UCL Institute of Archaeology

• Honorary Senior Research Associate
• Member of steering committee of the International Centre for Chinese Heritage and Archaeology (ICCHA)
• Course co-ordinator of joint UCL/SOAS BA option: ARCL3063 Art and Archaeology of Early Imperial China

Research Interests

• Archaeology of China and East Asia, especially the archaeology of the Qin, Han, and Nanbeichao periods
• Early Chinese, Indian, and Central Asian Buddhist sculpture and Buddhist material culture
• Traditional wood architecture of East Asia
• Ethnicity and exchange along the Silk Road
• History of Bronze technology
• The combined application of archaeological, art-historical and philological research approaches to the study of past cultures

Projects and Collaborations

• Comparative workshop Reigning beyond death - Tombs and world rulers, held during the Exhibition The First Emperor - China’s Terracotta Army at the British Museum in cooperation with ICCHA, March 15, 2008
• Workshop Cultural Encounters between Han and Tang, co-sponsered by the School of Oriental and African Studies and the International Center of Chinese Heritage and Archaeology (ICCHA), Feb 23, 2007
• Experimental replication of the casting process of ancient Chinese bronzes (with Bastian Asmus)
• Excavation of the “Temple of the White Dragon” in Shandong, China. (With Helmut Brinker, Zurich University, and Tong Peihua, Shandong Archaeological Institute)

Book

• Lukas Nickel: Gräber der Han-Zeit in Luoyang. Münchner Ostasiatische Studien, Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag (2011)
• Lukas Nickel ed.: Die Rückkehr des Buddha. Chinesische Skulpturen des 6. Jahrhunderts – Der Tempelfund von Qingzhou (Zürich, Museum Rietberg 2002). English editions: The Return of the Buddha – Buddhist Sculptures of the 6th Century from Qingzhou, Shandong (Zürich, Museum Rietberg 2002); and Return of the Buddha – the Qingzhou Discoveries (London, Royal Academy of Arts 2002).

Articles

• Lukas Nickel: ‘Brick Built Heavens – Changes in Mortuary Architecture and Painting in Northern Henan at the Time of Wang Mang’, in Art and Religion in Pre-modern China, eds. Wang Tao and Roderick Whitfield (London: Saffron Art Publishing, in press).
• Nickel, Lukas: 'Tonkrieger auf der Seidenstrasse? Die Plastiken des Ersten Kaisers von China und die hellenistische Skulptur Zentralasiens.' In: Zurich Studies in the History of Art/Georges Bloch annual, vol. 13-14, 2006-2007, University of Zurich, Institute of Art History, p. 124-149.
• Lukas Nickel: 'Faith and Beauty – Chinese Buddhist Sculpture in the Victoria and Albert Museum.' Orientations 40, 4 (Spring 2009), pp. 50-57.
• Lukas Nickel: ‘Reassembling a Han Tomb from Luoyang’, in Thomas Lawton ed.: Proceedings of the International Symposium, New Frontiers in Global Archaeology: Defining China’s Ancient Traditions, Celebrating the Tenth Anniversary of The Arthur M. Sackler Museum of Art and Archaeology Peking University. New York: AMS Foundation for the Arts, Sciences and Humanities 2008, pp. 143-161.
• Lukas Nickel: ‘Longxing Temple and the Discovery of the Qingzhou Sculpture Hoard’. in Edmund Capon, Liu Yang (eds.) The Lost Buddhas - Chinese Buddhist Sculpture from Qingzhou. Sydney: Art Gallery of New South Wales 2008, pp. 27-37.
• Lukas Nickel: “The Terracotta Army”, in Jane Portal ed., The First Emperor: China's Terracotta Army. London: British Museum press 2007, pp. 159-179.
• Lukas Nickel: 'Dietrich Seckel - Erinnerungen eines ehemaligen Studenten.' Ostasiatische Zeitschrift. Neue Serie (14), 2007, pp. 51-53.
• Lukas Nickel: “Imperfect Symmety – Re-thinking Bronze Casting Technology in Ancient China”, Artibus Asiae vol. 66, no 1, 2006, 5–39.
• Lukas Nickel: ‘Locating Luoyi: Textual and Archaeological Evidence of the Western Zhou Royal Residence’, in Proceedings of the International Symposiums The Visual World of China, eds. Chrystelle Maréchal and Yau Shun-chiu. Éditions Langages Croisés, École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales, Paris 2005, 85–102.
• Lukas Nickel, Helmut Brinker, Jorrit Britschgi, Christian Muntwyler: „Auf der Suche nach dem Tempel des Weissen Drachen – Ein Grabungsprojekt der Abteilung für Kunstgeschichte Ostasiens, Universität Zürich, und des Archäologischen Instituts der Provinz Shandong, Jinan (Bericht zur zweiten Kampagne).“ Jahresbericht 2004 der Schweizerisch-Liechtensteinischen Stiftung für archäologische Forschungen im Ausland, Zürich 2005, 45–56.
• Lukas Nickel, Helmut Brinker, Jorrit Britschgi: „Auf der Suche nach dem Tempel des Weissen Drachen. Ein SLSA-Grabungsprojekt in der VR China“ (Bericht zur ersten Kampagne). Jahresbericht 2003 der Schweizerisch-Liechtensteinischen Stiftung für archäologische Forschungen im Ausland, Zürich 2004, 157–170.
• Lukas Nickel: ‘Daying Bowuguan shouzang de yi zu Han dai bihua’, trans. He Xilin. Kaogu yu Wenwu 2004, vol. 5, 74–80.
• Lukas Nickel: „Der Longxing-Tempel von Qingzhou und der Skulpturenfund“. In: Die Rückkehr des Buddha, Zürich 2001, 41–62. English translations in: The Return of the Buddha, Zürich 2002, 41–62 and Return of the Buddha, London 2002, 34–44.
• Lukas Nickel: ‘Ein Fund erregt Aufsehen – die Skulpturen aus Qingzhou und der urbane Buddhismus des sechsten Jahrhunderts’. Ostasiatische Zeitschrift, Summer 2002, 5–23.
• Lukas Nickel: ‘Ein chinesisches Steinrelief im Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst’, Kölner Museumsbulletin, 2/2001, 4–11.
• Lukas Nickel: ‘Some Han-Dynasty Paintings in the British Museum’, Artibus Asiae, vol. LX, no. 1, 2000, 59–78. For electronic version see Jstor. http://www.jstor.org/view/00043648/sp050163/05x2298j/0
• Lukas Nickel: ‘Das steinerne Grab des Herrschers von Nan Yue’, in Schätze für König Zhao Mo – Das Grab von Nan Yue, ed. Margarete Prüch (Heidelberg, 1998), 54–69.
• Lukas Nickel: ‘Die Verbotene Stadt’, in Die Verbotene Stadt - Aus dem Leben der letzten Kaiser von China. Vernissage no. 10/1997, 7–15.
• Lukas Nickel: ‘Grabarchitektur der Han-Zeit’, in China - eine Wiege der Weltkultur, ed. Arne Eggebrecht (Hildesheim/Mainz, 1994), 80-84.

Other media

• Weekly column in the Zurich newspaper Tagesanzeiger, reporting from China on the excavations at the White Dragon Temple site, August to October 2004.
• Der Tempel des Drachenaufstiegs. Exhibition film on the Qingzhou finds for the Museum Rietberg. Zürich 2002.
• Neun chinesische Bronzeglocken, an interactive CD-ROM on Western Zhou bronze bells (produced with Wolfgang Zillich, Köln 2000).

Second Supervisor

• Qiyan Hong The technology study of Early Iron workshops in South Henan, China (principal supervisor Thilo Rehren)
• Min Yin The earliest high-fired glazed ceramics in China: Scientific studies of the proto-porcelains from Zhejiang during the Shang and Zhou periods (c.1700-221 BC) (principal supervisor Thilo Rehren)