulletin of and inserted a double piston bellows into IPPA 16: 153-160. the furnace. They produced wrought iron WILEN, RICHARD N. by the direct method, refined it, and made 1989 Excavations at Non Pa Kluay, Northeast iron tools in the final stage. Thailand. BAR IJ;lternational Series Lao Pako is a very interesting site for 517. Oxford: Archaeopress.

Burma's Lost Kingdoms: Splendours ofArakan. Pamela Gutman and photography by Zaw Min Yu. Bangkok: Orchid Press, 2001. xii + 176 pp, photographs, illustra­ tions, map, bibliography, index. $40.00. ISBN 974-8304-98-1.

Reviewed by MICHAEL W. CHARNEY, Department ofHistory, School of Oriental and African Studies, University ofLondon

Western Burma (or Arakan) has long been submitted her Ph.D. dissertation, "Ancient Burma's neglected corner for historical and Arakan, With Special Reference to its Cul­ art historical research. In the early 1890s, tural History between the 5th and the 11 th Emil Forchhammer, a colonial-era scholar, Centuries," to the Australian National produced the first lengthy study of the University. Since then, Gutman has pub­ epigraphy and art history of early western lished numerous articles on the numismat­ Burma (Report on the Antiquities of Arakan, ics and art of western Burma. In the 1990s, Rangoon, published by the Superintendent a relative "boom" occurred in the histori­ of Government Printing, 1892). Other ography on pre-modern Burma, covering scholars followed, including San Shwe early modern trade, state formation, Euro­ Bu, in the early decades of the twentieth pean interactions, cultural exchanges be­ century, and U San Tha Aung, in the tween western Burma and Sri Lanka, and early 1970s, contributing significantly to art history. While the present volume our knowledge of pre-eighteenth-century appears to be targeted to a popular audi­ western Burma. Pamela Gutman added ence, it touches upon some of this histori­ much to this literature in 1976, when she ography and helps to summarize it into a

Asian Perspectives, Vol. 42, No.1 © 2003 by University of Hawai'i Press. ASIAN PERSPECTIVES . 42(1) . SPRING 2003 coherent survey of early western Burmese awareness of the changes that Mrauk-U's history. structures have undergone, making on-site The book consists of a balance of photo­ analysis difficult (p. 100). graphs by Zaw Min Yu and Gutman's de­ As with any book, there are problems. It scriptive text. The photographs are of a is likely the case that the style of this vol­ very high quality and should prove infor­ ume appears to be geared to a popular au­ mative to anyone who has not yet visited dience. Thus, specific citations ofpages and Mrauk-U, the royal capital of the early volumes are not used. Only a slim survey of modern kingdom of Arakan (c. 1430s­ the literature appears in the bibliography, 1780s), or the towns that preceded it. with several crucial works missin~ (for ex­ Although travel to western Burma was ample, Catherine Raymond's "Etude des restricted for some time by the Burmese Relations Religieuses Entre Ie Sri Lanka et government, it is now open to tourists, and l'Arakan du XIIc au XVIIIc Siecle: Docu­ Mrauk-U is accessible up the Kaladan mentation Historique et Evidences Arche­ River from the town ofSittwe. ologiques," Journal Asiatique 283(2): 469­ Gutman's text provides a summary of 501, 1995, and the various works of U San some of the key events and developments Tha Aung). This reviewer strongly recom­ in western Burma's history in order to put mends that any future edition of this book the photographs into context. Forchham­ utilize specific citations, and include a mer (1892) provides a more detailed dis­ broader survey of the literature, so that it cussion of the temples than that offered will be more useful to scholars. here, but Gutman compensates for this by With a coherent general survey of early her incorporation of material on Buddhist western Burmese art and architecture and images and other developments not con­ a very absorbing body of photographic sidered by Forchhammer. Gutman also material, this volume will appeal to a wide draws attention to recent developments, audience. While its usefulness for research­ such as the "destruction" of the Santikhan ers is limited, for the reasons mentioned mosque, presumed to be an early fifteenth­ above, those desiring an introduction to century structure (p. 86). Along a similar western Burma will find this to be an in­ vein, Gutman's discussion generally raises teresting book.

Along the Silk Road. Edited by Elizabeth ten Grotenhuis. Arthur R. Sadder Gal­ lery, Smithsonian Institution, in association with the Silk Road Project, Inc., and the University of Washington Press. Asian Art and Culture Series no. 6. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2002. 144 pp, index. Soft cover. ISBN 295­ 98182-2. Reviewed by Fredrik T. Hiebert, University ofPennsylvania, Philadelphia

This lush, illustrated volume resembles a these beginnings, the Silk Road Project he catalog for a museum exhibition but in fact founded has been extended to other per­ was designed to celebrate an idea: the idea forming, decorative, and visual arts. Ma's of the Silk Road. Cellist Yo-Yo Ma fol­ use of the Silk Road motif, while partly lowed up an apparently chance encoun­ metaphorical, has allowed him to connect ter with a collection of traditional Asian with others who have been exploring stringed instruments in Japan, deciding to newly accessible regions of Central and deliberately explore the connections be­ Inner Asia. Clearly the Silk Road concept tween Western and Asian music. From has star appeal. The Silk Road Project is a

Asian Perspectives, Vol. 42, No.1 © 2003 by University of Hawai'i Press. BOOK REVIEWS 173 consortium of artists and scholars, some of Road by Merton Flemings, who begins whom have distinguished careers working with the geological history of Eurasia and on the history and culture of the region ends with a comparison between the de­ (here, roughly from the former Soviet velopment of the Silk Road and the con­ Central Asian Republics and Iran to China temporary Internet. Volume editor ten and Japan). In addition to this volume, the Grotenhuis observes a similar breadth in project sponsored a traveling concert series her analysis of the synthesis of the Western of Asian and western music and worked zodiac and Buddhist cosmology visible in with the Smithsonian to sponsor a festival the star mandala of Japan and Cambodia. of Silk Road folk culture on the Mall in Last, there is an account of the twentieth­ Washington duringJune and July, 2002. century rise, collapse, and slow rebirth of The core of this book is seven chapters, Iranian cinema by Hamid Naficy. The arti­ which deal with the cultures and traditions cles include short bibliographies and there of the so-called Silk Road from a variety is also an annotated reading list and a brief of perspectives and on a variety of levels. index. Serious themes are introduced in a There are five essays, a photo essay by few places, such as where Ma and Levin Kenro Izo on shrines in Tibet and China, touch on the ethics of cultural appro­ and a transcribed conversation between Ma priation of traditional music in China and and ethnomusicologist Theodore Levin on where Naficy describes the effects of fun­ their experiences making musical connec­ damentalist policies upon artistic expression tions between distant traditions. The first in Iran. Despite the affectionate treatment essay is a travelogue and account of folk given to the idea of contact and trade be­ music in the Qinghai province ofTibet and tween West and East in this volume, there in Xinjiang by Bright Cheng. Cheng picks is little allusion to, for example, the de­ apart overlapping languages, ethnic and re­ struction of Central Asian society by the ligious traditions, and musical structures as Mongols or the undermining of Central he recounts the persistence and fluidity of and East Asian societies during the period Silk Road musical roots. A similar picture of European economic and military domi­ of multiple riches emerges from an over­ nation. view of textiles and clothing (offering the This book is a visually beautiful intro­ history of wool and cotton in the region as duction to the region's artistic traditions well as, naturally, silk) in Central Asia and and landscapes. It is also a lively and acces­ western China by Elizabeth Barber. This sible introduction to the contemporary article also describes some ofBarber's work connections that are emerging between on the textiles from the Tarim Basin scholars and artists along this ever-vibrant "mummies." An even longer view is taken corridor. in a history of metallurgy along the Silk

East of Wallace's Line: Studies of Past and Present Maritime Cultures of the Indo-Pacific Region. Edited by Sue O'Connor and Peter Veth. Modern Quaternary Research in Southeast Asia 16. Rotterdam: A. A. Balkema, 2000. 380 pp. $76.00. ISBN 90-5809-319-0.

Reviewed by HARRY ALLEN, Department ofAnthropology, University of Auckland, New Zealand

This volume derives from a symposium being rewritten to bring them up to date. It held in 1997 with the majority of papers is introduced briefly by the editors, who

Asian Perspectives, Vol. 42, No.1 © 2003 by University ofHawai'j Press. 174 ASIAN PERSPECTIVES . 42(1) . SPRING 2003 point to problems with terms such as ma­ pua New Guinea shows minimal depen­ rine, maritime, coastal, and littoral. They dence on sea resources, these authors see note that a number ofpapers in the volume the initial voyages as purposeful. There is argue that the accessibility of coastal re­ some repetition of the information regard­ sources is socially as well as ecologically and ing early dates for settlement in the region technologically determined. including Birdsell's map ofpotential routes, The first and most provocative paper is which is reproduced in three different by Anderson, who questions many of the papers. Much of the detail of O'Connor generalizations explored in later papers. and Veth's paper has been published pre­ Anderson queries the evidence for ancient viously but it is useful to have it brought antecedents of maritime behavior in the together in a volume that allows a com­ Indo-Pacific region. Instead he argues that parative perspective. O'Connor and Veth the development of maritime technology is (p. 131) believe that the introduction of a mid- to late Holocene affair. He further new technology from outside Australia is tilts at conclusions drawn from simulated incompatible with the continuation of pre­ voyages, in particular, Irwin's hypotheses existing maritime subsistence strategies. that discoveries in Remote Oceania were Allen's conclusion is that the emergence of rapid and continuous and hence demon­ maritime societies in Melanesia was the re­ strate skilled and prudent seafaring. Much sult of a gradual and logical adaptation to of the paper develops Anderson's ideas an oceanic world with limited terrestrial about innovations in maritime technology resources. necessary to allow the colonization of East Papers in the second half of this volume, Polynesia. He links the pause in settlement by Lilley, Roe, Barham, Clarke, Fox, and between Near and Remote Oceania to the Pannell, deal with the post-3500 B.P. pe­ period during which it was necessary to riod. To explain post-Lapita developments improve maritime technology through the in northern New Guinea and Vitiaz Strait, development of the double canoe. Lilley offers a complex argument concern­ The chapter by Spriggs on Southeast ing language and pottery as symbols of Asia provides a useful overview of Pleisto­ identity. However, he does not have suffi­ cene and Holocene ecological relationships cient space to present this argument in a as a background to his discussion of archae­ convincing manner. Roe's paper discusses ological sites and "cultures." However, Vanuatu and the Solomon Islands. He deals much of the archaeological information with the bush-saltwater division and pre­ available for Island Southeast Asia prior to sents information from his archaeological 5000 B.P. is poorly dated and conforms to work on Guadalcanal. His work, com­ outmoded methods of stone implement pleted in 1993, is the most recent archaeo­ analysis, e.g., the "pebble and flake com­ logical work cited. Subsequent investiga­ plex" (p. 58). Rather than summarizing tions in Vanuatu by Bedford and others such noninformation, Spriggs could use­ (1998) and in the Solomon Islands by fully have swept the cupboard clean with Sheppard and others (2000) and others will some much-needed chorological hygiene. extend the arguments presented here. The information for the post-4000 B.P. Maritime societies in the Torres Strait pottery-Neolithic-Metal Age periods is are the subject of Barham's extended essay better. (90 pages). He concludes that the first Contra Anderson, papers by Chappell, colonists arrived in Torres Strait about by O'Connor and Veth, and by J. Allen 2500 years ago and, secondly, that they argue that the dating offirst colonization of were Melanesian people who already had a Sahul, and subsequent sea crossings sup­ well-developed maritime economy. Bar­ ports the idea that early settlers were "an­ ham argues that a Torres Strait Cultural cient mariners." Though most of the Pleis­ Complex subsequently developed through tocene to mid-Holocene archaeological interaction between aboriginal and indige­ evidence from northern Australia and Pa- nous Melanesian populations with influ- BOOK REVIEWS 175 ences and goods passing in both directions. the region at a time when there were few Interestingly, Barham sees the development scholars and fewer outlets for publication. of large double-outrigger canoes in Torres The current volume 16 is also a very useful Strait as an endogenous development. Ab­ compendium of information on maritime original interactions with Macassans are the societies from east Indonesia, Australia, subject of Clarke's paper. She questions and Near and Remote Oceania, and their Macknight's recent chronology for Macas­ possible antecedents. The articles in this san sites on the Australian mainland and edited volume fall somewhere between argues for an active aboriginal response to the immediacy and freshness of journal these contacts. articles and the monographic treatment Fox and Pannell deal with historic-con­ most of the individual subjects deserve. For temporary developments in maritime east­ the meantime, it will remain an essential ern Indonesia. Both are useful for remind­ source for information and arguments con­ ing us of the complexity of the region. Fox cerning the history of maritime societies in notes that the first state-like structures, the region. those in Ternate and Tidore, were located in a non-Austronesian west Papuan lan­ guage area. Interaction across the entire re­ REFERENCES CITED gion had also occurred in terms of Islam and the use of Malay as a lingua franca. Pan­ BEDFORD, S., M. SPRIGGS, M. WILSON, AND R. nell discusses the neo-colonial experience REGENVANU 1998 The Australian National University­ of indigenous peoples from east Indonesia National Museum of Vanuatu Ar­ in terms of the disappearance or extinction chaeological Project 1994-7: A pre­ of maritime societies. liminary report on the establishment The return of the journal Modern Quater­ of cultural sequences and rock art re­ search. Asian Perspectives 37(2): 165­ nary Research in Southeast Asia from the 193. Dutch publishing house A. A. Balkema is SHEPPARD, P., R. WALTER, AND T. NAGAOKA to be welcomed. This journal was a signifi­ 2000 The archaeology of head-hunting in cant source of archaeological, environmen­ Roviana Lagoon. Journal of the Poly­ tal, and anthropological information for nesian Society 109: 9-37.

The Archaeology of LApita Dispersal in Oceania: Papers from the Fourth Lapita Confer­ ence, June 2000, Canberra, Australia. Edited by G. R. Clark, A. J. Anderson, and T. Vunidilo. Terra Australis 17. Canberra: Pandanus Book, Australian National University, 2001. viii + 222 pp. ISBN 1-74076-010-7.

Reviewed by JIM SPECHT, Australian Museum, Sydney

Since the Lapita Homeland Project (LHP) geographic focus, and now covers the in the Bismarck Archipelago in 1985, there western Pacific Islands from New Guinea has been a string of conferences relating to New Caledonia and Fiji-Tonga. The to Lapita pottery, its predecessors and suc­ temporal boundaries are also broader than cessors. Originally, the conferences were the few hundred years of the span ofLapita designed as a forum for reporting on the pottery. outcomes of the LHP, but from 1988 the The 2000 conference was originally format was broadened beyond this narrow planned to take place in Fiji, but the venue

Asian Perspectives, VoL 42, No.1 © 2003 by University ofHawai'i Press. ASIAN PERSPECTIVES . 42(1) . SPRING 2003 was relocated to Canberra following the ists. As the editors note, the papers sug­ Fijian coup attempt, just two weeks before gest that there are changing interests in the start of the conference. This relocation Lapita and its descendant assemblages," and had several impacts on the conference, not among these changes is an increasing focus least the reduction in non-Australasian par­ on regional sequences and histories. The ticipation, as many North American and extent to which this is possible for anyone other colleagues were unable to rearrange area depends on the quality as well as at the last minute their schedules and quantity of available data, and the kinds itineraries to accommodate the additional of questions and theoretical frameworks travel. This meant the absence of a number within which these data can be articulated. of significant 'players' in the region's ar­ Felgate's paper on Roviana illustrates this chaeology, and a reduction in the overall nicely. Following the remarkable results scope of the conference papers. The result­ from Kirch's work on Eloaua and Gosden ing volume, however, is a significant one in in the Arawes, the Roviana project focused its own right. explicitly on intertidal contexts to address The volume contains 19 of the 40 or the simple but significant question whether so papers presented, covering a wide range the lack of evidence for Lapita in the main of topics, places, and periods, though the Solomons' chain reflects lack of field re­ period prior to Lapita is dealt with only in search or Lapita "avoidance" of the region. general terms in some papers. Geo­ This oversimplifies his argument, but the graphically, the papers cover the Bismarcks preliminary results provide sufficient evi­ (Summerhayes on Lapita chronology in the dence to instill caution against generalizing Arawe and Feni Island groups; Parr et al. across the region. on phytoliths and landscape-subsistence re­ Sand's approach to the nonceramic arti­ construction on Garua Island; Leavesley on facts of New Caledonia warns us to be New Hanover earth mounds of uncer­ wary of accepting perceptions based on tain age; Smith on Arawe shell artifacts; data derived from a few points on the Torrence and White on Lapita faces landscape. The range of nonceramic items from Boduna Island), Solomon Islands (Fel­ is impressive, as are the changes through gate on the Roviana pottery sequence), time suggested by his "seriation table" Vanuatu (Bedford on Malakula pottery; (p. 87). This invites comparison with Spriggs and Bedford on possible Lapita at Smith's account of the shell artifacts from Mangaasi; Bedford and Clark on incised the Arawe Islands of New Britain. She and relief pottery of Vanuatu and Fiji), concludes that there is both continuity and New Caledonia (Sand on nonceramic arti­ discontinuity in some categories of Trochus facts), and Fiji (Parke on Vanua Levu pot­ shell artifacts from pre-Lapita through post­ tery handles; Szabo on Natunuku molluscs; Lapita that do not match neatly changes or Valentin et al. on a late "prehistoric" burial continuity in other aspects of material cul­ mound on Cikobia). Less geographically ture. Such a conclusion invites reflection focused are papers by Anderson and others on the advisability of using ceramic styles as on an inventory of Lapita sites, Anderson the basis for dividing the human past into on Lapita mobility models, Davidson and packages of time. Leach on "strandloopers" and naIve inter­ Anderson's paper on mobility models pretation of subsistence data, Hagelberg on develops from the recognition of several genetic affinities, Cameron on textile tech­ Lapita provinces or regions-call them nology, and Bulmer on dogs in the New what you will-each of which probably Guinea region. With such a diversity of had differing characteristics in terms of de­ topics, this review can only attempt a se­ mography and social interaction reflecting lective coverage, though all papers warrant their position in time and space. The paper reading. is worth close consideration, though occa­ There is a strong representation of the sionally it resembles the Delphic oracle in younger generation of Pacific archaeolog- terms of its lack of development of some BOOK REVIEWS 177

points. It resurrects Groube's strophic Eloaua are palimpsests created over several model, poses the question why did the centuries as a result of successive shifts of colonizing thrust seemingly slow down or settlement focus. We need much better temporarily peter out, and discusses rates of control over the dating of most Lapita pot­ new "site" establishment. Anderson pro­ tery sites throughout their distribution, so poses speculative rates of "community fis­ that we can see which sites were contem­ sion" (pp. 19-20) of 10-15 years for Near porary and just when new sites were estab­ Oceania and 4-6 years in Remote Ocea­ lished. Demographic issues of population nia, with the extension into the latter size and reproductive rates are pertinent accompanied by a form of agriculture that here. If most Lapita pottery settlements might have been "rudimentary at best." contained only small numbers of people of Another view could be that Lapita agricul­ reproductive age, then is it possible that the ture was "rudimentary" throughout its dis­ perceived frequency of new site establish­ tribution. Within the Bismarck Archipel­ ment reflected relocation of the population ago and part of Solomon Islands, Lapita rather than rapid population growth and subsistence might have been underwritten subsequent community fission? For Re­ by the food-producing capabilities of the mote Oceania at least, this has the implica­ existing populations. The movement south tion of leaving behind a series oflandscapes into unoccupied islands was probably a that might have been temporarily "empty," critical step that required major subsistence a proposition that many would not find ac­ adjustments, perhaps even the temporary ceptable. adoption of a "strandlooper" strategy of The general papers include a welcome food procurement (again, a Groube sug­ review of human genetic data by Hagel­ gestion of many years ago). Davidson and berg, who shows that the situation is more Leach appeal for archaeologists to better complicated than the interpretations of understand human dietary needs, and earlier writers would have us believe. The thereby avoid naive interpretations and use of the mtDNA genetic 'clock' is treated reliance on speculative reconstructions of with the skepticism it deserves and, for the subsistence patterns based on linguistics. agnostics of historical anthropology at least, We also need to ask whether "community the lack of neat correlations between pro­ fission" every 4-6 years in the nearer parts positions from genetics and linguistics and of Remote Oceania would have allowed the archaeological record is pretty much time for fruit and nut trees to mature suffi­ what many would have expected. Her ciently to yield food (assuming that the paper keeps "Austronesians" and Polyne­ distribution of most of these species, and sian "origins" in the foreground, but she other food plants, was a result of human raises an issue about the genetic diversity of agency). Vanuatu and the possibility of this reflect­ Estimates of archaeological site size do ing a pre-Lapita human presence. There's a not necessarily relate to population size, for long way to go before the genetic data can the extent of scatters of sherds or other be integrated with any confidence into the materials that lead to the identification of archaeological picture. "sites" is the product of a complex range of Much previous writing about deep hu­ human activities and taphonomic processes. man history in the western Pacific was Missing from discussions of the dispersal of driven by concerns with origins that led to the makers of Lapita pottery is the issue of a top-down approach to interpretation in settlement structure, for which we have which new data were slotted into a bigger precious little data (the best still being picture. Some of the papers presented here Green's work at RF-2 site in the Reef move towards a more bottom-up approach, Islands). An archaeological site area of with a focus on understanding local se­ 10,000 sq m might represent only a few quences in which Lapita pottery provides a dozen individuals, not to mention the like­ common starting point but not the sole lihood that large sites such as ECA on concern. This set of papers reminds us that ASIAN PERSPECTIVES • 42(1) . SPRING 2003 much work remains to be done, and a lot will guide the data capture and interpreta­ of it will be baseline stuff involving the re­ tion. In their diverse ways, these Lapita covery of new field data and application of 2000 papers make a substantial and very new analytical techniques. We also need to welcome contribution to this endeavor. reconsider the theoretical frameworks that

Lapita and its Traniformations in the Mussau Islands, Papua New Guinea, 1985-1988: Volume 1, Introduction, Excavations and Chronology. Edited by Patrick V. Kirch. Contribution No. 59, Archaeological Research Facility, University of California at Berkeley, Berkeley, 2001. 246 pp, 139 illustrations, 16 tables. ISBN 10882744­ 11-X.

Reviewed by DAVID BURLEY, Simon Fraser University

In the early 1980s, archaeological data for ervation of house posts, botanical remains, the Bismarck Archipelago off of northeast and abundant ceramic collections. Volume coastal New Guinea was provocative but 1 of Lapita and its Traniformation in Near frustratingly limited. The region long was Oceania is the first of three analytic and in­ suspected to be the source of the Lapita terpretive reports on this study. It provides cultural complex that had colonized Re­ an introduction to the project and its re­ mote Oceania from the Reef/Santa Cruz search design, a detailed account of survey Islands through to Fiji, Tonga, and Samoa. and excavations, and an in-depth examina­ Yet little more could be said, either about tion of chronology. the origin of Lapita or its subsequent trans­ Kirch invited some 20 colleagues and formations in Near Oceania. At the Pacific graduate students as collaborators in Mus­ Science Congress held in Dunedin in 1983, sau fieldwork and analyses. The three-vol­ Jim Allen began to invite participants to a ume set consequently incorporates numer­ potentially exciting research program that ous chapters authored by them as well as might resolve these critical issues. Dubbed his own contributions. A research team the Lapita Homeland Project, Allen's plan approach has many important advantages, was to have multiple researchers conduct including highly specialized analytic treat­ independent but linked studies throughout ments and insights. On the other hand, as the Bismarcks. The 19 projects that re­ Kirch freely laments, the larger the team, sulted were connected through a shared the more difficult it is to get a timely set logistical network for fieldwork and analy­ of completed manuscripts. The result for sis, through shared data recording proto­ Mussau has been a 13-year delay from end cols, but most importantly through their of fieldwork to the first volume's release. focus upon a shared set of research ques­ Notwithstanding Kirch's feelings of tardi­ tions. Patrick Kirch was assigned the Mus­ ness, this is only the second published re­ sau group, where fieldwork in 1985, 1986, port to be completed for the Lapita Home­ and 1988 included survey of eight islands as land project as a whole, the other being the well as limited and more extensive excava­ Watom studies of Roger Green and Dimi­ tions at many sites. Most important among tri Anson released in 1998 as a special issue the latter is Talepakemalai (ECA), a quite of TheJournal ofNew Zealand Archaeology. In spectacular stilt-house Lapita village of over this light Patrick Kirch is to be commended 82,000 m 2 complete with anaerobic pres- for his persistence, and his final success.

Asiml Perspectives, Vol. 42, No.1 © 2003 by University of Hawai'j Press. BOOK REVIEWS 179

Volume 1 includes 10 chapters that pro­ Homeland Project. He subsequently re­ vide contextual information for the project views his own research problems and as well as a highly illuminating discussion of agenda for Lapita archaeology at Mussau. fieldwork, site excavations, and data recov­ And then, for each of his three seasons of ery. The volume begins with Kirch's pre­ fieldwork, he provides an overview ac­ sentation of project history and research count of what was accomplished, where design (Chapter 1). In typical site report the money came from, his fieldwork colla­ fashion he, with Carla Catterall, follow borators and encounters, and how each with a synthesis of existing as well as new discovery led to modifications and newly collected data on the natural and changes in his planning. More than just cultural environment (Chapter 2). A Kirch­ background to the Mussau project, this authored discussion of sampling strategies, chapter allows us to comprehend Kirch's excavation methods, recording schemes, logic and decision making from beginning and databases provides a final contribution to end. It is of critical importance for un­ (Chapter 3) leading up to the detailed derstanding the chapters to follow. On accounts of island surveys and excavation its own, it also is an excellent case study projects. Kirch (Chapters 4 and 6) authors of how a project is designed, funded, and two· of these accounts, two are authored by implemented. It is one that I will recom­ Marshall Weisler (Chapters 5 and 7), an­ mend to my future students who are strug­ other is authored by Kirch and Weisler gling with the concept of research design (Chapter 9), and a sixth is provided by and problem orientation. Nick Araho (Chapter 8). With one princi­ Kirch intends the volume to be a com­ pal exception, these tend to be short and prehensive account of fieldwork and results almost formulaic in their presentation of for every aspect of the Mussau program. setting, excavation approaches, stratigra­ Clearly, however, the star of the show for phy, and other data for a range of site Lapita archaeology is the site of Talepake­ types, most being associated with the post­ malai, and over a third of Volume 1 is Lapita era. The exception is Chapter 4 in taken up with its presentation. First re­ which Kirch delivers an extensive docu­ corded by Brian Egloff in 1973, Talepake­ mentation of site data, excavations and malai was the earliest and most westerly landscape transformations for three Lapita Lapita site in the Bismarcks at the time villages: Talepakemalai, Etakosarai, and the Lapita Homeland Project was being Etapakengaroasa. The final contribution planned. Previous test excavations here (Chapter 10) is a presentation, analysis, and illustrated an expansive raised deposit situ­ interpretation of the project's radiocarbon ated on a 2 m former beach terrace. Kirch's chronology by Kirch. This further includes initial field assessment in 1985 resulted in a an appendix in which information, includ­ number of quite amazing discoveries. Cer­ ing calibration, is provided for each of his tainly the most important was documen­ 51 radiocarbon dates from ten excavated tation of the waterlogged segment of the sites. site with its extensive series of preserved As a nonparticipant in the Lapita Home­ wooden posts. Associated with these re­ land Project, I found the introduction to be mains is an elaborate assemblage of Lapita a most engaging and informative chapter. ceramics and other materials that had been Integrating his varied research grant propo­ deposited in a subtidal environment. Tale­ sals, copious and detailed field notes, yearly pakemalai, at least the waterlogged part of field reports, and a measure of retrospect, it, clearly was a Lapita stilt-house village. Kirch crafts a lucid narrative in which With that discovery our view of Lapita the reader is taken through virtually every peoples and settlement pattern changed step of the research process. He provides significantly. Much of the 1986 and 1988 a review of Lapita archaeology as it was field seasons were spent expanding the wa­ in 1984, helping us to understand the terlogged excavations as well as deciphering goals and research questions of the Lapita site geomorphology and chronology. 180 ASIAN PERSPECTIVES 42(1) . SPRING 2003

Kirch's presentation of his [mdings at is wary of applying the worldwide model Talepakemalai are exceptionally detailed average value. This problem is appropri­ from discussions of transect sampling test ately resolved through estimation of a local units in different areas of the site, to site reservoir effect (oR of -320) using paired stratigraphy and sedimentology, to the col­ sets of marine and terrestrial radiocarbon lection ofbotanical and other samples. This samples. His discussion of the problem and detail combined with radiocarbon dates and its resolution is worthy of a reading inde­ his interpretation of declining sea levels, pendent of its application to the Mussau allows him to convincingly reconstruct samples. Interestingly and almost hidden site geomorphology and its transformation. within this chapter, is what surely will What we are presented with, complete become a major interpretation of the evi­ with graphic representation, is an intriguing dence from Talepakemalai with major im­ story where the initial occupation of 3500 plications for our understanding of Lapita B.P. incorporated both an on-land settle­ origins in general. Illustrating that the ment above the 2 m beach terrace as well as palaeobeach terrace archaeological remains a stilt-house village some 20 to 30 m off­ (Area A) are older than those of the reefflat shore on the subtidal sandy reef flat. As sea by 100 to 150 years, he opines that it has levels began to fall, reef degradation took "important culture-historical implications place and newly accumulated sediment led because the ceramics from the paleobeach to shoreline progradation. The remains of terrace deposits consist almost exclusively the original stilt-house structures and their of red-slipped plainwares, with only small midden accumulation thus became buried. numbers of dentate-stamped pottery" (p. The village continued to persist as new 206). Further exploration of this pattern is structures were built seaward with addi­ relegated to Volume III but it takes only a tional midden accumulation occurring. In­ limited imagination to comprehend its im­ deed it was not until approximately 2500 portance. The elaborate and extensive dec­ B.P. that sea-level decline and shoreline oration of Lapita ceramic wares in Near progradation literally forced the site to be Oceania are not brought in by migrants abandoned. This horizontal stratigraphy, as from elsewhere, rather they developed out it has been modeled, is crucial to any un­ of a largely Southeast Asian Neolithic red­ derstanding of" the site and the temporal slipped plain ware assemblage in situ. If and spatial associations ofits remains. true, this is a momentous interpretation for A radiocarbon chronology based on contemporary understanding of the Lapita "different kinds of sample materials" was cultural complex and competing hypoth­ central to the resolution of many of the re­ eses for its origins. search questions established for the Mussau When I was asked to review this volume project. The final chapter of Volume 1 ac­ for Asian Perspectives, I was extremely reti­ cordingly provides an in-depth treatment cent. Site reports are crucial long-term of these results, especially as they relate to documentation of project data and inter­ on-going debates over the timing for Lapita pretations but, by their very nature, they settlement in the Bismarcks, the temporal can be dreadfully boring and difficult to as­ relationships of different site areas at Tale­ sess. I also was reticent because most of the pakemalai, and the chronological ordering artifactual, botanical, and zooarchaeological of sites throughout Mussau. Since 31 of his data analysis, as well as project interpreta­ 51 radiocarbon dates are based on marine tions and conclusions, are incorporated in shell, Kirch cannot do this without first the volumes remaining to be published. I addressing the significant issue of marine am pleased to say that my assumptions and reservoir effect and the appropriate selec­ reluctance were misguided. Though there tion of a oR correction value. Acknowl­ are occasional descriptive sections that are edging that marine reservoir oR values can wearisome to read, this volume makes vary considerably throughout Oceania, and several important contributions to Oceanic result in quite contentious calibrations, he archaeology in its own right. Without a BOOK REVIEWS 181

thorough review, it also will be impossible sincerely look forward to seeing those ad­ to evaluate the veracity of interpretations ditional volumes in print in the not too and data analysis that are yet to come. I distant future.

Australian Archaeologist: Collected Papers in Honour ofJim Allen. Edited by Atholl Anderson and Tim Murray. Centre for Archaeological Research and Department of Archaeology and Natural History, The Australian National University, with the Department of Archaeology, La Trobe University. Canberra: Coombs Aca­ demic Publishing, The Australian National University, 2000. 454 pp. ISBN 0-7315-52148.

Reviewed by J. STEPHEN ATHENS, International Archaeological Research Institute, Inc., Honolulu, Hawai'i

This is a nicely produced large format soft­ ological Project in Tasmania. His contribu­ cover book in which 32 papers are pre­ tions were wide ranging (temporally from sented in honor ofJim Allen, Australian ar­ late Pleistocene to historic times, and spa­ chaeologist. The Introduction section and tially from Tasmania to Melanesia), and the first paper of the following Perspectives breath of subject matter in his many pub­ section consist of four papers with informal lications is astonishing (a bibliography of reminiscences and biographical accounts of Allen's is provided in the first paper of the the honoree mixed with a good measure of Introduction by the volume editors). the history ofAustralian archaeology. They Besides the Introduction, the volume has provide the context for the papers that three other sections, including one titled follow. Not knowing Allen, I found these Perspectives, another Issues and Evidence: papers especially interesting for their re­ Australia and Papua New Guinea, and a counting of how the career of a noted pro­ final one, Issues and Evidence: Into Re­ fessional unfolded. While it is to be ex­ mote Oceania. As would be expected, the pected that the writings in this section authors are a veritable who's who of Paci­ would be complimentary and effusive, I did fic archaeology, though with a significant not anticipate that such homage would be number ofsurprises in the roster and topics so explicit in many of the more formal of the Perspectives section. A few examples papers of the rest of the volume. In reading here will have to suffice. W. 1. Rathje pre­ these papers one soon begins to appreciate sents his concept of Lapita as the first Holi­ just what an enormous influence Jim Allen day Inn, a metaphor he uses to make the has had (and obviously continues to have) point that the famous pottery provided a on not just Australian archaeology, but Pa­ symbol system shared over a very broad cific archaeology and beyond. His work, geographical region. This facilitated travel­ always setting a high standard for excel­ ing, trading, and exchanging resources in lence and innovative thinking, has encom­ distant regions or islands by providing a passed the topics of V. Gordon Childe's sense of reassurance and trust among career, historical archaeology in Australia, strangers much as the familiar logo and extensive work on the archaeology ofPapua surroundings of Holiday Inns reassure New Guinea, Melanesian trade, organizer weary travelers the world over. of the famous Lapita Homeland Project, There is also a rather abstract treatise by and organizer of Southern Forests Archae- S. E. van der Leeuw, who initially poses

Asial1 Perspectives, Vol. 42, No.1 © 2003 by University of Hawai'i Press. 182 ASIAN PERSPECTIVES . 42(1) . SPRING 2003 the question as to why prehistoric pottery manner, can provide needed fuel for war­ was ubiquitous in New Guinea and else­ ranting arguments and guidance for the where in Oceania, but absent in Australia direction of research efforts. In this case, and Tasmania. His cognitive-systems ap­ O'Connell takes us on an emu hunt with a proach provides a rather different perspec­ small group of Aborigines toting 12-gauge tive from the various functionalist and shotguns in the central Australian desert. adaptationist arguments concerning this His easy-going first-hand account of the subject with which I am familiar. While hunt in the present tense draws us in like a there are surely merits to his careful and good story, but there is plenty of cogent extremely logical discussion that breaks discussion alluding to the larger behavioral, apart the many cognitive elements that archaeological, and ecological processes in­ must come together to realize the creation volved. of pottery, I am uncomfortable with the The final section of the book-Issues implication that, ultimately, people inha­ and Evidence: Into Remote Oceania­ biting Australia and Tasmania were without contains fine contributions by Matthew pottery simply because they failed to for­ Spriggs, Pamela Swadling, R. C. Green, mulate the intricate chain of concepts nec­ Geoffrey Irwin, Foss Leach and Janet essary for its production. Davidson, Patrick V. Kirch, and Atholl Norman Yoffee's paper on understand­ Anderson and Gerard O'Regan. Only a ing the Chaco phenomenon of the pre­ few can be mentioned here. historic American Southwest, neatly con­ Irwin's paper, a detailed consideration of ceptualized as reconciling the seemingly what it means to travel the Pacific in problematical opposition of singularities canoes, helps develop an understanding of and pluralities, might at first seem out of the constraints of voyaging and navigation place in a volume devoted to the Pacific. based on specific geographic, climatic, and However, it provides an instructive lesson oceanic conditions. This is another exam­ about the nature of archaeological cultures ple of the use of modeling based on con­ and their often nonisomorphism with eth­ temporary observations to develop testable nic groups, languages, and communities as archaeological hypotheses and insights into well as the evident significance and power prehistoric behavior. of ritualism as a kind of metasociety-polity The Leach and Davidson paper provides organizing principal. With so much current an excellent overview of their long-term discussion on topics such as the Aus­ research on prehistoric fishing in the Pa­ tronesian expansion and the Lapita culture, cific, though unlike most researchers, their surely Yoffee's paper is a welcome wake-up study is actually about the fish rather than call to expand our conceptual horizons the technologies used to catch them. Their about the nature of prehistoric human be­ observations demonstrate a number of in­ havior in the Pacific. teresting patterns and variations concerning Moving on to the next section-Issues the use offish spatially and through time in and Evidence: Australia and Papua New the Pacific, all of which have important Guinea-I will single out only the paper behavioral and sometimes ecological-envi­ by J. F. O'Connell for comment in this re­ ronmental implications. view, unfair to be sure because there are so Kirch's study of pigs on Oceanic islands many excellent papers. However, O'Con­ provides interesting insights concerning nell's paper was particularly interesting ecological energetics and what this implies not only for its convincing argument in for human consumers under conditions of favor of the overkill hypothesis to ex­ resource limitations and high population. plain Pleistocene megafaunal extinctions of Pork was a highly esteemed delicacy in Sahul (the joined landmass of Australia, Polynesia, so why did pigs sometimes dis­ Tasmania, and New Guinea), but for how appear from the archaeological record? modern ethnographic observations, when Developing an argument based on trophic conducted in a theoretically informed competition, Kirch proposes an explana- BOOK REVIEWS

tion for the prehistoric extirpation of suids (p. 450). The Polynesians, indeed, were on Tikopia, Mangaia, and Mangareva (this amazing. latter case is not as firmly established as the There is much more in this important former two). book than I have been able to discuss. For The volume concludes with Anderson professionals working in the region, it is and O'Regan's paper on the Polynesian well worth having on your bookshelf. All colonization of subantarctic islands, "to the of the articles will not interest everyone, final shore," as their title indicates. The but for those that do make the effort to colonization of these islands was an amaz­ read the volume from cover to cover (and I ing feat given the often turbulent and harsh would hope this would include most stu­ subpolar weather and sea conditions. As dents), they will be rewarded not only with the authors note, "The colonization his­ a current understanding about much of the tory of South Polynesia, now filled out by archaeology in a major region of the world, evidence from the southern margins, but also an appreciation for one of the describes a 'starburst' pattern in which all seminal archaeologists who laid so much of the islands big and small, near or far, and in the foundation for what we have before us all directions were discovered' and settled, in this volume. I give my congratulations though temporarily in some cases, within to the editors for such a fine job. an archaeologically-instantaneous event"