"I've been working in archaeology for forty years." Wang Wei, member of the Faculty of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, director of the Department of History, and chairman of the Chinese Archaeological Society, sighed in an exclusive interview with the "Daguan" column group of the People's Network that Chinese archaeology has undergone earth-shaking changes in recent years, and there is a sense of separation.
Wang Wei was interviewed by the People's Daily "Grand View" column. People's Daily reporter Zhang Guigui photographed
"At that time, archaeology was really the unpopular of the unpopular." Wang Wei remembers that when he was interning in 1979, he needed to issue invoices, and others forced the archaeological team to write the "roasted bone" team, which made people cry and laugh. Nowadays, the new discoveries of Sanxingdui and other sites frequently "go out of the circle", and all kinds of literary and artistic works will play history and cultural relics "alive", and archaeologists are happy to see the "archaeological fever" of the whole people.
Wang Wei believes that the biggest charm of archaeology is that blue is better than blue, always full of hope, "perhaps, a young archaeologist who has just walked out of school may rewrite history with a fortuitous discovery." ”
Wang Wei in his youth. Courtesy of the interviewer
Wang Wei is best known for presiding over the completion of the "Chinese Civilization Exploration Project", through the combination of physics, chemistry, astronomy, geology, biology, genetics and other multidisciplinary excavations of several large-scale Duyi-type sites from 5500 to 4000 years ago, through archaeological materials and various studies to confirm that "China has been up and down for five thousand years" is not a lie.
"The essence of archaeology is rigorous." Wang Wei gave us an example: In that year, the team discovered the ruins of lajia in Minhe County in eastern Qinghai. In a village that was engulfed by mudslides 4,000 years ago, a young woman was found to be nursing a child in her dying arms, which many media reported as "mother-child love". But archaeologists did not conclude this because there was no evidence that they were mother and son. Sure enough, after conducting DNA comparison studies, it was found that the two were not mother and son. "Seeking truth and being pragmatic is the most basic respect for science." Wang Wei said.
2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of modern Chinese archaeology. Talking about the development process of Chinese archaeology in the past century, Wang Wei used 16 words to summarize: "through hardships, blue wisps of the road, passing on the torch, dedication and dedication, and brilliant achievements." In order to celebrate this node, Wang Wei also created five songs for Chinese archaeologists, including "A Hundred Years of Heart Language", "I am a Chinese archaeologist", and "The Light of Yangshao", which expressed the voice of Chinese archaeologists in a unique way.