Inspiration for more studies

For Chinese archaeologists, learning more about the origins of Egyptian civilization has greater meaning.

"Grand rivers nurture the world's cradles of ancient civilizations, like ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus Valley, and China," says Wang Wei, director of CASS Academic Division of History. "Each civilization has its own features, but their development also demonstrates certain shared patterns.

"As Chinese archaeologists become active in the rest of the world, we may also better understand characteristics of our own," he says.

When the joint mission began, Jia expected to compare their findings to those of contemporaneous China, namely the Xia (c. 21st century-16th century BC), Shang (c. 16th century-11th century BC) and Zhou (c. 11th century-256 BC) dynasties, but he is now gaining more inspiration.

A major part of his work in China is leading the archaeological project at the Niuheliang site in Chaoyang, Liaoning province, a central sacrificial area of the Hongshan Culture that was from 5,000 to 5,500 years ago.

Jia says that work in Egypt has inspired his studies in Niuheliang.