The Reappearance of Yangshao? Reflections on unmourned artifacts

China Heritage Quarterly ^ | September 2010 | Magnus Fiskesjo

[SunkenCiv]

The first excavations of Yangshao cultural remains in the 1920s inaugurated the modern discipline of archaeology in China. The recent documentary film Cutting Through the Fog of History: The Re-appearance of the Yangshao Cultural Relics[1] is one of the first Chinese attempts in many years to address the mysterious disappearance, possibly during World War II, of many of the artifacts uncovered in the course of these excavations.

In comparison with the seemingly never-ending flood of both science and fiction writings on the lost Peking Man remains, which also vanished during China's war with Japan,[2] it is curious that comparatively little attention has been given either inside or outside China to these formidable lost cultural treasures from the Neolithic era. The story of their disappearance is no less dramatic, and the lost pieces include unique cultural artifacts like the painted ceramic lid in the shape of a shaman's head, which is among the earliest human figures in East Asian art (Fig. 1, from Fiskesjö and Chen 2004,[3] pp. 148-49, and Fig. 2, from Palmgren 1934,[4] Plate XIX, cf. items 7, 8, and 9).

[SunkenCiv]

[SunkenCiv]

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[Inyo-Mono]

I hopw they can be found someday. I first became interested in missing artifacts after reading Peking Man by Shapiro, about the missing fossils, back in the '70s.

[1010RD]

I think the current crop of Chinese (mainland) officios don’t want them discovered. Without a doubt Chinese culture and civilization is derived. That’s not the message they want to send or believe.

[Inyo-Mono]

I agree, remember the Caucasian mummies found there?

[1010RD]

Yep. Truth takes a back seat (maybe it gets kicked off the bus) when racial pride is the goal.