Jade Humanoid Figures: A Look into Possible Hongshan Culture Origins
This is the Annual Woolf Jade Lecture sponsored by the Woolf Charitable Trust
A type of sculpture with both human and animal features is amongst the most mysterious of jade objects to have been described. Based on their style, they have been attributed to the Neolithic Hongshan culture of Northeast China. A small handful have been collected by reputable museums. However, these anthropomorphic jades have never been excavated scientifically. A few articles have been published on this type of jade, but perhaps due to the lack of scientific evidence that they are as old as they appear to be, there has been little attention paid to them since.
This talk reexamines the perplexing jades using scientific testing conducted on one example held in the collection of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities in Stockholm, Sweden, as well as comparing them to Hongshan jades that have been scientifically excavated.
Speaker
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Michel LeeMichel Lee is a Curator working with the China, Korea, and Sven Hedin collections at the National Museums of World Culture, Sweden. He received his first degree in Anthropology at the George Washington University, Washington, D.C. and later worked in the Department of Anthropology at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution.
Mr. Lee received his MA in the History of Art and Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. Upon completion, he became the Curator and, later, acting Director at the Museum of East Asian Art in Bath, U.K. He served as the Museum Director of the Museum of Far Eastern Antiquities, National Museums of World Culture, Sweden from 2013 until 2015.
