Objects Are Arguments

A map or bronze is evidence with a production history, material limits, circulation path, and later collection history. It should change the argument, not decorate it.

Timothy Brook’s writing often begins with a small visual or material clue and follows it into trade and political structures. The method makes scale itself visible.

Dunhuang scholarship cannot be separated from the movement of manuscripts into European collections. Rights, custody, and colonial collection histories belong beside intellectual achievement.