Lothar von Falkenhausen awarded Guggenheim Fellowship

"Lothar von Falkenhausen is a professor of Chinese archaeology and art history in the UCLA College and heads the East Asian laboratory at UCLA’s Cotsen Institute of Archaeology. Falkenhausen’s main research interest is in the archaeology of the Chinese Bronze Age, focusing on large interdisciplinary and historical issues on which archaeological materials can provide significant new information. He has published on musical instruments, including a book, “Suspended Music: Chime Bells in the Culture of Bronze Age China.”

An active field archaeologist, Falkenhausen was co-principal investigator of an international archaeological project on ancient salt production in the Yangtze River basin (1999-2004) and since 2010 has served as instructor of record of the International Archaeological Field School at Yangguanzhai, Xi’an. In 2012, President Obama appointed him to the state department’s cultural property advisory committee, which advises the president on preventing the illicit trade in antiquities.

As a fellow, Falkenhausen plans to finish a monograph on the economy of continental East Asia during the eight centuries or so preceding the unification of China by the first emperor of Qin in 221 B.C. This period saw the transition from a regimented, elite-centered gift-giving economy (or prestige-good economy) to a market economy that was at least partly monetized."

-UCLA Newsroom