Archive for the ‘Ancient Asia’ Category
By: The Scribe on October, 2007
During the pre-Meiji era in ancient Japan, the term “Kugyo” was used to refer to a group of the most powerful men of influence in the court of the Emperor. The group typically contained only three or four men at one time, and each came from a background of extensive experience that had brought them to this ‘pinnacle’ of his entire life’s work. They were also hereditary courtiers, and each held one of four specific offices.
The Sadaijin was the “Minister of the Left”, and as the Senior Minister of the State, he oversaw all the branches of the state and had the Udaijin as deputy. Within the State Department – or, Daijo-kan – his position was second in power and influence to the Great Minister of the Realm. For centuries, the position was most commonly held by a member of the Fujiwara family, in order to justify the influence the family held in Japan.
The Udaijin was “Minister of the Right”, and he helped the Sadaijin to oversee all the branches of the Daijo-kan.
The Naidaijin was the “Inner Minister” or “Minister of the Center”, with the rank and role of this position varying over time. He was essentially responsible for internal affairs and making sure they were kept in order.
The Dainagon position was created in order to assist the Sadaijin and the Udaijin with their affairs, although by the 17th century, the position had been modified to give primary assistance to the Nadaiji. This was done in order to ensure that there was another person ready to replace the main court officials, should something happen to one of them.
Although the Kugyo had a large amount of power and responsibility during the early pre-Meiji eras, they gradually lost power as the Fujiwara family came to dominate Japanese politics in the 10th and 11th centuries. By the 12th century, the group was nearly powerless – and it certainly didn’t help that the warrior clan Minamoto seized control of the country through the aristocratic courts.
Regardless, the Kugyo continued to function as a figurehead group inside the palace walls for centuries to follow.
Want to read more?
Tomorrow: More Ancient Standard
By: The Scribe on October, 2007
The first rice fields in China were swamped – literally! In fact, Chinese rice fields in the Neolithic period, around 7,700 years ago, were located in eastern China’s coastal wetlands – which is almost 2,000 years before anyone had previously believed rice farming in China even existed.
At the site of Kuahuqiao in China, it appears that inhabitants created wooden huts that were perched on stilts above the wetlands – which enabled the rice farmers to utilize natural resources such as fire and flooding to help manage and cultivate rice paddies. Fire would have been used to clear brush and scrub from the area, while flood-prevention methods were organized to prevent brackish, murky swamp water from leaking into the fields.
Flood control was likely managed through the use of earthen dikes called ‘bunds’, and it is possible that dung from humans and/or animals was used as fertilizer. Many of the varieties of rice found in the fields belonged to strains of wild rice, though the grains were much larger than what would typically be found in the wild – large grains almost always mean domestication.
The site has also yielded a dugout canoe from 8,000 years ago, plenty of tools made from wood and bamboo, dog and pig bones, and pottery that used wild rice as a bonding agent.
Why would people in this area begin to farm rice, if there was wild rice around for the taking? Evidence suggests that the climate in the area began to see increased temperatures, which would have acted as a prompt for cultural change. Farming rice would have been a natural, easy option for a stable food source, since warmer and wetter conditions are ideal for growing cereal plants.
The regular flooding of these coastal wetlands enabled the ancient Chinese of this area to begin China’s history of domesticated rice crops – however, rice farming probably evolved independently elsewhere in other parts of Asia, including parts of southern China and northeast India.
Want to read more?
Tomorrow: Edgar of Scotland
By: The Scribe on September, 2007
In the ancient wilderness of China, India and Vietnam, there once existed a very special monkey… actually, he wasn’t a monkey at all, but a giant, 10-foot-tall ape called Gigantopithecus. Coming in at 2 to 3 times bigger than any modern gorilla, the Gigantopithecus was the largest ape to ever have existed – and for some reason, it died out rather suddenly about 100,000 years ago.
As terrifying as it might have been to meet this giant primate on a stroll through the forest, early humans wouldn’t have needed to fear the ape for anything other than its size – all indications are that the Gigantopithecus species subsisted on mostly bamboo, with seasonal plants to supplement its diet! Researchers know this to be the case because, while fossil evidence for these enormous apes is scarce, plenty of huge molars have been found that are nearly one square inch in size.
In total, palaeoanthropologists have three mandibles, or jaw bones, of the giant apes, as well as hundreds of teeth. Based on its size, Gigantopithecus would have weighed at least half a ton – which seems to suggest that the extinction of the species must have come as a result of climate change, and not from being hunted by other animals. These primates were, quite simply, too big to fear threats from predators!
One theory is that Gigantopithecus was a victim of a bamboo crisis, since bamboo crops tend to go through cycles of growth – every twenty to sixty years, bamboo forests tend to experience a shift and die out before regaining crop strength. It is possible that competition with the area’s pandas and other bamboo-eating creatures may have simply caused the short straw to be drawn by these apes.
As one might expect, Cryptozoologists maintain that one Gigantopithecus species – there are three distinctly known species in total – did not die out, and instead managed to survive by adapting to its environment… and which is now known by the more popular names of ‘Bigfoot’ and ‘Yeti’!
Want to read more?
Tomorrow: More Ancient Standard
By: The Scribe on September, 2007
Although the majority of fossil finds that come down to modern day tend to suggest that everything from insects to trees to animals were larger in ancient times, a recent discovery from a cave in China has reversed the trend, finding that – two or three million years ago – panda bears were much, much smaller than their descendants now living in Chinese forests.
It was inside a limestone cave in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region that a team of scientists discovered a small bear skull, embedded right into the wall. Further examination of the skull revealed that it did, in fact, belong to an ancient panda bear that lived in the forests of southern China. Judging by the skull’s features, these ancestral pandas were almost exactly the same in appearance as the Giant pandas who live today – except that they were about half the size!
Essentially, these miniature giant pandas were pygmy versions of the bears living today, even to the point of having already adapted a diet of bamboo – this can be identified by looking at the jaws and teeth of the skull, which actually needed to be stronger and more durable than a typical bear’s jaw, in order to grind down such tough plant material.
In addition, modern Giant pandas have what is known as a “false thumb”, which actually helps them to strip the leaves off stalks of bamboo, and scientists are hopeful that more fossils of the pygmy pandas will turn up in the near future, in order to determine whether these ancient creatures also had this mutation.
Oddly enough, about a million years ago, Giant pandas actually became bigger than the enormous sizes of today’s pandas, which seems to suggest that panda evolution has shifted back and forth in response to the bears’ environment and food supply. However, it is still strange that such a tiny panda lived several million years ago, since he would have shared the forest with other such creatures as the 4-meter-tall Stegodon, an ancestor of mammoths and later on, elephants. Also living at the same time was an ape called the Gigantopithecus, who was actually two or three times bigger than today’s gorillas.
It certainly would have been an interesting sight to see these diminutive panda bears walking amidst the giants…!
Want to read more?
Tomorrow: Those Knotty Incans
Previous page | Next page
