{"id":58099,"date":"2023-02-26T14:53:15","date_gmt":"2023-02-26T19:53:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=58099"},"modified":"2023-02-26T14:53:15","modified_gmt":"2023-02-26T19:53:15","slug":"diversification-of-proto-austronesian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=58099","title":{"rendered":"Diversification of Proto-Austronesian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Important archeological news from Tainan<\/a>:<\/p>\r\n

South Taiwan park renovation project paused after archaeological artifacts unearthed<\/a><\/p>\r\n

\u00a0Artifact pieces belonging to neolithic Niuchouzi Culture<\/a> discovered, date back to 3000-4500 years ago.<\/p>\r\n

By Stephanie Chiang, Taiwan News (2\/26\/23)<\/p>\r\n

Finds include \"orange-colored pottery made of fine sand-bearing rope patterns, polished hoe-axes, polished adze-chisels, and shell mounds.\"<\/div>\r\n

The nature of this culture is intriguing in that one of its most distinctive features is the red cord-marked pottery that has been found at the Wangliao archeological site in Tainan\u2019s Yongkang park.<\/p>\r\n

The dating roughly corresponds to the estimated beginning of the diversification of Proto-Austronesian<\/a> (PAN \/ PAn).<\/p>\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

That in itself is enough to attract my attention, but I'm also curious about why cord-marked pottery appeared in various cultures around the world at roughly the same time-depth and is often associated with particular language horizons.<\/p>\r\n

Cord-marked pottery<\/b><\/a><\/p>\r\n

In Japan, the J\u014dmon period<\/a> is named after its cord-marked* pottery. The term Jomon<\/a> was coined by Edward S. Morse who discovered corded ware at the Omori site in 1867. In Taiwan, the Fengpitou (\u9cf3\u9f3b\u982d) culture, characterized by fine red cord-marked pottery, was found in Penghu<\/a> and the central and southern parts of the western side of the island, and a culture with similar pottery occupied the eastern coastal areas. Archaeologically, the prehistory of Taiwan can be subdivided into at least four major cultural sequences. From earliest to most recent, these are the Changpin culture, Tapenkeng culture (coarse corded ware culture), fine corded ware culture (red cord-marked ware culture), and the proto-historical culture. There were also the eastern cord-marked cultures of eastern, central, and southern Taiwan. Pottery of the Suntangpu culture consists mainly of jars, bowls, and basins. Three main kinds of pottery: reddish sandy pottery, orange sandy pottery, and orange clay pottery, are recognized from these red cord-marked wares. Reddish Sandy pottery characterized by red coatings and dominant pyroxene tempers is considered most characteristic of Suntangpu culture. Micro-Raman spectroscopy, XRD, and SEM-EDX can be used on corded Ware pottery to unravel mineralogical composition and can also be specifically used on red cord-marked pottery to help determine whether the same raw materials were used in the red coatings and ceramic bodies by ancient Potters.<\/p>\r\n

*j\u014dmon \u7e04\u6587 (\"a straw-rope pattern\")<\/p>\r\n

J\u014dmon period<\/a><\/p>\r\n

J\u014dmon people<\/a><\/p>\r\n

Corded Ware culture<\/b><\/a><\/p>\r\n

The Corded Ware culture<\/b>* comprises a broad archaeological horizon<\/a> of Europe<\/a> between ca.\u00a03000 BC\u00a0\u2013 2350 BC, thus from the late Neolithic<\/a>, through the Copper Age<\/a>, and ending in the early Bronze Age<\/a>. Corded Ware culture encompassed a vast area, from the contact zone<\/a> between the Yamnaya culture<\/a> and the Corded Ware culture in south Central Europe, to the Rhine<\/a> on the west and the Volga<\/a> in the east, occupying parts of Northern Europe<\/a>, Central Europe<\/a> and Eastern Europe<\/a>. The Corded Ware culture is thought to have originated from the westward migration of Yamnaya-related people from the steppe-forest zone into the territory of late Neolithic European cultures such as the Globular Amphora<\/a> and Funnelbeaker<\/a> cultures, and is considered to be a likely vector for the spread of many of the Indo-European languages<\/a> in Europe and Asia<\/p>\r\n

*German: Schnurkeramik-Kultur<\/i><\/p>\r\n

People, ideas, goods, and languages travel across the globe.\u00a0 They all have agency, a word that I have probably never before used in an academic sense.<\/p>\r\n

I am learning.<\/p>\r\n

 <\/p>\r\n

Selected readings<\/b><\/p>\r\n