ARCHAEOLOGY IN CHINA<\/p>\n
In the summer of 1998, a reservoir in a rural area of Hunan in southern China dried up. As the water receded, local farmers found ancient pottery and porcelain from the 10th to 13th century C.E. Song Dynasty, which produced some of the world\u2019s finest ceramic art. Within a few weeks, hundreds of looters were openly digging at the site. Despite an outcry from a television reporter and a few cultural-heritage specialists, local officials refused to intervene. It was not until the following February that police arrived to stop the illegal digs, arrest the culprits, and clear the way for a team of archaeologists to save what they could.<\/p>\n
In a land chock-full of wealthy tombs and poor farmers, grave robbing is an ancient tradition. But in the past decade, China has tightened its laws against looting, a reflection of changing attitudes toward archaeological treasures (see main text). Now those who destroy the country\u2019s past face jail terms and even the death penalty, although no one appears to have actually been executed for looting. Earlier this year, the United States and China agreed to work together to prevent smuggling of looted Chinese antiquities. \u201cThe situation in China has improved dramatically in recent years,\u201d says Stefan Gruber, a lawyer at the University of Sydney in Australia, who follows the Chinese situation closely.<\/p>\n
But he adds that although \u201cthe central government has good ideas, the local governments do not necessarily follow their orders.\u201d Archaeologist and China expert Lothar von Falkenhausen of the University of California, Los Angeles, remains deeply concerned. \u201cThe looters are absolutely everywhere,\u201d he says. \u201cArchaeologists can\u2019t keep up, and the looting often takes place with the connivance of local authorities.\u201d Von Falkenhausen adds that the new U.S.\u2013China agreement merely shuts American dealers out of a market increasingly driven by wealthy Chinese collectors.<\/p>\n
The pace of destruction is difficult to quantify, but it is clearly still taking place. In the northeast, for example, between 4000 and 15,000 tombs from the Neolithic Hongshan culture (see p. 930), which produced rich jades in fantastic animal shapes 5000 years ago, have been damaged or destroyed by looters during the past decade, says He Shuzhong of the National Administration on Cultural Heritage in Beijing. In the southern province of Hubei, 2000-year-old graves filled with jewelry, documents written on bamboo, and other artifacts have been stolen. \u201cWhen an archaeological team finally went in, there was nothing left to save,\u201d says one archaeologist familiar with the destruction.<\/p>\n
In response to such damage, museum and site security has recently improved. At the Yanghai cemetery in the remote western province of Xinjiang, for example, looters who a decade ago helped themselves to jewelry in the 3000-year-old graveyard are now stymied by a high fence, locked gate, and live-in caretaker. Recent high-profile cases, coupled with educational initiatives, are making China\u2019s vast population aware that looting is illegal and unpatriotic.<\/p>\n
Although strict laws likely dissuade many looters, they can have a perverse effect. Local farmers near Erlitou, one of China\u2019s oldest urban centers (see p. 934), now hesitate to bring artifacts found during plowing to archaeologists, perhaps fearing stiff penalties, says Chen Guoliang, an assistant researcher at the site.<\/p>\n
Clicking on his laptop in his office at the Erlitou dig house, Chen pulls up several images of similar turquoise inlaid bronze plaques that appear to be in a style arguably unique to Erlitou. The use of these elaborate objects remains unclear, and archaeologists are eager to find more in context. But only one was legally excavated from the site. How and when the others were found remains a mystery, though Chen believes that they almost certainly came from Erlitou. Today, the other plaques reside in public and private collections around the world, from the Miho Museum in Japan to Harvard University in the United States. (Many museums have taken at face value claims by sellers that artifacts were legally exported.) Once taken out of their context and sold, says Chen, such artifacts\u2014 whose provenance is difficult to verify\u2014 no longer have a story about China\u2019s heritage worth telling.<\/p>\n
SCIENCE VOL 325 21 AUGUST 2009<\/p>\n