Past Events

2021/10/22 Friday

16:00-17:30

2021/11/25 Thursday

16:00-17:30

2021/12/17 Friday

16:00-17:30

Flesh of the gods: Over 4,000 years of goldmining in the Eastern Desert of Egypt and Sudan (Conducted in English)
Speaker: Dr. Julien Cooper (Lecturer, Research Centre for History and Culture [Beijing Normal University - Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College])
Moderator: Dr. M. Kuznetsova-Fetisova (Junior Researcher, Department of Ancient Orient, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences)

Summary (Recorded by Lan Qian):
Julien Cooper博士指出埃及人迷戀黃金，源於黃金是「諸神之肉身」（“flesh of the gods” ）的信仰。Cooper博士利用豐富的文獻資料和最新的野外考古數據，介紹了蘇丹東部沙漠採礦史的重要分期，包括古王國時期（Old Kingdom，約公元前2700年—公元前2200年）、中王國時期（Middle Kingdom，約公元前2000年）和新王國時期（New Kingdom，約公元前1500年—公元前1050年）。
該講座圍繞著黃金原產地、採礦對象、黃金開採產業的運作方式及採礦者面臨的挑戰此四大問題展開。古埃及絕大部分的黃金財富源於埃及和蘇丹東部沙漠中遠離尼羅河的礦場，來自埃及、努比亞的採礦隊、當地遊牧民在這片廣闊沙漠中開採黃金，不得不面對水資源匱乏等極其艱難的自然條件。黃金產業中出現的黃金監督員（“overseer of the hill-countries of gold”）、計量測定者（“reckoners/counters of gold”）等職業，不同利益團體政治上的衝突與合作，促進了黃金開採產業的運作機制和長途運輸。

2022/1/21 Friday

19:00-20:30

Summary (Recorded by Pang Kun):
史亞當（A. C. Schwartz）教授的講座China’s earliest dreams（最早的中國夢）介紹了對甲骨文中商代王室占卜中的夢境的研究。通過分析夢境的主體、對象，以及受夢境影響而採取的行動，並對這些內容進行分類，研究討論了因夢境而產生的負面情緒對做夢者的影響，並討論了記憶如何鞏固人的「志」，以及「志」對克服絕望的重要性。甲骨文中夢境的對象多種多樣，包括動物、器物、疾病、行為、天氣以及人，而為甲骨文所記載的夢中的人，往往是做夢者認識的人，包括在世的配偶、子女、臣屬，以及已經過世的先公先王。夢境往往使做夢者產生負面的情緒——畏、憂等，他們因此擔心這個夢境會造成某種傷害，進而對現實的決策產生疑慮。而占卜，在這種情況下，就成為了一種「決疑」的手段。講座還分析了傳世和出土文獻中其他對夢境和占夢的記載，並從中總結了占夢的流程。

2022/2/18 Friday

17:00-18:30

Early exchange networks in Bronze Age Eurasia: Communication between archaeological cultures in Siberia and China during the II millennium BC (Conducted in English)

Dr. M. Kuznetsova-Fetisova (Junior Researcher, Department of Ancient Orient, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences)

The II millennium BC marked a transition between the Neolithic and the Chalcolithic periods in East Asia. At the end of this millennium there appeared a civilization with sophisticated social and political structures, a highly developed writing system, and large-scale organized crafts, including bronze metallurgy. This remarkable progress was possible thanks to a mutual influence with other cultures. In my presentation I would like to discuss about these early exchanges and possible communication between North Asia and East Asia with particular focus on a few cultures: the Afanasievo culture (IV—III millennium BC), the Okunev culture (II millennium BC), the Seima-Turbino phenomenon (ca. 2300-1700 BC), the Sintashta-Petrovka culture (2050–1750 BCE) and the Karasuk culture (1500–800 BC).

2022/3

Date & Time to be announced

Language contact, multilingualism and global languages in the ancient world (Conducted in English)

Professor Carlotta Viti (Professor, Research Centre for History and Culture [Beijing Normal University - Beijing Normal University-Hong Kong Baptist University United International College])

This paper examines the development of language contact in the ancient word. Languages such as Latin and Hellenistic Greek, for example, can be considered as authentic global languages, especially in the Western and in the Eastern parts of the Ancient Mediterranean, respectively – with very different language policies. Besides, numerous other languages were spoken in these domains with widespread phenomena of language contact. Firstly, multilingualism is often attested between different languages, e.g. the bilingualism between Sumerian and Akkadian in the Fertile Crescent in the 3rdmillennium BCE, or the linguistic league of Anatolia in the 2ndmillennium BCE. Secondly, we may have different dialects of the same language, as can be seen in Archaic and Classical Greek. Thirdly, the very same language may show language variety and diglossia effects, as in the distinction of Eme-gir and Eme-Sal in Sumerian, the standard language and the women’s language. On the one hand, we will see how these linguistic phenomena may give us insights into the social and cultural traditions of ancient civilizations, which were much more heterogeneous than traditionally assumed. On the other, our analysis of multilingualism in antiquity can help us to solve some controversial questions about historical language contact.

2022/4

Date &Time to be announced

Tangut music: Secular and temple orchestras in Tangut-Chinese glossary of XIIth century Pearl in the Palm (Conducted in English)

Dr. Sergey Dmitriev (Senior Researcher, Department of China, Institute of Oriental Studies, Russian Academy of Sciences)

Tangut-Chinese glossary “An opportune Pearl in the Palm of Tangut and Chinese Languages” (Mi źạngwu ndzi̯e mbu pi̯ạ ngu ni̯e;Fan han he-shi zhang-zhong zhu) compiled and published in 1190 by a Tangut scholar Kwәlde-ri̯ephu is a book of absolutely exceptional importance for studying of Tangut language and culture.

«Pearl» is much more than a bilingual glossary. As is clearly explained in the glossary’s preface, “Pearl” was compiled by Kwәlde-ri̯ephu as an attempt to make a clear and genuine mirror of Tangut culture, presented to foreigner in its very different manifestations. That’s maybe the most concentratedquinta essentiaof Tangut world, which we still have to decipher, just like Tangut writing. So, every entry is very important and is chosen not just to make this glossary bigger – it was made on very considered purpose, even if sometimes we don’t know which exactly. Order of words is also important and should be analyzed.

We can try to see how it works on an example of musical instruments.

In the Glossary we can find a list of 15 musical instruments, forming a complete orchestra which was used by Tanguts on their feasts. This orchestra looks very close to court orchestras of Tang empire, many times depicted on the walls of Dunhuang caves, formed in the époque of a very powerful interference between China and Central Asia through the Silk Road, which survived only in Korea and Japan (Tagaku). Clearly in Tangut state this type of orchestra also survived much longer, then in China – may be Tangut were the last civilization of Silk Road region which conserved it.

Besides this purely secular orchestra we can find in thePearla list of 6 religious musical instruments, which, in clear difference with the first one, shows a strong impression of Tibet culture (strangely not so frequently seen in Tangut heritage in general).

In both cases Tangut terms shows in the same time a very high level of originality and deep absorption of many foreign instruments – good image of Tangut civilization, in the same time very genuine and very open to external influences.

2022/5

Date &Time to be announced

The eighth-century BCE Civil War in Jin as seen in the Bamboo Annals: The nature of the tomb-text and the significance for the “current” version (Conducted in English)

Professor Edward L. Shaughnessy (Creel Distinguished Service Professor of Early China in the Department of East Asian Languages and Civilizations of the University of Chicago, Advisory Board Member of the Hong Kong Baptist University Jao Tsung-I Academy of Sinology)

Du Yu 杜預 (222-284) of the Western Jin dynasty was an eye-witness of the Zhushu jinian 竹書紀年 Bamboo Annalsshortly after the bamboo-slips on which it was written were brought to the Jin capital in about 280. He provided the earliest description of the text’s contents, stating that the Eastern Zhou portion dealing with the state of Jin “began from Shangshu (784-781 BCE), and then proceeded through Wen Hou (780-746 BCE), Zhao Hou (745-740 BCE), until Zhuangbo of Quwo (730-716 BCE).” In this paper, I show that the tomb text was not arranged in this way at all, but rather began the Jin portion of the annals with Huanshu of Quwo (745-731 BCE), such that the Jin annals began with the reigns of the Quwo lords. Although the “Current” Bamboo Annals text for this period is dated in the years of the Zhou kings, Ping Wang (770-720 BCE) and Huan Wang (719-697 BCE), the records for Jin reflect the viewpoint of the Quwo lords, and thus presumably derive from the tomb text.

2022/6

Date &Time to be announced

Human migrations in the formation of early Chinese empires (Conducted in English)

Dr. Maxim Korolkov (AssistantProfessor, Institute of Chinese Studies, University of Heidelberg)

In ancient China as elsewhere, states did not simply occupy a given territory but actively engaged in the production of spaces by transforming landscapes, moving populations, and enacting territorial hierarchies. In the case of the early Chinese empires of Qin (221–207 BCE) and Han (202 BCE–220 CE), state-incentivized migration and settlement were the key instruments of military control, administrative incorporation, economic intensification, fiscal expansion, and other processes that instructed spatial distribution of the state power.
This talk utilizes transmitted texts, excavated documents, and archaeological evidence to explore the economic conditions and effects of migration and settlement in the early Chinese empires. While recognizing fundamental technological limitations on the organized relocation of large groups of people under premodern conditions, I argue that imperial human geographies were instructed by the natural and man-made environments in which they developed, thus depending heavily on the effects of state-sponsored migrations upon the broader flows of people, goods, and information.