Page 31 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China
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Hardstone  owl; height  34.1
       3
     (i3 /s); Shang dynasty; exca-
     vated in  1935  from Tomb
     1001, Houjiazhuang,
     Anyang, Henan  province.
     Courtesy  of the  Institute of
     History and Philology,
     Academia Sinica, Taipei.






























                            als in the  19205. His idea of the  origin of Chinese civilization in alien cultures, on the  basis of
                            certain  similarities between them, is understandable, but, we now know, incorrect. 33
                                 Andersson also initiated  and guided the  Zhoukoudian excavation, a find that drew inter-
                            national  attention.  At the  suggestion  of). Megregor Gibb, professor of chemistry at Peking
                            University, Andersson visited Zhoukoudian, Peking, in  1918.  Andersson did  not find the  actual
                            site and did not arrange the  excavation until he sent his new assistant, the Austrian palaeontol-
                            ogist, Otto Zdansky, to Zhoukoudian in  1921. During another  visit in  1921, Andersson noticed
                            flakes  of quartz, and, guessing that they might have been  used  as cutting implements, he  asked
                            Zdansky to complete  the  excavation. Zdansky unearthed  two hominid molars during  short-term
                            excavations that same year and in  1923. The Zhoukoudian  excavations lasted much longer than
                            Andersson initially anticipated  and eventually uncovered the  world's richest  and  most compre-
                            hensive early Palaeolithic remains. 34
                                 In  1926, Andersson announced  this discovery at a reception  to welcome the  Crown Prince
                                                               35
                            of Sweden, Gustaf VI Adolf  (1882 -1973).  Andersson suggested  that the  Zhoukoudian excava-
                            tion should  be taken  over by the  Survey, in cooperation with Davidson Black of the  Cenozoic
                            Laboratory at Peking Union Medical College, and  financed  by the  Rockefeller Foundation. This
                            rewarding Sino-foreign enterprise  lasted  more than ten years until it was halted  in  1937 by  the
                            Japanese invasion. The Zhoukoudian excavation spawned the first generation  of Chinese palae-




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