Dr. Goroenenburg,
 
Your question concerning historical archaeology is Asia is a good one! We
historical archaeologists have largely ignored that part of the world. I
was a Fulbright fellow in India in 1980 and I returned to do ethnographic
research in 1982. In both instances I can remember being impressed by the
tons of Chinese, Arabic, Persian and European ceramics and glass lying
casually around the ground at places like Hyderabad and Madras. The
Archaeological Survey of India has its headquarters for the southern
region in a late 17th-c Fort (St. George) that was the center of British
mercantilism in South India, but the archaeologists there are all
interested in paleolithic, neolithic, iron age and medieval sites.
 
There have been a couple VOC ship wrecks which are directly
applicable...such as tyhe Geldenmassen, but I'll let nautical
arcvhaeologists on this list address those more knowledgeably. The only
major excavation of the period I know of has been at Vijayanagara, the
capital of the south Indian kingdom which held out longest and most
ferociously against the imperialism of both the Moguls and the Europeans.
There are impressive ruins and sites at Macassar and Malacca, but I don't
think anyone has touched them. And then there is the core of Batavia
(Jakarta) just waiting for some spectacular urban archaeology. All in all,
we have not yet really tapped that end of the world system that emerged in
the 16th and 17th centuries.
 
Oh, I should mention that Chinese porcelains have been reported from a
number of sites in Sarawak, including as grave goods in an Iban "boat
burial" up in an interior cave site. I think these may relate more to
China trade directly with SE Asia (the prehistoric Ibans apparently
provided things like precious birds nests for mandarins), rather than to
the world trade, but I suspect some of these sites, especially coastal
ones, are relevant to emerghing mercantilism of the period of interest.
These finds have been reported as incidals in sites excavated by those
primarily interested in prehistory, but in some cases the materials are
reported in considerable detail.
 
Sorry, not much to go on here, but the future is wide open.
 
Dan Mouer
Virginia Commonwealth University
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http://saturn.vcu.edu/~dmouer/homepage.htm
 
On Mon, 17 Nov 1997, Gronenborn wrote:
 
> Good day everybody,
>
> I will be teaching an introductory course to Historical Archaeology at the
> University of Bamberg in Germany - the first course of this kind ever to be
> taught in Central Europe.
>
> I want to focus on the early European Expansion during the 16th & 17th cent
> with a worldwide approach. Therefore, does anybody know of such sites in
> East Asia or the Pacific region ?
>
> Also, as only very few books (text books included) are available in Germany
> on Hist Arch I am currently upstocking my library and am interested in
> obtaining some of the standard books. Obviously I would like to keep prices
> down... any help with this ?
>
> Thank you very much in advance,
>
> D. Gronenborn
> *******************************************************
> Dr. Detlef Gronenborn
>
> University of Florida
> Department of Anthropology
> 1350 Turlington Hall            (001) 352-392-4620
> Gainesville, FL 32611-7305      [log in to unmask]
> USA
>