The Influences of Geology and Palaeontology on the Formation of Chinese Professional Archaeology

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ID: 322069
2026
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Abstract
Abstract The 1921 discovery and exploration of the Yangshao Village site is commonly held to be not just the first modern archaeological excavation in China, but also to have fuelled the birth of modern Chinese archaeology. The sequence of discovery has been discussed in detail by scholars. This chapter argues that too little attention has been given to the disciplinary influences that affected the early stages of this development. This has resulted in a too-simple conflation of the development of the disciplines of geology, palaeontology, and archaeology during the 1920s in China. This, moreover, means that the specific stages of development of each discipline’s field methods, conceptual frameworks, and interpretative models have been overlooked. This chapter uses Johan Gunnar Andersson’s fieldwork, both his own reflections and the records from his excavations, to argue that the work lacked an ‘archaeological sensitivity’ and that this lack is exemplified by the ways burials were excavated and landscape sections drawn. The former lacked awareness of context with the cut for graves not recognised and the grave reduced to the body and grave goods: the stratigraphical relations between burials were not exposed. As regards the latter, the scale was usually ‘wrong’ in terms of an archaeological focus but was suited to longer-term geological landscape studies. These procedures were not necessarily conventional at the time; practices and approaches more appropriate to archaeological research were already well established in Scandinavian archaeology, with which Andersson was familiar. Rather, the chapter suggests that Andersson and his Chinese colleagues brought the mindset of geology and palaeontology to their archaeological work. Further developments were needed for a modern archaeology to come into existence in China.
Reference Key
openalex_W7170063747 Use this key to autocite in the manuscript while using SciMatic Manuscript Manager or Thesis Manager
Authors Marie Louise Stig Sørensen
Journal Oxford University Press eBooks
Year 2026
DOI
10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197800324.013.0003
URL
https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197800324.013.0003
Keywords Keywords not found

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