In the first period, before liberation, led by the Institute of Historical Linguistics and led by Fu Sinian, the main work was presided over by Li Ji to explore the ins and outs of Shang culture in ancient times, such as Yin Ruins. Liang Siyong's return to China marked the beginning of modern archaeology in China (because Li Ji was biased towards anthropology and was not very good at fields), especially the discovery of Triassic in Hougang. Until the Anti-Japanese War broke out and Changsha joined forces, archaeology began to decline and turned to the southwest rear, and a series of folk and ethnological investigations were conducted, such as Wu Jinding and others.

The second stage, from liberation to the Cultural Revolution. Typology began to occupy a dominant position in archaeological excavation research, especially Peking University and Xia Nai, which were dominated by the Soviet Union, were transferred to the Archaeological Institute, and their subsequent academic development direction was less influential than that of Su and others. This was the first development climax of China archaeology, and it began to form its own characteristics, such as using rich underground data and broad geographical relations to construct prehistoric archaeological cultural sequences.

The third stage is since the reform and opening up. In 1980s, western archaeological theories were gradually introduced, which triggered constant debate and reflection. Typology still occupies and will occupy the mainstream of research for a long time, but other research methods have also been paid attention to. Like some sub-disciplines, multidisciplinary research is becoming more and more important.

For details, please refer to Chen Xingcan's Prehistoric Archaeological History of China and Shen's Archaeological History of China. And Yan wenru's. Luan Shifeng's archaeological theory and method can also be practiced.