Dr. Hung Ling-yu, Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Indiana University, passed away after a long battle with cancer on April 26, 2018. Ling-yu was a 2011 graduate of the Department of Art History and Archaeology at Washington University. Although her degree was in Art History and Archaeology, Ling-yu was a regular member of the Anthropology Department, taking courses and participating regularly in our Friday Archaeology lecture series. Ling-yu worked closely with professors and student colleagues in the Department of Anthropology, and she undertook geoarchaeological research with Professor T.R. Kidder for two field seasons at the Sanyangzhuang site, Henan Province.
Ling-yu received her B.A. in anthropology from National Taiwan University and her M.A. in archaeology at Peking University. She had extensive field experience in archaeological excavations and surveys in China and Taiwan, including work in Sichuan Province as part of the Luce Foundation-sponsored Chengdu Plain Archaeological Survey. Her doctoral research at Washington University concerned the sociocultural processes involved in the expansion and development of elaborately painted Neolithic Yangshao-Majiayao pottery (ca. 7000–4000 years ago) in northern China. At the time of her death, Ling-yu was writing a monograph on the Majiayao culture, and she was participating in a multidisciplinary investigation of environment, population, and technology during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages in the middle Tao River Valley, Gansu Province, northwestern China.
Ling-yu’s colleagues and friends at Washington University in St. Louis mourn her passing and we offer our condolences to her family, to her colleagues at Indiana University, and to her many friends and colleagues around the globe.
