Archaeology and Paleontology Kǎogǔxué Hé Gǔshēngwùxué ​ 考古学和古生物学

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Archaeology and Paleontology Kǎogǔxué Hé Gǔshēngwùxué ​ 考古学和古生物学 ◀ Aquaculture Comprehensive index starts in volume 5, page 2667. Archaeology and Paleontology Kǎogǔxué hé gǔshēngwùxué ​ 考古学和古生物学 Modern field paleontology and archaeology Dynasty, c. 100 ce) mentions the find of dragon bones ( were introduced to China in the early twen- 龙骨, fossils) in 133 bce during work on a canal. Several tieth century. Fossil remains have provided sources during the next millennium refer to fossils as an- new insights into the evolution of life, pa- cient animals and plants, and some books have passages remarkably similar to those in modern paleontology. The leoanthropological remains on the evolution Yun Lin Shi Pu (云林石谱, Stone Catalogue of Cloudy of mankind, and archaeological excavations Forest, 1033 ce), for instance, contains detailed descrip- on the development of human cultures. The tions of fossil fishes. Fossils have been collected since an- last twenty years have seen a marked improve- cient times and used in traditional Chinese medicine for ment in research quality, an explosion of new their supposed magical powers and ability to cure disease. data, and several scientific breakthroughs. Still, in the 1950s, paleontologists made major discoveries by asking the local population where they collected their dragon bones. The earliest Chinese experiments in what resembles rchaeology (the study of material remains of modern archaeology were made during the Song dynasty past human life), and paleontology (the study (960– 1279) when ancient inscriptions found on stones of life of the geological past and the evolution and bronzes were studied and catalogued. This tradi- of life) in China share a common past. The first generation tion, although interrupted at the beginning of the Yuan of Western-educated​­ Chinese scholars worked together in dynasty (1279– 1368), continued well into the late Qing the field as geologists, paleontologists, and archaeologists dynasty (1644– 1912). surveying the country’s natural resources. Paleontology was used to find possible locations of natural resources, and to define the age of geological strata. Methodology Republican China (1912– 1949) from paleontology and geology was used in archaeology studies when archaeological remains were found and ex- The first modern survey that included some Chinese pa- cavated during the survey work. leontology was made in the latter part of the nineteenth The first reference to fossils in China is found in the century during expeditions to China by the German Fer- Shan Hai Jing (山海经, Classic of Mountains and Seas), dinand von Richthofen (里希霍芬, 1833–1905). However, mainly compiled between the fourth and first centuries not until the turn of the next century was the potential bce. It contains stories of mythical creatures of the past. of Chinese fossils realized when Western visitors found The Qian Han Shu (前汉书, History of the Former Han dragon bones in medicine shops. The discovery began 80 © 2009 by Berkshire Publishing Group LLC A Archaeology and Paleontology n Kǎogǔxué hé gǔshēngwùxué n 考古学和古生物学 81 Digging up the ancestors. Excavations at the site of Bianjiagou (边家沟), Banshan hills (半山) Gansu Province, June 1924. The man with the brush was one of Andersson’s collaborators at the time, Zhuang Yongcheng (庄永成). From J. G. Andersson, (1934). Children of the Yellow Earth. Used with permission of The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm. a fossil hunt in the drug stores. In 1914 the Swedish ge- in fieldwork, sent students to Andersson. From 1920 on- ologist Johan Gunnar Andersson (安特生, 1 8 7 4 – 1 9 6 0) ward the education of a coming generation of Chinese was hired by the Chinese government to conduct min- paleontologists was furthered with the arrival of the U.S. eralogical surveys around the country. He became inter- geologist and paleontologist Amadeus W. Grabau (葛利 ested in the paleontological and archaeological remains 普, 1870– 1946), who was invited by Ding. that he came across during his work. In the mid- 1910s he In 1921 Andersson initiated excavations at the site met the Chinese scholar Ding Wenjiang (丁文江, 1887– Zhoukoudian 周口店, 50 kilometers from Beijing, 1936), the first head of the Geological Survey of China. where the tooth of a 500,000-​­year-old hominid (any of Trained in Japan and Britain with majors in geology and a family of erect bipedal primate mammals comprising zoology, Ding represented the first generation of Chinese recent humans together with extinct ancestral and re- scholars with an education in modern science. With his lated forms) was found the same year by the appointed background in zoology, he was also interested in paleon- excavator, the Austrian-​­Swedish paleontologist Otto tology. The two men began to cooperate in a search for Zdansky (师丹斯基, 1894– 1988). The tooth belonged fossils, and Ding, in a program to train geology students to a new species, popularly called “Peking Man” 北京 © 2009 by Berkshire Publishing Group LLC 82 Berkshire Encyclopedia of China 宝 库 山 中 华 全 书 人, which was announced in 1926 and later named Homo Many of them were students of Grabau. Chinese special- erectus pekinensis. The find stirred attention around the ists such as these also took part in surveys of the Huang world and had a profound importance for research on (Yellow) River area at this time and in the search for early human development. Continued investigations at paleontological and archaeological remains during the Zhoukoudian were made by a Sino-Western​­ institute— interdisciplinary Sino-​­Swedish expedition to north- the Cenozoic Research Laboratory—​­the precursor of western China in 1927– 1935. Grabau himself made sur- the present Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and veys of great importance. In the 1920s, for instance, he Paleoanthropology (IVPP). The lab was placed under was the first to describe the Jehol biota 热河生物群( , the Geological Survey of China, and its first head was the flora and fauna of a region) in northeastern China, Davidson Black, a Canadian physician of the Peking which during the century came to reveal a whole eco- Union Medical College. Several Chinese students who system of fossils dating to 125 million years. Other in- later influenced the development of paleontology in the fluential foreign paleontologists of the time included country, such as Yang Zhongjian (杨钟健, 1897– 1979), Father Pierre Teilhard de Chardin (德日进, 1881– 1955) Pei Wenzhong (裴文中, 1904– 1982), and Jia Lanpo (贾 of France, who surveyed sites in Ningxia Autonomous 兰坡, 1908–2001), started their careers at the laboratory. Region, Shaanxi Province, and Inner Mongolia during Yangshao 1921. A rare photo from the period when Chinese experts first participated in excavations in China. Left to right: the archaeologist and geologist Yuan Fuli of Tsinghua University (trained at Columbia University); Johan Gunnar Andersson, the Swedish geologist turned archaeologist who led the excavations; the village chief, Mr. Wang, and a local preacher also named Mr. Wang. The investigations revealed the Yangshao culture (仰韶, c. 4500– 2500 bce). This major discovery of the Neolithic era laid the foundation of prehistoric archaeology in China. From J. G. Andersson. (1934), Children of the Yellow Earth. Used with permission of The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm. © 2009 by Berkshire Publishing Group LLC Archaeology and Paleontology n Kǎogǔxué hé gǔshēngwùxué n 考古学和古生物学 83 the 1920s and assisted in the Zhokoudian research, and Roy Chapman Andrews (罗伊查普曼安德鲁斯, 1884– 1960) of the United States, who in several expeditions during the 1920s searched for paleontological finds. The latter worked mostly outside the country, but he also did extensive surveys in Inner Mongolia, where he discov- ered fossils of dinosaurs and mammals. ARCH A EOLOGY (1912– 1949) Modern field archaeology was introduced in China around the turn of the twentieth century when a num- ber of foreign scholars—​­explorers, archaeologists, and paleontologists—​­went to Chinese Central Asia, mainly in search of remains along the ancient Silk Roads. The Swedish geographer Sven Hedin (斯文赫定, 1865– 1952) surveyed ruins in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region and discovered the site of Loulan 楼兰 in the Tarim Basin in 1900. Sir Aurel Stein (斯坦因, 1862– 1943), a British- Hungarian archaeologist, conducted excavations on sites such as Khotan 和田, Niya 尼雅, Bezeklik 伯孜克里克, Ding Wenjiang, the first head of the Geologi- and Loulan. He also visited Dunhuang 敦煌 in Gansu cal Survey of China, quietly promoted modern Province, where a Daoist priest had found a huge amount archaeology and paleontology in his country in of ancient documents in the Buddhist Mogao caves 莫高 the 1910s and early 1920s. He encouraged foreign 窟 in 1900. Many of these were purchased by Stein and scholars like Johan Gunnar Andersson and Ama- later by the French sinologist Paul Pelliot (伯希和, 1878– deus W. Grabau to collaborate with students of 1945). The Germans Albert Grünwedel格伦威德尔 and the May Fourth Movement. These students were Albert von Le Coq 勒科克 made extensive investiga- expected to improve their skills in modern sci- tions in Xinjiang, as did Russian explorers, who already ence and technology and later develop Chinese had reported on historical remains in the area in the late science independently. From J. G. Andersson. nineteenth century. Japanese scholars, such as Otani Ko- (1928), The Dragon and the Foreign Devils. Used zui (大谷光瑞, 1876– 1948) and Torii Ryozo (鸟居龙藏, with permission of The Museum of Far East- 1870– 1953), also organized expeditions. The latter found ern Antiquities, Stockholm. Neolithic (8000– 5500 bce) remains such as spearheads and polished stone axes during his investigations in the Liaodong peninsula in 1895 and discovered the prehis- Yuan Fuli (袁复礼, 1893– 1987), a former student at Co- toric site of Hongshan (红山, c. 3800– 2700 bce) in Inner lumbia University, and Li Ji (Li Chi, 李济, 1896– 1979) Mongolia in 1908. from Harvard. Andersson included Chinese specialists China’s participation in these surveys increased after in archaeological excavations for the first time when he the May Fourth Movement (1917– 1921), when many Chi- found painted pottery near the village of Yangshao in nese students who had gone abroad to acquire knowledge Henan Province in April 1921.
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