Hall of Jades: Research and Collections

The foundation of The Field Museum’s collection of Chinese jades began with the fieldwork of former curator Berthold Laufer, one of the West’s foremost sinologists, in 1907-10 and again in 1923. During those years, Laufer formed the nucleus of the Museum’s outstanding collections of Chinese jades, textiles, ceramics, metalwork, rubbings, and furnishings.

Today, the Museum’s world-class collection of Chinese artifacts is comprised of some 32,000 objects, including close to 1,000 jades. The Boone Collection consists of more than 3,500 artifacts from China, Japan, and Korea, ranging from books to furniture to painted scrolls. In addition, the Museum houses important holdings of fossils and plant specimens from northeastern China and amphibians from western China.

Currently, a number of Field Museum scientists are conducting research in China in multiple disciplines.

Archaeology

A team of archaeologists from The Field Museum and Shandong University, including Field Museum archaeologists Anne Underhill, Gary Feinman, and Linda Nicholas, recently conducted surveys and excavated ancient sites in Shandong Province dating from circa 2600–1900 B.C. Visit Expeditions@fieldmuseum to see e-mails and digital images from the field about the survey.

Field Museum archaeologist Deborah Bekken and an international team have conducted excavations at a 200,000-year-old cave site in Guizhou province.

Archaeologists Bennet Bronson and Chuimei Ho are studying early kiln sites in Fujian province, and recently curated the temporary exhibition Splendors of China’s Forbidden City: The Glorious Reign of Emperor Qianlong, at The Field Museum from March 12–September 12, 2004.

Geology

Geologist Peter Makovicky is researching dinosaurs discovered in Liaoning province and the Gobi Desert.

Geologist Olivier Rieppel has identified four new genera and species of Triassic marine reptiles from Guizhou province.

Botany

Botanists Jun Wen, Greg Mueller, and Rick Ree are investigating China’s fungi and plants.

Environmental Conservation

Working with an international team of scientists, Field Museum scientists recently completed a Rapid Biological Inventory—a multidisciplinary assessment of conservation needs in threatened areas of high biological diversity and uniqueness—in Gaoligongshan, Yunnan Province.

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