Song Guoding

Song Guoding, of the Henan Institute of for Cultural Relics and Archaeology, is spending the year 2002-03 at the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies. Mr. Song, who was educated at Peking University, is director in charge of the Shang and Zhou Dynasties Research Group at the Henan Institute.

Mr. Song has directed excavation of a number of important sites from different periods, including, in 1985-89, the site of the ancient city of Zheng-Han; in 1989-2000, the Shang sites of Zhengzhou and Xiaoshuangqiao; and in 1996-97, director of a project in collaboration with the University of Missouri to survey Xia dynasty sites along the upper Ying River, in Henan.

While at UCLA, Mr. Song will be researching religious practice during the early period of the Shang dynasty.