ICOM Mongolia

22/08/2026

🐘 An elephant-shaped vessel crosses the sea.
🐚 A shell connects trade and belief.
🐦‍🔥 A phoenix-decorated jar carries memories across generations.

These are just some of the objects helping museums in South-East Asia uncover centuries of movement, exchange and cultural connections.

Read to learn more about this region's :
https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/woven-sea-south-east-asian-museums-and-vision-shared-heritage?hub=66925

Special thanks to: Malay Technology Museum, Maritime Museum, MUSEUM NASIONAL INDONESIA, Ada Garuda Museum, Muzium Negara RASMI, The Baba & Nyonya Heritage Museum, ACM (Asian Civilisations Museum), Lee Kong Chian Natural History Museum, National Museum Bangkok : พิพิธภัณฑสถานแห่งชาติ พระนคร and Folklore Museum, The Institute for Southern Thai Studies สถาบันทักษิณคดีศึกษา มหาวิทยาลัยทักษิณ.

22/08/2026

New research suggests that the reason that the ancient images found in the bright red murals of China’s Zuojiang River Valley are so well preserved is due to a special ingredient in the pigment: blood. A team at the International Research Laboratory of Environmental and Social Archaeology in Shandong University, led by Meng Wu, say that the still-vivid figures—some naked, wearing feather headpieces and playing drums and bells in what might be an ancient fertility rite—were created from paint made with a small amount of blood, including animal blood and possibly blood from human childbirth.

https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2026/08/18/how-has-a-famous-group-of-2000-year-old-chinese-rock-paintings-remained-so-vibrant-because-it-was-made-with-blood-new-research-says

18/08/2026

17/08/2026