Painted Pottery in Northwest China: A Meeting of Past, Present, and Future with Dr. Anke Hein

The Ann Walker Bell Lecture
Part of the Gardiner Signature Lecture Series
Speaker: Dr. Anke Hein, Peter Moores Associate Professor in Chinese Archaeology at the University of Oxford
The Neolithic painted pottery of northern China has long been a source of admiration for its high-level craftsmanship and aesthetic appeal. At first, it was mostly of interest to archaeologists researching ancient technological traditions and early East-West culture contacts; however, more recently, as archaeological tourism flourished in China, local potters in the Northwest started creating imitations of Neolithic pottery for tourists, using archaeological discoveries and research to inform their design choices. In turn, archaeologists began observing these potters to understand how ancient vessels may have been made.
On May 10, 2024, Dr. Anke Hein of the University of Oxford explored how this intricate interplay between past, present, and future, and between archaeologists, potters, and modern-day consumers, reminds us how the past is (re)created in the present by a variety of actors constantly posing the question: “Who owns the past?”