Page 407 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

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Bronze bird-shaped lamp lated to this form, is in the shape of a bird's claw
surmounted with a tray. 2
3
1
Height 30 (n /4), diam. 19.0 (j /*) This finely modeled lamp shows a large three-
Western Han Dynasty, late second century BCE
dimensional bird with a long neck and heavy head
(c. 113)
From the tomb of Dou Wan at Lingshan, Mancheng, and bill. The bird's wings are outstretched, and it
has a fan-shaped tail; the feathers are delineated by
Hebei Province
grooves. It stands on the back of a coiled creature
Hebei Provincial Museum, Shijiazhuang with an animal head, suggesting that this is no
ordinary bird but rather one endowed with super-
Birds are a frequent subject for lamps and appear natural or special powers; viewed from above, the
in several common forms. In this example, 1 found bird would have appeared to hold a ring of light
in the tomb of Dou Wan together with cat. 137, a in its beak (fig. i).
bird holds a ringlike tray that contained the oil or Birds appeared in a number of unusual objects.
wax, divided into three sections, perhaps for three Basins supporting a flying bird on a central pillar
different wicks. Another kind of lamp, closely re- have been found in the fourth-century BCE tombs

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