Prof. Xia Nai (1910--1985) was an outstanding Chinese archaeologist of substantial scholarly achievement. His academic researches featured profound erudition, a wide field of vision and a rigorous scientific approach. In archaeology of prehistoric China, his major contributions consisted in the amendment of the chronological system of Neolithic cultures in the upper Yellow River valley, the standardization of the denomination of cultures in Chinese archaeology, the offering at an earlier time of the theory of pluralism on the development of the Neolithic culture in China, and archaeological inquiry into the origin of Chinese civilization. In archaeology of historic times in China, he was good at further and further researches in the light of abundant archaeological data and reliable literary records. His attainments in the archaeological study of the history of science and technology in China as well as that of Sino-Western communications deserve to be emphasized as pioneer, important contributions.
From the founding of our Institute of Archaeology, Prof. Zheng Zhenduo, Head of the Bureau of Cultural Relics under the Ministry of Culture (later promoted to the position of Vice-Minister), was concurrently director of the Institute until his passing away in 1958. During this period, he often came to the Institute to chair meetings, sign documents, handle various affairs and meet broadly with his colleagues in the Institute; and he directed the working-out of a long-term programme for archaeological researches. As early as 1920s, he published a popular history of archaeology and advocated launching scientific archaeological excavation; later, although devoting himself to classical studies, still he engaged in art archaeology at the same time. Prof. Zheng played an important part in the development of the antiquarian and archaeological cause of New China.
