2021 marks one hundred years since Johan Gunnar Andersson (1874–1960) and his Chinese colleagues excavated a Neolithic settlement site in a small village called Yangshao in Henan Province.
The excavation marks a beginning of archaeological fieldwork in China, scholarly communication over Eurasia in the field of archaeology, and the creation of a public institution for the management and display of East Asian material and visual culture in Sweden: The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities (MFEA) in Stockholm, now a part of National Museums of World Culture. This film and web page is part of a series of publications and projects to mark the jubilee.
Johan Gunnar Andersson - one hundred years since the beginning of archaeological fieldwork in Yangshao, China.
Director General of the National Museums of World Culture Ann Follin gives a brief history of Swedish archaeologist Johan Gunnar Andersson, his findings in China and the creation of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm.
The Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities first published The Bulletin (BMFEA) in 1929 when the Museum opened in Stockholm. MFEA has published the journal almost every year since then and established it as an important international publication in Asia studies. To commemorate the centenary of the discovery of the Yangshao culture, we are publishing an anniversary volume of the bulletin. You can download an abstract in Chinese and English here.
2021 will also be the start of a major digitization project that we have called JGA 2.0. By digitizing a large part of the collection that we manage and making the material digitally searchable for researchers and the general public worldwide, we want to build knowledge together.
The findings in Yangshao have given rise to research that is still ongoing and will continue. Therefore, we invite you to collaborate on Johan Gunnar Andersson’s collections and the digitization project JGA 2.0 so that we may share data and build new knowledge together. Here are links to our contact information: Archive, Photo, Researcher visit.
