Johan Gunnar Andersson: Archaeological Geologist and Pioneer

Johan Gunnar Andersson was a Swedish economic geologist who went to China in 1914 as a mining consultant to the Chinese Government but soon, without prior experience or education in archaeology, became an archaeological geologist who discovered the famous ‘Peking Man’ site at Zhoukoudian and uncovered and defined the prehistoric Chinese Neolithic Period with his excavations and analysis of the site of Yangshao, Henan Province, China. These two discoveries were only the highlights of his pioneering expeditions in China. In his eleven years there he helped open up the country to modern methods in archaeology. As an outgrowth of his excavations in China he founded the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm. This museum became the recipient of a sizeable portion of his many excavated artifacts, some unique in China and in the West.