Xueqian Zhang is a PhD student in the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IHSS) at The University of Hong Kong. Prior to entering the PhD project, she received her bachelor’s degree in Shanxi University and a master in the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) at University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

Her master’s thesis, entitled “Analysis of provenance and firing temperature of pottery unearthed at Taosi Site”is a case study of potteries unearthed at Taosi Site. In this study, she identifies the different component and temperature between  burial potteries and domestic potteries. And this may reflect cultural beliefs related to death, funerary practices, and cosmological ideologies of the Taosi people. Additionally, this thesis also identifies that the different component between local potteries and foreign styles. This study provides a comprehensive examination of the potteries used by the Taosi inhabitants during the Late Longshan period.

Tentatively, for her PhD project, under the primary supervisor Prof. X. Su and co-supervisor Prof. Z. Chen, Xueqian will continue her research by analyzing the inequality situation in prehistoric Chinese society based on archaeological materials.