Study On The History Of Archaeology Of The Scientific Mission To North-Western China

The Scientific Mission to North-Western China Under the Commission of the Federation of the Scientific Institution of China (usually abbreviated to the Scientific Mission to North-Western China) was an academic investigative organization which was formed jointly by the Federation of the Scientific Institution of China and a Swedish explorer—Sven Hedin in1927. And it was the first scientific investigative organization to Northwest China hosted by Chinese people in the modern Chinese history, whose members comprised Chinese, Swedish, German and Danish scholars. This Sino-Swedish Expedition took eight years to investigate twelve provinces in the north, the northwest and the middle of China. And the scientific investigations involved more than ten fields of disciplines, such as Geography, Geodesy, Geology, Palaeobotany, Invertebrate Palaeobotany, Vertebrate Palaeobotany, Archaeology, Ethnography, Meteorology, Zoology and Botany.This thesis takes the archeology of the Scientific Mission to Northwest China as a main object of study. And the author undertakes thematic researches into archaeological investigations and research findings from the perspective of academic history. In this thesis, the author tries to summarize the Scientific Mission's field archaeology in the northwest of China and research findings thoroughly and systematically, then discusses the value and significance of these researches in the modern Chinese academic history. For this purpose, the thesis is divided into seven chapters.In the first chapter, the thesis presents the background, the process and the influence of the Scientific Mission's foundation, and it refers to archaeology which is the core of the dispute between Chinese academia and Sven Hedin, then the thesis shows Chinese scholars and Sven Hedin's attitudes and actions towards archaeology with more detailed analyses.The content of the second chapter is a comprehensive discussion about archaeological work of the Scientific Mission to Northwest China. And it is the first time that the thesis has brought some non-archaeological academics into the scope of this study. In the thesis, the author shows a complete feature of the field archaeology, which promotes people to understand the archaeology to Northwest China in the modern history more comprehensively and completely.The core of Chapter Three is a general survey of the loss and preservation of the archaeological collections. Firstly, the author sorts the whole transport situations of these archaeological objects collected by the Scientific Mission, so the author clears up these collections' contents and transport process further. And then, the author carries out a research on the provisions and processes of the archaeological collections that have been loaned to Sven Hedin. Finally, the author studies and sorts several related issues about these collections, such as the storage locations, the loss situations and the final destinations.In the fourth chapter, the author outlines the writings of Sino-Swedish archaeological researches. In this part, the thesis mainly presents the situation of documentary publication and research gathered by the Scientific Mission, and some of details of the archaeological documents are verified.In the fifth chapter, the author expounds the archaeological researches of Swedish scholars in order to show a panorama of research achievements of the Swedish members in the Scientific Mission, and reviews the value and significance of these researches.The main content of the sixth chapter involves the thematic studies on two professional archaeologists of the Scientific Mission-Folke Bergman and Huang Winpi. In the thesis, the author systematically summarizes their research achievements and values, and then makes a comparison of their archaeology and researches from academic backgrounds, investigation purposes, investigation contents and research methods. Meanwhile, the author analyses the similarities and differences of the archaeology in Northwest China in the perspective of east and west, and also explores the significance and value of their mission to the northwest China in the modern history.In the seventh chapter, the author analyses the relationship between the archaeological researches of the Scientific Mission and the rise and development of the modern Chinese archaeology, and then talks about its influence on the development of Chinese and foreign academic, so the archaeological researches of the Scientific Mission are in a position of accuracy in the history of Chinese archaeology.