112 SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION 



historical significance were noted, among them what seems in all 

 probahility to be that of the earlier capital of the Tartar dynasty 

 known as the Northern Wei (A. D. 386-535). A visit was also paid 

 to a region near the edge of the Mongolian plateau, where the 

 Hiung-nu. identified with the Huns who later ravaged nearly the 

 whole of Euroi:)e. are known to have held their great annual assemblies 

 about the beginning of the Christian Era. Here were secured num- 

 erous bronze objects, arrow-heads, knives, ornaments, and the like, 

 showing a decided Scythian or South-Siberian influence. 



During the summer tnir attention was again devoted to the old 

 fortified site on the rocky promontory of Lighthouse Point, at 

 Peitaiho, on the Gulf of Chihli, mentioned in the report of our work 

 for 1924.^ Excavations here disclosed remains of at least three periods, 

 a late Neolithic (prehistoric) occupation, a small but commanding- 

 Han Dynasty fortification of about the beginning of our b^ra, and a 

 large entrenched camp apparently of the late Ming jieriod, late i6th or 

 early 17th century. An accurate large-scale survey of the site made 

 l)y my associate, Mr. A. G. Wenley, who had come out to join me in 

 August, 1923, and Mr. Jas. M. Menzies, formerly Licensed Land 

 Surveyor for the Government of Canada, confirmed in an interesting 

 manner the deductions I had drawn the previous summer from an 

 inspection c^f the site from the air. 



Early autumn found us once more in the northern Shansi area, 

 where we remained until the advent of severe winter weather, coupled 

 with local disturbances, put an end to all field activities. Shortly there- 

 after, Mr. Wenley left for Paris, where he has since been continuing 

 his Sinological studies under Professor Paul Pelliot and others. 



In the following spring, that of 1926, I paid a visit to Ningpo, in 

 the region once occupied by the non-Chinese state of Yiieh during the 

 Late Bronze Age, in the latter half of the ist millennium B. C. The 

 prevalence of banditry prevented the carrying on of my investigations 

 on the scale originally planned ; but enough was learned to demon- 

 strate the importance of this area as a field for future intensive study. 



Returning from Ningpo to Shanghai, I next proceeded up the 

 Yangtse River with a view to investigating the remains of the old 

 non-Chinese countries of Wu and Ch'u, formerly occupying the lower 

 and middle portions of the great valley respectively, and which did 

 not come under Chinese political domination until about the close 

 of the 3rd century B. C. 



Conditions in the former area, that once occupied by the kingdom 

 of Wu, proved on the whole much like those i)revai]ing in the delta 



^ Loc. cit., p. 71. 



