More than 100 Chinese and overseas scholars met Wednesday to discuss the origin and early development of ancient Chinese civilization.

The international symposium, held by the Research Center for Ancient Civilizations under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), aims to trace Chinese history back before Xia Dynasty (BC 2070-BC 1600), believed to be the first dynasty in Chinese history.

Scholars say Chinese civilization is the world's only ancient civilization that has been developing for 5,000 years without interruption. Its origin, development process, context and mechanism of ancient Chinese civilization are the most important subjects for archaeologists and historians to explore.

During the three-day conference, experts will discuss and exchange views on the important issues in the fields of archaeology, historical documents, ancient world history, agriculture, zoopaleontology, paleobotany, geography, modern physics and chemistry.

The emphases of the conference include review of the study of ancient Chinese civilization in 20th century, several theoretical issues on ancient civilization research, new archaeological discoveries and promotion of ancient civilization research.

The participants of the symposium are from Chinese major archaeological and historical research institutes and universities, as well as research organs from Japan and Germany.

(People's Daily 08/01/2001)