Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology at Peking University

Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology at Peking University
北京大学赛克勒考古与艺术博物馆

Address: 5 Yiheyuan Road, Hadian district (inside Peking University), Beijing
Hours: 9:00-17:00 (no entry after16:30)
Closed days: Lunar New Year's Eve to the sixth day of the Chinese lunar year
General admission: Free (passport required for entry)
Tel: (+86-10) 62751668
*Certain preparation is needed to gain admission to Peking University

Co-founded by Peking University and Dr. Arthur M. Sackler (1913-1987) and Dame Jillian Sackler, the museum is located at a beautiful site near the west gate of the Peking University campus. It was opened in 1993 but discussions about the cooperative project started as early as 1984. The museum covers a construction area of 4,000 square meters.

The museum holds tens of thousands of relics and works of art, primarily specimens typifying every archaeological period of China, such as stone apparatuses unearthed from the Zhoukoudian Peking Man site, Neolithic Era relics, oracle bones datable to the Shang Dynasty (c. 16th century-11th century BC), bronzes and jade items unearthed from tombs dated to the Western Zhou Dynasty (c. 11th century-771 BC) at Qucun village in North China's Shanxi province, pottery, coins, clay bullae (fengni) and folk art. The founding collection was inherited from the Archaeological Research Office of Peking University in the 1920s, and continued to grow by merging the collections of Peking University Museum and the Prehistory Museum at the Yenching University in the 1950s. Archaeological finds by the university's fieldwork team, government allocations, and donations from cultural organizations and private collectors continue to contribute to the museum's collection.

The Permanent exhibition, titled Pedagogic Specimens of Chinese Archaeology, displays archaeological artifacts in chronological order from the Paleolithic Era through to the 17th century.