Subject Motifs and Recurrences of Eurasian Cultures
Vitaly L. Ivanov, Irina G. Ivannikova

There are subject (besides ornamental ones) motifs in gold and silver ware common for the most Eurasian cultures. These are in particular a pomegranate flower, woman’s contours, Buddha in lotus, etc.

Also there is certain cyclic recurrence in human genesis accordingly with which for instance woman in different periods of her life should have different sets of jewelry. These sets may be called wedding jewelry.

National Research Institute for Cultural Properties in Japan - working title
Susumu MORIMOTO, National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, Nara

National Research Institute for Cultural Properties in Japan has engaged in cooperative research and conservation work in the Bamiyan Valley, Afghanistan, with the Afghan authorities since 2003.  This work is a part of the safeguarding project of the Bamiyan site funded by the UNESCO/Japanese Funds-in-Trust. 

There are regions in the world in which no detailed topographical maps exist for archaeological survey.  Bamiyan is such a place.  For Bamiyan, a satellite image is the only choice for field research.  In Bamiyan Valley, several field surveys depend on such satellite imagery. 

A geo-tiff image has coordinate data in the file and can easily be put into GIS, but the coordinate data deviates from the precise measurements made through a GPS.  To solve this problem one has to re-measure the key points in each satellite image. On-site measurement requires much time and money, so provisional use of the coordinate data of the satellite image is also permissible. 

National Research Institute for Cultural Properties in Japan has excavated 3 areas in the valley.  All the features are recorded with the exact coordination.  Before the excavation, we performed the geo-physical survey using a ground-penetrating radar system.  This data will be integrated in GIS for further study.

Monies, Markets and Finance in China and East Asia, 1600-1900: Local, Regional, National and International Dimensions: Cartography and GIS-based Analyses
Hans-Joachim Rosner, Department of Geography, University of Tuebingen

In the research group "Monies, Markets and Finance in China and East Asia, 1600-1900: Local, Regional, National and International Dimensions," a massive amount of archival documents concerning mining and transport of monetary metals will be analysed. The creation of a database containing data on mining areas, mainly in Yunnan and Sichuan
(copper, zinc, tin) and Guizhou (zinc, copper) and on transport of metals to the capital and provincial mints throughout the Qing Empire was started in 2004. The quantity of data calls for cartographic and statistical analysis. The information on mining, refining, and transport of the metals yields sufficient data for electronic analyses by way of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to be used. This will help to analyse and visualise the transport process in general and to make component maps for individual provinces, transport routes, and river segments both in spatial and temporal terms. By this means our understanding of the integral transportation process and further analysis of the sources will be substantially enhanced.

Source Study Aspect of Mapping the Monuments of Old Turkic Script Steppe Zone
Dimitry D. Vasilyev

Old Turkic runic inscriptions on stone facilities in Central Asia and South Siberia being both written and archaeological monuments give opportunity to use different methods of their study. In general methods of text study of any epigraphical study coincides with a study of any other written source. At the same time the monumental character of installations bearing epitaphs allow the scholar to localize, map and date them, to compare these data with those of the texts of a single inscription or of a group of inscriptions.

There were few cases of historical and philological interpreting of groups of ancient Turkic sources that could be spatially united. However generalizations and correlations of texts of short inscriptions permit to use them as a source in a more complete way. The most of the known monuments bearing Old Turkic epitaphs at the moment are concentrated in the museums collections. Data of the museum certificates and editions pointed at the circumstances and places of finding of each monument. In the process of localizing these data certain groups of monuments could be defined that could be ascribed to the certain burial ground, certain valley or some other zone that had distinct natural boundaries. Mapping the monuments with epitaphs was complicated by the fact that they joined the museum collections within the whole century, were carried often by amateur students of local lore hence there was no exact data on places of their finding.

Stereotyped base of Old Turkic epitaphs permits to use for their study the method of formalization of written monuments of mass type.

The texts of Old Turkic epitaphs were rare analyzed by means of mutual comparison as a group of sources united in chronological and geographical ways. More often the data about a certain event were obtained from one – two sources and these data were compared with that by foreign authors. Thus the main part of the data of the inscriptions themselves remained beyond the limits of source criticism.

The field archaeographic studies permitted to determine for the South Siberian epitaphs which of them could be united in groups on territorial ground. Textual study of these groups gave additional base for their integration. Thus mapping Old Turkic stone inscriptions permitted to group texts containing complementary historical data on chiefs of Turkic tribes inhabiting the periphery of nomadic empire that ranged in 6 – 8 centuries from Pacific till Eastern Europe.