CHINA ARQUEOLOGIA golden-age-chinese-archayeolog

136
Bronze bird-shaped lamp
Height 30 (n 3 /4), diam. 19.0 (j 1 /*)
Western Han Dynasty, late second century BCE
(c. 113)
From the tomb of Dou Wan at Lingshan, Mancheng,
Hebei Province
Hebei Provincial Museum, Shijiazhuang
Birds are a frequent subject for lamps and appear
in several common forms. In this example, 1 found
in the tomb of Dou Wan together with cat. 137, a
bird holds a ringlike tray that contained the oil or
wax, divided into three sections, perhaps for three
different wicks. Another kind of lamp, closely related
to this form, is in the shape of a bird's claw
surmounted with a tray. 2
This finely modeled lamp shows a large threedimensional
bird with a long neck and heavy head
and bill. The bird's wings are outstretched, and it
has a fan-shaped tail; the feathers are delineated by
grooves. It stands on the back of a coiled creature
with an animal head, suggesting that this is no
ordinary bird but rather one endowed with supernatural
or special powers; viewed from above, the
bird would have appeared to hold a ring of light
in its beak (fig. i).
Birds appeared in a number of unusual objects.
Basins supporting a flying bird on a central pillar
have been found in the fourth-century BCE tombs
406 | EARLY IMPERIAL CHINA