Chengdu Plain Archaeological Survey. Results from the 2005-2010 Seasons.

The Chengdu Plain Archaeological Survey (CPAS), was an international collaborative archaeological project that took place over the course of five field seasons starting in 2005 under the direction of Rowan Flad (Harvard), Pochan Chen (National Taiwan University), Gwen Bennett (Washington University, St. Louis / McGill), Jiang Zhanghua (Chengdu City Institute of Archaeology) and Li Shuicheng (Peking University). The survey involved a multi-faced archaeological investigation of site locations and landscape use in an area of approximately 350 km2 surrounding two Neolithic walled sites (ca. 2600–1700 BCE): Pi Xian Gucheng (30˚ 54’ 15” N, 103˚ 55’ 25” E) and Yufucun (30˚ 45’ 15” N, 103˚ 50’ 05” E).

Using a combination of surface collection, systematic coring, geophysics and test pits, team members conducted five seasons of investigations and collected thousands of data points useful for synthesizing changing land use contemporaneous with the cultural changes that occurred in the region from the Neolithic, through the subsequent Bronze Age and into the period of the Qin and Han Empires.  Settlement patterns attest to a diachronic process that eventually gave rise to the Sanxingdui polity in the second millennium BCE, and subsequent Bronze Age cultures that occupied the region at the time of Qin conquest in 316 BCE. This report brings together the data from this survey and synthetic discussions of the prehistory and environment of the region. The database provides the first comprehensive, systematic, large-scale regional survey of archaeological material in the Sichuan Basin of China.

The report is being published in two versions, one in English from the Cotsen Institute Press of the University of California, Los Angeles, and one through Science Press in Beijing.  The full references are provided below.  Also, digital files from the project are available Open Access at: Open Context: Chengdu Plain Archaeological Survey (CPAS) 成都平原考古调查: 2005-2010年成果. Also available on that page are links to the full catalog of locations surveyed in the project in downloadable PDFs that are companions to the published monographs.   

ENGLISH: Chengdu Plain Archaeological Survey International Team 成都平原国际考古调查队 (Rowan K. Flad 傅罗文, Joshua Wright, Lin Kuei-chen 林圭侦, Zhou Zhiqing 周志清, Jiang Zhanghua 江章华) (2026). The Chengdu Plain Archaeological Survey – Results from the 2005-2010 Seasons. Los Angeles: UCLA Cotsen Institute Press. (https://www.ioa.ucla.edu/content/chengdu-plain-archaeological-survey) 

CHINESE: Chengdu Pingyuan Guoji Kaogu Diaochadui 成都平原国际考古调查队 (Rowan K. Flad 傅罗文, Joshua Wright, Lin Kuei-chen 林圭侦, Zhou Zhiqing 周志清, Jiang Zhanghua 江章华) (n.d.). Chengdu Pingyuan Kaogu Diaocha—2005-2011 nian chengguo 成都平原考古调查  -- 2005-2011年成果 [The Chengdu Plain Archaeological Survey – Results from 2005-2011]. Beijing: Kexue chubanshe. (Expected in 2026)”

The publication project was directed by Dr. Rowan K. Flad through a grant from the White Levy Program.