Digging Into the Past

It was a day in October 1921 that a tall foreign man appeared in the small village of Yangshao, in Henan Province of central China. This Swedish geologist, Johan Gunnar Andersson, had originally been invited to China as a mining adviser in the 1910s. However, a few pieces of pottery brought back from this village by his Chinese assistant made him suspect the existence of something more precious than mines.

With the permission of the Chinese Government, Andersson organized a team of eight, including five Chinese and three foreigners, and started their excavation in the village. They brought tents with them, and borrowed shovels and baskets from villagers. This was all the equipment the team used for the project.

The 36-day excavation at 17 locations around the village unearthed painted pottery pieces and stone artifacts that were identified as materials from a Neolithic culture dated to 5000-3000 B.C.

“The findings are of great significance as the prevailing opinion internationally in those days was that China had