CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

74
Bronze lei vessel
Height 54 (21 y 4 )
Late Shang Period (?) (c. 1300-1100 BCE?)
From Pit 2 at Sanxingdui, Guanghan,
Sichuan Province
Sanxingdui Museum, Guanghan, Sichuan Province
Ritual vessels constitute only a small percentage
of the bronze objects recovered from the Sanxingdui
pits, overshadowed in number (and in sheer
weight) by the bronze heads, masks, and the standing
figure — all emblematic of a distinctive tradition.
In rich burial assemblages in the north, such
as the tomb of Fu Hao (cats. 46-54), by contrast,
ritual vessels predominate; with the notable exception
of weapons, other uses for bronze are far less
important.
Both of the Sanxingdui pits yielded zun and lei
wine containers, vessel types that flourished during
the Upper Erligang Phase and the Transitional
Period prior to the occupation of Anyang. Bronze
had long been used to create vessels for cooking
meat offerings, steaming and serving grain, and
warming and serving the alcoholic drinks favored
in Shang rites, but large, metal containers intended
to store wine appeared only later. It may be that
stoneware vessels had been used to hold alcoholic
spirits prior to the appearance of bronze types —
indeed, the zun shape itself derives from ceramics.
The zun and lei share a structure in common: a ring
foot, more or less tall in proportion to the overall
height of the vessel; a body wider than the foot,
with an expanding profile; and a sharply defined
(carinated) shoulder break. The types are distinguished
by the treatment of their necks and
mouths. Zun have wide, trumpet-shaped mouths,
while lei have cylindrical necks with everted lips.
Three lei and nine zun are reported from the
Sanxingdui pits. At the time of their excavation,
their exteriors were covered by a red pigment
(possibly ochre). The vessels themselves contained
cowries and hardstone carvings; Jessica
Rawson has suggested that the vessels may have
served as "precious containers" for such objects
rather than for storing wine, their presumed original
function in the north. 1 It remains uncertain
whether any of these vessels was produced by the
Sanxingdui culture; all may well have been imports.
Indeed, the zun from Sanxingdui have close stylistic
parallels with examples recovered from sites in
Hunan in the Middle Yangzi macroregion, and
recent studies of lead isotope ratios strongly suggest
that the bronzes at Sanxingdui and those
at Dayangzhou (cats. 57-64) utilized the same
lead ores. 2
The Sanxingdui lei reflect two distinct styles.
Two of the three lei have flush surface decoration,
and animal heads in relief at the shoulder edge are
centered over prominent taotie masks on the body.
(The two vessels differ, however, in height and in
the treatment of particular decorative elements —
the horns on the animal heads, as well as the
flanges and motifs in secondary registers.) Both lei
resemble an example unearthed at Yueyang on Lake
Dongting in Hunan province. The third lei f shown
here, 3 is a tall vessel with an especially high ring
foot. Thin, hooked flanges divide the exterior into
four identical sections: masks at the foot are surmounted
by larger masks on the body and relief
ram heads. The shoulder has a band of simple decoration,
while the neck is bare except for "bowstring"
lines. The ram heads at the shoulder appear to have
been attached to the body after its casting, possibly
by using a tenon on the vessel. The treatment of the
two levels of mask decoration is distinctive: many
parts of the masks are in relief and "exploded" so
that the elements float apart from each other. Relief
surfaces and ground are decorated with intaglio
lines tracing curls and quills; image and ground as
a result are weakly contrasted. RT
1 Rawson 1996, 70.
2 Zheng 1995.
3 Excavated in 1986; published: Zhao 1994, nos. 68, 69.
225 | SACRIFICIAL PITS AT SANXINGDUI