CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

Most published Shang period bo have been
unearthed in present-day Hunan province; a few
others, with unknown provenances, reside in collections.
This bo and the three nao that accompanied
it may be the earliest bells found to date in a formal
burial. The shape of the Dayangzhou bell differs
from other examples in several respects: The mouth
of the bell lacks a broad band below the decorated
panel; wider at the base relative to total height, its
proportions are more compact than those of other
bo. The loop is also short and wide, unlike those
that imitate the body shape of the bell itself.
Most bo, moreover, give greater prominence to
the bulging "eyes" of the masklike motifs that figure
in their decoration. Here, by contrast, it is the
central whorl and enframing horns that command
attention. RT
1 Falkenhausen i993b reviews musical bells in Shang and
Zhou culture; see also cat. 91.
2 Excavated in 1989 (XDM:63); reported: Jiangxi 1997, 73 -
80.
FIG. i. Cat. 64 from above
and side: decoration and
cross section. After Jiangxi
1997, 81, fig. 43.
2O5 I TOMB AT DAYANCZHOU, XINl'CAN