Yu-chun Kan
I am interested in daily practice in the past and the roles of different humans and nonhumans played in various technological systems. My current research investigates how cooking transformed as well as had been transformed under a large social process, especially in periods of great changes, such as urbanization, creation of regional networks or social differentiation. I would consider food preparation as a complex ‘technological system’, composed of heterogeneous human and non-human, material and immaterial elements. By analyzing the ‘chaîne opératoire’ of food preparation while paying attention to the involved agencies of all the things, beings, labour and power, the transforming process could be studied archaeologically.
Methodologically my PhD project aims to explore the potential of the ‘micro-archaeology of food’ in prehistoric East and Southeast Asia. By observing the microstructures of charred food remains under SEM, it is possible to identify different cooking technologies such as boiling or steaming. Instead of providing a list of botanical species consumed by people, I would focus more on various cooking methods of plant food. I am now collecting experimental and ethnoarchaeological food referential data for comparison with archaeological samples from Northern China, Taiwan, and Northeast Thailand.
Another project I have been carrying on since undergrad is to look at ceramic technologies through petrography in addition to relevant clay preparation experiments. Through looking into the technological nuances, I try to discuss the complexity of clay preparation techniques and other social dynamics in Neolithic Taiwan.
I am also devoted to community archaeology and public archaeological outreaches. How heritage and ideas about the past are entangled with constructing identities, paving the way to modern ideological discourses is an important issue in East Asia. I am particularly interested in how archaeological research can contribute to present decolonization struggles and other pursuits in social justice.
Supervisors: Dorian Fuller and Yijie Zhuang
Methodologically my PhD project aims to explore the potential of the ‘micro-archaeology of food’ in prehistoric East and Southeast Asia. By observing the microstructures of charred food remains under SEM, it is possible to identify different cooking technologies such as boiling or steaming. Instead of providing a list of botanical species consumed by people, I would focus more on various cooking methods of plant food. I am now collecting experimental and ethnoarchaeological food referential data for comparison with archaeological samples from Northern China, Taiwan, and Northeast Thailand.
Another project I have been carrying on since undergrad is to look at ceramic technologies through petrography in addition to relevant clay preparation experiments. Through looking into the technological nuances, I try to discuss the complexity of clay preparation techniques and other social dynamics in Neolithic Taiwan.
I am also devoted to community archaeology and public archaeological outreaches. How heritage and ideas about the past are entangled with constructing identities, paving the way to modern ideological discourses is an important issue in East Asia. I am particularly interested in how archaeological research can contribute to present decolonization struggles and other pursuits in social justice.
Supervisors: Dorian Fuller and Yijie Zhuang
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對比沉降、濕篩、乾篩、混土、摻和砂與碎陶等不同方式處理的實驗試片後，發現出土數量最多、年代距今 1700-1900 B.P.年前的印紋泥質陶，可能使用了經過沉降以及「濕—濕混土」過的細緻異質陶土，夾砂陶則是在與泥質陶類似的陶土配方上加入摻和料，凸顯「混合」過程在定義當時陶胎物質性的重要性。另一批分布於遺址西南側邊緣較低海拔處、年代或許相對偏早的泥質陶（2800-2700 B.P.），則可見到另一種疑似經過乾篩的陶胎組織。至於年代更早、推測距今4000年左右的繩紋紅陶，則展現不同的異質胎土樣貌，推測經過「乾—濕混土」過程，很可能與同時期的夾砂陶共享類似的「摻和」邏輯。
Petrography provides not only clues for provenance studies, but more importantly, insight into past human-thing relationship demonstrated in the processes of clay preparation from the perspective of materiality. Building on a previous case study of Hutoushankongyuan (HTSKY), this study finds great diversity in paste and particle granulometry under a polarized microscope, despite the simple vessel typology and similar clay sources near the site. By comparing the inter-relationships among paste characteristics, typological attributes and archaeological contexts, this article attempts to discuss how various paste materialities were defined and produced across time.
Experimental briquettes as reference samples were prepared by several techniques, including settling, wet-sieving, dry-sieving, clay mixing, sand tempering, and grog tempering. A comparison of these samples and the thin section of HTSKY sherds suggests that numerous wares at the Hutoushankongyuan site were made with heterogeneous clay. The fine-paste, impressed ware dated to 1900-1700 B.P. might have been prepared with settled and "moist-moist mixed" clay. The contemporaneous coarse sand-tempered ware shared similar basic clay with crushed or ground tempers added, indicating the importance of ‘mixing’ in defining paste materiality. Some earlier fine ware (2800-2700 B.P.) discovered on the south-western margin of the site exhibits another paste preparation technique, likely the dry-sieving method. The cord-marked red pottery dated to approximately 4000 years ago demonstrates yet another kind of heterogeneous paste produced by "dry-moist mixing" technique, sharing a similar logic of ‘tempering’ as the coarse sand-tempered wares from the same period.