Zhichun Jing

  • Associate Professor
  • Canada Research Chair in Pacific-Asia Archaeology
  • jingzh(at)mail.ubc.ca
  • (604) 822-4937 (AnSo 1204)
  • Ph.D. University of Minnesota, 1994

Research Interests

Dr. Jing's areas of interest include archaeology of early China, early urbanization, culture contact, geoarchaeology, human impact on ancient environments, archaic states and early complex societies, systematic regional survey and analysis, quantitative analysis, environmental archaeology, archaeology of archaic jades, archaeological ceramics, and archaeometry.

Over the past decade, Dr. Jing has been collaborating with colleagues from China and US, investigating the Shang, the first literate civilization in East Asia, at Anyang in North China. Anyang is the modern city where archaeologists located two lost Shang capital cities: Yinxu and Huanbei. Yinxu means “the Ruins of Yin”, here Yin was referred to the period of the reign of the last nine Shang kings (ca. 1,230 or 1,200 – 1,050 B.C.). This lost city was discovered more than eighty years ago, and it has been intensively excavated. Among a variety of findings are a tremendous number of oracle bone inscriptions, the first substantial body of writing in East Asia, offering an inestimable value in the understanding of how the Shang organized themselves in the geographical and cultural landscapes. Huanbei, a walled urban settlement site slightly earlier than Yinxu in Anyang, probably arose in the middle or end of the 14th century B.C., and lasted for less than one century. Sponsored by Henry Luce Foundation, the National Science Foundation, and the National Geographic, Dr. Jing and his colleagues's multi-year fieldwork was directly responsible for the discovery of this long lost Shang city at Huanbei.

Currently Dr. Jing is directing and working on two large-scale collaborative projects with colleagues from the Institute of Archaeology at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, the University of British Columbia, the University of Wisconsin, and the University of Minnesota: (1)Investigation of the Long-term Dynamics of Coupled Human and Ecological Systems in Early China, sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada; and (2) Human and Social Dynamics of Early Bronze Age China: An Interdisciplinary Program, sponsored by the Henry Luce Foundation.

Selected Publications

Tang, J. and Jing, Z. (2010). Architectural reconstruction of two palace/temple complexes at Huanbei Shang City. Kaogu (Archaeology) 2010(1):23-35.

Tang, J. Jing, Z., and Liu, Z. (2010). The survey and excavation of the inner city at Huanbei Shang city. Kaogu (Archaeology) 2010(1):3-8.

Jing, Z. (2010). Mineralogical Investigation into the jades excavated from Tomb 71 at Shizhaishan. In Fifth Excavation of the Shizhaishan Site, Yunnan, edited by Jiang Zhilong, pp. 220-231. Beijing: Cultural Relics Press.

Tang, J. and Jing, Z. (2009). The Shang yi-settlements and the ”Great City Shang” in Anyang. Kaogu (Archaeology), 2009(9)：70-80.

Stoltman, J., Jing, Z., Tang, J., and Rapp, G. (2009). Ceramic production in Shang societies of Anyang. Asian Perspective, 33(1): 181-202.

Jing, Z., Tang, J., and Takashima, K. (Ed.). (2008). Shang Dynasty and Early Chinese Civilization – Multiple Perspectives. Beijing: Science Press.

Jing, Z. (2007). Geoarchaeology of the excavated from Tomb 54 at Huayuanzhuang, Anyang. In Excavation of the Tomb 54 at Huayuanzhuang, Anyang, edited by the Institute of Archaeology, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, pp. 345-387, plates 58-67. Beijing: Science Press.

Zhang C. Wen, G., and Jing, Z. (2007). Jades from the Western Zhou Cemetery at Zhangjiapo, 416 p. Beijing: Cultural Relics Press.

Jing, ZJing, Z. (Ed). (2007). Earth Science in Archaeology: Integration Comes of Age. Geoarchaeology: 22(1): 1-154 (special issue, containing 7 chapters).

Jing, Z., Tang, J., Liu, Z., and Yue, Z. (2004). Survey and test excavation of the Huanbei Shang city in Anyang. Chinese Archaeology vol. 4, 1-20.

Jing, Z. and Rapp, G. Jr. (2003). The coastal evolution of the Ambracian embayment and its relationships to archaeological settings. Hesperia Supplement 32, 157-198.

Tang, J., Jing, Z., Rapp, G., and Liu, Z. (2003). Archaeological survey of the Huanbei Shang city in Anyang, Henan. Kaogu (Archaeology) (2003)5, 3-16.

Tang, J., Jing, Z., and Rapp, G. (2000). The largest walled Shang city located in Anyang, China. Antiquity 74, 479-80.

Rapp, G. Jr., Allert, J., Vitali, V., and Jing, Z. (30%), Henrickson, E. (2000). The Determination of Sources of North American Artifact Copper Using Trace-Element Patterns, 156 p. Washington, D.C. The University Press of America.

Rapp, G. Jr., Rothe, Russell, and Jing, Z. (35%). (1999). Using neutron activation analysis to source ancient tin (cassiterite). In Metals in Antiquity, edited by S. M. M. Young, A. M. Pollard, P. Budd, R. A. Ixer, pp. 153 - 162, British Archaeological Reports International Series 792. Oxford, Archaeopress.

Chen, T. Rapp, G. Jr., Jing, Z., and He, N. (1999).  Provenance studies of the earliest Chinese protoporcelain using instrumental neutron activation analysis. Journal of Archaeological Science 26, 1003-15.

Jing, Z. and Rapp, G. Jr. (1998). Environmental Magnetic indicators of the sedimentary context of archaeological sites in the Shangqiu area of China.  Geoarchaeology 13(1), 37-54.

Gao, T., Jing, Z., Murowchick, R. Rapp, G. Jr., and Niu, S. (1998). The investigation of the Eastern Zhou city in Shangqiu, Henan. Kaogu (Archaeology) 1998(12), 18-27.

Tang J., Jing, Z., Xu, G., and Rapp, G. Jr. (1998). A preliminary report of the regional archaeological survey in the Huan River valley.  Kaogu (Archaeology) 1998(10), 13-27.

Jing, Z., Rapp, G. Jr., and Gao, T. (1997). Geoarchaeological aids in the investigation of early Shang civilization on the floodplain of the lower Yellow river. World Archaeology 29(1), 36-50.

Jing, Z., Rapp, G. Jr., and Gao, T. (1997).  Holocene geomorphic changes and the prehistoric and early historic sites in the Shangqiu area, Henan. Kaogu (Archaeology) 1997 (5), 68-84.

Chen, T. Rapp, G. Jr., Jing, Z., and He, N. (1997).  The sourcing of the protoporcelain of Shang period by using neutron activation analysis. Kaogu (Archaeology) 1997(7), 39-52.

Jing, Z., Rapp, G. Jr., and Gao, T. (1995). Holocene landscape evolution and its impact on the Neolithic and Bronze Age sites in the Shangqiu area, northern China. Geoarchaeology 6, 481-513.

Wen, G., and Jing, Z. (1993). Geoarchaeologic study of the Western Zhou jade artifacts from Fengxi site, - Geoarchaeologic study of ancient Chinese jades, III. Acta Archaeologia Sinica 1993(1), 251-280, Plates 13-20.

Wen, G., and Jing, Z. (1992). Chinese Neolithic jade: a preliminary geoarchaeological study. Geoarchaeology 7(3), 251-275.

 

 

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