The Study On The Archaeological History Of Heihe River Basin(1870-1949)

Heihe River Basin is the second largest inland river in China,and it is the intersection of the East-West cultural Silk Road and the main trade channel of different cultural exchanges between the North and the South.It stretches across Qinghai,Gansu and Inner Mongolia.No matter in the historical period,or a series of exploration activities carried out in modern times,the unique special geographical position of Heihe River basin is reflected.Since the end of the Qing Dynasty,China has fallen into a chaotic era of declining national strength and invasion by foreign powers.Foreign powers rushed to launch expeditions,surveys and plundering activities in northwest China one after another,which made the ancient Chinese culture that had been come into existence,and immediately aroused a boom of archaeological exploration in the academic circle.As a post station of the Silk Road culture,Heihe River Basin witnessed the interaction and collision of different explorers in their investigation activities,and then established a research platform for the archaeological history of Heihe River Basin.By sorting out the specific archaeological process carried out in Heihe River Basin,we can study the field archaeological activities in Northwest China in modern times as a whole.From the perspective of archaeological history,this paper makes a comprehensive and systematic review of the field archaeological expeditions and excavations carried out in the Heihe River Basin from 1870 to 1949.Firstly,with the background of the natural geographical environment and history of the Heihe River Basin,the unique geographical location of the Heihe River Basin is revealed.Then,the archaeological activities in each stage are analyzed in different time periods,with the emphasis on Kozlov,Stein,Warner,the Northwest Scientific Investigation Group,the expedition organized by China.Summarize their archaeological processes in different ranges of the Heihe River Basin,clarify the development vein of the archaeological history of the Heihe River basin,and then analyze the periodic characteristics and development trend of the archaeological activities in the Heihe River Basin and show the continuous progress and strengthening in terms of scientific research talents and archaeological skills of the field archaeology in Northwest China with foreign explorers as the main body to the domestic scholars to independently set up archaeological activities in modern times.The fruitful archaeological activities in the Heihe River Basin were also an important carrier of Xixia Studies and Juyan Wooden Slips in the 20 th century,which expanded the field of international sinology research,promoted the development of Xixia Studies and Jiandu Studies,laid a foundation for the establishment and development of archaeology in Northwest China in modern times,and fully embodied the important value and significance of the archaeological history research in the Heihe River Basin in modern times.