Page 44 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

Excavation photograph
of Tomb i, Mawangdui,
Changsha, Hunan province,
showing submerged wood-
en figurines and lacquer
vases. The tomb (which
dates to the Western Han
dynasty) was excavated in
1972.

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earlier. Ming dynasty porcelain can be traced back to glazed ceramic antecedents from the
eleventh century BCE. The set of sixty-five bronze bells from the tomb of Marquis Yi of the Zeng
state, with a range of move than five octaves of twelve semi-tones each, rivals a modern-
104
day piano. Archaeology in China, moreover, is not limited to underground excavations:
archaeological techniques have been applied to the study of Buddhist caves and works of art
in Xingjiang, Central China, and Tibet, in order to establish their regional and temporal
distributions.

The progress of Chinese archaeology over the last hundred years mirrors the opening of
twentieth-century China; it has opened to view the richest and most abundant cultural remains
in the world. Yet the ancestral legacies revealed by archaeology are finite, and great care must
be exercised, regardless of other considerations, in the practice of archaeology. Ensuring the
well-being of Chinese archaeology in the twenty-first century will require overcoming some
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grave obstacles, such as organized looting and smuggling of archaeological treasures. Archae-
ologists have achieved great things in times of prosperity as well as turmoil. The future of Chi-
nese archaeology, too, is certain to be fruitful.

43 MODER N C H I N E S E A R C H A E O L O G Y