Antiquities Exhibits

Three Kingdoms: Unveiling The Story exhibition in the Tokyo National Museum. This special exhibition includes 161 relics from recent discoveries srrounding China’s tumultuous transition from the Han Dynasty (206-220) to the Three Kingdoms period (220-280). The Han Dynasty’s decline at the end of the second century ignited a prolonged power struggle between unrelenting military leaders. The country was split into three kingdoms called Wei, Shu, and Wu, a major event that would lead to a new era in China’s history. In recent years, research into this period has been reinvigorated by the excavation of the Cao Cao Mausoleum. The artifacts recovered there present their own version of this period’s history with a persuasive candor far surpassing written historical accounts. Image:  Gold Metal Belt Fitting with Animal Design, Eastern Han dynasty, 2nd century CE, Excavated at Shouchun Ancient Tomb, Shou County, Huainan City, Anhui.  Image courtesy of the exhibition.

Classical antiquities, ancient Asian and pre-Columbian American art ongoing at the Portland Art Museum in Portland, Oregon. Museum founder Winslow B. Ayer purchased 100 plaster casts of Greek and Roman sculptures in 1895 to form the core of the museum's early European collection. These sculptures have been augmented over the years with a selection of Greek, Roman, and Etruscan objects, including red- and black-figure vases, sm all bronzes, funerary art including monuments from Palmyra, Syria and glassware. The museum's Chinese collection includes objects that date as far back as the Neolithic Period and include tomb objects from the Han (206 BCE - 220 CE) and Tang (618-907 CE) dynasties. In the last few years, major gifts of Han and pre–Han objects including an array of ceramic court nobles, dancers, and musicians — not to mention dogs, horses, and supernatural creatures have brought even more prominence to the museum's Asian collection. Roman Funerary Monument from ...

Immortal Dead: Treasures from Sichuan in Ancient China through October 18, 2018 in Trajan's Market in Rome, Italy.  This show is a grand display of the myths of Chinese archaeology through the lens of the Sichuan civilisation, which developed along the Min River, colloquially known as the Blue River. Comprised of digital reconstructions, photos, videos, and interactive tools, the exhibition allows visitors to explore artifacts from the Sanxingdui and Jinsha archaeological sites from eight Chinese musuems, amidst the backdrop of the ancient Roman site of Trajan's Market, highlighting connections between ancient China and Imperial Rome.  Artifacts on display include objects in bronze, gold, jade, and terracotta from the 2nd millennium B.C. to the 2nd century A.C., such as ritual statues and vases, masks, daggers, and scepters. Image:  Horse and carriage Eastern Han Dynasty Sichuan Province China 1st-2nd century CE Gray earthenware with traces of pigment photographed...