CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

88
Hare-shaped bronze zun vessel
Height 31.8 (12 'A), width 22.2 (8 3 / 4 ),
diam. at rim 18.4 (7 lA)
Middle to Late Western Zhou Period,
ninth century BCE
From Tianma-Qucun (Beizhao, Quwo),
Shanxi Province
Shanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology,
Taiyuan
Examples of animal-shaped bronze ritual vessels
are rare at all periods of ancient Chinese history,
and this hare-shaped wine vessel, 1 called a zun for
the trumpet-shaped mouth rising from the animal's
back, is a unique example of the form.
Zun have been found in many Middle Western
Zhou tombs of the tenth century, usually in the
form of a round-bodied vessel on a small ovalringed
foot, with a trumpet-shaped mouth emerging
from a low shoulder. Here the globular body has
been replaced by that of a hare, modeled very accu-
258 | BRONZE ACE CHINA