In her spare time, she likes to visit museums and places with historical relics. "At times, we find ourselves compelled to offer explanations to visitors or correct inaccuracies on display boards," Guo says.

"The profession is addictive," says another team member Wang Hongying, who specializes in animal bone identification. She illustrates her point with examples, noting there are frequent cut marks on the bone remains of pigs, cattle and sheep, but little evidence of such marks on dog bones. This suggests that the former were likely used as a food source, while the latter served as companions.

According to Chong Jianrong, head of the Shaanxi Academy of Archaeology, an increasing number of female students have chosen archaeology as their college major and joined the academy in recent years.