Depictions of human faces and rice-crop images found at the Jiangjunya rock-art site in Lianyungang City, Jiangsu Province, China, reveal entangling relationships between spiritual and economic aspects. Drawing on the relational ecology model and animist ontology theory, the author provides an analysis of the Jiangjunya rock art in its economic, social, spiritual and historical contexts, proposing that prehistoric farmers along China's east coast perceived rice plants as relating to persons. Rice was conceptualized not in utilitarian terms as a means of subsistence (used and consumed by humans) but rather as subjects capable of action. The human masks of Jiangjunya hence suggest a personhood for rice, rather than representing humans or anthropomorphic gods. Furthermore, the history of the Jiangjunya rock-art site corresponds with the history of local economics. The relational ontologies might have transformed gradually from human–animal interactions in the Late Palaeolithic and Early Neolithic periods to human–plant interactions in Late Neolithic societies. The author concludes that the art site was possibly treated as a mnemonic maintaining interpersonal and intersubjective relationships across thousands of years.

Diplomatic relations between the 18th-dynasty Egyptian court and the polities of the Aegean Bronze Age are gaining increasing scholarly attention. The work conducted so far on chronological synchronization has established a relatively firm base for further discussions on social relations. The role of the prestige objects arriving from the Aegean to Egypt has not received the same attention. This is partly because our knowledge of these objects is restricted to Egyptian visual representations in tombs of the officials and not the imported objects per se. This paper will discuss the transformative capacities of Egyptian decorum in regards to the foreign prestige objects of the Aegean provenance arriving in the Egyptian 18th-dynasty court. We first have to understand the iconographical phenomena of transference, hybridization and creativity in Egyptian visual culture, and only then may we attempt to read any historical reality behind them. These transformative representational processes are crucial for the understanding of the reception and the memory of the Aegean objects.

Poverty in ancient Egypt remains a rarely-studied subject. For decades Egyptologists have focused their attention mainly on the so-called ‘elite’, while the poor, their housing, their possessions, their diet, or their cultural values, remain largely in the shadows. Although they are much less visible archaeologically, they were much more numerous than the wealthy. Despite these circumstances, ancient Egypt provides a good starting point for discussing how to approach poverty during antiquity, as there are archaeological and textual records that can shed light on this complex issue. This article aims to stimulate reflection on the issue of poverty in the Nile valley and how it can be explored. It seeks also to add nuance to the idea of a strict dichotomy opposing the poor to the elite. In so doing, this paper will present discussion of the definition of poverty.

During the Early-Middle Bronze Age, a new package of technological knowledge, including high-fired ‘proto-porcelain’ products and specialized ‘dragon’ kilns, entered Lingnan in South China from neighbouring cultures. This enabled the first local production of proto-porcelain in Bronze Age communities of Guangdong province that later became concentrated in ceramic workshops in the Dongjiang valley. Through a holistic approach towards ceramic production and consumption that integrates elements of functionalist and social perspectives, this study will explore the technological and socio-political conditions underlying the value creation and consequent social usage of proto-porcelain. It will be argued that proto-porcelain was a suitable medium for the simultaneous expression of different social roles that might have included its use as serving ware in community rituals as well as its involvement in politico-economic strategies of elite groups.