[Talk] A Heap of Sherds, A Cache of Stories: Ceramics and Settlement Patterns in Myanmar | Peatixtag:peatix.com,2011:12018-11-20T12:56:09+08:00PeatixNUS Museum[Talk] A Heap of Sherds, A Cache of Stories: Ceramics and Settlement Patterns in Myanmartag:peatix.com,2018:event-3400762018-01-24T19:00:00SGT2018-01-24T19:00:00SGTA Heap of Sherds, A
Cache of Stories: Ceramics and Settlement Patterns in Myanmarwith Assoc Prof Goh Geok YianAssociate Chair (Research)School of HumanitiesNanyang Technological UniversityWednesday, 24 Jan 20187pm, NUS Museum
The study of settlement patterns, and in particular its link
to early urbanisation in premodern Myanmar, is poorly understood. Most
publications on early Burma, whether written in Burmese or English, focus on
architectural remains, including walls, inscriptions or other built features. Ceramics,
a type of material closely allied to settlement patterns, are underemphasised
in publications. Research has focused on few large sites, but little attempt
has been made to examine these sites’ relationships to each other. Examples of questions
which should be posed are: how were complexes of sites connected to one another
during a single period; how were they related diachronically? To this date no
systematic study has cross-examined sites by comparing their relative sizes,
the shapes of their settlement walls, their proximity to various resources, their
relative distance to one another, and, crucially, the artifacts and their distribution
within the sites.
This talk begins with a general discussion of examples of
settlement types in Myanmar at different periods. Comparative study of these sites and their relationship
to one another would provide insight into the development of Myanmar society,
especially of urbanism in Myanmar during the first half of the first millennium.
The second part of the talk discusses the important role ceramic studies plays in
understanding the significance of individual archaeological sites, and their relation
to other sites. The sites I consider were likely associated with one another through
complex networks, which could reveal the settlement patterns of sub-regions as
well as larger regions extending across Myanmar.
This talk is held in conjunction with the exhibition From the Ashes: Reviving Myanmar Celadon Ceramics. For more information about the exhibition, please click here.
About the speakerGoh Geok Yian is currently the Associate Chair (Research) and Associate
Professor of History at the School of Humanities, Nanyang Technological
University. She obtained her Ph.D. from the Department of History at the
University of Hawai`i at Manoa in 2007 and joined NTU in 2008 as an Assistant
Professor in the History minor programme. Her current research focuses on early
urbanisation and urban centers in Asia (especially the applicability of
theoretical models), analysis of ceramic artifacts from the Bagan palace sites
and Singapore archaeological sites, and Buddhism and pilgrimage sites in
Southeast Asia. Goh’s recent publications include Bagan and the World: Early Myanmar and Its Global Connections
(2017) (co-edited with John Miksic and Michael Aung-Thwin), Ancient Southeast Asia (2016) (with John
Miksic), and The Wheel-turner and His
House: Kingship in a Buddhist Ecumene (2015).Updatestag:peatix.com,2018-01-15 04:22:052018-01-15 04:22:05The event description was updated. Diff#307994