The International Centre for Chinese Heritage and Archaeology (ICCHA): After a Decade of Success

Abstract

The International Centre for Chinese Heritage and Archaeology (ICCHA) is a centre formed jointly by the UCL Institute of Archaeology and the Peking University School of Archaeology and Museology, and launched in Beijing on 15th December 2003. It was very much an initiative promoted by the then Institute director Peter Ucko, who continued to run the ICCHA after his retirement from UCL, until 2007. Since its beginnings the ICCHA has fostered links between the UK’s largest archaeology department and the oldest and most prestigious university department of archaeology in China. It aims to enhance communication both ways, about Chinese archaeology and heritage issues for a UK audience, and about world archaeology and archaeological method and theory in the West for the Chinese archaeological community. The ICCHA fosters important joint research, organises significant international academic conferences, promotes interest in Chinese archaeology and heritage in London through its regular seminar series ‘China Night’ at the Institute of Archaeology, and facilitates scholarly exchanges, at the level of research students, postdoctoral researchers, and academic staff. For further information see www.ucl.ac.uk/iccha.