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. This is a tough assignment, given the number of nominations and the high quality throughout. All the winners and many other archaeologists from every corner of the globe are invited, and this makes the event unique, for one can meet up with colleagues from Iran one minute and from Tajikistan the next, or chat about the latest advances in the Amazon or India. For this event, the overriding theme was the archaeology of climate change and social sustainability. The opening ceremony was hosted by the Mayor of Shanghai and the Chinese deputy minister of culture, and, after the welcome addresses, the awardees were invited on to the stage to receive their certificates. This was followed by a lecture from each, describing their various interests and achievements, and capped in the evening by a splendid banquet.
I was delighted that my nominee for a field discovery award, Adam Brumm, was successful. Adam described how he came across the earliest narrative art known, from Sulawesi in Indonesia. This was followed, almost with gasps of amazement, by Ran Honglin describing the opening of the newly discovered sacrificial pits at Sanxingdui in China’s Sichuan Province. The excavations there have taken on a dimension a lifetime away from the archaeology I remember years ago in England, out in the sun or rain in all weathers. At Sangxingdui, it is all done within an air-conditioned building, by diggers lying on suspended platforms dressed like cosmonauts. We saw movie footage of the precious bronzes, ivories, and jades being uncovered, lifted, and immediately placed into the hands of the waiting conservators. During one of our evenings, we were taken to the Shanghai University Museum for a remarkable exhibition that juxtaposed Sanxingdui bronzes with Rodin sculptures. One is accustomed to seeing images of the massive bronzes, and some were on display, but there were also smaller examples of equal quality. No longer does the Shang Dynasty dominate this period: the Shu Dynasty that produced the Sanxingdui bronzes actually puts much of the Shang output in the shade, at least in my opinion.
Extraordinary discoveries
At a previous Forum, we were given a memorable presentation on Göbekli Tepe by Klaus Schmidt, and at this one we were introduced by Necmi Karul to Karahantepe. This is one of several new ritual sites in southern Turkey, with their huge carved stone columns, and covers at least 10ha. The excavations have yielded more of the remarkable animal and human sculptures that were clearly objects of veneration and brought in adherents from miles around, before the temples were abandoned and covered in rubble.
