Thousands of years of Chinese history told through ancient objects
CHICAGO (WLS) -- The Field Museum is digging into its vast archives for its next big exhibit: Cyrus Tang Hall of China, which will cover thousands of years of Chinese history.
"We have 40,000 objects from China. Graphic objects about the culture and history. And we selected 350 of our finest and combined them with some exciting new technology that will be a knock your socks off exhibit," Dr. Richard Lariviere, president and CEO The Field Museum, said.
The Cyrus Tang family is the main sponsor of the exhibit, and the show is all about the stories behind these ancient Chinese objects. Like this brass jug from 2500 years ago.
"It would have used as a wine container. And, it would have been used by wealthy family and then it would eventually been buried with one of the members of the family," Deborah Bekken, curator of social sciences, said.
Some of the items are still works in progress, like two marble lions that spent a few hundred years outdoors and then the last 80 years in the halls of The Field Museum.
"We found gum that had been stuffed up inside the poor little lion's mouth. We found many, many old types of repairs made out of concrete and some types of resin we're trying to clean out," Shelley Paine, exhibition conservator, said.
Around 1275, a merchant ship filled with thousands of pieces of ceramics sank in Indonesia. Some of those pieces will be on exhibit, like a water pitcher that was underwater for about 750 years.
"It wasn't recovered until the late 1990's," Lisa Niziolek, Field Museum researcher, said. "We probably have about seventy five hundred in the collection."
Next June, the history of China will be told in Chicago, piece-by-piece.
The Field Museum
1400 S. Lake Shore Drive
