Chinese archaeologists recently announced their first successful exploration abroad after a Sino-Russian archaeological team finished its research on the Russian bank of Heilongjiang (Amur) River, which borders China and Russia.
Sources in China's archaeological circles say that it is a starting point for the country's archaeologists to move out into the world in the new century.
The idea of "archaeology" arrived from the West to China at the end of the 19th century. But the massive explorations carried out by foreign archaeologists and missionaries at the time meant a large number of Chinese historical treasures were lost overseas, such as the scriptures in the
Dunhuang Buddhist caves.
1928 saw China's first independent exploration. A history and language institute established that year dispatched an archaeological team to explore
Anyang County in central China's Henan Province, a county famous for the Yinxu Culture, especially its inscriptions on bones or tortoise shells.
The date is regarded as a milestone in the birth of China's archaeology.
The founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949 saw China's archaeology mature. In 1950, the Institute of Archaeology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences was established.
In the early 1950s, explorations at the Peking Man heritage site located in the suburbs of
Beijing and explorations at the site of Yinxu, the Shang Dynasty capital, were resumed after suspensions of 12 and 13 years respectively.
During that period, archaeology departments sprang up in the country's universities.
In the following 20 years, a large number of historical relics were discovered by Chinese archaeologists including the Hemudu ruins which proved ancient people started to plant paddy as early as 7,000 years ago; a Western Han tomb at Mawangdui near Changsha,Hunan's capital which contained a well-preserved 2,000-year-old female body; and the terra-cotta warrior pits of the Qin Dynasty (221 BC-207 BC), famous as "the eighth wonder of the world".
In 1972, China for the first time released data obtained by carbon dating, embarking on the study of prehistoric chronology.
In 1979, the Archaeological Society of China was established. At the same time, archaeological institutes were set up throughout
provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions.
In the 1980s, China issued regulations to better standardize its archaeological research.
In the 1990s, China's archaeological circles strengthened cooperation with their counterparts overseas. During that time, Chinese experts carried out a series of archaeological projects inside China together with experts from Japan, the United States, Germany, Australia and Canada.
In those years, China introduced advanced archaeological research methods from overseas including aerial photographic studies and underwater exploration.
