Kuma, O, Chu, O

The title shows those initials of the places where I went (like names of universities).

I went to Kumamoto (JAPANESE) to present my research results from November 6th, came back to Osaka to prepare my sampling tools on later 8th, and conducted my surveys in Chuo University from 9th to 11th. Before coming back to Osaka, I went to Chiba to see the special exhibition.

At the 24th conference of Japanese Association of Historical Botany, the public symposium was conducted from the afternoon on 7th. After presenting new research results about plant cultivation and domestication in Japanese Archipelago, a lively discussion from various standpoints was conducted.

Regarding all of presentations, I can get recent research results on various topics during the two-day conference.

In Chuo University, I took residue samples from 29 handstones at the Ideuenohara site (JAPANESE) in Fukushima Prefecture as well as taking samples from a handstone and a stone slab at the other archaeological site for my ancient starch analysis. Those samples were a little bit bigger than my analysing capacity...

I'm looking forward to seeing these samples.

The special exhibition conducted by National Museum of Japanese History shows recent research results about the beginning of the Jomon culture. In one corner, you can see familiar diagrams and photos at some conferences. This exhibition will be opened until January 24th in 2010.

Submitted my PhD thesis!

Today I've just submitted my PhD thesis.

The title is "Plant food processing and using in early Japan: theory, method, and applications of ancient starch analysis". Finally, over 5 years after starting ancient starch analysis in Japan, I completed my research results.

By the way, I've not prepared my presentation at the meeting in Kumamoto (Japanese Association of Historical Botany).

Approaches to landscapes

Yesterday, I attended at the meeting of the Oumi Kaidzuka Kenkyukai (JAPANESE). The main topic is "landscapes in archaeology". There were two presentations on interactions between villages and subsistence strategy in early-modern Hida, and cultural landscapes in Oceania.

These are not archaeobotany directly, but I found archaeological stimulation in discussions with the members.

Ancient starch in China

Today I read the following paper. It discusses about starch residues on archaeological stone tools.

• Yang, XiaoYan, JinCheng Yu, HouYuan Lü, TianXing Cui, JingNing Guo, and QuanSheng Ge. 2009. Starch grain analysis reveals function of grinding stone tools at Shangzhai site, Beijing. Science in China Series D: Earth Sciences 52 (8): 1164-1171.

Archaeological discoveries of ancient starch

The newest version of the map shows archaeological discoveries of ancient starch (black circle). Recent reports seem to be mainly conducted in Central America.