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The meaning of material: ritual vessel assemblages in Chu burials of the fourth and third centuries BC, China

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Joy Elizabeth Beckman
Joy Elizabeth Beckman*
Affiliation:
*Beloit College, 700 College Street, Beloit, WI 53511, USA (Email: beckmanj@beloit.edu)
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Abstract

Finely crafted bronze vessels are one of the most distinctive products of early China, and illustrate the emphasis placed on formalised rituals in which these vessels are thought to have played a part. When found in graves, they have also been assumed to testify to the status of the deceased. In this study, it is shown that the repertoire of ritual vessels of bronze are often matched by similar vessels of pottery that were placed in elite graves. Together these suites of vessels indicate not only the status of the deceased but also the social standing of the mourners present during the funerary ceremonies, and in particular, perhaps, the principal heir. Funerals were occasions of ceremony and display in which both sets of vessels—bronze and pottery—may have been used by different participants, including (symbolically) the dead. Thus, early China presents another demonstration of the active and visible role that ostentatious grave goods were designed to play in the living context of funerary ceremonial. The conclusions also emphasise the greater understanding to be achieved by considering different categories of material together, rather than studying pottery and bronzes as separate domains.

Keywords

ChinaBronze Agegrave goodsritual vesselssurrogate vesselssocial status
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 87 , Issue 337 , September 2013 , pp. 772 - 787
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2013

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