It’s a golden age for Chinese archaeology — and the
West is ignoring it
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/05/11/chinese-archaeology-egyptian-bias-sanxingdui/
Rowan K. Flad, John E. Hudson professor of Archaeology at Harvard University, notes:
“Why do we pay so much more attention in the West to Egyptian archaeology than to Chinese archaeology — even though each is important to our understanding of human history? Egypt strikes a chord partly because of a kind of romanticism that is a legacy of colonialism: Stories of Western archaeologists competing to find tombs in the 19th century riveted Western Europeans, and today’s news coverage is a product of that imperialist tradition (even though the team that discovered Aten was Egyptian). And the focus on discoveries in the Mediterranean world reflects a persistent bias situating the United States as a lineal descendant, via Europe, of Mediterranean civilizations. Links among ancient Egypt and Greece and Rome — and Egypt’s appearance in the Christian Bible — allowed ancient Egypt to be appropriated and incorporated into European heritage and therefore into the story of American identity”.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/05/11/chinese-archaeology-egyptian-bias-sanxingdui/
Rowan K. Flad, John E. Hudson professor of Archaeology at Harvard University, notes:
“Why do we pay so much more attention in the West to Egyptian archaeology than to Chinese archaeology — even though each is important to our understanding of human history? Egypt strikes a chord partly because of a kind of romanticism that is a legacy of colonialism: Stories of Western archaeologists competing to find tombs in the 19th century riveted Western Europeans, and today’s news coverage is a product of that imperialist tradition (even though the team that discovered Aten was Egyptian). And the focus on discoveries in the Mediterranean world reflects a persistent bias situating the United States as a lineal descendant, via Europe, of Mediterranean civilizations. Links among ancient Egypt and Greece and Rome — and Egypt’s appearance in the Christian Bible — allowed ancient Egypt to be appropriated and incorporated into European heritage and therefore into the story of American identity”.