Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contextualizing an archaeology of Asia / Miriam Stark -- Some national, regional, and political uses of archaeology in East and Southeast Asia / Ian Glover -- Archaeology in the two Koreas / Sarah Nelson -- Self-identification in the modern and post-modern world and archaeological research : a case study from Japan / Koji Mizoguchi -- East Asian plant domestication / Gary Crawford -- Asian farming diasporas? : agriculture, languages, and genes in China and Southeast Asia / Peter Bellwood -- Early communities in East Asia : economic and sociopolitical organization at the local and regional levels / Anne Underhill and Junko Habu -- Sociopolitical change from Neolithic and Bronze Age China / Li Liu and Xingcan Chen -- Marks and labels : early writing in Neolithic and Shang China / David N. Keightley -- Secondary state formation and the development of local identity : change and continuity in the state of Qin (770-221 BC) / Gideon Shelach and Yuri Pines -- Frontiers and boundaries : the Han Empire from its southern periphery / Francis Allard -- States on horseback : the rise of inner Asian confederations and empires / William Honeychurch and Chunag Amartuvshin -- Historicizing foraging in Asia : power, history, and ecology of Holocene hunting and gathering / Kathleen Morrison -- The axial age in Asia : the archaeology of Buddhism (500 BC-AD 500) / Himanshu Ray -- Imperial landscapes of South Asia / Carla Sinopoli.