Papers (Part 1)

• Animal Representations as an Indication of Different Narrative Strategies in Early Buddhist Art Simone Voegtle University of Bern

  The stupa of Bharhut, built in central India around 100 BCE, provides the first example of visual narrative in the medium of stone in Buddhist art. During the following centuries early cult monuments were erected in places as far apart as Sañci, Amaravati, and the region of Gandhara. Apart from the different regional architectural concepts that intended various places for the sculpted and carved decoration there were also different modes of visual narratives.

  For example, the region of Gandhara developed a distinct strategy of embellishment not only by applying a narrative fries surrounding the stupa’s dome but also by choosing the Buddha’s historical life as a main motive.

  Considering the divers strategies of visual narration on early Buddhist monuments this paper aims to discuss another characteristic that hasn’t been regarded so far: The use of animal representations. The presence and importance of the animal as a motive varies considerably in the different examples of narrative art. It sheds a new light on the various strategies that were employed to transfer the message of Buddhism to its first followers on the Indian subcontinent and beyond.

• Archaeological Explorations into Critical Zones in the Mediterranean and Southeast Asia Jacobus Bracker University of Hamburg

  Modern western conceptions of Earth and society follow the categorial difference between nature and culture derived from Cartesian thinking. However, the threat of a world-wide climate catastrophe and the notion of the Anthropocene point to the fact that human agency and nature are densely and complexly entangled.

  The paper will take a comparing archaeological view on alternative concepts of nature and culture respectively Earth and society as they become visible in the material remains of the classical Athenian acropolis in Greece, the Cham temple complex of My Son in Vietnam and ancient Angkor in nowadays Cambodia. Especially the remains of buildings, their surface designs (mythical reliefs, floral ornaments), and their placement in the environment reveal many information on how the builders viewed their society’s relation to nature and Earth.

  The second part of the paper aims at developing a theoretical and methodical framework to analyze these relations. It is proposed to take the concept of the ‘Critical Zone’ as a starting point. The Critical Zone is “the heterogeneous, near-surface environment in which complex interactions involving rock, soil, water, air, and living organisms regulate the natural habitat and determine the availability of life-sustaining resources.” (National Research Council 2001, 2; see also Chorover et al. 2007, 321 seq.). The Critical Zone has been established as a new interdisciplinary research perspective by diverse natural sciences like biology, geology, and hydrology. The complexity of phenomena like climate change made it necessary to take an holistic view on the possible causes and their connectedness. The human involvement, as it becomes apparent in the debate on the geochronological era of the Anthropocene, now invites humanities, especially social and cultural studies to take part in this interdisciplinary discussion (see Ferraro et al. 2018; Latour 2018; Pétursdóttir 2017).

• Between the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean: Why Did the Isthmian Region of the Malay Peninsula Become a Crossroads for Maritime Routes in the Centuries BC/AD? Brigitte Borell University of Heidelberg

  Not only the networks of land routes across Eurasia were increasingly developed in the period between roughly 500 BC to AD 500. A similar process took place regarding the networks of sea routes in the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea. Seafaring in these waters depended on the monsoons. Understanding this predictable wind system was an important factor. In the period addressed here, regional spheres of maritime interaction came into closer contact, sometimes including land crossings in between, resulting in a maritime connectivity extending from the South China Sea to the western Indian Ocean and via the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea ultimately to the Mediterranean.

  The Malay Peninsula proved to be not so much an obstacle but a contact zone and a 'stepping stone' between searoutes connected here by transpeninsular land crossings. One particular region, which is in the focus of this presentation, came into prominence as attested by the archaeological record. This is the region of the Isthmus of Kra in present-day southern Thailand and southern Myanmar. Numerous archaeological sites on both east and west coasts, among them substantial port-settlements, attest to the long-distance activities in the late centuries BC and the early centuries AD. Finds include artefacts from the sphere of the South China Sea and from Han China, from the Gulf of Bengal sphere and India, as well as from the Mediterranean of the late Hellenistic and Roman period.

  A number of factors may have contributed to this development. At present, we are still at the very beginning to come to a better understanding of it, therefore, often only tentative or hypothetical answers will be possible and many questions will remain open.

Papers (Part 2)

• Manifestations of Environmental Change in a Portuguese Settlement in Malacca Monika Arnez University of Hamburg

  This contribution examines manifestations of environmental change in contemporary Malacca at Malaysia’s West Coast. Due to its multicultural heritage Malacca was inscribed on the World Heritage list in 2008. The efforts to preserve material heritage in this city, for example the Portuguese fort A Formosa that was built in the first half of the 16th century stand in striking contrast to endeavors of creating new infrastructure by means of land reclamation projects, most notably „Melaka Gateway“.

  The aims of this contribution are two-fold. First, based on fieldwork carried out in Malacca in 2018 and 2019 and drawing on my documentary „Flow of Sand“ it shows how land reclamation in Malacca can be understood as a visible expression of environmental change in Malacca. Second, it demonstrates the impacts the land reclamation project has on the Portuguese community living in close proximity to the land reclamation project „Melaka Gateway“ and which strategies it has developed to deal with land reclamation.

• The Temple of Preah Vihear: An Archaeological Site as Contested World Heritage Site Between Cambodia and Thailand Volker Grabowsky University of Hamburg

  The ancient temple of Preah Vihear, situated on Cambodian territory but geographically connected to the Khorat Plateau of Northeastern Thailand, has been the object of a border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia for more than six decades. The inscription of the temple as Cambodian world heritage site by the UNESCO in July 2008 has provoked an escalation of this conflict which has slowed only down in recent years, following the a reinterpretation by the International Court of Justice in November 2013 of its earlier – heavily contested – judgment of 15 June 1962. This presentation analyses how the ruins of long-abandoned temple whose very existence was recognised by the ruling elites in Bangkok and Phnom Penh only 120 years ago could become an archaeological site arousing nationalist sentiments among the peoples of Cambodia and Thailand.

Abstract

Keywords

• Archaeology
• Climate
• Environment