Abstract:Soil is becoming an important object in archaeological research, yet Chinese Soil Taxonomy (CST) doesn’t have any explicit diagnostic basis for characterizing relic soils. Therefore, it is essential to intensify the characteristics of relic soils in CST, which could not only promote the diagnostic features of relic soils, but also facilitate the integration of archaeology and soil science. In this paper, 4 typical cultural relic soil profiles in Henan Province were selected as the study objects, based on the morphological and physicochemical analyses, their soil types were classified in WRB, Soil Taxonomy (ST) of USDA and CST, respectively. The results showed that all of them lacked appropriate prefix or suffix to describe diagnosis of relic soils containing ancient artifacts. Then, scheme of relic soils in CST was proposed, adding a new soil suborder of technic anthroposols which contains two new soil groups of impermeable technic anthroposols and relic technic anthroposols. Three new subgroups of relic impermeable technic anthroposols, phosphorous relic technic anthroposols and normal relic technic anthroposols were added respectively. This proposal scheme alters current CST little, and can integrate the characteristics of relic soils into the new adding of “artificial slow penetration or impermeable layer” or “artifact” as a part of human activities and material technology since ancient times, thus can give relic soil a proper place in CST.