Page 230 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

FIG. i. Remains of chariots
in the southern passageway
of Tomb 157 at Zhangjiapo,
Chang'an, Shaanxi province.

Tombs 161 and 163, two medium-size tombs lacking passageways, symmetrically flanked
the large Tomb 157. Both contained skeletons of females, probably the wives of the Xing Shu
lineage head buried in Tomb 157. The occupant of Tomb 163 died between the age of twenty-five
and thirty. Although her tomb had been looted five times before excavation-, some bronze ves-
sels were found in situ on the south side of the raised ledge surrounding the coffin: the animal-
shaped vessel in this exhibition (cat. 76) and the cover of a second, slightly smaller vessel of the
same shape, a zun, the cover of a you, and ajue. All these vessels are connected with the ritual
consumption of grain-based alcoholic beverages (commonly, but inaccurately, described as
wine). They are but meager remnants of what must have been a much larger ensemble. Two
bells, probably from a chime of eight, and several chimestones, likewise part of a larger set, are
reminders that ceremonies were accompanied by solemn music.

229 B R O N Z E S FROM FENG HAO AND E N V I R O N S