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Li Liu and Xingcan Chen . The Archaeology of China from the Late Paleolithic to the Early Iron Age . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press , 2012.
Rowan Flad and Pochan Chen . Ancient Central China, Centers and Peripheries along the Yangzi River . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press , 2013.
Gideon Shelach-Lavi . The Archaeology of Early China, from Prehistory to the Han Dynasty . Cambridge : Cambridge University Press 2015.
Reviews
Cambridge University Press has been generous to Chinese archaeology in the last few years, with this trio of excellent books on the archaeology of China. This reflects growth in western participants in the archaeology of China, many new excavations and surveys, and widespread interest in the topic of ancient China. In this review I compare and discuss three recent books about the archaeology of ancient China.
We who research the archaeology of China are extraordinarily lucky to have these three thoughtful and challenging volumes to consult as guides through the vast number of archaeological discoveries that have been made in China in recent years. But more than merely presenting the data, each book provides as well a particular standpoint on interpretations of the past, each view carefully delineated and supported by rich data. Another commonality is that each book acknowledges a profound debt to Professor K. C. Chang, who pioneered the archaeology of China for English-reading archaeologists, and to whom we archaeologists are all grateful for his leadership in the field. Another important commonality among the authors of each volume is the grounding of the books in archaeological surveys that each of the authors organized and participated in: Liu and Chen in the survey of the Luo River, a tributary of the Yellow River; Flad and Chen in the Szechuan basin; and Shelach-Lavi in Liaoning Province and Inner Mongolia. The insights from these intensive survey experiences color and amplify the archaeology of regions of China with which they are intimately familiar. In particular, the usages of the words "center" and "periphery" take on different meanings among the three volumes, to be noted as they arise and addressed again in the conclusion.
Each of these books is instructive in pioneering different ways...