DAE Projects

Humans have continued to shape the landscape of Central Asia since the fourth millennium B.C., clearing land for herd pastures, opening up river valleys for farming, and harvesting wood resources for fuel and lumber. The biotic landscapes of Central Asia are a direct artifact of prehistoric humans, and these anthropogenic ecosystems illustrate part of the story of the Silk Road. more

The late first millennium B.C. across Inner Asia is usually considered a period when highly specialized nomads first appear. However, new scholarship is showing that during this period, the region of eastern Central Asia actually underwent a process of increasing sedentism and intensifying farming pursuits. In studying this process, we are exploring links between the intensification of agriculture and social implications. more

Caves and rock shelters have attracted humans for hundreds of thousands of years. The well-preserved sediments within these natural time capsules provide detailed environmental, paleontological, and archaeological information. more

The popular image of Inner Asia as the realm of the horse-back warrior nomads has permeated the academic literature for nearly a century. This project studies the generally accepted image of a nomad culture and the roots of the first farmers of Central Asia. more

The long Japanese island chain in the north-western Pacific is characterised by diverse environments and climatic conditions. Fundamental cultural changes induced by newcomer populations from the Asian continent occurred during the 1st millennium BCE. With its numerous archaeological sites, Japan is an excellent place to employ archaeobotany to study how complex hunter-gatherers made use of various plants and subsistence strategies. more

The primary objective of this project is to gain insights about economic plants in the first millennium AD in response to cultural practices and environment. more

The Prunus species is one of the most economically important tree taxa. This project will approach determining Prunus domestication by incorporating archaeological remains to create a temporal and geographical link to ancient Prunus cultivation. more

Taiwan is considered a key region for prehistoric cultural dispersal across Asia, although many aspects regarding its role in this process remain obscure. This project aims to generate detailed long-term and directly dated archaeobotanical records from Taiwan based on systematic analysis of plant macroremains from cultural layers of different archaeological sites. more