SEAA News Blog

The past 12 months have been a banner year in Chinese archaeology and palaeontology. From finding a potential ancient human relative to an “alien civilisation”, some of the most exciting scientific breakthroughs in 2021 involved China.

They helped us learn more about our world long before humans roamed the Earth and told us fascinating stories about where we came from. Here are eight of the most interesting Chinese archaeology and palaeontology finds for 2021.

The origins of modern Chinese archaeology are generally traced to 1921, when Swedish archaeologist Johan Gunnar Andersson excavated Yangshao Village in the northern Henan province.

Read through domestic media coverage of Chinese archaeology, and you may be struck by the emphasis put not just on unearthed relics, but the new technologies used to find and identify them.

In October 1921, the Swedish geologist, archaeologist, and scholar Johan Gunnar Andersson led a small expedition into rural Henan province in northern China. By this point in his career, the 47-year-old Andersson was a well-known figure in international academic circles, in part due to his earlier participation in two Antarctic expeditions. In 1914, China’s newly formed Beiyang Government hired him as a mining consultant and tasked him with surveying China’s iron ore deposits.

Last year, two archaeologists found a monument at a Utah internment camp that imprisoned Japanese Americans. The prisoners there built it for a man killed by a guard. But earlier this year, the Topaz Museum — built to educate the public about the camp — removed the monument with a forklift. There were no archaeologists on hand and the museum hadn’t let former prisoners and their descendants know.

The Japanese American community was crushed. Some were angry. But now, they’re trying to find a path forward.

Researchers here said they uncovered the apparent remains of the Dairi imperial residence of the Heiankyu palace, the locale for Heian Period (794-1185) literary classics “The Tale of Genji” and “The Pillow Book.”

According to a report on the findings by the Kyoto City Archaeological Research Institute, the excavation was carried out in 2015 in the Higashi-Shinmeicho district of Kyoto’s Kamigyo Ward, about 500 meters northwest of Nijo Castle.

It's hard to believe that such a specialized bookstore some 125 square meters in size has managed to survive for almost 10 years despite challenges brought by the rise of e-commerce and the global pandemic.

More surprisingly, the quiet little bookstore, the only independent one in the country dedicated to archaeology and museology, is quiet famous in the fields both in China and abroad.

A new book in the Archaeology of East Asia series has been published in BAR, entitled Late Pleistocene and Early Holocene Microblade-based Industries in Northeastern Asia by Zhang Meng. All SEAA members get a 20% discount. Please find the description below: 

The Needham Research Institute, located in Cambridge, UK, is currently welcomes applications for the following research opportunities: 

The Jing Brand Scholarships in Chinese Science and Civilisation

The Ho Peng Yoke Fellowship in the History of Science and Technology in China (2022-2023)

The Münchner Zentrum für Antike Welten (MZAW) invites applications for a Visiting Professorship in Cultural History of the Ancient World for either one or two years, starting on October 1, 2022.