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

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

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.

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 discovered fossils of dinosaurs and mammals.

Ar c h a e o l o g y (1912–1949) Modern field archaeology was introduced in China around the turn of the twentieth century when a number 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. The Yangshao culture 仰( of Western sciences returned and began collaborative 韶, c. 4500–2500 bce) soon proved to be one of the major projects with Western scholars. In the early 1920s An- discoveries on the Neolithic era. From the pottery’s simi- dersson had become more interested in studies of the ar- larity to painted pottery found in Central Asia and the chaeological remains he found during his surveys around Near East, Andersson argued that Chinese culture might the country. He hired young Chinese scholars, such as have originated from the west. To back his theory he went

The excavation site at Zhoukoudian in 1921, with Otto Zdansky to the far left. The same year he made the first discovery of Peking Man—a single tooth. In the center below is Walter Granger (葛兰格, 1872–1941) from the American Museum of Natural History in New York, who visited Zhoukoudian to introduce modern excavation techniques. From J. G. Andersson. (1934), Children of the Yellow Earth. Used with permission of The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, Stockholm.

to northwestern China, where he found a western outpost investigations of the ancient bone inscriptions caused of the Yangshao culture, the Majiayao culture (马家窑, Luo Zhenyu (罗振玉, 1866–1940) to claim that the site c. 3500–1500 bce), and the early Bronze Age culture of might be the location of the late Shang dynasty (1766– Qijia (齊家, 2400–1900 bce). Thewestern- origin hypoth- 1045 bce) capital Yinxu 殷墟, mentioned in the Shiji esis was later abandoned, and some of the pottery is now (史记, Records of the Grand Historian), written about believed to have spread westward from central China to 100 bce by Sima Qian (司马迁, c. 145–90 bce). This evi- its borders. dence was not enough, however, to prove the existence of the Shang dynasty, which many believed to be a myth. In 1928 the Chinese Nationalist Party (Guomindang) gov- Or a c l e Bo n e s ernment made field investigation at Anyang a the priority The first truly independent archaeological excavations when it formed an archaeology department within the that took place at this time symbolically restored China’s Institute of History and Philology in the Academia Si- self-image. Oracle bones had been found around 1900 in nica. Evidence of a highly advanced Bronze Age culture as Anyang 安阳, northern Henan Province, and the early well as architectural remains of palaces and temples were

unearthed during ten seasons of work led by Li Ji. In 1936 established the Chinese Academy of Science, whose head, the former capital’s archive was found, finally proving the Guo Moruo (郭沫若, 1892–1978), founded the Institute existence of the Shang dynasty. More discoveries by the of Archaeology. Archaeological work there was largely archaeology department followed, such as the Neolithic managed by Xia Nai. Longshan culture (龙山, c. 2500–1700 bce) in Shandong The focus on China’s Neolithic age was resumed, and Province. These finds showed that connections existed a number of important discoveries were made in the 1950s between the Shang dynasty remains and the Neolithic and 1960s. Excavations at Dawenkou in Tai’an, Shandong cultures found so far. Li Ji’s student, Xia Nai (夏鼐, 1910– Province, enabled a link to be made between early Neo- 1985) was later able to put these pieces together to develop lithic southern and northern China. The painted pottery a correct chronology and classification that Andersson of the Dawenkou culture (大汶口, c. 4500–2500 bce) in- first proposed for China’s prehistoric cultures. dicated contacts with the Yangshao culture, while other artifacts had a close resemblance to those of the later Longshan culture. Large excavations at the Yangshao site Maoist Years (1949–1978) Banpo 半坡, near Xian in Shaanxi Province, revealed an entire village dating to about 4800–3600 bce. The Japanese occupation and the Chinese Civil War ended Research on the formation of early cities and the de- the early formative years of Chinese archaeology and pa- velopment of ancient China led to new discoveries. Sev- leontology. The 1950s brought establishment of two new eral Shang dynasty remains older than those at Anyang major organizations for paleontology research that would were found. The most important were at Erligang 二里 play leading roles until the late 1970s. These were the Nan- 冈 near Zhengzhou, which was probably the capital be- jing Institute of Geology and Paleontology (NIGP) and tween 1500 and 1400 bce. In the late 1950s scientists found the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthro- an even older Bronze Age culture, which some scholars pology, both organized under the Chinese Academy of believe is proof of the existence of the Xia dynasty (2100– Sciences in Beijing. Some of the remaining Chinese staff 1766 bce), the predecessor to the Shang dynasty. At Er- of the Cenozoic Research Laboratory came to work under litou 二里头 in Yanshi, Henan Province, a fortified city the IVPP, among them Yang Zhongjian, who became its and a palace dated to between 1900 and 1500 bce were first head. Soon excavation at Zhoukoudian resumed, and unearthed. Also remains from the Eastern Zhou dynasty large surveys of geological and paleontological resources, (770–221 bce) were discovered and excavated during this supervised by these institutions, were initiated through- time, as, for instance, in 1956, when the capital of the state out the country. The work was mainly aimed at finding of Jin between the years 584 and 450 bce was found at new evidence of Peking Man, whose remains had been Houma 侯马 in Shanxi Province. lost during the war, and at collecting new paleontologi- Understanding of prehistoric China had increased cal data. A large number of fossils were also discovered significantly before the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). and identified during this time, for example, the dinosaur Scientific work came to a halt, both in archaeology and Tsintaosaurus found in Shandong Province and described paleontology, in 1966, but input from unexpected discov- by Yang Zhongjian in 1958. The most important paleoan- eries and rescue excavations in archaeology continued. thropology finds were made in the early 1960s in Lantian The buried terra-cotta army of the Qin emperor (third 蓝田, Shaanxi Province, where hominid fossils of Homo century bce), for instance, was found in March 1974 near erectus dating to 1.1 million years were discovered in 1963 Xian in Shaanxi Province when local peasants were drill- and 1964. A year later a 1.7 million-year-old hominid fossil ing a well. Beginning in 1972 archaeological exhibitions was found in Yuanmou 元谋, Yunnan Province. played an important part in opening up China and at- With the establishment of the Communist regime tracted huge interest from the outside world. They made in 1949, several scholars who had developed an indepen- the Chinese government aware of the potential that ar- dent Chinese archaeology took refuge with the Chinese chaeological remains had for the country’s international Nationalist Party regime in Taiwan, where their work image. Archaeology became therefore one of the first sci- continued at the Academia Sinica. Mainland China ences to resume its work. In 1973 south of Hangzhou Bay,

© 2009 by Berkshire Publishing Group LLC 86 Berkshire Encyclopedia of China 宝库山中华全书 the Hemudu culture (河姆渡, 5500–4770 bce) was found. world, for instance, was reported from the site of Ercai- Excavations at the marshy area of this offshore island cul- cun 耳材村 in 1999. It revealed a jawless early fish, dat- ture in northern Zhejiang Province demonstrated large ing from the Lower Cambrian (c. 530 million years ago), finds of unusually well-preserved materials as well as of thus pushing back the history of vertebrates another 50 house remains that were different from those unearthed million years. Of equal, if not more significance, was the in northern China. In 1976 Lady Fu Hao’s 妇好 tomb was discovery of fossil embryos dating from 570–590 million discovered. It contained artifacts of royal life during the years ago in the Doushantuo 陡山沱 formation in Gui- Shang dynasty. In Hubei Province the next year soldiers zhou Province in 1998. This discovery gave evidence of found the tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng 曾侯乙, who died the existence of animal life before the so-called Cambrian in 433 bce. Among the remains recovered from the grave explosion, a time in evolutionary history when suddenly were more than 120 musical instruments— a unique col- a large number of animal fossils appeared. The previous lection in the world. lack of Precambrian finds had been a mystery to paleontologists since the time of the British scientist Charles Darwin. The discovery has led to similar and even older Paleontology Today finds elsewhere in the world. The Jehol biota in Liaon- ing Province also was on the agenda again from the late Methodology and technology in Chinese paleontology 1980s onward. First the bird Sinornis was found, then and archaeology did not progress despite such important Confuciusornis, then a series of discoveries that culmi- discoveries. The two sciences developed largely in iso- nated in the unearthing of feathered dinosaurs such as lation from the outside world for four decades, and the Sinosauropteryx and Protarchaeopteryx. These fossils chal- need to catch up was urgent. Although a new generation lenged the theory that birds and dinosaurs had developed of scholars was eager to get in contact with the research separately and gave insights into the evolution of flying. community abroad, the ban on Sino-foreign fieldwork re- Recent Chinese paleoanthropology has also shed light on mained. However, in 1986 a collaboration paved the way the development of our own species. The oldest hominid for others. It was the Sino-Canadian Dinosaur Project, a fossils in the country, for instance, were found in 1985 at series of expeditions conducted between 1987 and 1990 to Longgupo 龙骨坡, Sichuan Province, and investigations collect Jurassic (c. 200–145 million years ago) and Creta- have revealed stone tools and dated the fossils to 1.9 mil- ceous (c. 145–65 million years ago) vertebrates in north- lion years. ern China. With the lifting of the Sino-foreign fieldwork ban in 1991, a wave of collaborations followed: Foreign scholars visited, and Chinese paleontologists went abroad Archaeology Today for research studies and exchange. The 1980s and 1990s brought a rapid growth of university institutions, which The renewed study of the Neolithic era since the late developed their own research agendas, thus challenging 1970s has focused on the relationship between early the monopoly of the IVPP and NIGP. The institutional farming societies and the spread of agricultural tech- competition, the open door policy, and an increased de- niques. Radiocarbon dating, introduced to China in the sire to publish results abroad led to improved research 1960s, is used more frequently. Evidence for rice produc- quality and to an explosion of new data and scientific tion was found in the Hemudu culture, which was a site breakthroughs. in contact with the Majiabang culture (马家浜, c. 5000– In July 1984 the Chengjiang fauna 澄江生物群, said 4000 bce)—a rice-producing economy as well—near to be one of the most important paleontological finds Shanghai. The Majiabang culture in its turn showed re- of the century, was found in Yunnan Province by Hou semblances to millet-producing cultures in the north, Xianguang (侯先光, b. 1949). Apart from the discovery such as the Dawenkou. The oldest millet grains found so of almost two hundred species so far, this rich fossil de- far in the Huang River valley were unearthed at the site posit gives vital information on the evolution of primi- of Peiligang (裴李岗, 5500–4900 bce) in Henan Prov- tive plants and animals. The oldest fossil vertebrate in the ince. The oldest evidence of rice cultivation comes from

Pengtoushan 彭头山, Hunan Province, dating to at least as underwater archaeology, also have been introduced. 7000 bce. All these finds have challenged the view that The latter has been instrumental in the rescue of the late agriculture spread from the north and that Chinese rice Song dynasty merchant ship Nanhai 1 南海一号, which originated from India. sank eight hundred years ago in the South China Sea with Other views about China’s prehistory also have been bluish-white porcelain in its cargo. Found in 1987, the en- challenged. In July 1986 a discovery at Sanxingdui (三星 tire vessel was salvaged from the seabed in 2007. 堆, c. 1400–1000 bce) in Sichuan Province proved the Jan ROMGARD existence in other parts of China of advanced Bronze Age cultures besides the historically documented Shang. Arti- facts, such as sculptured masks and human bronze heads, Further Reading showed a unique style and were of a level just as advanced as those unearthed at Anyang. Andersson, J. G. (1934). Children of the yellow earth: Stud- When the ban on Sino-foreign fieldwork was lifted, ies in prehistoric China. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. joint archaeological explorations were conducted for the Chang Kwang Chih. (1986). The archaeology of ancient first time since before World War II. ASino- Japanese ex- China (4th ed.). New Haven, CT, and London: Yale pedition, for instance, set out for Xinjiang Uygur Auton- University Press. omous Region to search for early traces of civilizations Debaine-Francfort, C. (1999). The search for ancient China. along the Silk Roads and found Bronze Age cultures in London: Thames and Hudson. the southern parts of the Taklamakan Desert. A Chinese- Fiskesjö, M., & Chen Xingcan. (2004). China before China: French team in the same area conducted several excava- Johan Gunnar Andersson, Ding Wenjiang, and the dis- tions at Yuansha gucheng 圆沙故城 between 1993 and covery of China’s prehistory. Stockholm: Museum of 2005, a city that in the preliminary reports has been stated Far Eastern Antiquities. to be the oldest ever found in Xinjiang, dating back at least Gee, H. (Ed.). (2001). Rise of the dragon: Readings from na- twenty-two hundred years. ture on the Chinese fossil records. Chicago and London: Many sites and artifacts have been found throughout University of Chicago Press. the country in recent years. The expansion of the Chi- Hou Xian-Guang, Aldridge, R. J., Bergstrom, J., Siveter, Derek J., Siveter, David J., & Feng Xiang-Hong. (2004, nese economy and extensive infrastructure construction 2007). The Cambrian fossils of Chengjiang, China: The have led to numerous rescue excavations in the last thirty flowering of early animal life. Malden, MA: Blackwell. years. These in turn have led to an enormous input of new Lucas, S. G. (2001). Chinese fossil vertebrates. New York: archaeological material. New university departments of Columbia University Press. archaeology have been set up throughout China. Special- Yang Xiaoneng. (Ed.). (1999). The golden age of Chinese ized institutions, such as China’s first DNA research labo- archaeology: Celebrated discoveries from the People’s Re- ratory in Jilin, have improved the technological analysis public of China. New Haven, CT, and London: Yale of excavated remains. Other fields of archaeology, such University Press.

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

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