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LRCCS Occasional Lecture Series | Chinese Bronze Bell Chimes: New Discoveries and What They Tell Us

Lothar von Falkenhausen, Professor of Chinese Archaeology and Art History, University of California, Los Angeles
Friday, November 22, 2024
4:00-5:30 PM
10th Floor Weiser Hall Map
Attend in person or via Zoom: https://myumi.ch/ny3eR

To gauge how 25 years of archaeological discoveries can shed new light on a given field of research, Dr. Falkenhausen recently investigated new discoveries of chime-bells in China dating from ca. 2000 BC to 1 AD and compared the results with what he had written in a book that he published in 1993 before turning his attention to other subjects. He was able to correct a number of mistakes, fill some earlier gaps in the evidence, resolve some previously irresolvable problems, and detect some previously unknowable complications. He has published the results in the form of three articles; this lecture will summarize his main findings.

Lothar von Falkenhausen is Distinguished Professor of Chinese Archaeology and Art History at UCLA, where he has taught since 1993. He is also on the faculty of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, of which he served as Associate Director from 2004 to 2014, and he holds a concurrent part-time appointment as Visiting Professor (formerly Changjiang Chair, 2017-20) at Xibei University in Xi’an (China). Falkenhausen was educated at Bonn University, Peking University, Kyoto University, and Harvard University, receiving his PhD in anthropology from Harvard in 1988. His research mainly concerns the archaeology of Bronze Age China, focusing on large interdisciplinary and historical issues on which archaeological materials can provide significant new information. His major books are "Suspended Music: Chime Bells in the Culture of Bronze Age China" (1993) and the award-winning "Chinese Society in the Age of Confucius (1000-250 BC): The Archaeological Evidence" (2006; also published in Japanese, Korean, and Chinese translations). A new monograph on the economic archaeology of Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age China is in press. Falkenhausen was co-Principal Investigator of an international archaeological project on ancient salt production in the Yangzi River basin (1999-2004) and has been serving as Instructor of Record of the International Archaeological Field School at Yangguanzhai (2010-). He has served on the Scientific Council of the French School of Far Eastern Studies (2005-2011) and on the US President’s Cultural Property Advisory Committee (2012-2020). He is a Full Member of the German Archaeological Institute, an Honorary Research Fellow of the Shaanxi Archaeological Academy, an Honorary Professor of Zhejiang University, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, a Fellow of the American Philosophical Society, and a Corresponding Member of the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres (Institut de France).

If there is anything we can do to make this event accessible to you, please contact us at [email protected]. Please be aware that advance notice is necessary as some accommodations may require more time for the university to arrange.
Building: Weiser Hall
Event Type: Lecture / Discussion
Tags: Archaeology, Art History, China, chinese history, Chinese Studies
Source: Happening @ Michigan from Lieberthal-Rogel Center for Chinese Studies, International Institute, Asian Languages and Cultures, Archaeology at Michigan