Recently, an interdisciplinary research has been launched undertaken by the Heritage Laboratory at the Social Science Center in conjunction with Chou Yu-Min’s team of the Department of Ocean Science and Engineering at Southern University of Science and Technology (SUSTech).

Dr. Chou Yu-Min, an assistant professor at Department of Ocean Science and Engineering, and his research team conducted a pilot fieldwork in the ancient karst caves in Guizhou Province, with particular interest in both Niupo and Zhaoguo Caves.

The research group plans to investigate the ancient cave sites in Guizhou.

Their research is in collaboration with the Institute of Archaeology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the Guizhou Provincial Institute of Cultural Heritage and Archaeology. Scholars from these two institutes are responsible for excavating the sites. They explored cooperation programs with a view to fully integrating the breakthroughs in the study of paleomagnetism by SUSTech’s Department of Ocean Science and Engineering.

Earlier, Dr. Chou Yu-Min published a paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences to rebuild the paleomagnetic record of stalagmites from the Sanxing Cave in Guizhou from 107,000 to 91,000 years ago where his team made a ground-breaking realization in the field of paleomagnetism using the cave stalagmites.

The ancient cave site of Guizhou, with karst caves as their main form, has become a natural link between archaeological and paleomagnetism/environmental magnetism research, and provides broad prospects for cooperation.

As a result of Chou’s initial research, scholars and researchers from both the Social Science Center and Department of Ocean Science and Engineering will conduct in-depth discussions on the future cooperation.

Their research will take Gui’an Niupo Cave and Zhaoguo Cave as entry points, involving the environmental reconstruction, the use of multiple dating techniques, and the study of site formation processes

The Niupo Cave site is located in Machang Town, Gui’an New District, Guizhou Province. So far, 7 refuse pits, more than 10 hearths, and 7 burials have been discovered. They have also found a large number of artifacts, particularly stone tools.

For the first time, a continuous cultural sequence from the late Paleolithic to the Spring and Autumn and the Warring States Periods have been established in central Guizhou Province. It provides important information for understanding the prehistory of Guizhou and constructing the archaeological sequence of cave sites. The discovery at Niupo Cave was awarded the top ten archaeological discoveries in China in 2016.

The Zhaoguo Cave site is located in Yankong Village, Gaofeng Town, Gui’an New District. So far, the research team has discovered a considerable amount of cultural remains. The site is well preserved, and there are many remains. It is expected that there will be more discoveries in the future.