Archaeologist urges investigations before construction

The Urban Archaeology and Heritage Protection Symposium was held by the Guangzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology on Nov. 26 in Guangzhou. Scholars suggested that disciplinary laws should be followed in urban archaeology so that the work does not take a backseat to the practical needs of urban construction. Hang Kan, dean of the School of Archaeology and Museology at Peking University, said the construction of subways in a city where ancient and modern sites overlap will pose serious challenges for efforts to preserve cultural relics. Archaeologists should conduct investigations before the urban construction planning so that construction may avoid areas where cultural relics are densely concentrated, he said. Liu Qingzhu, a research fellow from the Institute of Archaeology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said archaeological studies also have a great opportunity to recover the developmental history of ancient cities during the process.