.... The aim is to retrieve missing artifacts, investigate reports of new ones and understand the importance of what they are doing.

Sunday, September 23, 2012

Soul jar

A hunping is a  "soul jar", a ceramic funerary  urn) often found in the tombs of the Han Dynasty of China.
The hunping is somewhat enigmatic artifact: probably, it was believed the soul of the deceased eventually resided in the vessel. Some tops of hunping vessels are decorated with miniatures of men, animals, birds,and even images of  buildings.


Zhejiang (Shangyu kilns), Western Jin, late III - early IV Century AD
Mueso Arte Orientale, Torino