The annual State Science and Technology Prizes ceremony was held on the morning of 10 January, 2019 at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. Associate Professor Han Xiangna from the University of Science and Technology Beijing Institute of Cultural Heritage and History of Science & Technology was a key technical personnel in the ‘Temporary Solid Extraction and Protection Techniques of Vulnerable Artefacts from Archaeological Sites’ project. The project won the second prize of the State Science and Technology Progress Award.

Professor Luo Hongjie from Shanghai University headed the project. Six institutions worked together to complete the project, including the Emperor Qinshihuang’s Mausoleum Site Museum. Associate Professor Han Xiangna was responsible for the laboratory research and development, performance testing, and dissemination of temporary fixation materials and technologies at the archaeological sites.

The researchers invented an extraction protection system that integrated ‘temporary solid extraction’ and ‘microenvironment shielding’ to address the bottleneck problem. This newly invented technology was designed and prepared to meet the needs of China’s vast regions, different seasons, and varying types of extraction protection needed for different cultural relics. The temporary solid types and environmental shielding materials made of menthol and its derivatives can handle a wide range of operating temperatures and volatilisation rates, and are reinforced to have high tensile strength. The researchers also scientifically and systematically evaluated the ‘feasibility, controllable volatility, and safety’ of the protective materials and optimised the formation of spraying reinforcement and micro-environmental shielding technologies for the rapid extraction of cultural relics. This led to the creation of a marketable technology that can adapt to the varying extraction requirements of each individual cultural relic.

Compared to the international mainstream approach of using the ‘cyclododecane’ method, this technology is eco-friendly, can be controllably removed, has good water retention, good bacteriostasis, excellent adaptability, and is economically convenient. Its overall performance is better than the current international leading technology. This new technology has already been used in major archaeological sites around China, including the Terracotta Army in the Mausoleum of the First Qin Emperor, the Shimao site in Shaanxi, Haihunhou Cemetery, Nanhai One, the Han dynasty tombs at Dayun Mountain in Jiangsu, Liujiawa in Shaanxi, Gujun in the Xingtang county of Hebei, the Yaoheyuan site in Ningxia, and the Pterosaur fossils in Hami, Xinjiang. This technology has helped excavate and protect more than 2,000 fragile cultural relics and rare fossils at 68 major archaeological excavation and fossil sites in China. It serves as robust technological support for the excavation protection of fragile cultural relics and important fossil specimens at archaeological sites. It has led international technological development in its field and has extensive applications.