Returned to lender The Met accepts temporary loans of art both for short-term exhibitions and for long-term display in its galleries.
Cowry Container with Bull and Rider
Western Han dynasty (206 BCE–9 CE)
Not on view
This object was found at Shizhaishan, an ancient site associated with the Dian people, who are cited in the chapter on “southwestern barbarians” in the ancient Shiji (Records of the Grand Historian). Cowry containers may have been converted from bronze drums; the addition of sculpted figures transformed their top surfaces into decorative covers. They began to appear at the peak of the Bronze Age, when cowry shells entered circulation as currency. But as contact increased between the Dian and the Western Han, bronze coins supplanted cowry shells, and containers such as this one may have fallen out of use.
#216. Cowry Container
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