Let’s walk through this gallery together--the objects here display the development of Chinese culture in antiquity, and show the range of
materials used. We’ll make our way to a small ceramic dancer in a case on the left side. It’s about halfway through the space, and you’ll recognize it from its photograph on your map --but I’ll talk as we go. Nearest to the landing where you entered, there are prehistoric artifacts: the ceramic vessels here are almost five thousand years old, precursors of the exquisite porcelains made in later periods.

Along the right hand side of the gallery, you also see small, merticulously-polished objects made of jade. China’s special artistic connection to jade begins very early, and carries on to this day. Jade is exceptionally difficult to work; it is harder than steel. It’s too hard to carve with a knife or blade, so it has to be laboriously ground or abraded with sand in order to shape it. These objects are worked with astonishing precision. Some of them reveal that even in very ancient times, there were connections with people from faraway regions. Starting around the 11th century BC, images of deer show that people in China were interacting with people from the far north, in the steppes--the vast grasslands of Eurasia. As you move through the gallery, you’ll notice other materials— now the most ambitious works are elaborate bronze vessels. The introduction of bronze shows an advance in artistic technology. We find a similar progression from ceramics to metalwork in other ancient cultures.

Near the middle of the gallery there are objects from the Han Dynasty. This was China’s first significant imperial age, which lasted over 400 years starting around 200 B.C. Concurrent with the Roman empire and just as large, the Han dynasty established an effective centralized administration. It remained the model of Chinese rulership for over 2000 years.

One the left side of the gallery, in a case by itself, is a sculpture of an elegant female dancer in a long sleeved robe. To hear more about her, press play.