Archaeology at the Palace Museum

The Palace Museum leverages its advantages to perform dedicated archaeological research on cultural heritage related to royal courts including macro topics of the formation, development and characteristics of ancient Chinese civilization.

In light of the actual conditions of China's cultural heritage protection, the Palace Museum has practiced the concepts, approaches, and research methods for palace architectural archaeology and actively undertaken and participated in major archaeological excavation projects.

Such efforts focused on archaeological excavations and research in the Forbidden City while undertaking and participating in excavations of archaeological sites in various places such as the Ming-dynasty imperial city ruins in Fengyang County, Chuzhou City of east China's Anhui Province, the Sanxingdui site in Guanghan, Chengdu City, capital of southwest China's Sichuan Province, and the imperial kiln ruins in Jingdezhen City, Jiangxi Province, east China.

Since 2019, the Palace Museum has participated in a number of Belt and Road archaeological survey and excavation projects in Central Asia, carrying out exchange between Silk Road civilizations and comparative research on Chinese and Western cultures. It has also cooperated with the Department of Archaeology at Durham University in Britain to conduct archaeological excavation and research on Ras Al Khaimah in the United Arab Emirates, thus expanding international exchange and cooperation.

The Palace Museum employs various forms of media to interpret and disseminate the results of its archaeological investigations, excavations, and studies, accelerating the construction of an "academic museum", and optimizing the role of archaeology in promoting the development of the Palace Museum.

故宮考古

故宮考古是在研究中國古代文明形成、發展與特點的宏觀課題下，依托故宮自身優勢，致力于與宮廷相關遺存的考古調查及研究。故宮考古結合中國文化遺產保護實際，踐行宮廷建筑考古的理念、方法與研究手段，并積極承擔和參與重大考古調查發掘項目。

故宮考古以重點推進紫禁城內考古發掘與研究為基礎，兼顧各地考古遺址發掘與研究外延，承擔和參與鳳陽明中都遺址、廣漢三星堆遺址、景德鎮御窯廠遺址等地的考古發掘工作。

自2019年以來，故宮博物院參加了中亞地區“一帶一路”考古調查和發掘項目，開展絲綢之路文明交流和中西方文化比較研究；聯合英國杜倫大學考古系開展阿聯酋拉斯海馬考古發掘與研究等工作，拓展國際交流與合作。

故宮考古利用各種形式闡釋、傳播考古調查發掘和研究成果，推動“學術故宮”建設，發揮考古對故宮事業發展的促進作用。