Page 457 - The Golden Age of Chinese Archaeology: Celebrated Discoveries from the People’s Republic of China

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Jade belt inlaid with gold, pearls, and tomb identifies him as a relative by marriage of the
precious stones imperial family and records that in 618 — the year
in which the Tang dynasty was founded — he and
Length approximately 150 (59)
defeated Xue Ju
and
his father Dou Kang attacked
Tang Dynasty, early seventh century CE and his son Xue Ren'gao, who had established a
From the tomb of Dou Jiao, Nanliwang, hegemony in the western part of the present-day
Xianyang, Shaanxi Province
province of Shaanxi. Dou Jiao was active in further
Shaanxi Archaeological Institute, Xi'an campaigns in 620 and 621, and he died in 646. His
tomb also yielded an iron sword 84 centimeters
Houston and San Francisco only long, with a leather scabbard and a crystal fasten-
ing carved in the shape of a little pig; and an un-
This extraordinary set of belt ornaments was dis- usually large bronze mirror, 29 centimeters in
covered in a tomb on the site of the new inter- diameter. 2
national airport at Xianyang, near Xi'an, in 1992. 1 Dou Jiao's imperial connections are a sufficient
The tomb was that of a cavalry general named Dou explanation of the sumptuous appearance and
Jiao, an elder brother of the Tang empress Taimu. sophisticated workmanship of this belt. A magnifi-
Though his name is not mentioned in Tang histori- cent hinged and floriated pair of jade plaques
cal records, the epitaph tablet found in Dou Jiao's formed one end of the belt, and a jade buckle and

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