Earthenware (Grey)
Han dynasty, circa 100-300 CE
China
The British Museum
Details
Culture/Civilisation
Ancient China
Case Title
Early Civilisations
Display Location
Rotunda
Findspot
China
Measurements
58 cm
Accession Number
1973,0726.179
Description
With hands respectfully clasped and concealed within the sleeves of his long red court robe, this attendant exemplifies the officials who administered the bureaucracy of the early Chinese empire.
The figure was made to be placed in a tomb, one of a large retinue of servants and officials designed to continue serving their master in the afterlife. Such figures were mass-produced, typically moulded in separate parts, then assembled and painted to give each one an individual identity.
Curators Comments
Around the time of the Harappan (Sindhu-Sarasvati) Civilisation, other great civilisations flourished along the banks of mighty rivers in Mesopotamia, Egypt, and China. Chinese civilisation developed around 5,000 years ago along the majestic, monsoon-fed Yellow and Yangtze rivers whose source, like the Indus, is in the Tibetan plateau.
