LONG-DISTANCE OBSIDIAN TRANSPORT IN PREHISTORIC NORTHEAST ASIA

Long distance transport.

A few years ago, I attended a 1-day symposium on long distance transport at a national meeting in a country abroad. Towards the end of the day, as the participants became tired and no general agreement was in sight, one observer from an allied discipline remarked, "Why can't you translocation workers make any progress, you still discuss the same miserable old models that were proposed 40 years ...

Geopolitical Issues of Natural Gas Trade in Northeast Asia

 This work was supported by the Academy of Korean Studies of the Republic of Korea in year 2012-2013 (AKS-2010-CAA-2101) Energy security has assumed newfound geopolitical importance at the outset of XXI century (Moran and Russell, 2008). Diminishing fossil fuel supplies have led to fears of energy shortages, while rapid economic and population growth have fuelled the demand for cheap, clean and...

Northeast Asia Ripe for Integration

Long distance trinket trade: Early Bronze Age obsidian from the Negev

The discovery of three small obsidian flakes at the Camel Site in the central Negev, Israel, constitutes the first discovery of obsidian in Early Bronze Age contexts in the Negev and Sinai. Obsidian hydration analysis and X-ray microprobe analysis confirm the association of the artifacts with the site and the period, and indicate origins in Eastern Anatolia, in significant contrast to the exclu...

Prospects for Economic Cooperation in Northeast Asia

In contrast to developments in other world regions, efforts to institutionalize regional economic cooperation in East Asia have been weak. Though Southeast Asian economies have taken action toward trade liberalization (ASEAN Free Trade Area), the major economies of the region such as China, Japan and Korea have not been part of any formal trade groupings until recently. Ongoing economic coopera...