China News Service, Hangzhou, October 20 (Cao Dan) On October 20, during the fourth "Liangzhu Forum", "Liangzhu Archaeological Research Results" were released at the 90th anniversary expansion forum of the discovery of the Liangzhu Site, "Complete Collection of Liangzhu Jade Artifacts", "Liangzhu Site Stone Tools", "Jiangjiashan" and "The Rise of Civilization in the Lower Yangtze River: Recent Archaeological Six Liangzhu research results were unveiled, including "Discoveries, 2020-2025", "Shi Xingeng's Collected Works" and "Japan-China Joint Research Results Report".
2026 marks the 90th anniversary of the discovery of the Liangzhu ruins. In 1936, archaeologist Shi Xin discovered several pieces of black pottery during a field survey near the Qipan Tomb in Liangzhu Town, opening the door to five thousand years of civilization. On July 6, 2019, the "Liangzhu Ancient City Ruins" was successfully included in the World Heritage List, marking that the five thousand years of Chinese civilization has been widely recognized by the international community.
"The results released this time focus on the latest progress in all-round and systematic research on Liangzhu archeology in recent years." said Xu Tianjin, director of Liangzhu Museum and professor at the School of Archeology and Museology at Peking University.
According to reports, this batch of results covers archaeological excavation reports, a multi-volume complete collection of jade artifacts, a comprehensive research report on Sino-Japanese cooperation, a special survey of Liangzhu stone tools, and Shi Xingeng’s collected works, etc.
Xiang Ming, director of the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology, believes that different readers can gain something from this batch of results. "They are both academic works and popular reading materials."
Taking the "Complete Collection of Liangzhu Jade Articles" as an example, he said that museum displays often only show one or two sides of jade articles, while catalogs can completely present the entire object.
Sino-Japanese cooperation is a highlight of this outcome.
The "Japan-China Joint Research Results Report" co-authored by the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and Kanazawa University, Japan, was released on site. It is composed of three volumes: "Exploring Ancient China from Animals, Plants, and Minerals", "Exploring China's Neolithic Civilization" and "Archaeology in Jiangnan, China". Shinichi Nakamura, emeritus professor at the Institute of Ancient Civilization and Cultural Resources at Kanazawa University in Japan, is the chief editor of the three-volume book. In 1988, he came to the Liangzhu site as an archaeologist.
In his opinion, Liangzhu archeology has entered a stage of rapid development from "farmland excavation", and cooperation between overseas experts and the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology has become more and more frequent. "Liangzhu is the most ideal research field in the world."
During the "Liangzhu Forum", Wang Ningyuan, a researcher at the Zhejiang Provincial Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology and the person in charge of the Liangzhu Ancient City and Water Conservancy System Site Archaeological Project, disclosed new archaeological results: Following the discovery of architectural remains on the earth platform on the east side of Fanshan Cemetery last year, the archaeological team completed the restoration of these prehistoric buildings this year.
"We now have a basic understanding of the 'family background' of the Liangzhu ruins group." Wang Ningyuan said that after continuous excavations since 2007, the structure of the dams, hundreds of villages and city sites in the ruins group has been roughly clarified. The next step will be to study detailed research on the shape of workshops and other details.
At the scene, the journal "Zhejiang Archeology" was officially launched. It is reported that the journal will publish new theories, new discoveries, and new results in the field of cultural relics and archaeology research, and build a high-level professional academic exchange platform.
