China Diary -- Part 15 The History Museum

After leaving the monastery we headed to the Shaanxi History Museum, not far away. Fascinating place! It's a new place, constructed in the 1980's, but it houses a magnificent collection that includes materials stretching back more than a million years. Here's what I'm talking about:


That's "Lantian Man" a variant form of Homo Erectus dating from about 1.15 million years ago. Neat!!!

There were a number of paleolithic tools on display and plenty of neolithic artifacts. I liked this guy. He's more than 4,000 years old.


And there was a wonderful collection of bronzes and ceramics from historical times. Here area few examples:








Isn't that gorgeous?


I was particularly interested in this representation of the Buddha. All of the figures in the group are idealized except for one, standing off to the side. I wonder why he was portrayed naturally.


This was another place where I could have lingered for a long time, but again there was much to do and we had to be on our way.