Chinese archeology: too much past, too little time

This rather undermines China's recent efforts to make a moral case for repatriation of Chinese artifacts held in foreign museums:

When this city began its gargantuan construction job for the 2008 Olympics, an early complication involved dead eunuchs. Workers had discovered a eunuchs mausoleum buried under the site of the skeet-shooting venue on the city's western fringe. And the eunuchs had company.

Along the city's northern rim, surveyors examined the sites for the main Olympic stadiums and discovered archaeological remains tracing back 2,000 years to the Han dynasty. In all, archaeologists excavated 700 ancient burial sites and recovered 1,538 artifacts, such as porcelain urns and jade jewelry, while collecting more than 6,000 ancient coins.

The subterranean Olympics cache would be considered remarkable in many countries, but in a China convulsing with demolition and construction, it amounted to just another work site. Building the new China usually entails digging up the old China. Construction zones across China are uncovering so many antiquities that it might be considered a golden era for archaeology, except that sites and antiquities are often simply demolished by bulldozers or looted.

I'm not so sure that everything being dug up for the Beijing Olympics is being properly studied and preserved, but even if it is, the bigger picture is grim:

The Olympics site seems to be an example of how China's antiquities protection system should work. Construction supervisors and archaeologists have collaborated for four years, conducting excavations and restoring three Taoist temples, including one near the National Stadium, the main Olympic venue, which undoubtedly will become a familiar sight to television viewers during the Games.

But elsewhere in China, archaeologists are often in a losing race against bulldozers. In late January, a work crew in the ancient capital city of Nanjing unearthed and destroyed the burial sites of 10 noblemen from six dynasties. By the time a team of local archaeologists arrived, bulldozers had crushed the burial crypts and looters had combed through the site.

Such stories are common. Last year, local antiquities officials in the city of Luoyang described how unceasing urban development was steadily encroaching on a protected zone of ruins dating to the Tang dynasty, 618 to 906. Meanwhile, a local newspaper reported that a major redevelopment project, including an industrial park, was being planned atop the ruins of an ancient palace.

Posted by David on February 7, 2007 10:39 AM