Lu shares archaeological research
Chinese archaeologist Lu Liancheng shared photographs of architectural sites and artifacts from the Shang, Zhou and Qin dynasties with students and faculty members on Tuesday night. Lu explained the significance of his own archaeological discoveries relative to China's history, emphasizing what artifacts can reveal about the places they were found. Speaking in Mandarin Chinese, Lu described the various religious, social and political systems in the three dynasties as he narrated slideshow with bronze vessels, jade sculptures, oracle bones and floor plans of homes or temples, Chinese professor Juwen Zhang translated his work into English. One of the most compelling parts of Chinese archeology is comparing different dynastical artifacts, which are often discovered at a single archeological site, Lu said. "Chinese history is layers piled up," he said. The lecture spanned nearly 1,400 years of Chinese history, and bounced between anecdotes of individual finds and generalizations about each dynasty and the relationships between them.