Page 42 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

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cussed in China. Chinese archaeologists and students are eager to embrace the ideas, theo-
ries, methodologies, and trends followed by archaeologists from other countries.
The Cultural Relics Law of China was promulgated in 1982, and in the years since, excava-
tions have benefited from protection by Chinese law. By the 19905, most provinces had estab-
lished institutes of archaeology independent of parent museums or cultural relics adminis-
trative commissions. More than one thousand professional archaeologists are employed by
archaeological institutions and universities throughout China. Several large and important
projects have been staffed by archaeologists associated with provincial and city institutions.
They have developed techniques to preserve excavated artifacts such as the bamboo and wood
articles, costumes, and silk paintings and documents from the Mawangdui Han tombs; lacquer
and textiles from the Mashan grave of the Warring States period (cats. 111-112); and lacquer
from the tomb of Marquis Yi of the Zeng state (cats. 107-1O9). 93
Social reform and administrative decentralization since 1980 have created opportunities

for archaeologists to publish outside of the "Three Great Magazines," and periodicals published
by the provincial institutions, with a regional focus or specialization, have flourished. Nongye
kaogu (Agricultural archaeology) has been published in Jianxi province since 1981; a national
gazette, Zhongguo wenwubao (China Culture and Relics Newspaper), instituted in 1986, focuses
on archaeology and museums. 94
Prompted by the discovery and subsequent sale of a quantity of Ming dynasty porcelain
discovered under the South China Sea in 1986, a unit of underwater archaeology was created
by the Museum of Chinese History in 1987. Japanese specialists were invited to China to give
lectures; Chinese archaeologists were sent to Holland, Japan, and the United States to study
related techniques. In 1989, a Sino-Japanese team conducted an underwater archaeological
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survey of a shipwreck near Taishan, Guangdong province. Proposals for joint archaeological
ventures have been advanced by both Chinese and non-Chinese archaeologists.
On 22 February 1991, the State Bureau of Cultural Relics adopted twenty-two regulatory
articles governing cooperative archaeological investigations. Having been prohibited from par-
ticipating in archaeological work for more than forty years, American, British, Canadian,
French, Israeli, Japanese, and Korean archaeologists, specialists, and students are once again
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working in China on projects investigating the palaeolithic through dynastic periods. Experts
in archaeology, archaeobotany, archaeozoology, archaeological conservation, geomorphology,

palynology, physical anthropology, remote sensing, and topography have worked together, em-
ploying geological coring, electrical resistivity, the Fourier Transform Infrared spectrometer,
ground-penetrating radar, the Geographic Information System, the Global Positioning System,
proton magnetomerty, aerial and satellite image analysis, botanical specimens through soil
flotation, chemical analyses, faunal remains analysis, collection and analysis of phytoliths,
isotopic analysis of ancient human bone, micromorphological analysis, mineralogical analysis,
and uranium-series dating. Investigations are continuing on early hominid populations, distri-

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