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- Pottery Models of Domestic Architecture
The earliest references of buildings being placed in tombs were made by China�s historian Sima Qian, who wrote that there were bronze replicas of pavilions and palaces inside the tomb chamber of the First Emperor (d. 210 b.c.) of the Qin dynasty. Future excavations at this site will reveal whether this can be substantiated.
To date, the earliest architectural replicas excavated from tombs are from the Han dynasty. Evidence that the Han dynasty (206 b.c.-a.d. 220) was basically an agrarian society is amply reflected by the wealth of pottery replicas of granaries, grain mills, storage houses, well-heads, farmhouses, pigsties, and pens for goats and poultry which have been found in the tombs of this period. These structures were intended to supply the spirit of the deceased with familiar accommodation in the afterlife similar in all aspects to the one he had lived in on earth. Numerous models of buildings, both unglazed and green glazed, have been excavated from Han tombs. They range from simple one-storey farmer�s dwellings and storehouses to four- storey watchtowers and elaborate multi-storied villas with high-pitched tile roofs supported by columns and surrounded by a walled courtyard. Due to the perishable nature of the wooden structures, no actual examples of Han architecture have survived. Thus, these pottery models form excellent material for the study of the Han architecture, providing us with a picture of the type of dwellings the people of that time lived in, as well as of the buildings they used for the storage of grain and the shelter of domestic animals.
A typical example of a farmhouse can be seen in this exhibit (fig. 2). It provides us with a visual idea of the average farmhouse with a fenced-in yard, where pigs can roam. The overhanging roof of the �(.��-shaped building would have been tiled as indicated by the incised concave lines. The front of the house has a large open door and latticed windows on either side. Most of the models were fashioned by hand, as the moulds could not have been used for these large intricate structures. The opening in the fence, the windows and the lattice work were carved quickly and freely with a sharp tool, while the clay was still soft.
Models of farm equipment like a grain pounder and a mill, either inside a shed or by themselves, are also quite common. They represent two kinds of labour performed by the farmer, husking and grinding. The example in this exhibit shows the pestle and mortar on the left and a mill on the right (fig. 5). The pestle is worked by a lever moving up and down on a pivot between two vertical bars. To the right is the bedstone of a mill, the runner having been lost. Concentric rows of small oval depressions cover its surface. These are apparently a substitute for the furrows on real millstones to make the face of the stone rough. A centre knob would have held the runner in its place. These types of farm equipment can still be found in use in present-day China.
Ceramic pigsties and sheep folds are often depicted among the funerary objects. They usually consist of a high-walled, bowl-shaped container, with or without an entrance opening, in which a few clay models of animals have been placed. The illustrated example of a pigsty has a high-placed latrine as an annex (fig. 4).
Another typical Han funerary structure is the granary urn which derived its shape from circular grain storage towers. These structures have a slanting roof projecting over the walls of the jar, and three feet in the form of squatting bears. The full-size grain towers furnished the living generations with means to store grain for times of famine and drought. Thus, it was very natural to adapt the shape of the granary to a funerary vessel holding grain for the departed soul (fig. A).
Among the most impressive architectural Han funerary structures are the multi�storied watchtowers, which are sometimes over one metre high (fig. ii). These
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