From the founding of our Institute of Archaeology, Prof. Zheng Zhenduo, Head of the Bureau of Cultural Relics under the Ministry of Culture (later promoted to the position of Vice-Minister), was concurrently director of the Institute until his passing away in 1958. During this period, he often came to the Institute to chair meetings, sign documents, handle various affairs and meet broadly with his colleagues in the Institute; and he directed the working-out of a long-term programme for archaeological researches. As early as 1920s, he published a popular history of archaeology and advocated launching scientific archaeological excavation; later, although devoting himself to classical studies, still he engaged in art archaeology at the same time. Prof. Zheng played an important part in the development of the antiquarian and archaeological cause of New China.