Founded in 1953, the Shandong Provincial Museum is located at Wenhua West Road in south Jinan (the provincial city) near the Thousand Buddha Hill.

The museum has a collection of 140,000 historical relics, 130,000 documents of modern times, and over 8,000 natural specimens. These cultural heritage spans from Dawenkou Culture (3500- 2500BC) and Longshan Culture, bronzes from the Shang (17th century BC-11th century BC) and Zhou eras (1766-770BC), and Bamboo Slips of the Han Dynasty (206BC-220AD), right through to the modern times.

The exhibits in the Museum include a number of exquisite Buddhist carvings, stone seals and tablets from the Han Dynasty, and other agricultural objects excavated from Neolithic sites in the area. There is also a calendar dating from 134BC, which is believed to be the oldest one in China.

The basic exhibitions are: Shandong's History & Primitive Society, and Fossils of Ancient Extinct life. Exhibitions on special topics include the History of Porcelain Art, Stone Figure-Carving, etc. Besides, the Museum has held more than 50 large-scale exhibitions such as Display of Shandong's Historical Cultural Relics.

Works published by the Museum includeDawenkou, Florilegium of Paintings Collected, and Chinese Ancient Coins.