As you may already know, the legendary Queen Himiko (卑弥呼) and her kingdom, Yamatai-koku (邪馬台国), play a central role in the new Tomb Raider game. But did you know that a few weeks ago, a group of researchers were granted access to a burial mound in Sakurai (桜井), Nara Prefecture, Japan, that may be the final resting place of this mysterious queen?
The community website GoKunming has published an interview with Dr. Anton Lustig, a Dutch linguist, Sinologist, and artist who is an expert on the Jingpo ethnic minority (景颇族) and is the only foreigner to have mastered Zaiwa (载瓦语), a Tibeto-Burman language spoken by some 100,000 people in Yunnan Province and neighbouring Myanmar.
In his interview, Dr. Lustig talks about his academic background, Jingpo cultural identity, the impact Jingpo culture has had on his art and music, and the efforts he and others have taken to protect and promote Zaiwa within Jingpo communities across Yunnan Province.
Another month has come and gone. Here were China Heritage Watch's top posts of February 2013:
Source: Su Yi (苏艺), Anhui News (中安在线)
Villagers in Longzi Lake District (龙子湖区), Bengbu (蚌埠), Anhui Province, discovered the remains of an ancient tomb by pure accident last weekend when they drained a pond in their area for farming purposes. The local cultural heritage department recovered a number of grey bricks from the site but have so far been unable to determine the age of the tomb.
Source: Qiao Xianjia (乔显佳), Qilu Evening News (齐鲁晚报)
Reporter Qiao Xianjia attended the 2012 Shandong Provincial Field Archaeology Conference, which was held in Jinan (济南) on the 21st and 22nd February 2013, and learned that the province is suffering from a shortage of qualified archaeologists and conservators as a result of the rising demand for their services.
Xie Zhixiu (谢治秀), Director of the Shandong Provincial Administration of Cultural Relics and Director of the Shandong Provincial Institute of Archaeology, told the assembly that there are currently around two million cultural artefacts in storage in museums across the province and a substantial number of these are in desperate need of restoration.
This week's video is about the Scottish Ten team's efforts to digitally document the Eastern Qing Tombs (清东陵) near Beijing using laser scanning technology. The purpose of the project is to digitally preserve the tombs for future generations to enjoy and provide heritage workers and researchers with the data they need to manage and study the site.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ZGjHUrB1Rd8
The Scottish Ten…
24 Hours in Shaoxing (Life on Nanchang Lu)
Fiona explains how to make the most of an overnight stay in Shaoxing (绍兴), Zhejiang Province.
China Attempts to Manufacture "Shangri-La" (MinnPost)
This three-part series looks at how the remote town of Zhongdian (中甸) in Yunnan Province was repackaged as China's very own "Shangri-La".
Chinese Coins and Bank Logos (Primal Trek)
Gary writes about the use of ancient Chinese coin symbols in Chinese bank logos.
The Contemporary China Centre at the University of Westminster is offering two Leverhulme Trust-funded MPhil/PhD Studentships for a three-year research project on "Conflicts in Cultural Value: Localities and Heritage in Southwestern China".
The studentships are for full-time study starting in September 2013 and include a fee waiver and maintenance grant (£15,600 per annum for Home/EU students, £8,100 per annum for Overseas students).
This week's video is of Professor Mark Elliott's lecture "Reinventing the Manchus: An Imperial People in Post-Imperial China", which he presented at the Australian National University in June 2012 as part of the university's George E. Morrison Lecture series. In it he discusses post-imperial Manchu history, gives a short history of the reinvention of the Manchus as a minority nationality following the birth of the People's Republic, and ponders the future of Manchu cultural identity and its implications for the development of a single, unified Chinese nation state.
NOTE: Part One of this article can be found here.
Excavations of the houses built alongside Miran's northern city wall revealed that some of their occupants took advantage of their surroundings by carving alcoves or small granaries out of the thick city wall and using cowhide as wall coverings. Dang Zhihao (党志豪), a researcher from the Xinjiang Institute of Archaeology…
