SEMINAR: Archaeology Seminar Series

In June 2014, six researchers in archaeology and ancient languages, were asked to participate in an independent review of interpretations made by an English-American historical linguist working in Pingguo County, Guangxi, China. He had interpreted rocks and features as being aligned with stars as well as solar and lunar solstices. Further, he claimed to have found “palace” walls, engraved ancient characters, carved animal-shapes, an observatory seat, ancient tombs, and massive stone platforms in several valleys not previously surveyed by archaeologists. This formal review was sponsored by the People’s Government of Pingguo County and the Department of History, Renmin University, Beijing. The reviewers spent two weeks in the field, after which they presented their conclusions and recommendations at a joint conference held with Chinese scholars. The conclusions of both foreign and Chinese researchers were unanimous: that there was no evidence for ancient astronomical alignments, megaliths, or palace walls. However, the fieldwork identified extensive archaeological surface material, signaling important buried sites dating to the Neolithic through to the Tang and Ming Dynasties. The karst topography also revealed a high potential for intact cave deposits; potentially dating as far back as the Chinese Palaeolithic. Despite confirmation of the extensive bias of the original primary researcher, the region has enormous archaeological potential. In this presentation I will discuss the process of transforming the project from a “fringe” investigation to a solid heritage management research proposal that may see full funding early next year.