Xueqian Zhang is PhD student in the Hong Kong Institute for the Humanities and Social Sciences (IHSS) at The University of Hong Kong. She received her Bachelor’s degree from Shanxi University and Master’s degree from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) at University of Chinese Academy of Sciences.

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

Under the primary supervisor Prof. X. Su and co-supervisor Prof. Z. Chen, Xueqian will continue her research by analysing the inequality situation in prehistoric Chinese society based on archaeological materials.