Analysing ancient anaesthetic
Examination of surgical tools from a Ming Dynasty tomb reveals evidence of early anaesthetic use in 14th-century China.
China
‘Destroy the foreigners’: The Boxer Rebellion, November 1899-September 1901
At the turn of the 20th century, a violent uprising swept northern China, and an international expedition was sent to rescue those trapped in Peking’s diplomatic quarter. Stephen Roberts tells the story.
Archaeology as immersive historical simulation
When I began studying archaeology nearly 70 years ago, my professor illustrated his lectures with the aid of glass slides projected through an antediluvian machine known as an epidiascope
A world of discoveries
The 6th Shanghai Archaeological Forum has just drawn to a close, and it is time to reflect on its many highlights. This year, the field trip was scheduled on the first day, and we were given the choice of visiting freshly uncovered shipwrecks and the new Shanghai Museum, or to take the bus south to visit two key sites: Jingtoushan and Hemudu.
China’s first state
At the time of writing, I am anticipating a memorable occasion in December: the 6th Shanghai Archaeology Forum. These meetings begin with the announcement of the winning nominees in two categories: field discovery and research achievement.
Redrawing the family tree
Human beings may have suddenly doubled their age thanks to some recent research on a group of fossilised skulls from China, known as Yunxian 1 and 2. Previously classified as Homo erectus, they have now been designated as belonging to the Denisovan group, based on skull shape.
Ritual platforms in China
Earthen platforms uncovered at a site in eastern China are believed to reflect efforts by early states to use ritual events as a way to unify their expanding territories. The three large platforms were discovered during excavations of the site…
World news
‘Dragon Man’ was Denisovan? New palaeoproteomic and DNA evidence suggests that ‘Dragon Man’ – a hominin cranium first discovered in the 1930s near Harbin in north-east China – is not a new species as had previously been hypothesised but is…
‘Dragon Man’ is a Denisovan?
New analysis of a hominin skull previously believed to represent a new species of ancient human suggests that it may in fact be a Denisovan. The Denisovans were first discovered in 2010, when ancient DNA from a finger bone in…
Splendours of Sanxingdui
I have already described here the new discoveries at Sanxingdui, the great city that commanded the Sichuan Plain in China from 1200 BC (CWA 110). However, I cannot refrain from returning to it, because a couple of months ago a most welcome and unexpected email arrived.
World news
Earliest archaeological evidence of silk in China Mineralised fabric remnants found in pits at a Bronze Age burial site in the Sichuan Basin, south-western China, have undergone specialist analysis which has identified them as silk. The Sanxingdui settlement is believed…
Silk at Sanxingdui
A specialised analytical approach has identified the first archaeological evidence for silk at the Bronze Age site of Sanxingdui. The settlement, which lies in the Sichuan Basin in south-western China, is believed to have been the capital of the ancient…
Current World Archaeology 127
• Seeking the Silk Roads: an extraordinary story of the power of connections
• Digging Pachacamac: the surprising origins of an Inca pilgrimage centre
• A Bronze Age refuge: continuity and change at Qarn al-Harf
• Valeria’s hall of fame: secrets from an imperial forum
• Life and death at the ‘German Stonehenge’
• Albania: on the trail of Alexander the Great
Seeking the Silk Roads: An extraordinary story of the power of connections
The Silk Road has long been seen as a conduit for exotic goods travelling both east and west. But taking a wider perspective reveals how extraordinary objects and ideas were moving much more widely, as Sue Brunning and Luk Yu-ping told Matthew Symonds.
Ancient Egypt August listings
TOP OF THE PYRAMIDS: THE CIVILISATION OF ANCIENT EGYPT This exhibition, co-hosted by the Shanghai Museum and the Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities, has more than 780 ancient Egyptian artefacts on loan from Egyptian museums, most never before displayed in…
The Fifth Shanghai Archaeology Forum
I was delighted to be invited to the fifth Shanghai Archaeology Forum last December, happily revived after the COVID closedowns. This meeting is becoming a major fixture in the archaeological calendar, for every two years the advisory committee is asked to adjudicate all the nominations for field discovery and research awards.
Zimingzhong: The mechanical marvels where East meets West
A remarkable trade between Europe and China developed in the 1700s, when an emperor with a passion for science started collecting extravagant mechanical timepieces. The results are both beautiful to behold and steeped in a meeting of skills and cultures between East and West, as Jane Desborough told Matthew Symonds.
A Comprehensive Survey of Rock Art in Upper Tibet – Volume I: Eastern Byang thang
REVIEW BY GEORGE NASH If I had been asked a few months ago what I knew about a vast rock-art assemblage in Tibet, I would have simply shrugged my shoulders and asked what, when, where, and why. But then, thinking…
Zimingzhong 凝时聚珍: clockwork treasures from China’s Forbidden City
London’s Science Museum is currently home to more than 20 examples of intricately ornate timepieces loaned from the Palace Museum in Beijing. Carly Hilts visited to find out more.
The lost world of Sanxingdui: Fabulous finds from a forgotten civilisation
Sanxingdui has produced a wealth of startling Bronze Age artefacts. Many of these treasures were deliberately smashed or burnt before being buried, raising questions about what they were used for and how they met their end, as Tianlong Jiao and Shengyu Wang told Matthew Symonds.
Life and Afterlife in Ancient China
REVIEW BY BRYAN SITCH This authoritative work by one of the UK’s leading sinologists explores the early history and archaeology of China through 12 tombs and discoveries, some already well known in the West – including Sanxingdui with its otherworldly…
Current World Archaeology 121
• China unearthed: a hidden history of tombs and offerings
• A bitter harvest: slave labour and sugar on São Tomé
• Sailing stony seas: seeking ship graffiti on Malta
• Ancient Egypt and the dawn of literature: revisiting the oldest book in the world
• Italy: an island prison on Ventotene
• Greece: exploring prehistoric Volos
China unearthed: A hidden history of tombs and offerings
Deep underground, the ancient inhabitants of what is now China built remarkable houses and palaces. But these dwellings were not homes for the living. Instead, the dead would be laid there, not to rest, but to live out their afterlife in comfort. The objects and attendants that accompanied them shed light on both the deceased and the birth of a unified China, as Jessica Rawson told Matthew Symonds.
Neolithic water system in China
Excavations in China have uncovered a set of ceramic pipes that represent the oldest water-drainage system ever found in the country, and appear to have been the product of impressive community efforts. Pingliangtai is a Late Neolithic site in what…
China’s hidden century
A new exhibition at the British Museum explores an important period of cultural change in China’s history. Amy Brunskill visited to find out more.
The World of the Ancient Silk Road
REVIEW BY TIM WILLIAMS This book is a collection of papers that focus on themes of human migration, communication, and cross-cultural exchange along the Silk Roads, from the 3rd millennium BC to the early 2nd millennium AD. The volume is…
World’s earliest known saddle found in China?
A recent study has determined that a leather saddle found in north-western China may be the oldest surviving example currently known. Exactly when horse-riding and the use of saddles began is still a subject of some debate, but the latest…
An Archaeological History of Hermitages and Eremitic Communities in Medieval Britain and Beyond
REVIEW BY DUNCAN W WRIGHT In An Archaeological History of Hermitages, Simon Roffey directly addresses a hitherto neglected area of scholarship by providing a wide-ranging survey of the material evidence for hermitages and eremitic practice. His work is not restricted…
Anyang: China’s ancient city of kings
A recent exhibition at the National Museum of Asian Art in Washington, DC, explores the art and culture of the Bronze Age city of Anyang in China. We spoke to curator J Keith Wilson to find out more.
New project to explore horse trade in ancient China and Mongolia
Project 'Horse Power' aims to test the hypothesis that horses from the northern steppe region were traded south in exchange for Chinese metals.
Minerva Magazine 197
• Revealing the riches of China’s Bronze Age kingdoms
• Mithras: mysteries of a Roman cult
• Ancient Egypt and modern art (out 24 August)
• The elusive cave writing of Lascaux
• From remarkable medieval women to famous discoveries
Researchers decipher ancient Chinese recipe for bronze production
The recipe in question is recorded in an ancient Chinese text known as the Kaogong ji, which is believed to be the world’s first encyclopaedia of technology, probably dating to c.300 BC.
China Quiz
Which legendary leader established the Xia dynasty in c.2070 BC, inaugurating dynastic rule in China?
This week: China’s lost kingdoms
It is easy to fall into the trap of believing that Chinese culture began with the Qin – the regional powerbrokers who in the 3rd-century BC conquered their warring rivals to become the country’s first imperial dynasty, thereby ushering in…
Bronze Age China: Phoenix Kingdoms
The Bronze Age kingdoms of China have long been overshadowed by the Qin, who replaced them with a unified empire. Fan Jeremy Zhang explores the spectacular discoveries that have been helping two of them, the Zeng and Chu, rise from obscurity.
Pangu and divine intervention
Pangu was born in the midst of an egg-like chaos. After 18,000 years, the two muddled parts separated, and the Yin (which represents the negative, feminine, cool, dark, and wet) became the earth and the Yang (representing the positive, masculine, hot, bright, and dry) the sky.