The Oscars of Archaeology: China unveils its top 10 discoveries of 2023
- One discovery unearthed some of the oldest people to ever live in China
- While another used extremely modern technology to create a breakthrough
Every industry has that one annual event that stands apart as the premier award ceremony.
For Chinese archaeologists, the best discoveries of the year awarded by China’s National Cultural Heritage Administration is the industry’s Oscars.
The agency says it looks for revelations that “inspire important discussions, offer new perspectives, and take archaeology in a novel direction.”
“The projects selected as the ‘top 10 new archaeological discoveries’ in 2023 are outstanding representatives of field archaeological work from the past year. These new archaeological discoveries vividly demonstrate China’s long history and vast civilisation and are the foundation of self-confidence and a source of strength,” the agency said in its announcement.
The projects range from uncovering prehistoric hunter-gatherer societies to surveying beautiful porcelain cerematics work, and even include a great achievement in China’s burgeoning industry of underwater archaeology.
This year’s crop also happens to be a particularly old set of sites, with only two coming from after the BC-AD timeline shift.
It is important to note that many of the recipients were rewarded for the artefacts discovered over the course of years-long excavation projects, and most of the sites were first discovered prior to 2023.
