What would you take to the afterlife? In ancient China, tombs were homes for the soul, providing eternal luxury and contentment. Prestigious tombs honoured both the dead and the living. This lecture explores Chinese ideas of the afterlife through tombs, their owners, and the objects they took with them. Burial wares in the Unearthed: Chinese Funerary Ceramics from the National Gallery of Australia exhibition, their materials, techniques and meanings will be discussed. Importantly, the talk will highlight Han and Tang dynasty imperial tombs as ‘mirrors of life’ and reveal newly discovered treasures from recent archaeological excavations in China.

About the Speaker

Professor Dr Tonia Eckfeld is a Principal Fellow at the University of Melbourne and expert on Chinese art and archaeology. She is author of the landmark book Imperial Tombs in Tang China, 618-907: The Politics of Paradise (2005) and numerous other scholarly works. She was curator of the Terracotta Warriors: Legacy of the First Emperor exhibition at the Western Australian Museum (2026). Tonia is a documentary film maker, lectures internationally, and works with the Shaanxi Province Administration of Cultural Heritage in China. She has held fellowships to Harvard University, the University of Chicago, Zhengzhou University, and Northwestern Polytechnical University. She is also author of the book No One Knows Their Destiny: The Eckfeld Records. Inside the Dunera Story (2024).

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Image: Reclining dog, Han dynasty, earthenware; glaze. Gift of TT Tsui, Hong Kong, through the National Gallery of Australian Foundation 1995. Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Australia.

Contact the host of Unearthed | Taking It With You: A Journey to the Chinese Afterlife