Lothar von Falkenhausen will present at the Global Middle Ages Seminar on Tuesday, March 22, at 6 pm. His talk is entitled “The Current State of Archaeology in China.”

This lecture presents some important recent discoveries in China and reflects on how they have changed our understanding of how Chinese civilization was formed. In a related vein, Professor von Falkenhausen will also reflect on changes in the intellectual framework in which Chinese archaeological research is being conducted today.

Lothar von Falkenhausen is professor of Chinese archaeology and art history at University of California Los Angeles, where he has taught since 1993. He is also on the faculty of the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, and he served as its associate director from 2004 to 2014. He also has a part-time appointment as Changjiang Chair Professor 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 two 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). Falkenhausen was co-principal investigator of an international archaeological project on ancient salt production in the Yangzi River basin (1999–2004) and has served as instructor of record of the International Archaeological Field School at Yangguanzhai since 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, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and of the American Philosophical Society.