Geoarchaeology in China: Progress, trends, and perspectives

Over the past several decades, Chinese archaeology has rapidly developed into a scientific enterprise. Archaeological scientists in China are now routinely applying the latest scientific techniques and methods to answer questions concerning archaeological sites and material culture with increasing specificity and accuracy. Alongside the continuous development of archaeological science in China, geoarchaeological research has grown apace but is still poorly understood by the broader community of archaeological researchers. A large part of this lack of understanding stems from the fact that for much of the 20th century, the Chinese school of archaeological thought was separated by language, politics, and even methodology. Even today, there is no analogous term to ‘geoarchaeology’ in Chinese, with the closest terms being environmental archaeology (环境考古), geographic archaeology (地学考古), and archaeological science (科技考古) (Jing, 1991; Xia, 2012; Zhou, 2007; Zhu et al., 2013). This short editorial introduction provides a streamlined summary of the key developments of geoarchaeology in China and highlights the contributions made by the authors of this special issue of Geoarchaeology. Specifically, we aim to identify a few key topics of interest that the contributing authors of this special issue address.