Chinese ceramics discovery provides crucial clues

Beijing exhibition

In summer last year, the research from the University of Durham was incorporated in an exhibition of Lonquan celadon collections at the Palace Museum.

Zhang said, "It was one of the biggest exhibitions staged at the museum, and we at Durham were extremely happy and honoured to be a part of it and contribute some of our collection, knowledge and research."

Since the joint research and excavation work between the university and the museum was launched, the two sides have hosted top archaeologists for seminars and conferences and have also exchanged knowledge about excavation techniques.

Wang Guangyao, deputy director of the Archaeology Institute at the Palace Museum, has been to the University of Durham to study the Williamson Collection Project.

Launched in 2001, the project centers on the study of more than 19,000 sherds of Sasanian and Islamic pottery. They were collected in Fars and Kirman provinces in Iran during field surveys and small-scale excavations between 1968 and 1971 by the late Andrew George Williamson, an archaeologist from the University of Oxford.