At the 5th World Archaeological Forum held recently, Yan Wenming, a senior professor at Peking University, was awarded the "Lifetime Achievement Award", which is the first time that the award has been awarded to a Chinese archaeologist.
According to public information, Yan Wenming once served as the head of the Department of Archaeology of Beijing University, the vice chairman of the Archaeological Society of China, and is now a senior professor at Peking University. Starting from the Yangshao culture, he made an in-depth investigation of the Neolithic period across the country, and established the chronological and genealogical framework of the Neolithic in China. He put forward the theory of "double-petaled flowers", advocated a multidisciplinary research method combining archaeology and natural science, promoted the internationalization of Chinese archaeology, and was an important leader in the development of archaeology in China.
Since the archaeology of Yangshao Village in Henan Province in 1921, Chinese archaeology has gone through a hundred years. However, the important archaeology of the Neolithic period in China was mainly carried out after 1950. In 1958, after graduating from the Department of History of Peking University, Yan Wenming stayed on to teach, teaching Neolithic archaeology. In 1960, he led students to Luoyang Wangwan for the first time for archaeological Xi, and instructed students to use the stratigraphically clear and meticulous staging of the Wangwan site as a yardstick to measure the staging of the nearby Yangshao site. In the subsequent research, Yan Wenming reorganized the materials of Yangshao cultural sites such as Yangshao Village, Xiyin Village, Miaodigou, Banpo, Sanliqiao, etc., analyzed the stratigraphic relationship and periodization of typical sites, studied the periodization of each region, compared and summarized the corresponding cultural periodization in various places, and divided the development of Yangshao culture into four phases and two stages through typology and stratigraphy, which laid the foundation for the study of Yangshao culture.
Yan Wenming was recognized as an "important achievement of Chinese prehistoric archaeological research" in 1986. In that year, he mentioned in his submission to the International Symposium on "General Laws of Ancient Chinese History and Social Sciences" that China's Neolithic culture was a huge double-petaled flower, and the Central Plains Cultural Zone was the heart of the flower, and the surrounding Ganqing, Shandong, Yanliao, the middle reaches of the Yangtze River and Jiangsu-Zhejiang Cultural Zone were the first layer of petals, and the peripheral cultural areas were the second layer of petals. The Central Plains Cultural District is located in the center of the flower, playing a central role in connecting the various cultural districts, and also radiating culture to the surrounding cultural districts, while the peripheral cultural districts maintain their own vitality. In his view, the formation of two major agricultural systems, namely, the dry farming system in northern China and the rice farming system in the Yangtze River basin, has given Chinese civilization a broad foundation, and the two systems complement each other and enable civilization to continue.
This theory, known as the "double-petaled flower" theory, was launched by the journal Cultural Relics in March 1987 and is considered by the academic community to be an important achievement in the study of Chinese prehistoric archaeology.
Now, at the age of 90, Yan Wenming has been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award, which reads: "This is not only a recognition of Mr. Yan's outstanding contribution to the advancement of the discipline of archaeology, but also an affirmation of his tireless efforts to promote the importance of archaeology to the public for the contemporary society and the common future of the world." In this regard, Yan Wenming wrote down his feelings: "Thank you for giving me a high honor, I am just diligent in farming, and I don't care about the harvest." ”
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