68 2 AMERICAN ANTHROPOLOGIST [77,1975]

al. for the term city, which certainly will not satisfy all scholars, deals mainly with public works, services, and functions. After an essay on Tepe Yahya, Iran, they back-track into prehistory to Jericho and Gatal Huyuk. Both, by their definition, are cities. There is no argument from me concerning Catal Huyuk, a t least. The final two chapters deal with Uruk in Mesopotamia and Mohenjo- Daro in the Indus Valley. Both of these chapters contain some magnificent photo- graphs, and the text and pictures convey very well some aspects of the life styles of the inhabitants of these two early cities.

I think that, for many reasons, these volumes, while readable, are not particularly good for classroom use. Editors of Time- Life, I ask, to what section(s) of the public are they aimed? If they are meant for introductory courses, several problems arise. Because of the diffuseness of The First Farmers, a summary statement of more than one paragraph is necessary. Such a summary would also have been helpful for The First Cities. Even if a professional or a lecturer might be well aware of what the authors were attempting to depict in their narrative of humanitys achievements and experi- ences (Hamblin et al. p. 144), the texts themselves are not so constructed as to be successful to the beginning student. Also, because of the narrow topical range in each volume in the whole series, too many of them would be necessary to cover success- fully all the subject matter of the general World Prehistory Survey type of course. The two volumes reviewed here might be useful for about three of the fourteen weeks. Up to a dozen, at $4.00 a volume, would be required.

For the higher level student, there is too much condensation of material and a lack of theoretical orientation. The volumes are best described as narratives and the explanations of the major evolutionary changes are handled poorly. For example, the city sprang into prominence so quickly and so fully realized because it was so suited to human needs, write Hamblin et al. (p. 9). Further, both bibliographies cite only works - . in English.

I offer these criticisms for the editors of this series or others planned like it. These are not bad books, but for whom are they designed? Obviously, a textbook market is different from other markets. As designed, this series cannot satisfy the demands we, as teachers. make on our textbooks.

Ancient China. JOHN HAY. New York: Henry Z. Walck, 1974. 128 pp., plates,

figures, map, photographs, suggested read- ing, index. $8.95 (cloth).

Reviewed by RICHARD PEARSON University of British Columbia

Ancient China provides the reader with a fascinating popular account, suitable for all levels above junior high school, of the history of Chinese archaeology, and estab- lishes a context for appreciating the new finds reported since 1972. The book is most useful as an introduction, along with others, in courses in Asian studies, anthropology, and archaeology, because it strikes a happy middle level in terms of detail and explana- tion. I have found it good as a starter for students going on to more technical sum- maries or site reports, and also as reading for participants in public lecture series who have read popular accounts by writers from the Peoples Republic of China. The author mentions the political role of archaeology in China, but does not elaborate enough to be genuinely useful in this regard.

Following a historical introduction, the author divides the subject matter into nine sections dealing with the progression of Chinese culture history, covering the Paleo- lithic, the Neolithic, Shang oracle bones, Shang cities, Chou Feudalism, Chu and Tien, Han Burials, Buddhism, and the Imperial Tombs of the Tang. Each of these presents a birds-eye view of earlier dis- coveries with recent finds.

As with any general book, the specialist may not be satisfied on all fronts. In my own case, I found the Neolithic section weak. It lacks an inter-disciplinary approach. For instance, the author describes the periodic increases of arboreal pollen at Pan Po Tsun as evidence of ignorance of soil conservation which may have led periodical- ly to bad crops (p. 43). This is a very strange way to describe the long fallow strategy used by early farmers on the loess deposits. The author omits radiocarbon chronology entirely, with the exception of a rough date for Pan Po, and makes the whole story sound as if everything of consequence happened in North China. Yang Shao is dramatized and highlighted, while Lung Shan is played down. We know that the Yangtze region was an important location for the domestication of a wide variety of cultigens as early as the fourth and third millennia B.C., and Yunnan may also have been significant. Similarly the archaeology of Manchuria and Liaoning, and the endur- ing contribution in this area of the Japanese through such reports as Yang-tou-wa, Chih Feng, and Mu Cheng, are written off in a sentence.

ARCHAEOLOGY 683

Although I do not follow the work of later periods so closely, I feel that the author is on firmer ground in dealing with art historical material of the Han and Tang.

The publication makes use of drawings and photographs which are usually inferior to those of recent issues of Kao Ku or Wen Wu, or the catalogs of the Paris and London exhibitions (all of which are cheaper, by the way). Despite these shortcomings, I feel that John Hay has done an admirable job in extending the exposition of Chinese archae- ology to an eager audience in a way which is clear and effective. More of us should be attempting this difficult task of writing for interested but non-professional groups in all areas of archaeology.

South Asian Archaeology. NORMAN HAM- MOND, ed. Foreword by Sir Mortimer Wheeler. Papers from the First International Conference of South Asian Archaeologists held in the University of Cambridge. Park Ridge, NJ: Noyes, 1973. xii + 308 pp., figures, maps, photographs, tables, refer- ences, index. $20.00 (cloth).

Reviewed by GREGORY L. POSSEHL University of Pennsylvania

This book contains twenty-one papers originally read during the First International Conference of South Asian Archaeologists at Cambridge University in 1971. As the books editor notes in his preface, this volume can be considered the first number of a journal since it is intended that these conferences continue.

South Asian Archaeology contains papers on topics as diverse as prehistoric climate and numismatics. The ordering of papers is basically by chronological period, but begins with an overview of problems in South Asian archaeology by F. R. Allchin. Here Allchin rather consistently stresses the need for archaeologists in this region to maintain the empirical tradition of the discipline while addressing problems such as the emergence of the Late Stone Age or the origins of the Harappan Civilization.

The following notes on each paper are ordered as they appear in the book (or jour- nal) so as to give the reader a sense of its organization.

Following Allchins introductory paper Gudrun Corvinus has an interesting discus- sion of her Acheulean workshop site of Chirki on the Pravara River. This is one of the few sites in India with Lower Stone Age material in a context other than redeposited river gravels. A. Goudie, a geomorphologist, then presents data from Rajasthan which

supports the hypothesis that during the first half of the Holocene the Thar desert was larger than present and that there was less rainfall than present in western India. Bridget Allchin, with whom Goudie is cur- rently working, then presents an illustrated article with evidence for a blade and burin stone tool tradition from several sites in western India and Pakistan. This industry apparantly marks a transition between the Middle Stone Age and the microlithic Late Stone Age in the Sub-continent. A similar theme is developed for South East Asia by 1. C. Glover. Of particular interest here is his comparison of the mainland and island industries. Two papers on the Indus Civiliza- tion offer the reader an overview of Harappan agriculture which is especially valuable for its discussion of irrigation (L. S. Leshnik) and second, insights into the important Harappan site at Kalibangan (B. K. Thapar). Rafaello Biscione and Marcello Piperno each present their views of two problems emerging from the Italian excava- tions a t Shahr-i-Sokhta. Bisciones paper is a discussion, in a broad geographic setting, of the important ceramic type called Quetta Ware while Piperno focuses on ancient drill- ing technology and seal making at Shahr-i- Sokhta. Klaus Fishers report on survey in Afghanistan must be considered an impor- tant reference for settlement pattern studies in that region, especially for the historical periods. A dendrochronologically corrected radiocarbon calendar for the Harappan Civil- ization is then presented by George F. Dales. The significance of this paper lies in the fact that the disparity between uncorrected Harappan carbon-14 dates and the Akkadian context of most items of Indus derivation in Mesopotamia has now been reconciled. J. M. Casal has a short but informative progress report on the important early Iron Age site of Pirak in the central Indus Valley. This is followed by the first publication of four prehistoric sites in the Bolan Pass near Pirak, by Casals associates J. F. Enault and J. F. Jarrige. Georgio Staculs report on the first and second millennium B.C. grave complex in Northern Pakistan will be of interest to those unfamiliar with this material.

The remaining papers are more art his- torical in nature. Again the themes are diverse: Maurizio Taddei on a piece of eighth century A.D. sculpture from Afghanistan; David MacDowell on numismatics in North- west Pakistan; J. C. Harle discusses the Kushana/Gupta problem; David Whitehouse on ninth century Chinese stoneware from the securely dated site of Shiraf on the Persian Gulf; J. E. van Lohuizen-de Leeuw offers an interesting overview of recent