China Media Group (CMG) has released top 10 domestic and international archaeological news of 2024. Check it out!
One of the 56 returned Chinese cultural relics. /CMG
Top 10 domestic archaeological news of 2024
1. China's National Cultural Heritage Administration announced the return of 56 lost Chinese cultural relics from Italy. Amid China's intensified efforts to recover cultural relics lost overseas, 2,113 pieces (sets) of artifacts have been successfully brought back in 48 batches to date.
2. Archeologists confirmed that Wuwangdun Tomb in east China's Anhui Province is the largest and highest-level tomb of the ancient Chu state dating back over 2,200 years.
3. The Mengxihe Site in Lezhi County of Ziyang City, southwest China's Sichuan Province, has restored a rare three-dimensional Paleolithic society scene with a number of organic matter remains, including animal fossils, ebony and plant seeds.
4. The discovery of Zhang Zhao's family tomb in Nanjing City, east China's Jiangsu Province, provides valuable insights into ancient tombs in Nanjing, once the capital of six dynasties. Zhang was a prominent politician of the Eastern Wu State during the Three Kingdoms period (220-280).
5. The largest and most prestigious tomb in the Dulan tomb complex in northwest China's Qinghai Province was unearthed, possibly belonging to a figure surpassing the previously discovered royal tomb of the Tuyuhun king.
6. Large-scale building foundations, dated to approximately 2,500 years ago, have been discovered in Shaoxing City, east China's Zhejiang Province. These are the first confirmed structures from the Warring States Period (475-221 BC) within the city, providing crucial clues in the search for the ancient Yue State's capital.
7. An international research team led by Chinese scientists found evidence that East Asian hominins had possessed advanced stone tool technology as early as 1.1 million years ago. The research team believes that the hominins at the Cenjiawan site had cognitive level and technical abilities comparable to Acheulean hominins.
8. Dozens of human fossils, dating back 300,000 years, were unearthed at the Hualongdong site in Dongzhi County, east China's Anhui Province. These fossils are among the earliest in East Asia in terms of the evolutionary transition to Homo sapiens.
9. Dating back 3,700 years, the Baliqiao archaeological site in Nanyang City's Fangcheng County, southwest of central China's Henan Province, shows significant similarities to the Erlitou ruins, a ground-breaking site identified as one of the capitals of the Xia Dynasty (2070-1600 BC).
10. Two prominent Tang-dynasty (618-907) family tombs were found in Jiali Village, Xi'an City, northwest China's Shaanxi Province, with one family related to the Tang emperor Xuanzong's concubine.
A giant cat figure etched into a slope at the Unesco world heritage site in the desert near the town of Nasca in southern Peru. /CFP
Top 10 international archaeological news of 2024
1. In northern Kenya, human footprints dating back 1.5 million years were discovered, providing evidence of the coexistence of early human species.
2. Analysis of 475 ancient horse DNA from multiple Eurasian sites shows that large-scale horse domestication began around 4,200 years ago, improving human mobility.
3. Greek archaeologists unearthed a circular monument on Crete Island. Unique to Minoan-era archaeology, the monument has a diameter of about 48 meters, covering a surface area of about 1,800 square meters.
4. The discovery of a 4,000-year-old fortified town hidden in an oasis in Saudi Arabia reveals how life at the time was slowly changing from a nomadic to an urban existence.
5. Indian archaeologists have unearthed over 4,000-year-old chariots, swords and helmets in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh. These findings suggest that such equipment was used in warfare on the Indian subcontinent during the Bronze Age.
6. A huge ancient city has been found in the Amazon in eastern Ecuador. The houses were connected by an astounding network of roads and canals. The city was built around 2,500 years ago, and was inhabited for nearly 1,000 years.
7. An astronomical observatory dating back to the 6th century BC has been uncovered in Kafr El-Sheikh, located in the Nile Delta region of northern Egypt. It is believed to be one of the earliest and largest observatories of its kind.
8. Archaeologists estimate that the ancient people started to use the Nazca geoglyphs at least 2000 years ago on the Nazca Pampa in Peru. Using AI-assisted methods, researchers recently identified 303 new figurative relief-type geoglyphs within six months.
9. Using advanced technologies like airborne LiDAR and Deep Learning, archaeologists have identified the remains of two medieval cities, Tugunbulak and Tashbulak, in the mountains of eastern Uzbekistan, believed to have been part of the ancient Silk Road.
10. The Chinese School of Classical Studies has been officially established in Athens. This is the first such institution founded by an Asian country in Greece, aiming to promote global classical civilization research and exchange, advancing the study of civilizations and human cultural heritage.
