Innovative archaeological survey reveals unknown aspects of China's past

Scientists walk through tea fields in southeastern Shandong as part of an innovative settlement pattern regional survey that uncovered important new evidence about how this region of China developed. This photograph was taken in 2006, and the team has completed 13 years of survey to date, making it one of the longest running collaborations of any kind between Chinese and American scientists. On the right, Linda Nicholas, Adjunct Curator of Anthropology at The Field Museum, carries a map on which she marks the distribution of the prehistoric and Early Bronze Age sherds found during the survey. Photo by Anne Underhill, courtesy of The Field Museum