Earthen sites are architectural relics with important historical， cultural，and scientific values in human history. This paper uses bibliometric methods to analyze the current research status on earthen sites by reviewing the international research published between 1950 and 2023 collected in the China National Knowledge Infrastructure （CNKI） and Web of Science （WOS） databases. The results show that the number of published research papers in the CNKI and WOS has been increasing steadily year by year，and that the two countries with the highest number of published papers are China and Spain. According to the CNKI database，these papers are largely concentrated in journals such as Cultural Relics Protection and Archaeological Science，Archaeology，and Dunhuang Research，which mainly focus on the disciplines of archaeology，architectural science and engineering，tourism，and geology；most of the field research for these articles has been carried out by research institutions in northwest China，including Lanzhou University，Dunhuang Academy，and Northwest University. It is also scholars from these institutions who have published the majority of papers related to the stability and weathering of archaeological sites and the materials and technologies applied to conservation and reinforcement，notably Chen Wenwu，Wang Xudong，and Li Zuixiong. In the WOS database，the top-ranking journals are Construction and Building Materials and International Journal of Architectural Heritage，while the papers they include are mainly related to civil engineering and construction technology；the research published in these journals is primarily conducted by Oxford University and undertaken by scholars from Spain，Britain，and

the United States，with a focus on earthquakes，weathering，and measurement modeling. Cooperation between research institutions is influenced by various factors such as geographical location，the research goals of the authors，and the earthen sites available for in situ investigation. Funding and research support for the study of earthen sites is primarily supported by the National Natural Science Foundation，the National Science and Technology Support Plan，and the National Key Research and Development Plan，in China；as well as the European Commission. Future interdisciplinary research in this field will likely focus on issues such as weathering， water-salt erosion，and freeze-thaw damage，and significant breakthroughs are expected to be made in in-situ detection technology，the diagnosis of deterioration mechanisms，detecting degradation in earthen sites under multiple field couplings，the research and development of conservation materials，and the construction of a quality evaluation system forconservation engineering projects.

Earthen archaeological sites are a fundamental embodiment of ancient construction methods and provide invaluable sources for studying ancient lifestyles and material culture. However，open air earthen sites are constantly affected by various climactic factors such as rain, wind carrying sand，and temperature differences that change throughout the year，which leads to visible cracking that severely threatens the overall stability of earthen structures. Based on limited data from in-situ investigations，and in full consideration of the influence of the environment in which earthen sites are located，this paper proposes that a Gaussian process classification method combined with a k-means algorithm would be an effective means of evaluating the level of development of cracks that have appeared at earthen sites，so as to provide a theoretical basis for enacting appropriate prevention and control measures. The results show that the data simulation and augmentation method proposed in this paper are a suitable way of addressing issues caused by imbalanced data for cracks in different stages of development，and that the simulated data is very similar to that recorded during in -situ investigation. The median value of four crucial quantitative metrics，namely the precision ratio, recall ratio，accuracy and F1 score of the validation dataset corresponding to one hundred randomized experiments，are all approximately or greater than 0.92，which indicates that the proposed method has an adequate generalization score，and is thus suitable for predicting the development levels of cracks at earthen sites.

The Ancient Tea Horse Road was an important transportation artery in ancient China. Because this ancient trade route has been abandoned for decades，various types of deterioration have emerged that seriously threaten the future safety and stability of this important historical site. This paper makes a case study of Keku Plank Road in Sichuan in order to obtain a systematic summary of the types and causes of deterioration, so as to provide reference material for future conservation projects. The results indicate the following：（1）The damage to the Ancient Tea Horse Road can be divided into mild damage，severe damage，and total damage，which，according to the level of severity，requires either no repair，urgent repair，or extensive repair and restoration；（2）The types of deterioration sustained by cultural relics like this ancient trade route can be classified as deterioration of the relics themselves，deterioration of the cliffs to which the relics are attached，and damage caused by the ecological environment；（3）The factors that cause damage to these cultural relics can be divided into geological factors，climate and vegetation factors，and human activities. This study proposes a framework of deterioration analysis for historically significant sites like the Ancient Tea Horse Road in order to support the permanent conservation of these sources of cultural heritage.

The Ancient Tea Horse Road was an important transportation artery in ancient China. Because this ancient trade route has been abandoned for decades，various types of deterioration have emerged that seriously threaten the future safety and stability of this important historical site. This paper makes a case study of Keku Plank Road in Sichuan in order to obtain a systematic summary of the types and causes of deterioration, so as to provide reference material for future conservation projects. The results indicate the following：（1）The damage to the Ancient Tea Horse Road can be divided into mild damage，severe damage，and total damage，which，according to the level of severity，requires either no repair，urgent repair，or extensive repair and restoration；（2）The types of deterioration sustained by cultural relics like this ancient trade route can be classified as deterioration of the relics themselves，deterioration of the cliffs to which the relics are attached，and damage caused by the ecological environment；（3）The factors that cause damage to these cultural relics can be divided into geological factors，climate and vegetation factors，and human activities. This study proposes a framework of deterioration analysis for historically significant sites like the Ancient Tea Horse Road in order to support the permanent conservation of these sources of cultural heritage.

A huge number of earthen heritage sites along the Silk Road are important witnesses to the development of Chinese civilization and the formation of the country. Therefore， the protection and utilization of these earthen sites is of great significance to the promotion of the “Belt and Road”. Based on this，the paper analyzes the current status and shortcomings of the protection and utilization of these sites，including protection concept，basic research and protection technology，preventive protection capability，protection equipment，value recognition，management capabilities and utilization effects. Finally，from the protection concept，the perspectives of value interpretation，protection technology improvement，protection management capability enhancement and comprehensive utilization methods，the key points and ideas for the future protection and utilization of earthen sites along the Silk Road are put forward.

On the basis of summarizing and absorbing the experience of domestic soil site protection，drawing on the scientific research achievements of Zhejiang University，a set of strategies was proposed. Avoid the use of chemical materials for reinforcement，use the “gas phase Humidification—wet protection” and “small environment control” methods，includes：controlling surrounding water sources；electric heating glass sealing for site display area；using gas phase water to maintain air moisture and soil moisture stability；blocking sunlight to inhibit green biological growth；controlling dust and microbial invasion；site monitoring and management，etc.These measures are applied to the protection of soil site in Wangjing Gate City Wall Site Park in Ningbo. Although many deficiencies still exist，this is a new attempt at the conservation of earthen sites，and can provide reference for the future conservation of similar sites.

The quantity and variety of wooden cultural relics in earthen sites are large，and its characteristics of organic materials bring many difficulties to the preservation work. For the purpose of preserving the original information and historical context of the site， in situ preservation is often mentioned as the preferred scheme， but it is very difficult to effectively protect the soil-wood mixed site in reality. Wood biodegradation and physical degradation caused by temperature and humidity change are the biggest problems. Many scholars at home and abroad generally regard wood cultural relics and the body of earthen sites as a whole，pay attention to the role of environmental regulation while monitoring. Wooden cultural relics in earthen sites are often protected by underground hydrological environment control， surface humid environment construction， covering isolation，temperature and humidity control，etc.. If necessary，in-situ Chemical reinforcement technology or the use of bacteriostatic agents are also allowed. In order to provide ideas and reference for the in situ preservation of wooden cultural relics in earthen sites in the future，we take different examples of preservation as the research object and expounds the current situation as well as prospects future of this field. What’s more，we also pay attention to the relationship between protection and display.

The era and regional attributes of rammed earth are the essential reasons for the different disease types and development degree of rammed earth sites in the arid areas of Northwest China. However，the lack of accurate understanding and quantitative characterization of thosehave become the core basic problem that seriously restricts the scientific protection of rammed earth ruins. In this study，15 ruins of rammed earth distributed in 3 climatic regions and 5 dynasties were selected as the research objects. Through basic physical properties test，unconfined compressive strength test，SEM test and structural theoretical analysis，the temporal and spatial characteristics of rammed earth were studied from both qualitative and quantitative aspects. The results show that the rammed earth of the 15 ruins have obviously temporal and spatial characteristics，which is the older the construction era in，the drier the region at， the smaller it’s plasticity and liquidity index and the higher compressive strength. The density degree of microstructure，type，number，size，and connectivity of pores are well consistent with the above macroscopic property characteristics. There is anobvious linear correlation between the dry structure index and the age of construction and the drought index.

The Ming Great Wall is the representative of the most complete preservation and large-scale linear earthen sites in Qinghai Province，and its occurrence environment has a capricious climate and complex geological environment. Under the control of special occurrence environment and anthropological influences， earthen sites of the Ming Great Wall in Qinghai Province have been experiencing the quantitative change from deteriorations development to quick extinction. Therefore，clarifying the characteristics of occurrence environment of earthen sites of the Ming Great Wall in Qinghai Province is an important precondition for deterioration mechanism research under the special function of the environment. In this paper，based on previous research findings and field investigations，the occurrence environment characteristics of the Ming Great Wall have been explained including landform，climatic features formation lithology，hydrological condition，geological structure，earthquake，etc. By comparing the elevation and climatic data between the Ming Great Wall in Qinghai and other provinces，the occurrence environment of the Ming Great Wall in Qinghai Province has the characteristic of alpine. By using principal component analysis on average annual rainfall，wind speed，temperature，evaporation，elevation，and the number of earthquakes per decade，the rainfall， temperature，wind speed，and evaporation were deemed as three important environmental factors，providing the essential reference for the correlation analysis between deterioration characteristics and environment elements of earthen sites of the Ming Great Wall in Qinghai Province.