Adornment Atlas
Explore Ancient Chinese Women's Ornaments
Every Ornament Has a History.
Explore the art, history, materials, and cultural meanings of Chinese adornment across time.
Knowledge & Discovery
Where to begin
Five ways in. Each one leads to objects, sources, and the evidence behind them.
From the catalogue
Objects, with their evidence
Each record separates what the museum states from what scholars make of it.
Pendant
Pendant
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Pendant
Butterfly Pendant
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Pendant
Circular Pendant
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Pendant
Textile Ornaments(?): Pair of Phoenixes
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Pendant
Textile Ornament(?): Phoenix
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Pendant
Textile Ornament(?): Phoenix
The Cleveland Museum of Art
Modern Design & Jewelry
Modern design, honestly labelled
Contemporary pieces that begin from a historical object — with the link stated, and the differences spelled out.
Method
Trace every claim to a source.
Museum records, archaeological reports and academic interpretation are kept apart on every page. Where sources disagree, both are shown and neither is presented as settled.
Modern designs are marked as modern. Nothing here is described as a replica of an ancient object.
How we cite sources