Tracing population movements in ancient East Asia through the linguistics and archaeology of textile production
Archaeolinguistics, a field which combines language reconstruction and archaeology as a source of information on human prehistory, has much to offer to deepen our understanding of the Neolithic and Bronze Age in Northeast Asia. So far, integrated comparative analyses of words and tools for textile p...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cambridge University Press
2020-01-01
|
| Series: | Evolutionary Human Sciences |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2513843X20000043/type/journal_article |
| _version_ | 1811156362059579392 |
|---|---|
| author | Sarah Nelson Irina Zhushchikhovskaya Tao Li Mark Hudson Martine Robbeets |
| author_facet | Sarah Nelson Irina Zhushchikhovskaya Tao Li Mark Hudson Martine Robbeets |
| author_sort | Sarah Nelson |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Archaeolinguistics, a field which combines language reconstruction and archaeology as a source of information on human prehistory, has much to offer to deepen our understanding of the Neolithic and Bronze Age in Northeast Asia. So far, integrated comparative analyses of words and tools for textile production are completely lacking for the Northeast Asian Neolithic and Bronze Age. To remedy this situation, here we integrate linguistic and archaeological evidence of textile production, with the aim of shedding light on ancient population movements in Northeast China, the Russian Far East, Korea and Japan. We show that the transition to more sophisticated textile technology in these regions can be associated not only with the adoption of millet agriculture but also with the spread of the languages of the so-called ‘Transeurasian’ family. In this way, our research provides indirect support for the Language/Farming Dispersal Hypothesis, which posits that language expansion from the Neolithic onwards was often associated with agricultural colonization. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-10T04:50:15Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-359f28cae30d40bb858d634d39845eb1 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2513-843X |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-10T04:50:15Z |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | Cambridge University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Evolutionary Human Sciences |
| spelling | doaj.art-359f28cae30d40bb858d634d39845eb12023-03-09T12:32:20ZengCambridge University PressEvolutionary Human Sciences2513-843X2020-01-01210.1017/ehs.2020.4Tracing population movements in ancient East Asia through the linguistics and archaeology of textile productionSarah Nelson0Irina Zhushchikhovskaya1Tao Li2Mark Hudson3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9483-9303Martine Robbeets4https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2860-0230Department of Anthropology, University of Denver, Denver, CO, USALaboratory of Medieval Archaeology, Institute of History, Archaeology and Ethnography of Peoples of Far East, Far Eastern Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Vladivostok, RussiaEurasia3angle Research group, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, Germany Department of Archaeology, Wuhan University, Wuhan, ChinaEurasia3angle Research group, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, GermanyEurasia3angle Research group, Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History, Jena, GermanyArchaeolinguistics, a field which combines language reconstruction and archaeology as a source of information on human prehistory, has much to offer to deepen our understanding of the Neolithic and Bronze Age in Northeast Asia. So far, integrated comparative analyses of words and tools for textile production are completely lacking for the Northeast Asian Neolithic and Bronze Age. To remedy this situation, here we integrate linguistic and archaeological evidence of textile production, with the aim of shedding light on ancient population movements in Northeast China, the Russian Far East, Korea and Japan. We show that the transition to more sophisticated textile technology in these regions can be associated not only with the adoption of millet agriculture but also with the spread of the languages of the so-called ‘Transeurasian’ family. In this way, our research provides indirect support for the Language/Farming Dispersal Hypothesis, which posits that language expansion from the Neolithic onwards was often associated with agricultural colonization.https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2513843X20000043/type/journal_articleArchaeolinguisticsLanguage/Farming Dispersal HypothesisTranseurasian language familytextile technologyNortheast Asia |
| spellingShingle | Sarah Nelson Irina Zhushchikhovskaya Tao Li Mark Hudson Martine Robbeets Tracing population movements in ancient East Asia through the linguistics and archaeology of textile production Evolutionary Human Sciences Archaeolinguistics Language/Farming Dispersal Hypothesis Transeurasian language family textile technology Northeast Asia |
| title | Tracing population movements in ancient East Asia through the linguistics and archaeology of textile production |
| title_full | Tracing population movements in ancient East Asia through the linguistics and archaeology of textile production |
| title_fullStr | Tracing population movements in ancient East Asia through the linguistics and archaeology of textile production |
| title_full_unstemmed | Tracing population movements in ancient East Asia through the linguistics and archaeology of textile production |
| title_short | Tracing population movements in ancient East Asia through the linguistics and archaeology of textile production |
| title_sort | tracing population movements in ancient east asia through the linguistics and archaeology of textile production |
| topic | Archaeolinguistics Language/Farming Dispersal Hypothesis Transeurasian language family textile technology Northeast Asia |
| url | https://www.cambridge.org/core/product/identifier/S2513843X20000043/type/journal_article |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT sarahnelson tracingpopulationmovementsinancienteastasiathroughthelinguisticsandarchaeologyoftextileproduction AT irinazhushchikhovskaya tracingpopulationmovementsinancienteastasiathroughthelinguisticsandarchaeologyoftextileproduction AT taoli tracingpopulationmovementsinancienteastasiathroughthelinguisticsandarchaeologyoftextileproduction AT markhudson tracingpopulationmovementsinancienteastasiathroughthelinguisticsandarchaeologyoftextileproduction AT martinerobbeets tracingpopulationmovementsinancienteastasiathroughthelinguisticsandarchaeologyoftextileproduction |