Han Dynasty (206 BC–AD 220) stone carved tombs were constructed from carved stone slabs or a combination of moulded bricks and carved stones, and were distributed in Central and Eastern China. In this book, the origins, meanings and influences of these tombs are presented as a part of the history of interactions between different parts of Eurasia.
This work explores the many factors underlying the extended popularity of the cliff tomb, a local burial form in the Sichuan Basin in China during the Eastern Han dynasty (AD 25-220).
Using archaeological data to examine the development of Han dynasty Chinese art (206 BC-AD 220), this book focusses on the iconography of paradise. Influence from the Chinese Bronze Age is discussed along with a surprisingly profound debt to Greece, the Near East and the steppe.
Since Erik Zürcher's landmark Buddhist Conquest of China, the study of earlier phases of Chinese Buddhist history has made great progress with new materials, new interpretations and new problematizations. This volume brings together 12 contributions from the leading scholars in the field offering new perspectives on this old tradition.
This is the first book to systematically study the Hepu Han Tombs. Covering an area of about 68 square kilometers, the Hepu Han Tombs is one of the largest-scale and best-preserved ancient tombs in China. In 2001, the remains of 1,056 grave mounds could be seen on the earth surface and it was estimated that almost 10,000 tombs still survived underground. In the last 60 years, over 1,200 tombs have been excavated at Hepu, with approximately 20,000 artefacts unearthed which include pottery, bronze, iron, gold and silver ware, jade, lacquer, glass and bead ornaments. Especially to deserve to be mentioned, a large amount of artefacts can be related to the Maritime Silk Road. From the 2nd century B.C. to the 3rd century A.D., the Hepu Port served as the eastern starting point of the Maritime Silk Road, opening up trade and cultural exchange with countries in Southeast Asia, South Asia, West Asia, and the Mediterranean world, which resulted in a vast maritime trade network between China and the West. And these artefacts provide important evidence about this route, which also confirm the records of Chinese official history books. Therefore, the Hepu Han Tombs is of great significance to the study of ancient Chinese history and cultural exchanges between China and the West.
An enormous number of burial objects have been unearthed from ancient tombs in archaeological excavations in China. These mingqi were made in all kinds of materials and in a broad range of forms, techniques and craftsmanship. In this book Quinghua Guo examines a particular type of mingqi -- pottery building. The striking realism of the pottery buildings suggests that they were modelled after actual buildings. They bring to life courtyard houses, manors, towers, granaries and pigsty-privies, as well as cooking ranges and well pavilions. These pottery buildings, previously little known, preserve knowledge of antiquity and demonstrate the architectural quality and structural variety of the period. The author identifies the typology of the pottery buildings they signify in terms of ontology and semiology, in order to provide a conceptual map for classification, and identifies building systems reflected by the mingqi to detect architectonic systems of the Han dynasty. Key features of this volume include: Cross-disciplinary research -- architectural study interlocking with archaeological study; architectural study interlocking with graphic study. The Han pottery buildings are important architectural models from the ancient world, and are contrasted with wooden houses of Middle-Kingdom Egypt and brick buildings of the Minor civilisation, Crete, allowing cross-cultural comparisons.
