International Centre for Chinese Heritage and Archaeology

Between 17-28 April 2013, researchers Zhang Shangxin and Shao Wenbin from the Museum of Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum visited IoA for the purpose of specialist training in archaeological ceramic analysis. Zhang and Shao attended Patrick Quinn's intensive short course on 'Thin Section Petrography of Archaeological Ceramics: Methods and Application', as well as receiving additional training in the Woflson Laboratories on geochemical and SEM analysis. Their training forms part of a joint research initiative between the UCL Institute of Archaeology and the Museum of Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum, entitled 'Imperial Logistics: The Making of the Terracotta Army' that is funded by the British Academy, Rio Tinto and the Institute for Archaeo-Metallurgucal Studies. In the next step of the project, Patrick will travel to the Museum of Emperor Qin Shihuang’s Mausoleum near Xi'an, China to set up a laboratory for ceramic analysis. Once in operation the lab will enable IoA and Museum researchers to undertake ceramic compositional analysis of a variety of artefacts from the Mausoleum complex, including fragments of the Terracotta Warriors themselves. Important questions center on the ceramic technology of these impressive and numerous artefacts and the organisation of their production between 246-209 BC. Further information of this project can be found at Imperial Logistics Website. 

The first set of articles in Oxford Bibliographies: Chinese Studies is now online.  Several UK China Studies people have been involved as authors or editors.  The first batch of 54 articles covers a range of topics, a somewhat larger number are in process and over 300 are being planned. For more details and the access to the bibliographies, please click here. 

The 9th meeting of Worked Bone Research Group (WBRG) will be held in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, from 14th to the 20th of April 2013, hosted by Henan Administration of Cultural Heritage and the Henan Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage.

University rankings are usually a topic of interest at University College London, since we often do reasonably well in such exercises.  We were consequently interested to read the latest Chinese University rankings, published in January 2013.   The Ministry of Education, Chinese Academic Degrees and Graduate Education Development Centre (CDGDC) has undertaken a National Academic Discipline Evaluation of universities offering postgraduate degrees in the list of national first level disciplines in 2012. 

We are here pleased to announce that Dr ZHUANG Yijie has recently been appointed as Lecturer in Chinese Archaeology by UCL, Institute of Archaeology.  Dr. Zhuang completed his PhD at the University of Cambridge and had taken up a Junior Research Fellowship at Merton College of the University of Oxford, after his BA training in Northwest University and MA degree in Peking University.  His PhD dissertation, entitled "Geoarchaeological Investigation of Early Agriculture, Ecological Diversity and Landscape Change in the Early Neolithic of North China", focused on key issues concerning early agriculture, ecological diversity and evolution of people, environment and landscape in the early Neolithic.  Apart from continuing the research on ecology of early agriculture in China, he is also involved in a number of collaborative projects in investigating the relationships between intensified land use, increased erosion and the development of early civilizations across the Eurasian continent.  Dr Zhuang will start his position with IoA in September 2013. 

You are invited to attend the candidate presentations for our new Lecturer in Chinese Archaeology post, which take place on Thursday 24 January. Presentations are being held in Room 612 and all staff and students are welcome.

Zhuang Yijie (Post-Doctoral fellow, Merton College, Oxford) will give the fifth International Centre for Chinese Heritage and Archaeology (ICCHA) China Night Lecture of 2012/13 at the Institute on 13 December.

The Institute of Archaeology currently has a vacancy for a Lecturer in Chinese Archaeology. The deadline for applications is 28 November 2012. For details follow this link to HR (Ref.:1290898)

As part of the Rising Scholars series of China Night seminars, the ICCHA is pleased to host the seminar "Ashes to beauty - the earliest lime-rich glaze in China and its modern replication" by Min Yin  at the Institute on 25 October.  Room 209, Institute of Archaeology. Min Yin is a completing PhD student at UCL. [abstract/ poster in PDF]

The steering committee of the ICCHA met in Doha, Qatar, hosted by Professor Thilo Rehren of UCL Qatar. Thilo, who is now director in UCL Qatar, stepped down from the position of executive director of the centre, although he remains on the steering committee. Professor Dorian Fuller has been appointed to take over as the UK Executive Director of the ICCHA. Also at this meeting, forthcoming publications from ICCHA conferences were discussed as well as initial plans for our next conference in 2014, with a focus on "a comparative perspective on the origins of Chinese Civilization."