Studies in Silk Road Archaeology

Nai Xia (1910-1985), courtesy name Zuoming, was a respected archaeologist born in Wenzhou, Zhejiang Province. After 1949, he worked at the Department of Anthropology of Zhejiang University, and later served at the Archaeological Institute of the Chinese Academy of Sciences as Vice Director, Director, and Honorary Director. He was Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Chairman of the Chinese Archaeological Society, as well as Chairman of the State Cultural Relics Commission. He was elected as a member of the Department of Philosophy and Social Sciences at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 1962. He was also awarded honorary academic titles by the Royal Society of the United Kingdom, the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, and the Royal Swedish Academy of Literature, History and Antiquities.
Nai Xia studied both in China and abroad. His research covered a wide range of fields, including the theory and methodology of archaeology, prehistoric archaeology, the origins of Chinese civilization, the history of Sino-Western relations, and the history of Chinese science and technology. His major publications include: Ancient Egyptian Beads, The Origins of Chinese Civilization, Dunhuang Archaeology, and The Collected Works of Nai Xia. As a twentieth-century scholar, Nai Xia was a key figure in archaeological studies in the People’s Republic of China, and one of the founders of modern Chinese archaeology.