William Meacham is an archaeologist specializing in South China. He has written or edited seven books on archaeology, including Rock Carvings in Hong Kong: An Illustrated and Interpretive Study (1976) and Archaeology in Hong Kong (1980), as well as books on English teaching and on the Shroud of Turin (都灵裹尸布). He has published extensively on various aspects of South China archaeology in peer-reviewed international journals including Antiquity, Asian Perspectives, Archaeology, World Archaeology, Current Archaeology, and Journal of Chinese Linguistics. He has also written on subjects related to the Turin Shroud on Current Archaeology, Biblical Archaeologist, and Michigan Quarterly Review. His other research interests are the orgins of the Austronesian-speaking peoples and genealogy.

William Meacham has lived in Hong Kong since 1970, holding positions at the Hong Kong Museum of History and the Christian Study Centre on Chinese Religion and Culture. Since 1980, he has been Honorary Research Fellow at the Centre of Asian Studies, the University of Hong Kong. He was editor of the Hong Kong Archaeological Society (1973-85) and chairman of the society (1985-96). He has directed more than thirty archaeological excavations in Hong Kong and Macau on government or private contract. The largest of these was the sixteen-month survey and salvage excavation of Chek Lap Kok island, site of Hong Kong's new airport, from 1991 to 1992.

This book is a major revision and expansion of Archaeology in Hong Kong (1980). It is intended as a broad overview of the data from HK archaeology, with reference to the larger region of China and Southeast Asia.