Page 259 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China
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Hare-shaped bronze zun vessel Examples of animal-shaped bronze ritual vessels
are rare at all periods of ancient Chinese history,
3
Height 31.8 (12 'A), width 22.2 (8 / 4),
1
and this hare-shaped wine vessel, called a zun for
diam. at rim 18.4 (7 lA)
Middle to Late Western Zhou Period, the trumpet-shaped mouth rising from the animal's
back, is a unique example of the
form.
ninth century BCE
Zun have been found in many Middle Western
From Tianma-Qucun (Beizhao, Quwo), Zhou tombs of the tenth century, usually in the
Shanxi Province
form of a round-bodied vessel on a small oval-
Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, ringed foot, with a trumpet-shaped mouth emerg-
Taiyuan ing from a low shoulder. Here the globular body has
been replaced by that of a hare, modeled very accu-
258 | B R O N Z E ACE C H I N A
