The aim of archaeology is to understand ancient society and history by studying the relics and remains of human activities. Archaeological studies focus on material objects, but they include related methods and technologies as well.

Progress in the discipline advances in step with technology. The history of archaeology shows that technology can be a huge driver of disciplinary development.

Academia in China has paid great attention to the synergy between technology and archaeology, leading to a number of breakthroughs in recent decades. Advances in such technologies as radiocarbon dating—also known as carbon-14 dating—have catalyzed the development of the discipline. Radiocarbon dating allows researchers to determine the age of an object containing organic material by using the half-life of radioactive carbon isotopes.

The element carbon has three isotope forms: Carbon-12, Carbon-13 and Carbon-14. Among them, Carbon-14 is radioactive, and it accounts for an extremely small proportion of organic material. In the ecosystem, it is an outcome of a reaction between cosmic rays and air in the atmosphere. It exits in carbon material that has reacted with atmosphere. Carbon material can be frequently discovered in archaeological sites, so it is feasible to use Carbon-14 dating to determine age.

The method was developed by American physical chemist Willard Libby in the late 1940s and soon became a standard tool for archaeological studies. It has also been adopted by Chinese archaeologists and helped to clarify the timelines  of Neolithic cultures that have been found in a variety of regions. Establishing the exact timeline led to a new stage of Chinese studies on Neolithic archaeology.

The accuracy of Carbon-14 dating has been greatly improved due to long-term refinement of the process, which can be seen in dendrochronology, a dating method based on the analysis of patterns of tree rings that is used around the world. The development of Chinese archaeology in modern times has created unprecedented conditions for studying the country’s ancient civilizations.

For example, archaeologists applied dendrochronology in the Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project to sort reams of chronology data concerning the period from Longshan culture to the West Zhou Dynasty. Relatively accurate and reliable data from each age enables a much more precise timeline, which is of great significance to archaeological and historical research on ancient Chinese civilizations.

Qiu Shihua is an honorary member at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences and the chief scientist at the Xia-Shang-Zhou Chronology Project.