Release Date: October 1, 2004

MONMOUTH, Ill. — Carved bone art will be subject of an archaeology lecture at Monmouth College on Oct. 7 at 7:30 p.m. in the lower level classrooms of the Huff Athletic Center.

Entitled “The Carved Bones Art as an Independent Tradition in Anyang,” the talk will be delivered by Wang Ying, a member of the art history faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.

“The carved bone spatulas uncovered at the Shang royal tombs at Anyang are extraordinary objects produced exclusively during the Anyang period (circa 1300-1046 B.C.),” said Ying. “The carved patterns of animistic and geometric motifs, seen on both sides of these bone objects, find close parallels on bronzes from the same site.”

Ying said that such resemblances have led a number of scholars to conclude that these decorative motifs, as well as the artistic styles used to decorate these bone artifacts, are mere tranliterations of contemporaneous bronze vocabulary in a different medium. However, there is a actually a rather complex background behind the Anyang carvings, which Ying will explore in his talk.

Sponsored by the Western Illinois Society of the Archaeological Institute of America (AIA) and the MC Classics Department, the archaeology lecture series is free and open to the public.

Released by the Office of College Communications
Barry McNamara, Associate Director of College Communications
Phone: 309-457-2117
Fax: 309-457-2330